Product Manager
Citation is building a workspace for people who turn research into something worth reading. We bring sources, notes, drafts and references together so a writer can follow an idea from the material that inspired it to the document they share. Our work serves the everyday decisions behind a paper, an article, a report or a longer research project.
We care about the connections between those decisions. Finding a source is only useful when its details can be reviewed. An AI suggestion needs to fit the writer’s intention and remain theirs to accept or reject. A finished document should carry its references with it. We want the product to make those steps easier to understand while leaving room for the judgment that good writing requires.
As a startup, we value people who can follow a problem across disciplines and stay close to the person using the result. A clear explanation, a dependable interaction and a thoughtful technical decision all contribute to the same experience. Joining Citation means helping shape both the product and the way we build it, with care for the details and a willingness to learn from the work.
The opportunity
We are looking for a Product Manager who can turn a broad ambition into a sequence of useful decisions. Citation connects research, writing and references, and each of those areas contains more possible work than a small product can sensibly pursue at once. Your role is to understand where people get stuck, identify the opportunity worth addressing and help the team agree on a clear outcome and a workable scope.
The product calls for attention to both an individual interaction and the larger writing process. Improving source entry may change how a person begins a draft. Making revision clearer may affect how they use AI assistance or collaborate with another reader. We want someone who can follow those connections without turning every improvement into a large program. The goal is a product that develops coherently through focused, well understood work.
You will spend time with the product, the people using it and the contributors building it. You should enjoy asking questions, examining evidence and making a decision when the information is incomplete. Strong written communication matters because the reasoning behind a priority should remain available after a meeting ends, including the assumptions that would lead us to reconsider it.
What you’ll work on
- Develop a clear understanding of Citation’s important user journeys and the obstacles within them. Combine conversations, support patterns and product behavior to describe the problem in terms of the work a person is trying to complete.
- Define focused opportunities with an intended outcome, explicit scope and a way to learn whether the change helped. Identify the assumptions that matter most before asking the team to commit to a large implementation.
- Prioritize across improvements in writing, sources, collaboration and discovery. Explain the value, effort, dependencies and uncertainty behind a choice so contributors understand both what is being pursued and why it matters now.
- Work with design and engineering to turn an opportunity into a coherent experience. Resolve ambiguous states and policy questions early, while preserving room for implementation findings to improve the original plan.
- Plan releases around readiness and learning. Include the guidance, instrumentation, support context and follow up needed for a change to become useful, and keep the owner of each important decision clear.
- Review outcomes after delivery using evidence that fits the task. Investigate whether a change improved comprehension, completion or continued use, and distinguish the result from a favorable but incomplete signal.
- Maintain a product narrative that connects individual choices to Citation’s purpose. Keep useful decisions and research discoverable, and update the plan when new evidence changes the opportunity rather than protecting an outdated commitment.
What you’ll bring
- You have helped a product or substantial feature move from an uncertain problem to a working result. You can explain how the problem was selected, what you contributed and what was learned after delivery.
- You are comfortable speaking with users and turning qualitative observations into decisions without treating a few conversations as a complete picture of demand.
- You can work with product data and ask careful questions about definitions, segments and denominators. You know when a metric is informative and when more context is needed before acting on it.
- You understand enough about design and engineering to discuss scope, state, dependencies and risk. You can help resolve a tradeoff without reducing the conversation to a list of requested features.
- You write clear briefs and decision records that another person can use. You make the purpose, assumptions and unresolved questions easy to identify and keep planning proportionate to the work.
- You take responsibility for learning after delivery. You can describe a decision that changed because the evidence challenged your initial view, and you can help the team adjust without losing momentum.
Useful, but not required
- Experience with productivity software, document tools, research workflows or products used for sustained work would help you recognize the difference between a frequent action and a meaningful outcome.
- Experience working in a small product team or carrying responsibilities across research, delivery and analysis would be useful in a role with broad context and focused ownership.
- Familiarity with AI assisted products, collaboration permissions or integrations would help when an experience depends on behavior outside the visible interface.
Your first few months
- Learn the product by completing several writing workflows, reviewing existing decisions and speaking with contributors and users where appropriate. Build a concise view of the most important friction points and distinguish evidence from questions that still need investigation.
- Shape one bounded opportunity with design and engineering. Agree on the intended outcome, the assumptions to test and the practical delivery plan, then stay involved as implementation reveals details that affect the experience.
- Review the result and use the learning to improve the next decision. Establish a lightweight rhythm for prioritization and follow up, and make the product context easier for other contributors to understand and use.
Who you’ll work with
You will work across design, engineering, research, growth and customer experience. The role is to connect their evidence and judgment around a shared problem, clarify decisions and help the right person own the work.
We value a Product Manager who can make room for expertise while still moving a decision forward. Bring a clear question, explain what is known and invite the people closest to the constraint to challenge the plan. Preserve the reasoning in writing so the team can revisit it with better information.
What good work looks like
- The team spends its effort on clearly understood problems, with a practical scope and a credible connection to the writer’s experience.
- Product decisions become easier to follow, and releases include the context and follow up needed to learn from actual behavior.
- The roadmap changes thoughtfully as evidence develops, while the product retains a coherent purpose across individual features and improvements.
How we work
We start with a concrete user problem and choose a focused piece of work that can make it better. Important decisions should be understandable in writing, with the relevant context, tradeoffs and open questions available to the people contributing. We share unfinished work when feedback can still change the outcome and protect enough time to think, investigate and build.
Ownership includes asking for help, explaining a constraint and following through after the first version is delivered. We expect people to care about the whole experience and to challenge an assumption with evidence and consideration for the person who made it. Clear communication and dependable follow through matter more than how visible someone can make their activity.
Each working arrangement is discussed individually. We clarify responsibilities, location, availability, compensation and the practical support needed for the role before agreeing to start. You do not need to match every optional experience listed here. Show us the work you can do, the judgment behind it and the areas you are ready to learn.
Getting to know each other
1. Introduce yourself
Tell us which area interests you, how you prefer to work and where we can see a relevant example. Include your location, time zone and availability.
2. Discuss the fit
We review the introduction against the work we need to do. When there is a relevant opportunity, we arrange a conversation about your experience and the problem.
3. Explore the work
Walk through a project and explain your decisions. If a practical exercise would help, agree on its scope and expectations before it starts.
4. Agree on the details
Clarify responsibilities, working arrangement, compensation and start date together. An introduction does not require you to share confidential work or customer data.
Apply for this role
Walk us through a product decision you helped make. Explain the user problem, the evidence, the alternatives considered and your own role in shaping the outcome. Tell us what happened after delivery and how it affected the next decision. A thoughtful account of a difficult or imperfect result is especially useful.