Digital Services Product Manager

The Service Design Consultant role at the Innovation Unit has room for growth. Your starting salary and responsibilities will flex, depending on your experience.

Responsibilities

1. Client delivery - project leadership

• Manage successful delivery of smaller client projects (up to about 80k) and work-streams in larger projects:

  • Project outcomes are achieved, we deliver maximum impact and we get strong positive feedback from our clients;

  • Deliver work on time, to budget and within parameters agreed with the client, re-negotiating scope where necessary and re-allocating resources to meet project challenges, including achieving the required project margin; 

  • Provide effective and efficient project administration, including using the internal financial and other systems effectively.

  • Negotiate and confirm projects with clients, firming up project requirements and outputs following kick off meetings, ensuring that any changes to scope are communicated to the IU project team and that client expectations are well managed.

  • Manage the work, expectations, morale and effectiveness of small project teams (2-4 people)

  • Undertake high level stakeholder mapping and engage with key project stakeholders to secure their buy-in to the project aims

• Demonstrate excellent practice in service design, including:

  • Design and delivery of creative workshops and working sessions with clients and services users;

  • Design research activities including ethnography, report writing, story telling, archiving, data protection, and ensuring adherence to the research ethical code of conduct;

  • Communication design and data visualisation; and

  • Design and delivery of practical prototyping in local systems.

2. Engagement, communication and learning

• Communicate regularly and effectively with all members of the team, contractors, suppliers and clients.

• Prepare presentation materials for visits, events and meetings and represent and the project at meetings and events.

• Write in an engaging way about the project for a range of different audiences, and ensure that all outputs and publications are quality assured properly.

• Contribute learning from this project to the development of Innovation Unit intellectual property and integrate learning from other Innovation Unit projects into this work.

3. Developing service design practice

• Support the development of new design practice and support colleagues across the organisations to apply design thinking to make change. Train people in design processes so that client organisations can create change in their worlds after we’re gone.

• Set and maintain a high standard of quality in design-led processes, design thinking and outputs.

• Support creative approaches to problem solving within Innovation Unit and contribute towards building our service-design credentials and reputation.

4. Business development

• Identify opportunities for further work that could follow on from current projects.

• Work closely with the business development leads to identify solutions and innovations that could be scaled within appropriate markets and public systems.

• Support the practical aspects of business development including writing proposals, developing sales materials, background research, and other ad hoc activity.

• Grow your personal network, maintaining existing relationships and developing relationships with potential future clients.

• Support business development administration by regularly updating contact data, and that the website and blog are up to date with information about recent projects

Personal attributes

• You are creative and imaginative – capable of redefining the problem, breakthrough thinking and sparking lots of ideas, spotting opportunities and working at micro and macro scales. You are a reflective practitioner. 

Experience, knowledge and skills

• You have a recognised service design qualification (preferred) 

• You are up to date with the latest thinking and developments in service design

• You have significant experience of working as a designer and applying service design methods, (experience in the public sector is desirable) 

• You are a strategic thinker and have experience of applying service design methods effectively within complex systems

• You have example of services that you have designed, or helped to design, that have delivered impact 

• You are able to grow design-led capabilities and practices in teams and organisations

• You have experience of managing projects to deliver successful outcomes and supporting people from multiple disciplines to work as a team 

• You are able to create design methodologies, write bids, negotiate briefs with clients and create and manage project plans and people to deliver the project effectively 

• You are a skilled researcher and ethnographer, able to plan and oversee research, analyse and synthesise insights and report ideas verbally and in writing in a compelling way 

• You are able to plan engaging workshops using a variety of tools and methods that enable everyone to contribute

• You are a skilled facilitator able to sustain motivation and engagement of diverse groups (including leaders and service users), manage conflict and ensure outcomes are achieved 

• You can effectively synthesise workshop outputs and make attractive and easy to understand presentations, design products and tools 

• You know when and how to use personas, prototypes, user journeys, service blueprints and other service design tools

• You are a good communicator and relationship builder. You are able to make clients feel listened to and valued, manage a project team to deliver outcomes and understand the political dynamics of the organisations you are working with 

• You are able to make people from a diverse range of backgrounds feel included and valued 

• You have excellent software skills with Google Suite, Adobe CS - InDesign, Illustrator & Photoshop and Kimble

• You are a designer – you understand design and what it has to offer and can articulate its value to other team members. You can cope with uncertainty and make the intangible tangible. You are comfortable experimenting, dabbling and iterating.  You have good visualisation and making skills, communication, research, engagement and facilitation skills. 

• You put people at the heart of your design thinking – this means paying attention to people’s experience and understanding what it means. You are committed to co-producing new design with those using and delivering services. You pay particular attention to minority voices. 

• You are a changemaker – you make change happen by working from the ground up, and from the top down to create new solutions that actually get implemented. You love to work on projects with diverse teams. You maintain a focus on people’s experience.

• You are a leader – you exercise leadership, and are able to help people challenge their assumptions and make way for new ideas. You have the courage, energy and dedication to make things happen and have impact, at scale. You can manage and mediate conflict well. You are self aware, and understand the impact you have on others. You are organised and effective and people can count on you. 

• You are passionate about social change – you are passionate about making a difference to people’s lives. You are motivated and inspired by social change and how service design can make a real difference in the world. 

• You are hungry to learn and committed to helping others to learn. You are part of the service design community.