Lead Service Designer

Do you love exploring the unknown? Do you enjoy connecting the dots?

If so, you might be the Lead Service Designer we would like to welcome into our Design and Research team. We’re looking for someone who is unafraid of working with ambiguity & thrives on painting a picture of the future that helps others see what is possible. Someone who is experienced in bringing clarity, vision and excitement to cross-functional teams and stakeholders by using design facilitation skills to negotiate a safe environment for great collaborative design to happen.

We value colleagues who have learned as much from failures as from successes and are humble enough to share their learnings without reservations. People who think deeply and have a point of view on everything from workshops to prototypes to work-life balance but are also able to listen to and encourage others to make their own contributions. While growing with us, you will have a strong opportunity to craft your future role in the team.

Our design team is a wonderful mix of researchers, UI, UX and service designers working together with developers to create unique experiences that solve people’s real problems. This is a fast-expanding team within a more established agency, where you’d have the rare opportunity to follow your work across both design diamonds. Unlike most agencies, we don’t just focus on innovation, proof-of-concept and early-stage engagements, we also have the cross-functional teams to deliver the amazing experiences we conceive. We work very closely with our clients in intense, user-focused, prototype-driven sprints, that grow into long-term relationships.

We don’t just design. We have impact.

So here’s another question – does this sound like you?

Experience and qualifications

· 7+ years’ experience working as a Service or UX designer within an agency, design studio, gov or product environment

· In-depth knowledge and application of design thinking methodology

· With full accountability, have led projects from the design perspective

· Loves planning and facilitating workshops

· A highly strategic mindset – can negotiate the noise and leverage insights to set projects on-course to deliver great services

· Can show us interesting and thought-provoking approaches to design challenges (both successes and failures), i.e. from establishing strategic propositions to applying evidence in the design of complex services to make them simple to use

· Enjoys line management, or has mentoring experience

· Experience working within design sprints/agile methodologies

· Understanding of how to align and prioritise business need to user needs

· Awesome hands-on skills in delivering prototypes and design artefacts. Likes producing sketches, story-boards, user journeys, system maps, blueprints, etc

· A strong POV on how to continuously improve and set the standard for our design output

· Ability and willingness to carry out qualitative research & user testing, collaborated with researchers

· Experience in scoping and outlining approaches to projects – can provide realistic time/scope/risk estimates for a project, define artefacts and milestones

· Work with, challenge and build consensus with senior stakeholders – prioritise and mitigate constraints, turning them into an advantage

· A strong advocate of design quality within a business setting, understanding where this gives the best value

· Help clients through the process of aligning behind strategies and solutions that help deliver their business objectives