Senior Product Designer (contract to perm)

At ustwo we design and build digital products, services, and immersive experiences that people love. Increasingly, we help our clients to boost their own digital culture and capabilities.

We believe that by caring deeply for our people, clients, and partners, we can unleash our “collective genius”. That means mastering the art of collaboration, crafting the optimal conditions for a team to perform at its absolute best, in an environment of diverse backgrounds, thoughts, views, opinions and life experiences.

The challenges our clients are asking us to take on are becoming more fundamental, more strategic, and more vital than ever to the success of their organisations and the role of design in this process is evolving; a solution that both delights and engages the user often means being prepared for trade offs to ensure that the right product goes to market.

For this contract Senior Product (UX) Designer role, you will be working as part of our Tokyo studio. The focus will be on early stage design, prototyping, user testing and support the transition from discovery work to delivery, in collaboration with an international ustwo team and  client stakeholders. The initial commitment begins June 2023 through early end of March 2024 with a probable extension beyond.

The ideal candidate is somewhat bilingual in Japanese and English, as we use both languages in our work. However, the relative skills between Japanese/English is flexible.

Expect to work with an experienced and caring cross-disciplinary team, delivering at speed that sees the client very much integrated within this team composition.

What you will do

• Digest user needs, wants and behaviours and design requirements from research that has been done in the previous phase of the project. 
• Use research and user/behavioural insights to identify opportunity spaces that can be used to elaborate on service definition. 

• Confidently generate concepts from insights and be able to communicate the benefits and value of them succinctly, through artefacts like sketches, user flows, wireframes and prototypes where appropriate.
• Break down service concepts into service blueprints, in collaboration with stakeholders. 
• Adapt and propose alternative approaches based on research findings, when necessary, and be comfortable navigating the uncertainty of rapid discovery.
• Engage clients, stakeholders and your team to ensure proposed design fits business goals, long term strategy and technical constraints in addition to user needs.
• Understand and (where appropriate) challenge business requirements or assumptions, as well as technical feasibility to champion user needs, as a way to further promote product and market strategy.
• Foster a collaborative "One Team" approach between ustwo and clients/partners by engaging in an open and transparent working relationship.
• Take clients/partners on the discovery journey, teaching and skill sharing throughout the project.

What we are looking for

Aside from having a portfolio that demonstrates your breadth of cross-platform work and design process, you are;

• Conceptual. Highly comfortable ideating new product and service idea from scratch, based on clear business goals and user needs.
• Current in your practice. As well as being an expert in user-centered design, testing, research usability principles, techniques and methodologies, you keep up with the latest trends in design and technology.
• Insightful. You analyse user problems and design solutions that meet measurable business goals and requirements. You understand how to position products and services in line with brand and market.
• Critical thinker. You analyse contexts and insights objectively, consider ideas from multiple perspectives and make decisions logically. Rather than accepting what is given, encourage yourself and the team to challenge the norm. 
• Adaptable. You thrive in ambiguity and are comfortable switching contexts and able to apply design practice across a range of industries and different deliverables and goals. You are as comfortable working on product and opportunity discovery work as you are iterating towards market launch.
• Highly Collaborative. Able to work collaboratively in multidisciplinary teams of designers, developers and product managers using Agile and Lean principles.
• Passionate about innovating through design. Bringing original thinking, strong design practice and advocating for the user.
• Think holistically about the big picture when designing a product, whilst being detail oriented and delivery focused.
• Global mindset. Have worked within an international business environment and understand and are sensitive to the nuances of working with different working cultures.
• A clear communicator. Capable conveying ideas and break down concepts clearly to a diverse range of stakeholders (verbally and written).
• Open to sharing. Whether that be your thoughts, ideas and work in-progress.
• Want to grow. You seek out opportunities to learn, advocating good feedback with those who you work with.
• Resilient. Can remain calm and focused under pressure and work in a dynamic and fast-moving environment.
• You are Tokyo based.

Interested but think your experience doesn’t perfectly align with this job description? That’s ok. Research shows underrepresented groups in particular are less inclined to apply for jobs where they don’t meet 100% of the requirements listed. We’d still love to hear from you if you feel passionate about this role! We are committed to creating an inclusive environment for our colleagues, clients, community, and the users of our products. We don’t have all the answers but we’re on a journey, and we are learning together.