Experience Design Lead

Are you passionate about designing for the human experience? Do you have a track record of designing experiences that measurably improve the lives of the people you are designing for? Are you that rare combination of experienced change leader and collaborative, roll-up-the-sleeves team member? If so, C&D could be just the place for you to apply and grow your skills.

We seek a Lead Experience Designer in our New York, NY office to work with our clients to conceive and create engaging experiences across channels to ensure interactions are meaningful between customers and businesses. If you are passionate about working at the intersection of strategy, design, and research to deliver impactful innovation through human-centered design practices and seek to contribute to a new and rapidly-growing expert team, then we want to speak with you. A passion for and expertise or background in health and health-related experience design is a distinct asset. As the largest health-focused consultancy in the world, we have a unique opportunity and responsibility to shape and improve health futures for all stakeholders.

Responsibilities:

Lead the design and delivery of new services, products, and brand experiences that solve customer problems, increase brand value and inspire people;
Lead the creation of best-in-class XD deliverables to articulate customer research insights and craft a broad range of design artifacts including experience maps, user journeys, service blueprints, and personas;
Partner and collaborate with cross-disciplinary teams through all phases of design process including alignment with client, understanding context, developing insights, exploring and defining opportunities, setting strategy, creating actionable/tangible design expressions, communicating vision, and guiding go-to-market strategies;
Lead cycles of rapid iteration to prototype experiences across mediums and realize a final solution;
Present design solutions with precision and personality to variety of business stakeholders, clients, and internal colleagues;
Convey strategy and direction through a masterful mix of visual and verbal communication;
Craft exceptional stories that connect the dots of user needs, concepts, design principles and experience details, both within the team and out to clients;
Plan and facilitate Design Thinking workshops to support creative collaboration and evangelize customer centricity with clients and colleagues;
Develop best practices and innovative solutions to inform design decisions;
Collaborate with Strategic Planners, Managers and Principals in the Business Consulting group, working on multiple projects at once;
Coach junior team members;
Work with other members of the C&D Studio to deliver exceptional results across a variety of creative skillsets;
Actively partner with consulting teams on realizing business development opportunities;
Develop new methods, approaches and deliverables/offerings integrating human centered design with consulting teams;
Travel requirements can vary but may be 25% or more across US, and other international locations.

Qualifications:

Graduate studies (Masters or PhD) in design, interaction design, human computer interaction, human factors, psychology, anthropology, graphic design or a related discipline focused in social science/ethnography and design communication
Minimum of 5 years of experience with the user centered design (UCD)
Healthcare experience is a distinct plus (work with patients, physicians and other healthcare providers)
Portfolio showcasing evidence of strong presentation and other design work
Applied experience with various design research techniques such as ethnography, contextual inquiry, user interviews as well as in-depth practice incorporating findings from research studies into the experience design process and facilitating sessions with a variety of stakeholders
Comprehension of standard information architecture and design models
Additionally, we seek individuals with the following personal skills:
Curious, results-driven, confident, and committed to professional growth. Candidates will fit well in our team if he/she thrives on playing hard and working hard through consistent challenges and initial ambiguity
Can work independently, prioritize time, and is quick on his/her feet. She/he will be an active partner with colleagues in formulating business strategies and experience design recommendations;
Good interpersonal skills, with the ability to listen to, and build rapport with research participants, designers, and cross-disciplinary project teams
Strong written and oral communication skills, and the ability to communicate design direction and best practices in a clear, compelling way
Team oriented, builds strong relationships at every level of the organization and is a dynamic motivator. Can work well in cross-functional teams, including designers, business consulting teams, and project managers.

ZS is a global consulting firm. Fluency in English is required; additional fluency in at least one European or Asian language is desirable.