THE JOB:

As a Design Strategist / Service Designer at Essential, you'll lead diverse, project-based consulting initiatives at the intersection of design, business, and brand. You will collaborate with industrial and digital design specialists, user researchers, and client teams to navigate the fuzzy front end of new product and service development. You'll be responsible for both high-level envisioning of customer/user experiences, as well as for developing compelling communications to align vision with business and brand strategy.

ON A DAY TO DAY BASIS, YOU'LL:

• Lead project teams through the human-centered design process (discovery, synthesis, ideation, design, and testing of new product and service concepts).
• Use a range of tools and methods (e.g. qual/quant research, customer journey mapping, service blueprinting, business model canvas, etc.) to define ideal customer/user experiences and strategic priorities.
• Translate insights and strategy into concepts, design intent, and low-fi prototypes
• Bring brand strategy to life through visual, verbal, and experiential details
• Bring a diverse set of stakeholders along the design journey through workshops, co-creation, and interactive presentations
• Use visual and verbal storytelling to share your discoveries, gather and integrate feedback, influence stakeholders, and create energy for an idea or an initiative.

YOU'RE A GOOD FIT IF YOU ARE A:

PROCESS EXPERT

• You have a deep working knowledge of design thinking and lean development methods and tools
• You know how to plan project activities and scope time and resources to best solve diverse client needs.
• You are comfortable leading conversations among diverse, multi-functional teams, and confident in planning and leading workshops.

DOT CONNECTOR

• Are a systems thinker at heart, constantly connecting and synthesizing in pursuit of concrete outcomes. Thinking at the ecosystem level comes second nature to you.
• You keep current on sociocultural and technology trends and are able to ‘connect the dots' between macro dynamics and project-specific opportunities.
• You are able to quickly navigate and ‘download' large unstructured bodies of information, rapidly getting to conversational fluency around an industry, market, or scientific process.
• You have experience solving for the service ‘backstage' (operations, revenue model, customer service) as well as for ‘frontstage' UX/CX

VERBAL - VISUAL THINKER

• You excel at using design to communicate complex concepts simply and always strive to make things tangible, whether they're conversations, frameworks, or ideas
• You easily link verbal brand attributes and brand strategy with specific design details (Bonus if you can do this for both physical (radius, CMF, OOBE) as well as digital (type, color, image, IA) details.
• Your visual design /communication design skills enable you to craft compelling visual stories to create custom frameworks and prototypes.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university
• At least 3 years of experience in design strategy or service design

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Master's Degree in design or business
• 5+ years of experience with a digital product & services company
• 5+ years of experience in design strategy, human-centered design, design thinking tools + methods, or related field