MANAGER USER EXPERIENCE - HDQC - Full-time / Part-time

POSITION PURPOSE

Working at the world's fourth largest retailer mixes the best of many worlds: cutting-edge technologies meet real business needs meets real customers who spend billions of dollars at our stores in North America.

 What is it like to work at The Home Depot QuoteCenter?

We were a startup once upon a time and much of our startup culture still exists: the agility of a small operation, the impact that comes with being a leader in our industry. Our product development team uses the latest open source technologies to build new products that facilitate 9-figure project sales at The Home Depot. We invest proactively in our people. We sponsor developer events, including .Net Fringe, NodePDX and PADNUG, and our developers headline workshops to teach Portland-area web developers how we use cutting-edge technology to solve real world problems. The mission of the QuoteCenter product team is to radically reimagine the shopping experience at Home Depot utilizing the latest web technologies and data tools.

MAJOR TASKS, RESPONSIBILITES AND KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES
40% - Oversees end-to-end experience across multiple applications and ensures a simple and delighting user experiences.
20% - Conducts competitive and usability research to understand user behavior with key shopping activities and to identify best practices.
20% - Ensures website look and feel, usability, information architecture, and content meet established standards and online best practices.
20% - Manages / develops team of ~6 UX professionals.

NATURE AND SCOPE
This position reports to Director User Experience.
This position has 6 direct reports.

ENVIRONMENTAL JOB REQUIREMENTS
Environment:
Located in a comfortable indoor area. Any unpleasant conditions would be infrequent and not objectionable.
Travel:
Typically requires overnight travel less than 10% of the time.
Additional Environmental Job Requirements: MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
Must be eighteen years of age or older.
Must be legally permitted to work in the United States.

Additional Minimum Qualifications:

Education Required:
The knowledge, skills and abilities typically acquired through the completion of a bachelor's degree program or equivalent degree in a field of study related to the job.

Years of Relevant Work Experience: 5 years

Physical Requirements:
Most of the time is spent sitting in a comfortable position and there is frequent opportunity to move about. On rare occasions there may be a need to move or lift light articles.

Preferred Qualifications:

What problem will you be solving in this role?

The QuoteCenter builds intuitive & easy-to-use sales tools for Home Depot associates. Due to the broad nature of our business, our associates rely on tools that do not require heavy training or deep knowledge of the building industry. Your role at QuoteCenter will be to build an efficient, effective, and scalable UX design practice that creates easy-to-use applications that enable our associates to sell like experts in a variety of complex product categories.

What tools do we use?

Our environment is heavily cross-functional. Our designers use a broad toolset of design and prototyping applications that vary based on the project.

Responsibilities

• Maturity and alignment of the UX practice with other QuoteCenter discipline areas
• Creating and leading the UX hiring process
• Performance management of the UX design team
• Defining and implementing strategies for UX career development and mentorship

Requirements

• Experience in leading the UX practice for a web application / SaaS product
• Confidence to lead the conversation regarding UX best practices, tools, processes, etc.
• Pragmatic approach to software design (converges on solutions, delivers value quickly & iteratively)
• Concern for business strategy & context - ability to quickly grasp business concepts
• Strong personnel & team management abilities (performance management)
• Amiable personality for providing mentorship & career development
• Previous work in a cross-functional environment is important

How will we interview for this role?

Aptitude is our first and most important desired attribute. We need problem-solvers who can learn new processes and methodologies that are independent of a particular technology stack. Those processes and methodologies are used to address real business needs. You won't find us giving random code tests or drilling candidates on a specific tool. You can expect to be asked questions that will help us determine your ability to solve problems against the backdrop of business objectives. We interview candidates with 2-3 interviewers so we can understand what your work style might be like in our cross-functional team environment.

What is expected of a Manager at QuoteCenter?

Managers are looked to for leadership and mentoring over a discipline of the QuoteCenter product development team:

• Own the organizational direction of their discipline and its manifestation in the work of individual contributors
• Bring a forward-thinking, long-term perspective to their team
• Lead members of their team both professionally and culturally
• Provide perspective on their team's output, timelines, and deliverables
• Influence quality and standards within the overall product development team
• Demonstrate superior design abilities
• Connect business objectives to technical decisions
• Exhibit influence derived from past leadership experience
• Demonstrate work ethic that motivates and encourages others on their team
• Mentor less-experienced members of their team
• Bring depth - be very skilled in certain parts of the technology stack
• Bring breadth - not isolated to a single segment of the technology stack

QuoteCenter team members have the challenge (and fun) of taking on a wide variety of problems and directly affecting users and the business. The following is a list of attributes found in successful QuoteCenter team members:

Problem Solving

• Work collaboratively with business stakeholders, user experience designers, and your fellow managers to create a solution.
• Build domain knowledge and understand the user & business problems you're solving.

Quality Deliverables

• Good design - at QuoteCenter, quality design is the heart of quality user experience. 
• Work ethic and self-direction are keys to success on your team.

Taking Ownership

• When a problem comes to your attention, take care of it. As the manager of the UX discipline, you are the final 'buck stopper' for all things UX.
• Think through the business goals and desired outcomes of the projects you're involved in and what could go wrong.
• Be organized in your work. We will equip you with a variety of tools that allow for quick, transparent organization so your colleagues can access your knowledge a day when you may not be at work.

Always Learning

• Be willing to learn whatever tools or patterns are necessary to solve a problem.
• Don't avoid a problem because one of the designers is assigned to it - make yourself available to help him/her learn the domain and solve the problem.

Effective Communication

• Write and speak clearly and concisely.
• Be prepared to explain your work, decisions, and ideas to your colleagues. We try to let decisions stand on their own merits, not on tradition or title.
• Be prepared to graciously challenge ideas that don't seem right, no matter where they originate.
• We utilize Slack for much of the day-to-day, quick communication and notification needed across our cross-functional teams. Email is great, as well, though not as closely watched.

Good Teammate

• Have a sense of humor. Build relationships with your colleagues.
• Work out differences with your colleagues directly. Go to your manager if your unable to resolve it there. Actively work to disrupt backchannel and office politics.
• Look for ways to make the work environment better for everyone.

 Knowledge, Skills, Abilities and Competencies:-- Knowledge of MS Office 

-- Expert proficiency with the Home Depot software architecture, methodology, and governance process.
-- People leadership/supervisory skills
-- Technical skills may include experience with one or more of: UNIX, Informix, COBOL, JAVA, Catalyst WMS and YMS, Korn Shell Scripting, Novell, Netware, nnet, Sequelink, TSO/ISPF/MVS, DB2/SQL, JCL, CSP, CICS TCP/IP, Visual Basic, Networking, and LAN administration.
-- Problem solving and analytical skills
-- Presentation, facilitation and writing skills.
-- Project management- estimating, planning, controlling, and execution