Lead User Experience Designer - NY or Chicago
This position can be based in New York or Chicago.
Morningstar brings inspired problem solvers together with one goal in mind—to help investors reach their financial goals. At our core, we’re one of the world’s top investment research and data companies. But where we set ourselves apart is how we use that data and research to serve a diverse range of users. Our investment data and research enable us to deliver analytics and insights with a purely independent view, and then we leverage the latest in technology and design to deliver an array of solutions that best meet our users’ needs. This foundation of research, data, technology and design uniquely positions us to provide a more complete set of services to investors all around the world—ultimately helping people make better decisions about their money, or the money they manage for millions of people all over the world.
The Morningstar design team is dedicated to creating thoughtfully-designed financial products and services so that people across the world can make the best investing decisions for themselves and their clients. We synthesize complex financial information into experiences that empower our users to deliver better outcomes. We do this by not only creating the look and feel of a product, but also driving product direction: prioritizing the biggest opportunities to support our users and the business, while maintaining a strong sense of product ownership and its resulting success. The design organization is made up of several disciplines—visual, UX, communications, content, and research—united to help each other, and the whole company, grow. We’re always seeking designers who are motivated, are driven to deliver user-centered outcomes, and are equally committed to craft and compassion.
We’re looking for a lead UX designer to join the Morningstar Credit Ratings team. Morningstar Credit Ratings is redefining the credit industry’s expectation of what a ratings agency should be. Our insightful analysis provides informative opinions and greater transparency of the analytical process. Our focus on client service provides investors and issuers with a responsive alternative in the credit ratings and analysis business.
In this role, you’ll collaborate closely with the product owner and senior team to define a new service offering. It will be your job to consider every touchpoint as various market participants turn to the service to better understand complex financial concepts. We seek a leader who can bring clarity and structure to product development by constantly advocating for proven user-centered design and development processes on a team where these techniques have not existed previously. The UX Lead will play a critical role in driving the credit ratings business forward and growing the design team as needed.
This position is based in our Chicago or New York office.
You’ll need to be great at:
• Understanding at an expert level how to provide solutions for complex navigation and information hierarchy challenges at a system level while also supporting a strong user-facing experience.
• Coaching your teammates on how to make decisions around information structure, relationships, and strategy.
• Expertly utilizing design thinking methods in day-to-day work, including collaborating with the team to successfully incorporate these methods into an Agile process.
• Coaching other designers, business leads, and stakeholders in the values and methods of design thinking to solve user needs and realize business goals while also supporting our design culture.
• Identifying connections between products and communication channels and guiding teams to build and plan for coordinated solutions.
• Partnering with the product owners and engineering leads to support the end-to-end vision of the product.
• Supporting a collaborative, transparent, and high-performing team environment by leading a positive, results-oriented attitude and culture that’s built on resilience, great communication, and mutual respect.
• Promoting open discussion of new ideas, tough issues, and contrasting points of view.
• Envisioning and communicating service concepts and ideas using methods and tools that illustrate all the components and touch-points of the service.
• Helping to define user interaction models and user experiences for new and existing products.
• Sketching and presenting UX concepts and behaviors with paper sketches, wireframes, task/workflows, simple working prototypes, or whatever form best communicates your ideas.
• Leading user-centered research with customers through interviews, usability testing, usage analysis, and participatory design.
• Communicating UX design solutions to multiple development teams through prototypes, detailed specifications, and similar types of communication documents.
• Using data and experimentation in the design process to deliver on intended outcomes.
• Thriving in an agile work environment, including the ability to embrace iterative product development while maintaining a cohesive and holistic view of the overall design experience.
You’ll also do things like:
• Leverage our design system to create prototypes of the service
• Demonstrate exceptional stakeholder management skills, including effectively managing expectations and obtaining agreement on key objectives.
• Continuously strive to find better ways of doing things.
• Edit and generate clear and concise labels, prompts, and other messaging copy that guides the user and meets business needs.
• Persuade and lead others to invest in quality design and demonstrate the value of doing it right.
• Collaborate with the product owner, visual designer, and engineers on your squad to make sound product decisions.
• Be highly proficient in core research skills, such as interviewing, analysis, and reporting techniques, and execute common types of user research with minimal guidance and supervision.
• Provide guidance and mentorship to junior team members.
• Translate usage patterns into intuitive, rewarding interactions and workflows.
• Be curious about new technology and pushing experiences to be current and modern.
Basic Qualifications:
• Bachelor’s degree
• 7 years of relevant professional experience is required
Preferred Qualifications:
• Strong knowledge of Sketch, InVision, Microsoft Office Suite, and Mac OS X
• Knowledge of HTML and CSS
• Degree in a field related to human-computer interaction, design, library sciences, psychology, or communication
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