Sprout Social is looking for a seasoned Product Design leader to join the intersection of our Product organization and the creative universe at Sprout. There are several disciplines across our group; from defining brand standards, to developing stories expressed through video and motion, to creating delightful experiences for our customers through the art of Product Design. We're a tight knit group that proudly does 100% of our work in-house, right here in our downtown Chicago headquarters. Our brand is trusted and used over 19,000 companies around the world including Dropbox, Zendesk, Fender, Zipcar and Evernote.

We are looking for a Product Design leader who will thrive in managing a team of Product Design generalists with varying backgrounds and strengths. While you should be excited about understanding and solving customer problems, we want you to be equally excited about the trajectory of your team. Team members are diverse and range from those who are research and UX focused to those who are more UI and Visual. Product Designers work in a cross functional team model to fulfill their role within the Product organization.

Responsibilities

Grow, inspire and support a world class Product Design team

• Be a constant enabler of Design by providing the resources and processes that the team needs in order to succeed.
• Foster a culture of critiquing and collaboration, ensuring Design work to be its absolute best.
• Lead by example, working alongside the team, and arming oneself with real experiences and perspective that is going to positively influence managerial decisions.
• Build strong team bonds and encourage collaboration across the other creative disciplines such as Brand Design and Video.
• Support a culture of accountability and keep design deliverables on track.
• Coach on running effective kickoffs, design sprints, and other Design methodologies.
• Help your team think through complex problems and present their work effectively.
• Influence product roadmaps, define goals with our partners and inspire the team to execute in unison.
• Effectively manage in all directions, including horizontally, with your Design leadership team.
• Help identify talent within your area of focus as well as others across Design and the Product organization.

Nurture individual designers

• Develop a cadence of check-ins with design team members covering career development strategies, coaching opportunities and performance reviews.
• Help in resource planning of cross-functional teams and overall design team according to strengths, fit, personality and need.
• Ensure the team is heard, is adequately challenged and always inspired.
• Be able to have tough conversations and face issues head-on, early, often and tactfully.

Desired Skills and Experience

A strong, balanced background

• 8+ years of industry experience and proven track record of leading Design and/or Product teams with a user-centered focus in an agile environment.
• Experience synthesizing customer feedback, technical constraints, business requirements and help the team find solutions that align with a brand’s beliefs/principles.
• Ability to champion roadmap execution and build strong design team culture simultaneously.
• Experience navigating technical conversations as they relate to Design. From HTML/CSS considerations to API limitations and general technical constraint designing within our tech stack.

Demonstrate a strong product vision

• Ability to balance customer empathy and business strategy independently, and help other designers develop their own business acumen as well.
• Capable of helping the team think strategically and globally about design decisions.
• Have past experience and success in iterating, documenting and evangelizing a product vision across teams.
• Possess the ability to think long-term but execute near-term and weigh in on release strategies.

An advocate for Design standards

• Strong UI Design sensibilities; able to make our app interfaces become a true expression of the brand.
• A track record of driving best-practices around the documentation of user personas, and customer journeys to guide decision-making.
• Able to speak to past experiences developing and working with Design Systems at scale.
• Truly values interface accessibility standards.
• Someone that can champion and articulate the value of new UI patterns

About Sprout Social
Sprout Social powers open communication between individuals, brands and communities through elegant, sophisticated software. We are relentless about solving hard problems for our customers and committed to both customer and team success.

Team Sprout is a group of very talented, smart and passionate people with broad interests and backgrounds. We’re proud to regularly be recognized for software, product and company culture achievements. Our team’s shared belief in Sprout’s mission promotes a culture of openness, empowerment and fun. We have built a benefits program to match the strength of our team. This program includes:

• Insurance and benefit options that are built for both individuals and families, including generous company contributions
• Progressive benefit programs, like our parental leave program and free Divvy bike memberships
• High-quality and well-maintained equipment - your computer will never prevent you from doing your best
• Beautiful, convenient and state-of-the-art offices in Chicago’s Loop
• Solid programs in some of the staples: transportation, disability and life insurance
• Wellness initiatives to ensure both health and financial well-being of our team
• Breakfast and lunch options onsite, and more healthy snack options and beverages than you can imagine
• Growing corporate social responsibility program that is driven by the involvement and passion of our team members

An online portfolio that showcases recent work is required. Applications missing this requirement will not be considered. No exceptions.