Manager, Product Design
From our employee experience to our products, design matters at Sprout Social. We’re looking for our first Product Design Manager to join our team as we continue to build beautiful, helpful and easy-to-use software that powers human connection. You’ll be surrounded by smart, ambitious and caring teammates that want to build great things, together.
We’re looking to you to strengthen our team, processes, culture and work. You’ll have the autonomy to help Sprout continue to be a great place to practice your craft as a designer. You’ll sharpen the skills of your direct reports, plan org-wide design education, improve rituals, bolster critiques, and influence product strategy.
As you spend time helping others, our Design Leadership team will spend time helping you. You’ll develop your leadership profile and hone your management style. In Product Design, you’ll collaborate with other designers, engineers, writers, marketers and product executives. With our feedback-driven culture, you’ll help designers run workshops to get project input while offering helpful advice of your own to teammates across the company.
We care deeply about our people and strive to be great bosses. We’re eager to hear your favorite 1:1 questions you ask direct reports. We’re excited to trade tips on leading effective meetings. We’re looking forward to exchanging management articles and advice. Hopefully, we’ll learn new leadership practices from you, too!
We’re looking for design managers that have passions and skills in these areas:
- Telling captivating stories—written and verbal
- A deep understanding of how software is built
- Scaling and evolving design systems
- Implementing and communicating change for good
- An eye (and supporting portfolio) for world-class design
As well as design managers that have a great track record of:
- Shipping real work into the world
- Communicating openly and authentically
- Developing designers into better versions of themselves
- Coaching teams and individuals through low performance and hard times
- Collaborating with departments in and out of Design
We’re a proud bunch. Last year, our team was honored as business leaders in design with AIGA and profiled with InVision. We’ve got a great culture, and we’re looking forward to you adding your own influence to all that we do.
Within 1 month, you will...
- Experience Sprout’s in-depth onboarding, covering everything from our company mission and values, hear directly from executives and founders, to deep training on our products and the value that Sprout delivers to our customers.
- Partner with the Design Leadership team to define key success metrics for your role, your team, and how you will be measured against them.
- Spend 1:1s with your direct reports to understand their goals, strengths, and opportunities so that you can help with their career progression.
- Build relationships with other managers and heads of departments so that you understand the business, and the partners you’ll need to help your team make progress.
- Learn all about Sprout’s Creative, Design, and Product organizations. Get exposed to how we design, build, go to market. You’ll be encouraged to give us feedback to make things better, too. We don’t just welcome feedback, it’s part of our culture.
Within 3 months, you will...
- Learn the voice, thinking, and habits of our users.
- Develop a solid foundation of knowledge on our product. Assess our resources and processes, proposing improvements to both that helps Product Design gain efficiencies.
- Influence a strong culture of design critique and collaboration, ensuring our designers and our work are held to a high-quality standard.
- Connect Product Design to other creative disciplines like Brand Design, Copywriting, Video and Motion.
- Strengthen our culture of accountability, keeping deliverables on track.
- Coach designers on running effective sprints, meetings and presentations.
- Help your team think through complex problems and offer guidance on presenting their work effectively.
- Weigh in on resourcing, helping align design skill sets to business needs.
Within 6 months, you will...
- Develop a career plan alongside each of your direct reports.
- Define a cadence on connecting with your direct reports to discuss challenges, career goals and growth.
- Introduce new rituals and processes to improve the delivery of our designs.
- Influence our design strategy by deeply understanding our 2019 business goals against team opportunities you’ve been taking inventory on.
Within 12 months, you will...
- Dream with Design execs and directors on our long term team vision.
- Keep defining what design management means at Sprout. This is a new role to us, so we can’t wait to hear your own unique ideas of how you’ll make our work and our company even better.
Of course what is outlined above is the ideal timeline, but things may shift based on business needs and other projects and tasks could be added at the discretion of your manager.
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
Sprout Social is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer and an Affirmative Action Employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, genetic information, marital status, order of protection status, citizenship status, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please contact us by email at [email protected] and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information. Requests for accommodation will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Please note that only inquiries concerning a request for reasonable accommodation will be responded to from this email address.
For more information about our commitment to equal employment opportunity, please click here (1) Equal Opportunity Employment Poster (2) Sprout Social's Affirmative Action Statement (3) Pay Transparency Statement.
Additionally, Sprout Social participates in the E-Verify program in certain locations, as required by law. We value the things that make us different and want to see how you can make our team better!
