Product Design Leader

WHO WE ARE

We are a well-organized, well-funded and fast-growing Financial Technology and HR company that does right by employees across the US by not only giving them access to their own wages, on-demand, but a variety of other financial wellness tools to help improve their financial outcomes. ZayZoon is quickly becoming the employee financial wellness super-app that employees can’t live without, and employers are clamouring to offer to help attract and retain talent.

It’s how we’ve secured partnerships with franchisees such as McDonalds, KFC, Wendy’s, and Hilton Hotels! We destroy tech industry benchmarks for NPS (our 2022 score was 71!) and all you have to do is check out our 4.8-star Google Reviews to see how much Customers love us. Why do our customers love ZayZoon? Because we actually help them.

THE ROLE

As our Senior Product Designer / Lead, you will be responsible for:

delivering an exceptional user experience to our stakeholders
providing outstanding design leadership that drives intuitive interaction and nudges users towards responsible use of our financial wellness products
working closely with internal stakeholders
doing everything in your power to get insights from the end users outside our virtual walls -- including conversations, qualitative and quantitative behavioural observation and analysis.

While your primary function will be in advocating for and driving core product experience flows, you will achieve this with whatever artifacts necessary to effectively and efficiently communicate with and get inputs from your stakeholders.

The ideal candidate has strong aptitude for a variety of responsibilities that include

Completing surface-level tasks (UI design, typography, colour, layout), structural-level tasks (workflows, individual interactions, patterns, blueprints, guiding principles)
Strategy-level tasks (research, requirement gathering, discovery and solution space mapping, behavioural data analysis)
Vision-level tasks (product vision, organization planning, business strategy, recruitment)

You approach design with the ideal in mind, but iterate through version implementation using a lean methodology: experimenting, measuring and honing in your designs by putting them in front of real users. This is not a waterfall shop, so you will balance your exceptionally high standards with a need to move very quickly.

WHY YOU SHOULD WORK WITH US

You:

Like to think on your feet and work in a fast paced role where every day can be a bit different
Are not intimidated by a tight deadline if you know that means making a genuine impact
Are a critical thinker who thinks outside the box and challenges the status quo to push your own limits, as well as those around you
Want to make a difference through meaningful work and are driven by purpose
Have a strong sense of accountability - you ensure the job gets done on time, no hand holding necessary
Are an innovative self-starter that's always looking for a better way to do things
Get the bigger picture, and how to balance that with a focus on details because you know the little things matter
Love small teams and are not afraid to roll up your sleeves to help others when needed
Are looking for a great company you can grow with!

We:

Are a tight-knit team of adults that care about our customers, our products, and each other; we walk the talk when it comes to living our Core Values
Know that every team member makes a difference; a sense of purpose comes from understanding our vision and how each person fits into it to move our business forward
Constantly strive to improve - always growing ourselves, each other, and our business; you can expect leaders and teammates across our organization that will support you and ensure you are positioned for personal growth and success
Thrive on moving the needle and creating exceptional experiences for our customers
Value a flexible environment, with an emphasis placed on getting the job done, not on hours worked -- this means taking the time and space you need for yourself and your family, but also being available for collaboration when needed, and being ready to get down to business in crunch times
Are a group of people that genuinely love what we do. ZayZoon has a tech-industry leading Employee NPS that is consistently above 70.
Are highly engaged, fast-paced and performance-driven, but also know how to have fun!

YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES

Holistic Product Design - Articulating and understanding the needs of the user, and connecting those needs with the strategy of the business to build exceptional products that drive both forward.
User Research and Driving Outside-In Insights - Basic levels of user research for buyer (employer and partner) and user (employee) persona, such that persona can be used as an alignment tool in driving good UX from a solid understanding of our external stakeholders.
Building Exceptional User Experiences - Across multiple touch points in our web and mobile apps, working closely with developers, product managers and product marketers to build walls
Holding Down the Fort, While Building It - Getting your hands dirty with nitty-gritty design elements as an individual contributor while building structures and systems to lay the foundation for design practices at ZayZoon
Growing a Team - In the next 1-2 years, structuring and growing a team of design practitioners to support the growing needs of the organization as we expand our business footprint and address needs for different user types.

TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN THIS ROLE, YOU NEED TO BE SOMEONE WHO:

Wants to make a difference through meaningful work and is driven by purpose
Is passionate about helping others
Has high emotional IQ and knows how to use empathy to develop a deep understanding of our customers and partners and drive business outcomes
An ability to connect your work to the overall business context and hold yourself accountable for achieving business results and customer impact
An eagerness to explore behavioural psychology and behavioural economics
Adapts quickly to change, and gracefully maneuvers quick pivots to thrive in fast-paced environments
Self-motivated with the ability to work independently in a remote setting

WHAT YOU BRING TO THE TABLE

Technical Competencies

3-5 years of experience in a UX or Product Design role, with products that are actively in use, ideally by consumers
Experience establishing/scaling up a design practice in the context of a startup and scaleup
A demonstrable portfolio, preferably showcasing mobile and desktop design experiences, and highlighting competencies in problem-solving and leading a project from discovery through to implementation
A broad understanding of the end-to-end design process and the many skills that fit under the title of Product Designer, including:
- Research and Discovery (direct conversation, behavioural observation and analysis)
- Interaction design
- Visual design (wireframes, and high fidelity mocks)
- Rapid Prototyping / Working Designs (for example, but not limited to: InVision, Webflow, Airtable, Zapier)
- and, ideally, some Front-End Development
Derive product designs from a deep understanding of customer needs, motivation and behaviours
Confidence presenting design concepts to stakeholders along with strong rationale to validate concepts and have amazing storytelling skills and can clearly articulate the thinking and strategy behind your decisions
Ability to create modern, sexy user interfaces that excite and delight users
Use data as an input (both qualitative and qualitative), using elements of Heuristic Evaluation to produce design recommendations for any medium
Are intensely focused on breaking larger design experiences into vertical slices to ship features early and often
Prefer to work alongside developers to see the designs come to fruition, and make any adjustments to the design as a team
Can work effectively with remote team members and customers, and know how to overcome communication challenges that come with remote work
Bonus:
- Experience in financial technology or banking
- Experience in both consumer-facing and business-facing software design
- An awareness of behaviour psychology and behavioural economics principles, and use it in your designs
- A solid understanding of front-end development techniques and could “speak the language” of CSS, HTML, Javascripts (incl. TailWind / TailWind UI)

Behavioural Competencies

You get fired up in a start-up culture where everyone owns the business, regardless of department or seniority and are comfortable being vulnerable in a workplace setting
You constantly take in input, but can disagree confidently, be decisive and not compromise on your design process, using both evidence and expertise to garner support
You adapt your style to communicate your vision effectively to different audiences
You are a data driven decision maker with an analytical mindset, who measures and adjusts based on explicit outcomes
You elevate the team around you by providing mentorship, business context and feedback and collaborate well to understand constraints (time, budget, feasibility)
You take ownership over how your designs come together, get interpreted and implemented - end-to-end (beyond just software), and across the full product delivery lifecycle
You are quality focused, but also understand the need to hustle when the fire alarm starts blaring

CORE VALUES

Our Core Values are our shared beliefs as a team. We bring them to life in our organization by recognizing when someone demonstrates them in their actions. They are the rules of engagement for our team that guide our decisions and we treat each other, our partners, and our customers. Are you aligned with our Core Values?

Hustle – Own it, take it to the next level
Trust – Do the right thing
People Driven – Make a positive impact
Mastery - Thirst for knowledge and improvement

ANYTHING ELSE YOU MIGHT NEED TO KNOW

Candidates must be based in Canada in order to be considered.

We are organized as a remote team, as such we are looking for candidates who can work effectively remotely. You must have access to a secure high speed internet connection and a secure workspace to ensure security of private information. This role is available on a permanently remote basis.

Due to the nature of our business the chosen candidate must undergo a criminal record check and a basic security clearance.

Please note that a final step in our hiring process is for candidates to arrange personal reference calls with former managers and others we may choose. We wish to thank all qualified applicants for their interest in joining our team!