Human-centric Service Design Director -- Minneapolis, MN

The Human-centric Service Design Strategist will partner with organization leaders to understand needs and assess opportunities for innovation.

Core Summary:

The Service Design Director is fluent and skilled in the human-centered and participatory methods of design thinking to identify unmet customer, market and institutional needs and creates new service concepts or business strategies to meet those needs.

These methods include: conducting observational research, interviews and workshops; undertaking internal and external research activities; generating conceptual frameworks and formulating insights related to the synthesis of the research data; create tangible , compelling design expressions, communicate vision, and helping our colleagues develop great solutions. All of this is done in a human-centric way.

The Service Design Director will work collaboratively with service designers, innovation and product teams to create products, services and business models that:
Offer distinct new value propositions

Enhance and extend consumer experiences
Stretch and test our company's capabilities
Business Development
 Partner with general managers and business executives to understand business priorities, drivers and issues. 
 Translate market needs and opportunities into strategic initiatives for consideration and execution. 
 Provide thought leadership and domain expertise in Design for UnitedHealth Group. 
 Support and create and present business cases and materials to secure funding for initiatives. 
 Obtain commitment to solutions by all stakeholders. 
 Establish and foster customer and vendor relationships
Business Plan Oversight/Execution:
 Propose and manage the implementation and delivery of opportunities to help grow and/or improve our business 
 Oversee application & project delivery teams in both direct and matrixed relationships 
 Develop strategies to transition innovation solutions to appropriate operating units for ongoing operations.
 
Executive Experience:
 Well honed communication skills, evidenced by successful executive level interactions and presentation experience.
 Product development
 Proven ability to turn conceptual ideas into measurable results.
 Success in building and maintaining internal and external business relationships.
Program Management
 Prior success leading matrixed teams and partners (internal and external) to deliver solutions integrating change management strategies for successful adoption.
 Successful management of multiple high priority projects (across multiple customers) simultaneously.
 The ability to coach and teach others about design.
 You must be willing to get your hands dirty.
 Establish and foster customer and vendor relationships.
 Coach and teach others about design.

 
 Master's Degree in Interaction or Industrial design or other related field strongly preferred, Bachelor's Degree in Interaction or Industrial design or other related field Required
 5+ years experience human-centered and/or participatory methods of Design Thinking to identify unmet customer, market and institutional needs with demonstrated track record of creating new service concepts or business strategies to meet those needs.
 5+ years experience leading matrixed teams and partners (internal and external) to deliver solutions integrating change management strategies for successful adoption.
 Experience within a corporate and/or external management consulting firm focused on global strategic and strategy design
 Demonstrated knowledge of Design Thinking and/or design research tools and methods. Knowledge and experience with Service Design. (i.e. conducting observational research, interviews and workshops; undertaking internal and external research activities; generating conceptual frameworks and formulating insights related to the synthesis of the research data; create tangible , compelling design expressions, communicate vision, and helping our colleagues develop great solutions.)
 Demonstrated experience with diverse work cultures, diverse ideas and needs
 Demonstrated ability to thrive in an ambiguous and dynamic environment and comfortable with non-hierarchical organizations.
 Ability to work in multidisciplinary teams.
 Outstanding verbal and written communication skills to include C-level executives
 Intermediate to advance proficiency in Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Microsoft Office Suite
 Experience building design-capabilities to enable innovation within organizations
 Commitment to and demonstrated thought leadership in the design field, including writing and speaking