Product Design Lead, Independent Advisor Software
Morningstar brings inspired problem solvers together with one goal in mind-to empower investor success. At our core, we're one of the world's top investment research and data companies. But what sets us apart is how we take that data and research, and pair it with the latest technology and thoughtful design, to deliver insights with a purely independent view that address a wide range of needs for our customers. 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 their clients.
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.
We're looking for a Product Design Lead to join Morningstar's Independent Advisor Software team. This team intersects and transforms investor data with Morningstar's independent research, data, and technological expertise into well-designed products that delight our clients.
In this role, you'll collaborate closely with product managers and senior team to create new capabilities and experiences in the ecosystem of advisor technologies for the Independent Advisor Software team. We seek a leader who can bring clarity and structure to product development by constantly advocating for proven user-centered design and development processes. The Product Design Lead will play a critical role in driving the business forward and growing the design team as needed.
This position is based in our Chicago office.
You'll be great at:
- Expertly utilizing design thinking methods in day-to-day work, including collaborating with the team to successfully incorporate these methods into an Agile process.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Communicating UX design solutions to multiple development teams through high-fidelity prototypes with interactive transitions, detailed visual specifications, and similar types of communication documents.
- Using data and experimentation in the design process to deliver on intended outcomes.
You'll also do things like:
- Leverage our design system to create prototypes.
- 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 in Graphic Design, Digital Design, Communication Arts, Human Computer Interaction, Industrial Engineering/Design, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
- 7 years of relevant professional experience is required.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Strong knowledge of Sketch, InVision, Microsoft Office Suite, Mac OS X.
- Knowledge of HTML and CSS.
How to apply:
Please include a portfolio of work that you're most proud of, so you can tell stories about your experience and the impact you've had. We're interested in the designs you've created and want to understand how you work with a team to solve problems.
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