Product Design Lead at Nedbank

Job Purpose

• We are looking for a Product Design Lead to join our Foundation Squad within the Nedbank Web Design Team. They will help drive and create new market-leading experiences that execute against Nedbank's Digital Strategy, producing the 'next level' craft behind a sustainable and growing digital business by employing advanced Product Design approaches as well as dynamic functional testing that measure scale, viability, feasibility and desirability.

Team Description

• Our Design team crafts experiences that make people's lives better. We're a close-knit, collaborative group, guided by a highly iterative Client-centered Design (CCD) process. Combining research, data, and thoughtful critique, we're discovering needs and solving fundamental problems that impact the financial and home life for millions of people in South Africa and throughout Africa.

Job Summary

• Product Design Lead (PDL) manages the day-to-day execution of one or several customer design projects in Nedbank while guiding and developing individual team members. PDL works directly with different business stakeholders and takes ownership of the overall project and the delivery of exceptional customer experience. They will make an important contribution to the design work of the team and work closely with the stakeholders to ensure the project delivery meets both the customer and the business needs.
• A successful PDL is a self-starter with passion for high quality customer design. They have a strong track record of delivering complex, creative and innovative design projects that elevate the customer experience. They can demonstrate strong communication capabilities and ability to influence and lead others in even high-pressure situations. They are passionate and knowledgeable about data, measurement and iteration. They understand the bigger picture and how to design client first end to end experiences taking all touchpoints into consideration.

Job Responsibilities

Accountability: Project Management

• Engage with business stakeholders to clarify the needs and requirements of the business and, jointly with the Head of Product Design, establish a clear scope, creative brief and project plan for projects
• Manage the day-to-day delivery of the design output against the plan, continuously interrogating the design quality and customer experience to deliver high-quality output in each stage of the project
• Work closely together with the business and technical stakeholders to ensure the project aligns to their needs and requirements
• Take ownership of the customer experience within the project and constructively challenge business and technical decisions to ensure the best possible experience for the customers
• Lead the project team by aligning, managing and coaching the designers, prototype creators, copywriters and other possible team members, supporting them in setting goals, overcoming obstacles and delivering outstanding outcomes, while ensuring a fully unified end product
• Develop and nurture relationships across teams and disciplines to promote collaboration and efficiency
• Actively seek ways to measure impact of the design to the customer and business, reporting the insights to the senior management and business stakeholders

Accountability: High quality design

• Create creative, innovative and high-quality design solutions to create a world-class customer experience across the projects in Nedbank
• Give a significant contribution to the design within the project, while providing thought leadership to the overall team and business
• Take ownership in applying design thinking and best practice standards in developing design options and narrowing down the final solution
• Leverage insight and data, such as market analysis, customer feedback, and user research analytics to ensure that products/services/solutions are truly designed around the customer and deliver improved experience; surface and share insights to the broader team
• Design scenarios, mock-ups and prototypes as necessary for each stage of the project, continuously iterating to achieve the optimal output
• Align the design to the design standards and brand guidelines to ensure consistent experience to the customer across the Nedbank ecosystem

Accountability: Building capabilities

• Coach and mentor designers in the project team and design team as a whole
• Foster a team environment in which designers feel engaged and motivated
• Continuously build your own expertise by, for example, actively seeking and incorporating feedback, and following external trends and best practices
• Contribute the knowledge building of the entire team by actively sharing insights and success stories; and providing feedback and ideas across different design projects.

Education And Experience Required

• National Diploma or Advanced Certificate in a Design discipline such as product, industrial, service, interaction, digital equivalent NQF level 6 qualification
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience in design discipline (UX, UI, CX, PE) Ideally with a portfolio of high-quality work in the financial services industry.
• Track record of leading the delivery of complex, high quality design projects, with strong customer impact
• 2 years of experience conducting audience and usability research including benchmarking, heuristic reviews, surveys, analytics, stakeholder interviews, focus groups, contextual inquiry, and usability testing
• Demonstrated experience in each of the usability and software engineering cycle phases (analysis, design, implementation, and deployment)
• Ability to create and use personas and produce illustrated customer journeys
• Ability to communicate ideas through drawing, digital tools, prototyping, model making etc.
• Mature understanding and execution of Information Architecture.
• Mature understanding of current SEO, accessibility and web practices

Type of Exposure

• Solid understanding of design tools: Sketch and Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop & Illustrator)
• Solid knowledge of prototyping with InVision
• Basic front-end development understanding (HTML & CSS)
• Basic understanding of product development life cycles and methodologies (Agile, Lean etc)
• Experience in design practice of Omni-channel product development so as to attain seamless UX through service design thinking practice.
• Solid understanding of working in a CMS, Adobe Experience Manager knowledge is beneficial.
• Adobe Analytics Experience is beneficial.

Knowledge and skills

• Advanced understanding of the whole process of developing digital and service design solutions
• Great customer obsession – ability to tirelessly drive improvement in customer experience throughout the projects
• Strong skills in stakeholder management – ability to build strong relationships, communicate effectively and, when necessary, challenge constructively
• Problem-solving skills – ability to work tirelessly and think creatively in order to find solutions to problems/issues
• Understanding of the importance of data and insight in driving solutions and ability to use data in decision-making.
• Awareness of new and emerging design trends and patterns in customer design space
• Experience in understanding design at scale with a focus on information architecture.
• Advanced understanding of the digital marketing and commercialisation lifecycle, governance and implementation within web.
• Experience in including and collaborating with the content team as a key focus and driver for client experience and education.
• Current SEO and accessibility best practices.

Technical / Professional Knowledge

• Understanding of Interaction Design           
• Understanding of colour, typography and layout   
• Knowledge of working on Apple MAC   
• Understanding of Service Design   
• Understanding of User-Centered Design 

Behavioural Competencies

• Collaborating
• Continuous Learning
• Customer Orientation
• Decision Making
• Earning Trust
• Innovation