The Position

As a Principal Designer on the Business Development team, you’ll partner with Product Managers to find opportunity, imagine, and create strategies for how Root might collaborate or join forces with other organizations to bring value to our customers and our business.

This is a new role in a fast-paced, always-changing organization which means the potential for the growth and scope of it is unlimited. 

We believe diverse teams build better products, and we are looking for people who not only contribute hard skills but also broad perspectives that challenge us to better serve our customers. Very few (if any!) people will fit every description below; if you identify with any portion and you’re passionate about building products that solve real problems, we encourage you to apply!

About You

You are a pragmatic visionary.

You can think big, go wide and imagine many possibilities. You’re comfortable in ambiguity and know when to put your feet on the ground and execute on reality. You set solid strategies based on research and data and find opportunities where others might not see it.

You are a thoughtful generalist.

You design from start to finish. This means working with your partners in product management to define problems, brainstorming solutions, iterating on wireframes, and having a keen eye for visual design. You might not code, but you’re comfortable working closely with engineering throughout development to ensure the final product looks as good in the hands of our users as it did on your screen.

You deeply empathize with customers.

You put every effort into understanding what our customers need. Your background gives you a strong gut about how to solve problems for users. What you don’t know, you learn through qualitative and quantitative research, analyzing previous test results, competitive analysis and whatever other tools are at your disposal.

You solve business problems.

You internalize business needs and ship product which solves those needs. You understand how to focus on a core hypothesis and don’t get distracted by features that detract from that goal.

You have strong opinions, weakly held.

 You express your opinions passionately, but are equally open to changing those opinions in the face of new data. You are a respectful debater who challenges your colleagues to consider alternative viewpoints. 

You bias toward action.

You think the best way to validate a hypothesis is to try it out, so you skip longwinded debates and get to building a solution. You recover quickly from mistakes by applying those learnings to your future work. You work your way to the future through shipping projects which build larger ideas.

Things you might do as a product designer at Root

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  Who we are.

  Root Insurance is the nation’s first licensed insurance carrier powered entirely by mobile. We were founded on the belief that the services you need for everyday life should serve you better. That’s why we base insurance coverages on you, not your demographic. It’s the way insurance should be. And it’s all conveniently in an app.

   

  What draws people to Root.

  We’re a venture-backed technology company. Our early success is in large part due to our unwavering standards in hiring. We recognize that our product is only as good as the people building and promoting it. We look for individuals who find solutions by going through the cycle of ideation to implementation with curiosity, rigor, and a highly analytical lens. Ask anyone who works here and you’ll hear similar reasons for why they joined:

   

  Autonomy. For assertive self-starters, the opportunities to contribute are limitless.

   

  Impact. By challenging the way it’s always been done, we solve problems that have a big impact on our business.

   

  Collaboration. We encourage rich discussion and civil debate at every turn.

   

  People. We are inspired by the collection of crazy-smart people around us.

  • Be actively involved with defining product strategy & roadmaps
  • Process the results of A/B tests and user research
  • Use your expertise in layout and typography to create beautiful interfaces
  • Distill complex problems into easy to understand user flows and wireframes
  • Learn everything there is to know about the insurance industry
  • Work closely with your partners in engineering and product management
  • Present your work to leadership as well as peers across the company
  • Conduct research to vet ideas before building them
  • Build interactive or motion prototypes
  • Facilitate collaborative design with partners in and out of the product design team
  • Design systems which make building a beautiful and consistent product even easier