Lead Product Designer

TheFork is taking aggressive steps towards becoming a digital product focused organization. This means we need to develop a strong and reputable Product Design & Research organization to ensure a cohesive experience across our channels and touchpoint, for all our customer-types worldwide.

This is NOT just a role for pushing product designers to follow best practices. You will be responsible for both creative leadership and execution, as well as for nurturing product designers and helping them realize their potential. The Lead Product Designer will understand how to be compassionate when providing career guidance, and candor when critiquing their work and exhorting them to improve. 

The Lead Product Designer will develop relationships with cross functional teams (Product Managers, Engineering, Marketing, etc.) and seek out opportunities to create new approaches to the product development process. You are a captivating storyteller who brings the team’s work to life and drives success with our customers. A successful Lead Product Designer is a strategic product owner, a team player, and a skilled client partner all rolled into one.

You will

• Help us build a best-in-class Product Design & Research organization. We’re at the beginning, it’s an opportunity to help us define who we are, where we’re going, and how we’ll get there

• Champion design decisions with qualified rationale including research and data

• Define the overall service structure, including flow charts and interaction model. Apply journey design when thinking of how the user satisfies their needs

• Apply methodologies to uncover user and business requirements and understand the technical landscape

• Partner with Product Managers, Engineers, Researchers and Content Strategists to oversee the user experience of our products from conception until launch

• Create (and oversee creation of) artifacts + deliverables (briefs, concepts, journeys, user flows, etc.) while partnering with other disciplines

• Help establish design standards, guidelines, processes, best practices, and a UX measuring strategy

• Actively support the ongoing development of our design language

You Are:

• First and foremost, a T-shaped designer. You have a broad range of skill-sets and a deep specialty in one

• A strategic thinker. You think about not just how things work, but what we should be building and why

• Able to lead the process of designing complex transactional interfaces, taxonomies and metadata frameworks for large-scale digital experiences, or applications

• A leader. You coach and mentor and genuinely care about the well-being of your colleagues. You have the organizational and cultural sensibilities to get everyone rowing to the same heartbeat

• Comfortable working in an international global context and proficient in English

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Roughly 8-12 years designing and shipping web and native mobile applications including visual and interaction design as well as creating interactive prototypes

• Proven ability to lead high performing teams attracting, coaching and developing talent

• Solid knowledge around modern forms of product discovery, product planning, product development, and customer delivery processes

• Champion of modern consumer-facing and backend software technologies to create feasible solutions meeting business objectives

• Proficient in design thinking, lean startup methodologies, agile processes and sprint planning

• Portfolio of work demonstrating experience with interactive design across a variety of screens and transactional models