Senior Product Designer

Reports to: Director, Product Design

Background

Highland is a digital product and innovation consultancy based in Chicago. We research, design, and build digital products and experiences for mission-driven organizations and customer-centric companies. Over 22 years, our team of researchers, strategists, designers, and developers has helped organizations launch over 260 digital products, turning their biggest uncertainties into opportunities for growth.

We often refer to what we design as Experiences that Matter: digital products and experiences that make the world a better place to live in. We primarily work with leaders of mid-market services companies and corporate innovation labs at large companies.

Our mission is rooted in Human Flourishinginspired by research conducted at Harvard Universitys Institute for Quantitative Social Science. We design our work to help human beings flourish, while allowing ourselves to flourish as well. For us, our valuesPeople First, Give a Damn, Be Curious, and Be Transparentare not just things to hang on the wall, but something we live by everyday and call each other out on.

The Product Design (PD) practice is led by Jeff Blanchard and constitutes UX Designers and Product Designers. In collaborating with our clients, we sometimes help them improve their existing experiences, and other times we give shape to inspired ideas, driven by behavioral insight uncovered by our Design Research team. We partner with our clients at every stage in that journeyfrom early stage, generative research all the way to new product launch & scale. Ultimately, we are human centered in our approach.

The Senior Product Designer plays a key role in many parts of that process:

Strategic Product Design

• Translate human insights and uncovered opportunities into design interventions for users, creating or maturing strategy in collaboration with the research and product teams.
• Create advanced product & service concepts, including digital & analog UI designs across user touchpoints & channels, cognizant of multiple user segments & business goals.
• Apply high-level thinking to design solutions that leverage or contribute to strategic frameworks, system maps, ecosystem diagrams, or roadmaps with the research and product teams.
• Lead product design and provide strategic guidance throughout projects, which may include: furnishing detail to user experience flows & service blueprints; developing information architecture; generating storyboards & product wireframes.
• Create sophisticated prototypes, product candidates & service assets across touchpoints & mediums. Systematically create scalable design systems that can developed.
• Lead dialog with clients, Product Managers, and Developers to negotiate design & product direction, priorities & decisions, telling the story of how products are used, and how the customer benefits from product features & interactions.
• Facilitate design sprints and other sessions to co-create product concepts, and other potential components & features of new and in-market products.
• Articulate product design opportunities through sketches and prototypes, rapidly iterate as learning grows.
• Apply lean startup and design thinking methods to de-risk new digital experiences and products, especially as new feature ideas are considered. Champion human-centered & data-driven design.

Collaborative & Co-Creative Design

• Support co-creation research, co-ideation, and co-design sessions with a variety of stakeholders/users to enable participatory design, through whiteboarding and paper prototyping.
• Support evaluative research that helps product teams focus their design & development efforts, provides evidence of product usability & usefulness, and contributes to strategic roadmapping of product builds, such as participating in testing synthesis, or conducting secondary research (competitive analysis, etc)
• Co-create digital product, product ecosystem, and service design strategies with our clients.
• Collaborate across team functions to create solution hypotheses, leveraging data about user behavior & roles, scenarios, contextual needs, and expected interactions.
• Collaborate with UX designers & developers to identify and design interactions and components that correspond with data models, system logic, etc.
• Create deliverables that support client &/or team in taking the design to the next level of implementation.
• Support the creation or reinforcement of Guiding Principles and Design Directives which inform the direction of product & service, or align systems, service & customer journeys
• Demonstrate thoughtful, structured analysis of test findings, and lead teams in group synthesis of insights

Storytelling, Presentation, and Report-Creation

• Craft original and compelling storytelling formats to showcase processes, insights, concepts, and product implications, demonstrating the direction of design.
• Visualize project artifacts to communicate research findings, UX concepts, system designs, and facilitate project & product decisions.
• Convey the design opportunities, desired user experience, and alignment with strategy clearly across reports/decks.
• Participate in presenting reports or decks to clients, stakeholders, and extended team members if any.

Project Leadership, and Business Development Support

• Lead complex, design-centric projects from start to finish
• Maintain stakeholder and participant relationships both proactively and responsively
• Lead workshops, meetings, and calls with clients and project teams
• Direct and guide design & build teams with a strong point of view, including design & UI best practices
• Help frame and plan new design and build projects with potential clients
• Collaborate with research and build teams to enable coherent delivery at the company level

Thought Leadership

• Provide thought leadership around Product Design, User Experience, Digital Product , and Strategic Design through content creation, instruction, and public speaking.
• Be an ambassador for Highland by attending conferences, writing blog posts and articulating points of view about user-centric products that make a measurable difference in the world

Environment

The Senior Product Designer embodies the Highland Core Values:

• People First: What we make and how we work should make it a little bit better to be alive: for us, our clients, and their customers.

• Be Curious: The big picture is everyone's responsibility. There is always more to learn. We are generous in teaching what we know.

• Be Transparent: We respond to problems with solutions, not blame. Vulnerability, while risky, leads to trust and understanding. We're accountable to our clients and to each other. Even when things aren't going well.

• Give a Damn: Our client's goals are our goals. We do work we can be proud of. Quality is non-negotiable.

The Senior Product Designer displays the following dispositions:

• Customer-Centric: Keep the voice of the customer front and center, and advocate for their needs through product design
• Business Conscious: Maintain perspective about business objectives, and how ROI can be achieved through intentional design
• Creative : Able to apply human-centered design principles and methodologies to complex customer problems.
• Strategic : Able to examine design & product goals at high altitude, and ensure that all activities & deliverables are providing real business value, in alignment with business goals.
• Consultative : We humbly provide guidance, wisdom, and leadership for our clients. We arent order-takers.
• Collaborative : Disposed to check in with others frequently and willing to listen and learn from others.
• Observant: Able to discern subtle trends and patterns.
• Articulate : Able to communicate complex ideas clearly.
• Organized : Able to meet deadlines and inspire confidence in our clients by being thoroughly prepared for every interview and meeting, Strong attention to detail.
• Flexible : Able to respond and solve problems quickly when things go wrong.
• Energetic : Able to keep pace with our clients and stay focused on goals.
• Thoughtful : Able to demonstrate a genuine concern for the well-being of other people you interact with.
• Focused : Able to keep attention focused on project goals for extended periods of time.

Education and Experience Requirements:

• Bachelors degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction, or other related Humanities preferred. Other comparable training is acceptable.
• 6+ years of proven experience designing advanced products & services
• Proven experience leading project teams through planning, meeting cadences, and effective workshops
• Excellent written, verbal, and visual concept communication skills, with ability to communicate effectively with clients.
• Skill in visual/UI design, including at the system level
• Skill in applied UX design is highly valued but not critical
• Experience using design tools such as: Miro or Whimsical, and Figma or Sketch; especially in team environments

Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion:

Highland is committed to creating a just, equitable workplace, and is actively seeking candidates who can bring the value of diverse lived experiences to this position. We look for candidates who have a high level of demonstrated comfort with cultural competency; women, people of color, people with disabilities, and people who identify as LGBTQ are encouraged to apply.

Compensation:

Full-time salary and benefits based on years of experience and current market value