Design Lead

We’re currently on the lookout for a talented design lead to join us in our (quite awesome) studio in central London.

So if think you’ve got what it takes to create digital products and services that break new ground for some of the biggest brands on the planet, we can’t wait to hear from you.

About the role:

At Potato, best in class software development and human-centred design are at the heart of everything we do. We’re a talented bunch of problem solvers who are committed to finding a better way; delivering smarter products that provide more satisfying experiences and more valuable outcomes for our clients and their users. Our clients include Google, Mozilla and the BBC.

We are looking for a Design Lead to help us lead, build and develop our design team. We do not distinguish our designers from UX or UI, believing in analysing and developing individual skills for every team member and placing our team within best fit for the product they work on.

As a design team we want to appeal to both the head and the heart. Our designers are expected to be able to constantly question and reassess both their own work and that of their team to make sure we are delivering the right kind of experience for the intended audience. As a design lead, you should be able to adjust to change, tailoring your output or that of a team, to overcome hurdles or learnings as you iterate to the best possible solution.

Designers at Potato work through projects from concept to completion together, fusing the best designers together based on a match of skills to products. As a design lead, you are expected to have an appreciation for the entire design lifecycle and are able to mentor designers who veer to visual skill as much as research or strategy.

This role is a leadership role within our London studio, which expects you to form a part of strategic planning, forward thinking, and business decision making. You will be accountable casting teams within the London studio for best fit against individual career development goals as well as best skill fit for the products and services we work on.

About you:

At Potato, we work on projects within a product culture of prototyping, rapid validation and iteration. We expect a design lead to prove meticulous in analysing the output of a studio through the lens of data as well as creative. You should take into account wider business goals within your work (not just those explicitly brought to the table by a product lead), backing solutions with metrics and insights, developing a hypothesis driven approach. You are able to produce original data that results in redefining or pivoting products. You substantiate your work when presenting it back within this framework, building competitive advantage for clients.

You will need to be able to sense and evolve emerging problems ahead of time in order to create new briefs, begin new pitches and extend the work we already do for our clients. You will be expected to be able to originate a vision that transforms the products we work on, strategise the elevating the creative solutions of your peers by defining design principles which they build upon.

You must have:

  • A minimum of 7 years design experience
  • A portfolio, with examples of work in web, mobile and emerging technologies
  • Evidence of working within a product culture of user-centered, hypothesis driven design
  • Experience in leading design teams before, mentoring both junior and mid-level designers through involvement in how to progress their career development

Ideally, you also:

  • Have thorough examples within your portfolio, detailing how you have contributed to your projects in both user experience requirements and ensuring strong visual design within your team
  • Be able to articulate the business requirements of the projects you’ve worked on before and how you met or exceeded goals and objectives
  • Have either startup or agency experience
  • Have experience working within agile product development teams, ideally with experience of building design within agile teams
  • An understanding of the technical side of product development, with an appreciation of how designers and engineers work best together

Learn more about life at Potato