Lead Service Designer

The Lead Service Designer is responsible for designing the ideal future state of Allied Solutions’ proprietary service offerings, connecting the dots between people, processes, and technology. The role requires the ability to think big picture while meticulously documenting the details. This person has an innate curiosity and can identify process pain points, connecting them to business objectives while understanding technological boundaries. They will drive growth and influence the improvement of the customer experience.

This individual combines an in-depth knowledge of company objectives, business acumen, technical familiarity, and continued education in Service Design standards and best practices to deliver effective recommendations. They use exemplary critical thinking to uncover impactful insights by directing qualitative and quantitative research, scope development, project execution, and generating buy-in.

Lead Service Designers are expected to define the craft and practice of Service Design at Allied. They create standards by which the team is measured. A Lead Service Designer mentors and coaches less experienced people on the team and supports them as they grow. They are the primary liaison between management and the rest of the Service Design team, working autonomously and pushing boundaries for speed and quality of outputs.

Job Duties and Responsibilities:

Lead Team Members & Stakeholders:

• Be a champion for Service Design as a practice, including pitching new methodologies to better understand business processes, supporting technologies, and cross-functional relationships
• Collaborate with management to support the build-out of Allied’s Service Design practice, identifying needs and gaps required to achieve business objectives
• Propose and champion process and service improvements based on research, serving as the advocate of the service design while thoroughly understanding the ecosystem and business objectives
• Develop strong, trusting relationships between the Service Design team and business units, providing leadership and support during strategy, ideation, and execution of complex large-scale changes
• Position themself as thought leaders by self-educating and demonstrate that knowledge to teammates and stakeholders
• Educate Allied Solutions team members on the evolving world of Service Design tactics and strategies, and convey why they matter to Allied’s greater business goals
• Lead narrative-based, strategic planning presentations to internal stakeholders, adapting the narrative for the appropriate audience
• Use creative storytelling abilities to connect the current experience to a vision for improvements that meet both user and business needs
• Adapts narrative reporting to varying appropriate audiences throughout different business areas
• Demonstrate Situational Adaptability: The ability to evaluate and pivot based on new information to meet the needs of the situation
• Inform stakeholders of research progress, clearly setting and re-setting expectations when needed
• Document and communicate Service Design case studies that prove the ROI of Allied’s Service Design practice to generate more buy-in across the business
• Ability to conduct and support spontaneous service design workshops quickly and effectively when needed.
• Mentor, coach, and develop Service Designers into strategic thinkers
• Functions as a general resource for peers
• Assists management in training new hires
• Engages in recruiting, interviewing, and onboarding activities

Execute Service Design Methods:

• Lead Design Thinking and Service Design activities like stakeholder interviews, collaboration sessions, ecosystem mapping, task analysis, business model canvassing, service blueprinting, observational sessions, and field research in order to understand the context in which business areas operate
• Maintain execution of the timeline outlined in the research plan
• Support & mentor other service designers in their ability to execute their methods and timelines
• Inform stakeholders of progress, clearly setting and re-setting expectations when needed
• Provides direction and support to other service designers on the team by executing service design activities at a high level
• Pivot from the original research plan when key learnings and insights suggest there is additional/different research to conduct
• Demonstrate industry best practices for conducting each service design method by learning & implementing new methods & processes that continue to push the team forward
• Document and organize data resulting from the conducted research
• Collaborate with other designers, strategists, and business teams to create a greater shared understanding of the current service experience, future vision, and interim steps required to get there
• Identifies and learns new Service Design tools and methods, teaching other researchers how to implement them

Understanding Business Goals and Technology Landscape:

• Achieves a deep understanding of the problem space including business goals and market needs/desires
• Consult with business stakeholders to translate Service Design concepts into relatable and actionable business outcomes
• After using business analysis findings, map Service Design concepts and outcomes to technical solutions and boundaries
• Create achievable, relevant goals and KPIs at the outset of projects with the intent of providing data-backed performance analysis and reporting upon completion
• Through collaboration with business stakeholders & leaders develop a deep understanding of Allied Solutions’ internal technical landscape, business areas, operational processes, and cultural mental models in order to create current state analysis
• Collect and organize data from a variety of sources to understand and visualize workflow across the finance and insurance industries
• Prioritize and reprioritize tasks based on varying criteria to achieve optimal speed-to-insight while managing multiple initiatives
• Collaborate with a cross-functional team of researchers and experts to translate opportunities into transformational solutions
• Pitch & implement new Service Design methodologies to better understand people, processes, and technology involved in the delivery of a service
• Acts as a subject matter expert and achieves understanding of business goals to create alignment with greater speed and storytelling ability than Sr. Service Designers or Service Designers
• Works directly with UX Management, Software Product Management, and Vice Presidents, Sr. Vice Presidents & C-Suite level leaders to ensure Service Design work is aligned to achieving business outcomes

Plan Service Design Research Methods and Timing:

• Achieve a deep understanding of the problem space including business goals, technical landscape, and market needs/desires
• Determine the appropriate mix of Service Design methods, both qualitative and quantitative, and service design prototyping experiments for a given scenario.
• Evaluate previous work efforts to determine the approximate scope of future initiatives
• Lead scoping efforts that result in cost/benefit analysis, approval, and prioritization of UX-related work
• Document the planned methods in a research plan, including method names/descriptions, intent quantity of each method, the expected timeline for plan execution, the intended target of research methods
• Collaborate with team members to finalize the appropriate research methods, timing, and research participants
• Communicate the value of Service Design plans to internal stakeholders, including generating buy-in and support for an investment of time and resources
• Recruit participants for service design workshops, interviews, and other methods
• Schedule activities with research subjects and team collaborators
• Coordinates Service Design planning and execution across multiple lines of business to ensure alignment
• Plans Service Design activities and scope with greater speed, quality, and quantity than Sr. Service Designers or Service Designers

Analyze Service Design Research and Create Artifacts:

• Analyze qualitative and quantitative data from analytics tools, interviews, whiteboarding sessions, and other research methods to develop themes and insights that inform Service Design recommendations
• Identify and articulate insights that provide opportunities for new and differentiated experiences
• Collaborate with strategists, designers, technical architects, and business teams to map research findings to business goals and objectives
• Translate insights and “light-bulb moments” into actionable recommendations
• Provide continuous counsel on the implementation of service design recommendations
• Create visual frameworks like journey maps, storyboards, service blueprints, ecosystem maps, etc., that help bring clarity to complex challenges within an ecosystem and drive decision-making
• Measure research data, interpret data, and translate data into findings that relate directly to concrete goals for the project, product, or business area
• Consider the big picture while diving in to capture necessary details
• Influence the measurement of experience from qualitative and quantitative perspectives, clearly connecting data to strategic and process design solutions
• Adapt reports and artifacts for different audiences throughout the business as necessary
• Connects research analysis and insights across multiple lines of business and software products to ensure strategic business alignment.

Qualifications (Education, Experience, Certifications & KSA):

• Bachelor’s degree, or equivalent combination of education and experience, required. Field of Study: Human Computer Interaction, Data Science, Interaction Design, Experience Design, Cognitive Science, Psychology, or related field.
• Master’s degree, or equivalent combination of education and experience, preferred. Field of Study: Human Computer Interaction, Data Science, Interaction Design, Experience Design, Cognitive Science, Psychology, or related field.
• 8 – 10 years of directly related work experience required