Associate Design Director at McKinsey & Company

Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree in interaction design, interface design, human computer interaction, service design, (graphic) design with emphasis on UX or equivalent qualification
• 8+ years relevant industry experience designing applications, experiences, websites, products and services that balance user needs, business objectives and technological constraints
• Strong user-centered design portfolio that spans interface and experience paradigms across platforms, devices and environments with understanding of Agile software development processes and methodologies
• Holistic and human centered approach to product and service design, from research and insight generation to concept to deliverable
• Proven ability as a solid hands-on practitioner demonstrated through a diverse body of work across a range of leading clients
• Strong influencing, negotiation and communication skills (written, verbal, presentation) with the ability to be a thought partner/ coach to clients and internal team in a fast pace environment
• Experience mentoring designers and other members of a cross-functional team
• Interaction and visual design skills, including use of a diverse set of software such as Adobe CS, Sketch, OmniGraffle, as well as good experience with MS Office
• Excellent knowledge of rapid prototyping tools such as Sketch, Axure, Invision or Flinto
• Strong command of English language (both verbal and written)
• Willingness to travel to up to 90% to client sites

Who You'll Work With

• You'll join our Johannesburg office as part of McKinsey Digital. This group brings together the best of McKinsey’s digital capabilities to help our clients use digital technology to transform their businesses. You’ll join a global team working on everything from IT modernization and strategy to agile, cloud, cybersecurity, and digital transformation. You’ll typically work on projects across all industries and functions and will be fully integrated with the rest of our global firm. You’ll also work with colleagues from across McKinsey & Company to help our clients deliver breakthrough products, experiences, and businesses, both on technology and non-technology topics.
• Our Design team offers the breadth and experiences of 350+ world-class design talent from Lunar Design, Veryday and McKinsey's homegrown experience design practice. At Digital McKinsey, we bring a diverse community of designers and innovators passionate about getting in the midst of our customers and elevating design capabilities to the forefront of business decisions, impact and results.
• Our office culture is casual and social, with an emphasis on education and innovation. We have the freedom to try new ideas, experiment and are expected to be constantly learning and growing. There is also a strong emphasis on mentoring others in the group, enabling them to grow and learn.

What You'll Do

• You will work on a variety of projects that integrate digital designs into products, services and environments. In this role you will be responsible for key design deliverables across a variety of stages and client priorities, from research and insight generation to concept and delivery.
• You will be part of a blended cross-functional team and tackle all aspects of the design process, help to lead client engagements and guiding other members of their design team. Moving from insights to ideas, you will creatively solve complex problems, threading design and business thinking together to deliver inventive, durable and thoughtful, solutions from concept to launch. You will need to apply conceptual thinking to create desirable and feasible digital solutions across multiple platforms, smartly bringing together user needs, business goals and technical realities.
• You'll utilize industry design standards and best practices to define and implement design criteria, you'll apply user centered design methodologies to ensure your ideas are based on customer needs, and you'll prepare research and testing, produce personas, map customer journeys, develop service blueprints, for complex products and services.
• Additionally, you'll effectively communicate research findings, conceptual ideas, detailed design, and design rationale both verbally and visually, you'll use a variety of methods to convey ideas and concepts (e.g. storyboards, wireframes, prototypes, etc.), you'll use your narration and storytelling skills to bring product ideas to life, and you'll construct quick interactive prototypes with initial, low fidelity visual designs that illustrate your UX/UI design that present a realistic feel of the intended experience.
• Further, you'll be expected to perform task analysis and define the User Interface Design through information architecture, wireframes and user flows and validate it through usability testing, to lead usability testing sessions, consolidate findings and iteratively integrate into design solutions, and to mentor others and capability build to cultivate and support them through their path at McKinsey.
• Lastly, you'll also participate in workshops, concept sprints and hackathons to inject design thinking tools and methodologies to produce tangible results in a rapid and iterative way, you'll work closely with development teams to ensure that design specifications are implemented, and you'll communicate the product’s vision to clients and customers.