Position Summary:

The UX Design Manager is a key figure responsible for overseeing the entire creative process, ensuring that our clients' business goals are met with innovative and strategic design solutions. This role encompasses leading the project from initial discovery through to the creation of design, maintaining high standards of design and creative efficiency throughout. The manager not only ensures the successful delivery of fully realized design deliverables but also guides the strategic direction of projects to meet client objectives. Furthermore, the UX Design Manager is charged with defining how our designs engage with end users, directing the user experience journey, and shaping the overall design strategy. They are also responsible for organizing file structures to ensure a smooth handoff to the development team, ensuring our work is not only creative but also practical and easily implementable.

The C2 Group is located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We support a flexible and remote work environment. Our preference for this position will be candidates located in Michigan or the Midwest, allowing for occasional trips to Grand Rapids.

About C2:

The C2 Group is a Midwest based digital thought leader that creates and supports world class content management experiences. C2 drives digital value creation with our special blend of strategy, candor and team. We rely on trust and clear communication to do our work. The foundation of our culture is one of coaching and partnerships, enabling the talented people we work with, both internal and clients, to thrive.

Core Values:

• Intentional – Intent drives how we engage our work and interact with others. Deliberate action, focus, willingness, empathy, and staying calm under pressure each exemplify being intentional. We seek to be purposeful in our actions and thoughtful in our delivery.
• Enthusiastic – Enthusiasm shapes our actions while demonstrating knowledge, passion, and confidence. Our work requires maintaining a realistic and positive vision for the future. Whether it’s in service to team or task, we look to engage with a positive focus and energy.
• Low Ego – Maintaining a low ego provides the right context for serving others. While we are all talented and unique contributors, we realize success is ultimately a team pursuit. We aspire to be accountable, receptive to feedback, and team oriented.

Accountabilities of the UX Design Manager:

Lead, Manage, and Hold Accountable

• Support and promote the company values and culture.
• Recruit, reward, and recognize employees.
• Provide the necessary training opportunities, tools, and resources for the team’s success.
• Lead, coach, and manage direct reports.
• Give clear direction in weekly team checkpoints.
• Conduct individual “same page” reviews with direct reports.
• Manage performance feedback in quarterly conversations and annual performance reviews.

Design Standards Ownership

• Establish and optimize UX and design methods, tools, and processes.
• Responsible for the execution and curation of the discovery processes in order to deliver high quality client business strategy, creative briefs, and information architecture evaluations.
• Own the delivery of high quality future-state information architecture assessments and creation, digital product benchmarking, UX behavior forecasting, theme development, wireframe recommendations and creation.
• Oversee high quality visual design benchmarking, theme expressions, and primary page creation.
• Lead creation of all production assets in the design process.
• Able to lead creative concepts and ideas, apply them to digital experiences and communicate them effectively through words and images.
• Ensures all design-related client reviews consistently reflect the highest standards of excellence in execution and production.

Maintain Design KPIs

• Responsible for the creation and maintenance of key performance indicators relevant to the user experience design.
• Responsible for the reporting of scorecards and KPI's to the UX & Analytics Lead.

Scope UX & Design Tasks

• Responsible for the sizing of production tasks within the user experience design team.
• Support marketing, sales, and operations needs for estimates of effort from the user experience design team for client initiatives in planning or contract creation.
• Contribute to the fine tuning of estimates by evaluating actual time vs. planned time for user experience design engagements.
• Support definition of services needed pertaining to UX for new engagements as they are shaped.

Identify Client Opportunities to UX & Analytics Lead

• Work to identify, qualify, and quantify opportunities for the user experience design team's contribution.
• Support BlueSky session process by proactively bringing new ideas to review.

Client Facing Meeting Support

• Drive or support UX team members in the execution of client meeting support, including but not limited to Discovery sessions and UX deliverable reviews.
• Support the sales pitch process for new work that includes a UX focus.
• Oversee material review and prep for all client sessions to ensure it meets a high standard.

Education & Experience:

• Eight years of experience in graphic design or user experience design in the IT/Technology field.
• Two or more years of experience leading a team of direct reports.
• Prior experience working in a collaborative environment with user experience designers, business analysts, frontend developers, backend developers, and project managers.
• Experience with responsive website design standards and requirements.
• Expert knowledge in Figma and Adobe Creative Suite.
• Portfolio representing forward thinking in web or application design.