Lead Service Designer

Job DescriptionAs a Lead Service Designer, you’ll:

• Report to the Service Design and Delivery Practice Lead.
• Contribute to service improvement projects—from beginning to end.
• Lead projects with the support of Practice Leads and Strategists.
• Collaborate with colleagues to build and grow the Service Design and Delivery Practice Area for long-term sustainability.
• Lead skill-share sessions with colleagues to help them apply service design methods to their work.
• Contribute to the field of service design.

Essential FunctionsBelow are the primary duties of this position:Researching

• Contribute to the design and facilitation of thoughtful and ethical qualitative research to understand the service-related needs of community members, staff, leaders, and other stakeholders.
• Work with team members to synthesize research into insights and well-defined opportunity areas for service design intervention.
• Closely collaborate with team members to develop feasible, person-centered, and comprehensive cross-channel recommendations that improve resident and staff interactions with government.

Designing

• Transform evidence-based recommendations into project deliverables, like service blueprints, process flows, stakeholder maps, and project reports.
• Visually communicate research insights and prototyped-ideas in clear ways, so stakeholders can align on concepts.
• Develop compelling narratives that communicate the human experience to decision-makers, so they can make clear decisions that align with evidence and human need.

Implementing

• Work with UX designers, content strategists, technologists, and other subject matter experts to develop and build tools and resources (e.g., websites, one-pagers, applications, etc.) that support service improvement strategies.
• Participate in the evaluation of pilot projects to understand efficacy.

Collaborating with colleagues

• Communicate work without jargon or pretense.
• Offer and take constructive feedback.
• Communicate with clarity and honesty around the status of work.
• Cultivate and maintain respectful relationships with colleagues.

Project managing

• Break down project tasks into reasonable project plans with key milestones and deadlines.
• Clearly communicate the status of work to leadership, team members, and other stakeholders.
• Effectively navigate through ambiguity and project challenges.

Mentoring

• Expand team members’ skill sets through regular feedback and learning sessions.
• Participate in the design and facilitation of skill-shares with City colleagues, so they can apply service design methods to their work.

Advocating

• Work with team members to disseminate lessons learned, tools, and best practices of the Studio to the public.
• Actively contribute to the field of service design through journal submissions, conference participation, and community skill-shares.

Competencies, Knowledge, Skills, And AbilitiesCompetencies

• Be for your colleagues: Ability to support the success and growth of your colleagues.
• Equity-centered: Ability to respect, honor, and center the experiences of residents and staff who’ve been marginalized by government actions in all that you do.
• Excellent communicator: Ability to communicate in plain language, explain complex subjects in simple terms, and speak in respectful ways.
• Self-awareness: Ability to understand what you need from a work environment and articulate healthy boundaries based on those needs.
• Relationship-builder: Ability to work with a variety of people and personalities and cultivate strong relationships to ensure healthy collaboration.
• Curious: Ability to practice active listening, ask questions to get at the root of a problem, and be willing to have difficult conversations.
• On-going learner: Be open to engaging in feedback loops, reflecting on lessons learned, and implementing changes based on new information.
• Humble: Ability to operate beyond self-interest.
• Compassionate: Ability to empathize with others’ experiences, and based on that understanding, take appropriate action.
• Intentional: Ability to be purposeful and detail-oriented in your work.
• Organized: Demonstrated ability to manage projects, estimate timelines, rework a project approach based on unforeseen challenges, and set reasonable deadlines.
• Proactive: Ability to see opportunities, navigate barriers, be self-directed, and problem-solve solutions.

Knowledge, Skills, And Abilities

• Experience in qualitative research.
• Ability to create service blueprints, journey maps, and other service design deliverables.
• Strong data visualization and visual design skills.
• Project, time, and relationship management skills.

Nice-to-have Skills

• Bilingual
• Experience with community-based and participatory design
• Experience working in the social impact space on complex service challenges

Work-LifeCurrently, the team works 40 hours a week on a hybrid schedule. We work four days from home and one day in the office. This schedule isn’t permanent. Meaning, it may change depending on the status of COVID-19 and the needs of the administration.QualificationsA successful candidate will have:

• A design-related degree or relevant industry experience.
• At least three years of professional experience practicing service design or a graduate degree plus one year of professional experience practicing service design.
• At least three years managing projects and project relationships with colleagues, clients, and other stakeholders