Principal Product Manager

Principal Product Manager

As Principal Product Manager, you'll be the hands-on product leader for a new venture. Working directly with the GM and alongside engineering, design, research, data, and go-to-market partners, you'll own the path from customer insight to product strategy, MVP, launch, and iteration.

This is a builder role, not a roadmap-management role. You'll help determine what the product should be, build on our initial customer and use-case wedge, and turn incomplete signals into clear product bets. You'll get real product into users' hands quickly, define what success looks like, and own the learning loop that takes us from an early idea to something people return to and value.

The strongest candidates will have built 0→1 consumer products before and will be at their best when the playbook does not yet exist. Education experience is welcome, but it is not required—we already have deep education and learning expertise across Quizlet. What matters most is your ability to discover, launch, and grow products that consumers choose to use.

In this role, you will:

• Own product strategy and execution for a new consumer product, from problem definition and early validation through launch, adoption, and product-market fit.
• Drive a full 0→1 product cycle: concept refinement, prototyping, alpha to MVP launch, measurement, and rapid iteration.
• Work side by side with design and engineering to ship high-quality experiences quickly, making sharp decisions about scope, sequencing, quality, and technical investment.
• Stay close to users through interviews, prototype testing, behavioral data, experiments, and live product feedback—and ensure what we learn changes what we build.
• Define the product's success metrics and instrumentation, with particular focus on activation, engagement, retention, and evidence of durable consumer value.
• Create clarity without pretending certainty: communicate what we believe, what we have learned, what remains unknown, and which decision the team needs to make next.
• Develop the launch and distribution strategy with growth, marketing, and other Quizlet teams, using Quizlet's reach without assuming distribution alone will create product-market fit.
• Establish lightweight product practices that help the team make fast, rigorous decisions without adding unnecessary process.
• Help build the culture of the new team: ambitious, user-obsessed, analytically rigorous, low-ego, and biased toward putting real products in users' hands.

What you bring to the table:

• 8+ years of product management experience, or an equivalent track record, including direct ownership of at least one consumer product taken from an ambiguous problem or blank page through launch and measurable adoption.
• Deep B2C product experience and strong judgment about consumer motivation, onboarding, activation, engagement, retention, and habit formation.
• Evidence that you have discovered product direction—not only delivered features against an established roadmap.
• A strong 0→1 toolkit: you know how to find a wedge, test the riskiest assumptions, define an MVP, and distinguish promising early signals from noise.
• The ability to combine qualitative customer insight, quantitative analysis, market context, and experimentation to make clear decisions.
• Comfort making consequential decisions with incomplete information—and the judgment to narrow, change, or kill an idea when the evidence demands it.
• Fluency operating at both altitudes: articulating a differentiated product vision and working through the detailed tradeoffs required to ship it.
• A track record of building trusted, effective relationships with engineering, design, research, data, marketing, and business partners.
• Excellent communication skills and comfort working directly with a GM and senior leaders in a fast-changing environment.
• Low ego, high ownership, and genuine enthusiasm for a small team where everyone builds and titles matter less than outcomes.

Bonus points if you have:

• Taken a consumer product beyond launch into strong retention, product-market fit, and sustained growth.
• Experience building freemium, subscription, social, content, or other high-engagement consumer products.
• Built a new product inside a larger company while protecting the focus, urgency, and accountability of a startup team.
• Founder, early-stage startup, or general-management experience that taught you to think beyond the traditional boundaries of product management.
• Experience building for students, Gen Z, or another high-frequency consumer audience.
• Experience in education, learning science, or edtech—or a genuine curiosity about how people learn.
• Ambition to help build not only a successful product, but the team and operating model behind a major new business for Quizlet.

Work Location:

This is a hybrid position in our San Francisco office. To support collaboration, we ask employees to be in the office at least two days a week: Wednesday and Thursday.

Compensation, Benefits & Perks:

• Collaborate with your manager and team to create a healthy work-life balance
• 20 vacation days that we expect you to take!
• Competitive health, dental, and vision insurance (100% employee and 75% dependent PPO, Dental, VSP Choice)
• Employer-sponsored 401k plan with company match
• Access to LinkedIn Learning and other resources to support professional growth
• Paid Family Leave, FSA, HSA, Commuter benefits, and Wellness benefits
• 40 hours of annual paid time off to participate in volunteer programs of choice

We strive to make everyone feel comfortable and welcome! We work to create a holistic interview process, where both Quizlet and candidates have an opportunity to view what it would be like to work together, in exploring a mutually beneficial partnership. We provide a transparent setting that gives a comprehensive view of who we are!

In closing, at Quizlet, we're excited about passionate people joining our team—even if you don't check every box on the requirements list. We value unique perspectives and believe everyone has something meaningful to contribute. Our culture is all about taking initiative, learning through challenges, and striving for high-quality work while staying curious and open to new ideas. We believe in honest, respectful communication, thoughtful collaboration, and creating a supportive space where everyone can grow and succeed together.

Quizlet's success as an online learning community depends on a strong commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

As an equal opportunity employer and a tech company committed to societal change, we welcome applicants from all backgrounds. Women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, individuals with disabilities, and veterans are strongly encouraged to apply. Come join us!