Strategic Design Lead

The Strategic Design Lead at Australian Payments Plus has a range of responsibilities focused on steering the design functions within the Product Strategy & Innovation team. This includes leading product research, facilitating ideation sessions, developing value propositions, customer journey mapping, and ensuring alignment of design strategies with overall business goals. With a strong emphasis on creating user-centered solutions, this role also involves working collaboratively with Product, Technology, and Commercial teams to foster innovation and consistently enhance user experiences across all offerings.

Candidates for the Strategic Design Lead position at Australian Payments Plus should possess robust experience working in a strategic design role, particularly within the Fintech or Finance sectors. Proven leadership skills in delivering high-quality work are essential. Applicants should be proficient in using Figma for creating various design artifacts, as well as having experience facilitating large workshops with diverse stakeholders. Strong analytical and creative problem-solving skills are also crucial for aligning customer experiences with effective processes and systems.

The Strategic Design Lead plays a crucial role in driving innovation at Australian Payments Plus by leading the design process that focuses on ideation facilitation and user-centered design strategies. By actively participating in product research, value proposition development, and the customer journey mapping, the Strategic Design Lead helps uncover insights that foster creative solutions. Collaborating with cross-functional teams allows this role to integrate design strategies with business objectives, ensuring that the innovations not only address user needs but also enhance the overall effectiveness of AP+'s products in the payments ecosystem.

The Strategic Design Lead at Australian Payments Plus will primarily leverage Figma as their main tool for creating low to high-fidelity designs, including storyboards, wireframes, mock-ups, and prototypes. Being adept in this software is crucial for visualizing ideas and engaging stakeholders effectively. Apart from Figma, familiarity with other design principles and methodologies related to strategic design, customer experience, and product strategy will be beneficial in this role.

Australian Payments Plus actively promotes a vibrant and inclusive culture where every team member is encouraged to contribute their creativity and passion. As a company, we are guided by core values such as leading with heart, learning for tomorrow, and living our legacy. We believe that the blend of fun, flexibility, and meaningful work fosters strong friendships and a sense of belonging among our employees, allowing everyone to thrive as they pursue our inspiring mission to shape the future of payments.

When answering this question, express your enthusiasm for the company’s mission and how it aligns with your professional values and ambitions. Discuss specific aspects of Australian Payments Plus that resonate with you, such as its commitment to innovation in the payments sector or its emphasis on enhancing customer experiences through design. Show that you’ve researched the company and articulate how your skills and experiences uniquely position you to contribute.

Highlight relevant projects and roles where you have applied strategic design methods to facilitate ideation, develop value propositions, or lead cross-functional teams. Discuss the challenges you faced, how you approached problem-solving, and the outcomes of your initiatives. Be specific about your contributions to user-centered solutions and how those efforts benefited the organization you worked for.

Talk about the techniques you use to gather insights and data from users, such as interviews, surveys, or analytics. Explain how you synthesize this information into meaningful customer journey maps that identify pain points and opportunities for improvement. Provide an example where your mapping led to actionable solutions or enhancements in user experience, tying it back to strategic design principles.

Discuss specific instances where you facilitated workshops aimed at gathering insights, brainstorming ideas, or gaining buy-in for a design concept. Mention your strategies for engaging participants, managing diverse perspectives, and achieving productive outcomes. Emphasize the importance of collaboration and open communication in driving successful workshops that lead to impactful design solutions.

Explain your approach to integrating business objectives into the design process. Highlight how you collaborate with relevant teams to understand organizational goals, customer needs, and market trends. Discuss your experience in using metrics to measure the success of design initiatives in meeting business objectives, and how you adapt strategies based on performance data.

Share a detailed story about a strategic design project where you were the lead. Describe the challenges, the methodologies you employed, the outcomes, and the impact on the organization. It’s important to illustrate your role in leading the team, fostering collaboration, and ultimately delivering a user-centered design that aligned with business goals.

Discuss your commitment to continuous learning and professional development. Mention specific resources you engage with, such as design conferences, webinars, design communities, or publications. Talk about how you incorporate newly acquired knowledge about trends and best practices into your work as a Strategic Design Lead at AP+.

Demonstrate your foresight and understanding of the payments sector by discussing potential challenges, such as rapidly evolving technology or changing user expectations. Articulate how you would approach these challenges with adaptable strategies, emphasizing the importance of user feedback, stakeholder collaboration, and continuous innovation.

Detail the specific metrics and criteria you use to evaluate the success of your design initiatives, such as user satisfaction, increased engagement, or ROI. Discuss how you collect feedback and data before, during, and after deploying a design solution and how you use those insights to iteratively improve future projects. Emphasize the connection between design success and meeting organizational goals.

Explain the significance of storytelling in design as a means to communicate ideas effectively and create empathy with users. Share how you incorporate storytelling into presentations, workshops, and even the design process itself to engage stakeholders and convey the value of your design solutions clearly. Provide an example of where storytelling enhanced your design process or stakeholder engagement.