Lead Product Designer

Product Designers stand at the heart of what we build at Connected. They are deep-thinking, broadly curious designers who are passionate about creating products for the connected world. If you're craving an opportunity to design our collective future while working with an incredibly dynamic and talented team, we want to work with you!

As a Design Lead at Connected, you will be a key member of our product design practice, focused on leading teams to do great work and amplifying the impact we deliver to our clients. We are looking for an experienced and talented design leader who is eager to do great work, mentor teammates, and contribute to the strategic direction of our practice. Our team of product designers, researchers, strategists and engineers are on a mission to build better products on a variety of platforms and digital mediums, including web and mobile apps, voice, smart cars, AR/VR and connected home.

Connected is one of Canada's top small and medium employers three years running and one of LinkedIn's Top Startups.

Responsibilities:

Client Practice

• Build a solid understanding of users’ experiences through research, synthesizing learnings, and applying these findings to project work by linking design decisions to back to user insights
• Support project teams in tackling an unexplored opportunity area, a complete product, or a complex feature set, working across the full product development lifecycle, from discovery to delivery
• Ensure client satisfaction through the delivery of high impact product designs that drive product performance and user satisfaction
• Collaborate effectively and confidently with other guilds and client partners, often leading workshops and critical conversations
• Identify opportunities to improve how we tackle design challenges through exploring and teaching new methods and practices
• Provide guidance to other designers on in-progress project work, ensuring high quality product design outputs

Sales, Engagement Design and Building Better Products

• Communicate our point of view on product design to our partners/clients, contributing to bringing in new projects and setting them up for success
• Provide leadership and mentorship across Connected engagements

Programs and People

• Set a strong example, communicate regularly, and operate with the highest degree of integrity and professionalism, maintaining and demonstrating our values
• Evaluate and adapt design tools, infrastructure, strategies, programs, and workflows to better serve the needs of our practice
• Help improve Connected’s product design capabilities by mentoring other practitioners individually (i.e. as a “Design Buddy” to new guild members) or through programs

• Manage up to 3 product designers, coaching through 1:1s, and supporting their career growth and professional development through performance reviews and other cyclical management processes

• Collaborate with guild leadership on hiring and onboarding programs
• Express our point of view on product design excellence by publishing thought leadership content and presenting at internal clinics

Qualifications:

• 1-2 years of experience in a senior level design role, 5-7 years of experience in product design
• Significant experience designing products and leading design in cross-functional teams, ideally in both product development and professional services
• Bachelor or Masters degree in a relevant discipline (i.e. visual/graphic/industrial design, product strategy, human computer interaction, behavioural psychology, or other related field)
• Ownership of a well-considered body of product design work, with an emphasis on how you've turned research insights into products and concepts, and how you arrived at your solutions using product design techniques and frameworks
• Strong commitment to take ownership and make an impact while delivering quality products, deeply considering how your work will fit into people's lives by maintaining the voice of the user
• Extensive experience working on design and innovation-focused client engagements with excellent communication, facilitation, and organizational skills
• Comfort with remote collaboration across disciplines, and experience partnering with product managers/strategists and engineers
• Empathetic coaching ability, capable of mentoring product designers with a variety of backgrounds and skill sets
• Superior resource planning and time management skills
• Experience designing cutting edge UI for a variety of screen sizes and platforms: from fully responsive web experiences to native mobile (touch-device) apps
• Proficiency with popular design, prototyping and collaboration tools (e.g., Figma, Sketch, InVision, Miro, Airtable)
• Curiosity and passion for emerging technologies such as voice, virtual and augmented reality, autonomous vehicles, etc.

Perks:

• RRSP Matching
• 4 weeks’ vacation
• Generous extended health benefits
• Wellness Initiatives to support work life balance
• Parental Leave and Maternity Leave
• Annual Education Credit for conferences, courses, workshops, and books to support your professional development
• Annual Fitness Credit for gym memberships, running shoes, or classes
• In 2022, an annual allowance to support a working from home setup
• Our quarterly “Disconnect” events which are a chance for us to bond and unwind as a team

To learn more, visit connected.io/careers

Full-time positions available - Apply Today!

At Connected, we know that the best products are built by diverse and inclusive teams - teams that reflect a range of users and experiences. We're looking for product builders with diverse backgrounds - which go beyond the standard education, work experience, and geolocation. If you want to change how product development is approached, and who products are built for, we encourage you to apply.

We also know that some people aren't comfortable applying unless they feel totally qualified. If you're on the fence or unsure if your experience perfectly matches our job posting, we'd really like you to apply. We are happy to chat and get to know you better, and you can get to know us better as well.

We are also committed to providing accommodations throughout the recruitment process for individuals with disabilities, in line with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. If you need an accommodation, reach out to our HR team at [email protected] and we’ll work with you to understand what is needed.