Product design manager
The Business Journals is looking for a talented and thoughtful product design manager to join our product leadership team in Charlotte, North Carolina. This is an opportunity to become part of a tight-knit group working together to improve the user experience of publications in 43 cities throughout the United States.
This is an exciting time for The Business Journals as we scale our ambitions and efforts around eCommerce, data, and subscription products to stretch the limits of what it means to be a modern media organization. Over the last year, the product design team has created new data products, improved our CMS and strengthened our digital storytelling capabilities, redesigned our account section to center on user’s common tasks, optimized our eCommerce flows, and facilitated ideation sessions leading to new product development.
The ideal candidate is a confident player/coach who can comfortably transition between offering tactical support to the team when needed, while working primarily to drive its long-term success.
Responsibilities
- Actively manage product design team; Interview, hire and train direct reports, provide guidance and mentorship that leads to individual growth, conduct annual reviews and one-on-one feedback sessions.
- Oversee timelines and deliverables; monitor team output throughout each stage of the design process to ensure high-quality work is ready for development in assigned Agile sprint cycle.
- Own team artifacts and processes; take the lead to establish or refine personas, user research, testing initiatives, and the vendor relationships that support these efforts.
- Execute high-quality design work; roll-up your sleeves to contribute to product design efforts within Agile sprint cycles as needed.
- Build relationships; just as it is important to understand our users and their goals, it is equally important to understand how design contributes to strategic business goals. Establish regular communication with stakeholders to build awareness of their priorities and demonstrate how the design team can be a partner in their success.
- Work collaboratively and cooperatively with peers; keep product leadership team aware of design team initiatives, project status, successes, and challenges.
Requirements
- At least six years experience designing consumer-facing or enterprise digital products; at least one year of experience managing direct reports
- A portfolio that demonstrates experience leading the design of products with a high-level of complexity, your design process, and your sophisticated visual design acumen
- Ability to work within and intelligently expand an existing design system
- Experience working in an Agile environment
- Ability to articulate the rationale behind every design decision through strong oral and written presentation skills
- Deep understanding of how to conduct qualitative and quantitative research that leads to strategic design decisions
- Understanding of HTML, CSS and JavaScript
- Mastery of common visual design tools (Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite, Abstract)
Work-life benefits
- Retina MacBook Pro, standalone monitor, Sketch, Adobe Creative Cloud, Slack, and user testing tools
- Competitive salary; full complement of major medical, dental, vision and life insurance
- 401(k) plan and matching employer contributions
- Newly remodeled building with open workspaces, sit-stand desks, coffee and snacks lounge, small gym, and subsidized cafeteria
- Free on-site parking and public transportation discounts
- Off-site team-building events
- Conference and training budget
Contact
E-mail résumé, a brief introduction, and a link to your portfolio to Kyle Ellis, Director/Product, at kellis@bizjournals.com. Please DO NOT send PDFs or attachments.
