In a nutshell

IDEO is looking for Senior Business Designers to join our Chicago studio. The ideal candidate loves to design and build new businesses and understands how (and why) designing products and services can drive strategic growth for our clients. The right candidate will have a demonstrated ability to work with a broad set of collaborators to bring a variety of concepts and products to life and to market. We are specifically looking for people with a depth of experience in end-to-end product life cycles, business model design, market analysis, financial modeling, and implementation.

In your past life, you may have been an intra- or entrepreneur, product manager, or consultant – with experience bringing a scalable new offer to market. You fundamentally think that when you design a new product, service, or experience, you’re simultaneously designing the broader business strategy and roadmap for future growth.

Why is this role important for IDEO's work?

As a Senior Business Designer, you will be the business anchor on the team ensuring that the viability of new concepts are thoroughly considered. In this capacity, you'll work with the team to understand the client context, collect and interpret relevant data, develop insights, explore and define growth opportunities, define strategy, create tangible design expressions, communicate the vision, and ultimately help our clients get new offers to market.

You will take the lead in enabling your project team to articulate new value propositions, forecast and simulate the impact of new offers and business models, to better understand the size of markets and opportunities, and to help inspire and validate the strategic direction of projects through data (and good old fashioned math!).

Once here you will:

• Collaborate with clients to understand their business challenges and opportunities and to help identify and prioritize their near and long term goals.
• Design organizational structures and strategic assets to help companies support new offers and drive innovation.
• Partner with various designers to create new and evolve existing physical and/or digital products in ways that foster strategic business growth.
• Use discovery-driven planning and financial modeling to explore the business model possibilities behind design concepts and to shape and influence their design.
• Work with the team to bring new opportunities to life through storytelling.
• Design and prototype business models that enhance and extend consumer experiences.
• Translate business data and concepts into actionable insights for the IDEO team (and community).

What does IDEO offer you?

IDEO is a place unlike any other. It’s a place where you can solve diverse, complex challenges for our clients or the organization, alongside thoughtful, intelligent individuals who lead with curiosity, empathy, and optimism. We work hard, but we also intentionally craft moments that allow our community to pause, create, and connect. We encourage our community to bring their whole selves to work, respect the need for work-life balance, and allow for autonomy in the design process and your career.

Some previous projects to check out:

PillPack: Helped PillPack, an IDEO startup-in-residence, build a venturing strategy for its prescription home-delivery system.

Moonrise: Designed a new venture to help American Family Insurance connect with its customers and improve their condition of living

Conrad - Redesigned the HIV prevention experience to increase uptake and adherence among young women in South Africa and beyond.  

Ford Greenfield Labs: Ford Motor Company and IDEO have collaborated in shaping future mobility solutions and formed Greenfield Labs, a collaborative innovation lab practicing human-centered design.

Relevant experience and mindset:

• A masters in business is a plus, with a minimum of 3-5 years of industry experience.
• Successful candidates will combine rigorous business acumen across many of the following areas, along with world-class depth in one or two: Product Development, Product Management, Start-ups, Marketing (Product or Brand), Strategy, Organizational Behavior, Operations, Finance, and Design.
• Operational experience in or a deep understanding of taking offerings to market and scaling, whether as an entrepreneur or intrapreneur.
• Excellence in complex business model development, scenario planning, and forecasting, with a depth of experience using Excel as a baseline.
• Demonstrated fluency with the human-centered design process and an ability to work in multidisciplinary design teams.
• Experience in a client-service or consultative role which might include management consulting, creative services, design, finance or operations.
• Outstanding written and verbal communication. 
• Financial Services experience is a plus.