Product Specialist: Platform

Instructure
US
RemoteCareer-pivot friendly

Who this role is best for

Geared toward mid-level professionals comfortable with synthesizing product and market insights to support global go-to-market motions.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with experience bridging product teams and customer-facing roles.
    — “Product Specialists are the at-scale interface between Product, the market, and go-to-market teams
  • Professionals adept at translating technical details into actionable insights.
    — “Translate product capabilities into clear, accurate guidance for GTM and customer-facing teams
  • Individuals with a knack for competitive analysis and market trends.
    — “Own functional competitive intelligence for assigned products, focusing on capabilities, workflows, maturity, and tradeoffs

Things to consider

  • Requires staying current with product roadmaps and technical dependencies.
    — “Stay aligned with product roadmaps, release plans, and technical dependencies
  • Involves presenting at industry conferences as a thought leader.
    — “Serve as a thought leader by presenting sessions and participating in panels at industry conferences and events

How to stand out

  • Showcase instances where you turned customer feedback into product improvements.
    — “Support feedback loops from self-testing, GTM teams, and customers back into Product and Engineering
  • Highlight experience with product analytics tools like Pendo.
    — “Leverage in-product analytics and feedback tools (e.g., Pendo) to identify usage patterns and friction points
  • Demonstrate your ability to support product launches and betas.
    — “Partner with Product Management and Engineering to support bring-to-market motions for new and evolving products and features
Pace · SteadyCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · TeamLevel · Mid Level

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • Maintained deep product knowledge
  • Provided segment-informed input to GTM motions
Typical background
Product ManagementMarketing

Skills & requirements

Required

Product MasteryCompetitive IntelligenceMarket ExpertiseCustomer MarketingGTM Enablement

Preferred

Product-led Customer MarketingUsage AnalyticsInsight-driven Campaigns

About the role

A Product Specialist at Instructure acts as a bridge between the product team and the market, ensuring that the company's offerings are well understood and effectively marketed, making them a perfect fit for someone with a knack for both technical depth and customer-facing communication.

Original posting from Instructure via Ashby

At Instructure, we believe in the power of people to grow and succeed throughout their lives. Our goal is to amplify that power by creating intuitive products that simplify learning and personal development, facilitate meaningful relationships, and inspire people to go further in their education and careers.

We do this by giving smart, creative, passionate people opportunities to create awesome. And that's where you come in:

PRODUCT SPECIALIST (COE, MARKETING)

Product Specialists are the at-scale interface between Product, the market, and go-to-market teams. They combine deep product expertise, market and segment fluency, competitive intelligence and customer insight to support at-scale go-to-market motions globally. Product Specialists serve as:

  • Subject matter experts on product capabilities and constraints for internal stakeholders
  • A bidirectional conduit between customers/go-to-market teams and Product
  • Owners of competitive and buyer intelligence
  • Drivers of product adoption and usage insights including market feedback

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES

PRODUCT MASTERY

Own the maintaining of deep, current knowledge of assigned product(s), roadmap, integrations, and constraints

  • Maintain deep, current knowledge of assigned products, including core workflows, configurations, integrations, and limitations
  • Stay aligned with product roadmaps, release plans, and technical dependencies
  • Translate product capabilities into clear, accurate guidance for GTM and customer-facing teams
  • Identify common customer misunderstandings, friction points, and misconfigurations at scale
  • Act as a trusted escalation point for complex product questions that require synthesis across teams

COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE

Own functional competitive intelligence (features, workflows, tradeoffs, maturity)

  • Own functional competitive intelligence for assigned products, focusing on capabilities, workflows, maturity, and tradeoffs
  • Respond to internal requests for competitive information using a consistent, scalable approach
  • Keep competitive intelligence current as products and markets evolve

MARKET & SEGMENT EXPERTISE

Own the understanding of customer needs, buying context, regulatory considerations, trends, and product positioning within assigned segment/region

  • Track trends, regulatory considerations, and emerging needs relevant to assigned segments or regions
  • Understand how customers evaluate, adopt, and derive value from the product over time
  • Provide segment-informed input to GTM motions, enablement, and lifecycle initiatives
  • Represent the customer and market perspective in cross-functional discussions
  • Serve as a thought leader by presenting sessions and participating in panels at industry conferences and events (not demo booth support)

CUSTOMER MARKETING (2026)

Own the kickstarting of product-led customer marketing via usage analytics, in-product insights, and feedback (i.e., Pendo)

  • Monitor product usage and adoption trends and provide as strategy-guiding insights to GTM teams (using shared reporting tools with Product Management)
  • Identify activation gaps and success patterns
  • Partner with PMM/Marketing on insight-driven campaigns

AT-SCALE GTM ENABLEMENT

Support Enablement, PMM, and Knowledge Management teams with product insight, demos, and narratives

  • Provide deep product insight to inform enablement programs, sales motions, and GTM strategies
  • Partner with Product Marketing and Enablement to translate product capabilities into clear, accurate narratives for internal audiences
  • Support the development of product demos, walkthroughs, and technical explanations used across GTM teams
  • Ensure GTM materials reflect current product functionality, roadmap context, and competitive realities
  • Contribute product, market, and customer insight to enablement initiatives without owning messaging or positioning
  • Act as a subject-matter expert for at-scale enablement efforts, including trainings, webinars, and internal programs

CUSTOMER & PRODUCT INSIGHT

Support synthesizing, and operationalizing feedback from customers, prospects, analytics, and discovery

  • Leverage in-product analytics and feedback tools (e.g., Pendo) to identify usage patterns and friction points
  • Gather and synthesize qualitative and quantitative customer insights to inform GTM and product decisions
  • Support discovery, feedback programs, and adoption analysis at scale
  • Surface insights that inform activation, adoption, and customer marketing initiatives

PRODUCT LIFECYCLE

Support betas, launches, releases, and sunsets at scale

  • Partner with Product Management and Engineering to support bring-to-market motions for new and evolving products and features
  • Apply product mastery, market insight, and competitive intelligence to help shape how products are introduced, explained, and adopted at scale
  • Support beta programs, launches, releases, and sunsets by providing customer and market context
  • Translate R&D intent into customer-facing implications, risks, and adoption considerations
  • Support feedback loops from self-testing, GTM teams, and customers back into Product and Engineering

REQUIREMENTS

  • Proven experience in a product-focused, customer-facing role such as Product Specialist, Product Marketing, Product Management, Solutions Consulting/Engineering, Customer Success, or similar
  • Demonstrated ability to develop deep expertise in software products and clearly explain functionality, value, and tradeoffs to diverse audiences
  • Strong understanding of customer needs, market context, and segment dynamics
  • Experience supporting go-to-market motions at scale through enablement, insights, or product advocacy
  • Ability to gather, synthesize, and communicate customer and market insights to cross-functional partners
  • Experience collaborating with Product Management and Engineering to support product launches, releases, or lifecycle initiatives
  • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to connect data, insights, and customer feedback to actionable outcomes
  • Ability to influence and build alignment across teams without direct authority

Get in on all the awesome at Instructure!

We offer competitive, meaningful benefits in every country where we operate. While they vary by location, here's a general idea of what you can expect:

  • Competitive compensation, plus all full-time employees participate in our ownership program - because everyone should have a stake in our success.
  • Flexible work culture. Our remote, hybrid and in-office collaboration spaces vary by role, team and location.
  • Generous time off, including local holidays and our annual “Dim the Lights” period in late December, when teams are encouraged to step back and recharge based on departmental needs.
  • Comprehensive wellness programs and mental health support
  • Learning and development resources, including professional development tools and tuition reimbursement, to support your growth
  • The technology and tools you need to do your best work
  • Motivosity employee recognition program
  • A culture rooted in inclusivity, support, and meaningful connection

We believe in hiring great people and treating them right. The more diverse we are, the better our ideas and outcomes.

Instructure is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We comply with applicable employment and anti-discrimination laws in every country where we operate.

All employees must pass a background check as part of the hiring process. To help protect our teams and systems, we’ve implemented identity verification measures. Candidates may be asked to verify their legal name, current physical location, and provide a valid contact number and residential address, in accordance with local data privacy laws.

Any attempt to misrepresent personal or professional information will result in disqualification.

Source: Instructure careers (Ashby)

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