Product Development Specialist (Physical Retail)

Job Title: Product Research Strategist Location: Pakistan Working Hours: 9 AM - 6 PM PKT Reports To: CEO & Co-Founder About Petra Brands: Petra Brands is a dynamic and innovative consumer products company that manages a diverse portfolio of brands, including House of Party, Fomin Soap, Roofus, Luna Naturals and Everymood. We specialize in creating unique and memorable consumer packaged goods (CPG) in the party, craft, beauty, personal care, and lifestyle sectors. Our mission is to deliver products that spark creativity, celebration, and connection — crafting experiences that evoke emotion, memories, and a sense of place through captivating brand identities and thoughtful packaging. Position Overview: We are seeking an experienced, highly motivated, and brand-focused Product Strategy Analyst to join our team, specifically dedicated to driving growth for our flagship party and craft brand, House of Party. Moving beyond basic marketplace analytics, this strategic role owns end-to-end consumer insights, trend forecasting, and product development support for a physical CPG/DTC portfolio. The ideal candidate possesses a proven track record working within consumer brands or creative retail spaces, bridging the gap between data-driven research and physical product realization. Given the highly seasonal nature of the party and celebration supplies category, the core focus of this role is building advanced, AI-powered research systems to capture early market signals, predict trends with high accuracy, and translate those insights into actionable commercial pipelines ready for both e-commerce and major retail shelves. Key Responsibilities: 1. Trend Detection & System Building Build, maintain, and optimize a robust research system for early trend detection, aiming for at least 70% accuracy in identifying early market shifts across social media, design blogs, and global retail spaces. Monitor emerging industry, aesthetic, and lifestyle consumer behaviors to ensure trend accuracy benchmark across product lifecycle, theme concepting, and colorway curation. Architect and scale AI-powered research workflows and programmatic dashboards to automate continuous trend collection, sentiment analysis, and multi-market data synthesis. Deliver a comprehensive monthly report featuring actionable, trend-based product ideas every month, complete with visual concept briefs and commercial viability data. 2. Market & Competitor Intelligence Compile and deliver a comprehensive Monthly Market Recap & Competitor Overview, analyzing physical retail landscape trends, omnichannel brand positionings, packaging architecture, and consumer pain points to uncover gaps and differentiation opportunities. Conduct deep-dive market research to identify trending products and niches with a primary focus on the party supplies, celebrations, and craft categories, as well as secondary adjacent spaces like eco-friendly cleaning products. Utilize a hybrid modern toolkit including advanced Amazon software (e.g., Helium 10, Jungle Scout, AMZScout) alongside consumer search data, social listening data (TikTok, Pinterest, Instagram analytics), and retail tracking metrics to compile a 360-degree market view. 3. Product Strategy & Lifecycle Support Collaborate closely with the product development, design, and sourcing teams to translate raw trend reports into innovative, high-demand physical product concepts, category roadmaps, and initial packaging briefs. Provide strategic insights for global retail activation and go-to-market (GTM) planning, ensuring products are optimized for major U.S. and international omnichannel retail spaces. Assist in the strategic performance management of digital listings, ensuring keywords, catalog structures, and visual copy are deeply aligned with the brand's core positioning. Monitor and report on post-launch performance metrics, including sales velocities, organic rankings, and qualitative customer feedback loops to iterate product design or quality updates. Cross-functionally coordinate with launch, supply chain, and international sourcing teams to ensure seamless manufacturing timelines ahead of peak retail seasons. Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Data Analytics, Product Design, Consumer Behavior, or a related creative/commercial field. Minimum of 3–5 years of dedicated experience in product research, brand development, or category management specifically inside a physical CPG, DTC, or retail consumer brand environment. Direct experience researching and developing products within creative, lifestyle, or highly seasonal spaces (such as party supplies, home decor, stationery, or apparel) is highly preferred. Demonstrated ability to build structured research frameworks, predict seasonal shifts, and maintain high accuracy benchmarks in forecasting. Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with a proven ability to deliver structured, visually compelling, and executive-ready reports on tight timelines. Highly organized, proactive system-builder who thrives independently in a fast-paced, international team environment. What We Offer: Competitive salary and benefits package. Opportunity to collaborate with a dynamic, global team. Clear career growth and professional development milestones. Flexible work environment.