USDescription:
Location: Lanham, MD; Boca Raton, FL; and Cambridge, MA
2U, Inc. is the parent company of edX.
At 2U, Inc., the Experience Designer is the ultimate translator: through a human-centered design process, you’ll take complex business requirements, customer needs and expectations, and convert them into usable interfaces (or a journey involving multiple interfaces). Advocating for a best-in-class, competitive user experience while balancing long and short-term business goals will be your sweet spot. What will set our product apart from the rest, move the needle on our business goals, and how can we get there? A key part of the role involves being able to deeply grasp the needs, wants and concerns of multiple stakeholders and processes, then skillfully guide and clarify conversations to achieve strategic alignment and outline achievable iterations. Being able to both envision transformative user experiences, and make designs tangible and deliverable will be the bread and butter of this job; innovation and continuous improvement will be your twin guiding principles.
In this role, you’ll follow a piece of software through multiple iterations—from conception, to definition, to execution, to deployment—and have a significant impact every step of the way to ensure the best choices are made at every point. You’ll be responsible for creating artifacts depicting the HCD process, such as information architecture, task flows, visual design comps, clickable prototypes, storyboards, and mockups. Your goal will be to effectively communicate concepts to peers in the business, as well as our peers in product management and engineering.
In the morning you might work in Figma to create a clickable prototype for an upcoming usability test. After lunch you might pair with a developer or vendor for half an hour to make sure a design is implemented perfectly. In the afternoon, you might whiteboard with a product manager and business stakeholder to solidify business requirements for an upcoming project. When a new initiative arises, you might lead a three-day workshop with key actors to align on vision and understand risks and benefits of product ideas. You may then story map and prioritize product features with the product manager and engineering team. You will work closely in partnership with our accessibility team to ensure design ideas embody universal design principles from the ground up, thus mitigating remedial tech debt in the future.
Responsibilities:
- Advocating for the best user experience while maintaining a strong sense of business goals across entire customer journey, providing leadership and guidance to peers and stakeholders on best practices
- Leading collaborative workshopping sessions with peers and stakeholders to align on problem sets and/or define solutions
- Defining and documenting process flows, customer journey maps, base level task flows, design-specific roadmaps as needed
- Producing wireframes and design comps with annotations, using established design system components or thoughtfully introducing new patterns and interactions
- Collaborating with accessibility team to integrate an inclusive design approach, to ensure that products meet or exceed baseline a11y requirements
- Collaborating with other product designers and engineering to ensure a consistent and intuitive experience across features, bundles, and products
Qualifications:
- 3-6 years of professional user-centered design experience, preferably working on a product or product suite that blends UX and business decision-making
- A bachelor’s degree in design, human-computer interaction (HCI), or equivalent professional experience as an interactive/user experience designer
- A portfolio that demonstrates complex and elegant UX solutions that address business and user needs, exemplary visual design practices, and solid strategic thinking
- Demonstrates and articulates expert understanding of the tangibles in design: hierarchy, typography, color theory, human-computer interaction, basics in behavioral psychology as applied to interface design, well-versed in accessible and inclusive design for product and service design
- Experience leveraging research and data to inform product and design decisions
- Experience influencing product strategy to align with KPIs
- Experience working in complex business systems, and managing complex business needs with customer needs
- Experience leading high stakes workshops with senior stakeholders
- Has extensive knowledge of current best practices and trends from design theory to execution
- Puts themselves in the shoes of the end-user and advocates that point of view
- Able to communicate design decisions effectively across a wide array of audience types
- Experience collaborating with product managers, business analysts, and engineers on product briefs, roadmaps, and QA materials
- Experience working with industry standard tools, namely Figma. Sketch or equivalent design software acceptable. Invision/Zeplin/Adobe Suite experience also helpful. Miro or other whiteboarding software a plus.
- Demonstrates a strong work ethic and commitment to creating an encouraging and inclusive workplace, and a passion for doing great work
- A great listener who gives and receives honest, thoughtful feedback
- Other Attributes That Will Help You In This Role:
- Experience working in a large enterprise environment
- Experience in service design; thinking and doing
- Consulting experience a plus
- Higher Ed experience a plus
- Familiarity with accepted accessibility standards (e.g., the W3C’s WCAG 2.1 Level AA)
- Experience contributing to a design system; defining and documenting new patterns that tie to a design system
- Experience spreading design thinking and thought leadership across the organization and beyond
About 2U Inc. (NASDAQ: TWOU)
2U, Inc., parent company of edX, is comprised of 3 lines of business: Graduate Degree Programs, Short Course, and Boot Camps. Going beyond traditional learning management systems, we use tech, people, and data to help top universities and enterprise organizations transform in the digital era—and eliminate the back row in higher ed. We support lifelong learning which means thinking beyond a single degree. It means finding ways for students to gain the skills they need to change careers, evolve their expertise, and meet the challenges of the changing world head-on. We help our partners fill those needs—developing new digital education technologies and offerings capable of supporting students at different points in their lives. Whether they need a simple refresher, to learn something new, or to change their career trajectories completely, our partners are there to help them succeed. Together with our partners, 2U, Inc. has positively transformed the lives of more than 275,000 students and lifelong learners.
2U Diversity and Inclusion Statement
At 2U, Inc., we are committed to creating and sustaining a culture that embodies diverse walks of life, ideas, genders, ages, races, cultures, sexual orientations, abilities and other unique qualities of our employees. We strive to offer a workplace where every employee feels empowered by the ways in which we are different, as well as the ways in which we are the same.
Benefits & Culture
Working at 2U, Inc. means working with individuals that are passionate and mission driven. We collaborate on tough problems to deliver the best outcomes for our partners, students, and each other. You will find team members working together in our open office spaces, gathered in the kitchen grabbing a snack, or taking a break in our game rooms.
2U, Inc. offers a comprehensive benefits package:
- Medical, dental, and vision coverage
- Life insurance, disability and 401(k)
- Unlimited snacks and drinks
- Generous paid leave policies including unlimited PTO
- Additional time off benefits include: volunteer days, parental leave, and a company-wide winter break
To learn more, visit 2U.com. #NoBackRow
Note: The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed by individuals assigned to this position, and are not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required. All employees may be required to perform duties outside of their normal responsibilities from time to time, as needed.
2U, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer that does not discriminate against applicants or employees and ensures equal employment opportunity for all persons regardless of their race, creed, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, national origin, age, marital status, disability, citizenship, military or veterans’ status, or any other classifications protected by applicable federal, state or local laws. 2U Inc.’s equal opportunity policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including but not limited to recruiting, hiring, training, promotion, job benefits and pay.
