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Job Description
Design Lead – Interaction Design

Background
Fjord is Europe’s leading digital design agency, structured around innovation and pushing the
boundaries of digital service and interface design. We are working with leading companies such as
Nokia, HP, Orange, Vodafone, BBVA and The BBC. Last year we were named as one of Britain’s
fastest growing private companies in The Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100.
The Fjord Helsinki office is looking for self-motivated team members who are passionate about
interactive media and want to learn new skills, work in multidisciplinary teams, and deliver
excellent quality solutions to leading companies in the following sectors: Media, Telecoms, Internet
Information Providers, Banking, and others. The work Fjord delivers ranges from mobile services
to Web, Interactive TV, and digital interfaces embedded in physical environments.
We expect the successful candidate to have 6-10 years experience of delivering interface design
solutions for various clients as well as strong leadership experience. The candidate has loved
working in a collaborative team environment before, and has experience of interacting with
multinational clients.
Design Leads take a central role in the delivery of projects. Design Leads are directly responsible
for the Quality, Creativity and Delivery of the projects they are overseeing, along with revenue
generated on these projects, and client and team satisfaction.
Design Lead reports directly to the Design Director and/or Managing Director.

How the Design Lead work fits into Fjord

Design Lead (DL) oversees and takes responsibility for successful delivery for a range of projects.
The type of projects that DL might run are:
o Design projects: research, interaction design, user experience design and service design
o Internal development projects
o Proposal, pitching and sales related project activities
Projects are staffed by specialists from Fjord's team of design experts. The best person available for
the project will be part of the project team. As such, DL must have the flexibility to work with
different people to deliver different projects. Experts can also be from other Fjord offices.

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Note that DL do not automatically have to be the project lead on every project that they oversee.
Other senior members of the Fjord skills pool can be project leads for projects.

Key tasks and responsibilities

1. Creativity & World-class quality of work

o Ability to quickly understand, analyse, and respond to client briefs
o Work with the specialists to develop and deliver boundary pushing service concepts
o Creativity of output (innovation & beauty)
o Completeness and suitability of work (works with client situation)
o Lead the creative side of pitch projects and support the business development team with
creative input, client meetings, presentations and proposal writings

2. Output creation
o Conduct user requirements analysis, task analysis, conceptual modeling, information
architecture design, interaction design, and usability testing.
o Design and specify user interfaces and information architecture using participatory and
iterative design techniques, including observational studies, customer interviews, usability
testing, and other forms of requirements discovery.
o Produce user requirements specifications, personas, storyboards, scenarios, flowcharts,
design prototypes, and design specifications.
o Effectively communicate research findings, conceptual ideas, detailed design, and design
rationale both verbally and visually.
o Work closely with development teams to ensure that design specifications are implemented.
o Participate as a contributor to an interdisciplinary team that includes other designers,
project management, business and brand strategists, and hardware and software
developers.

3. Client interaction
o Project management
o Expectations and scope management
o Risk assessment and management
o Form and maintain client relationships, respond to new business opportunities

4. Team satisfaction
o Thought leadership
o Clarity of mission and expectations
o Resource utilisation management
o Motivation and morale

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5. Targets
o On-time, On-budget delivery of work
o Revenue (all three project types): Monthly revenue targets will be set
o Utilisation of Fjord people: On average not above 80%, not consistently above 100%

Other responsibilities

o Mentor digital designers and help them set and achieve satisfying career goals
o Participate in recruiting and hiring digital designers
o Promote a culture of innovation and teamwork
o Establish and nurture good client working relationships
o Participate in new business development activities
o Stay up to date with new technologies, industry and design trends and demonstrate a
passion for learning
o Participate in and foster design thinking among the Global Business Division

Knowledge, skills and attributes

o 2+ years of proven track record of leading digital design teams and delivering in addition of
6+ years in-depth knowledge and experience of design digital services with consumer
applications, preferably mobile devices, rich web apps/site, Interactive TV within the
media, telecommunications, and broadband industries.
o Strong knowledge of design process and project management
o Great communication skills
o Ability to cope with stress
o Strong influencing, negotiation and communication skills (written, verbal, presentation)
o Must be organised, analytical, and dynamic
o Bachelor degree in a design-related discipline
o A passion for design and people
o Strong online portfolio available for viewing