Director - Product Design

frog is one of the world’s most successful innovation and design companies and has recently turbo-charged our UK business through a number of mergers and acquisitions.

We’re growing fast, and our next move is to build on our global heritage in brand consultancy and launch a market leading UK brand offer.

Why join frog?

Since June 2021, frog is part of Capgemini Invent. frog partners with customer-centric enterprises to drive sustainable growth, by building and orchestrating experiences at scale, while harnessing the power of data and technology. We’re inventing the future of customer experiences by delivering market-defining business models, products, services, brand engagements and communications.

Joining frog means you’ll be joining the “pond,” a global network of studios, each with a thriving in-person and vibrant virtual culture. You will also be joining our own exciting growth journey in the UK as we set out to be the growth partner of choice.

frogs are curious, collaborative, and courageous, united by our passion for improving the human experience across our areas of expertise, while each bringing our unique and diverse skills and experiences to the table. We draw on our global reach and local knowledge to solve complex problems and create innovative, sustainable solutions that touch hearts and move markets. frogs prize humour, positivity, and community just as highly as performance and outcomes. Our culture is open, flexible, inclusive, and engaging. Working at frog means being empowered to meet the moment, and Make Your Mark on every project, in your studio, your community—and the world at large.

The role

We’re growing our team and are looking for a Product Design Director to join the pond. The role would combine oversight of projects with line management of the team, reporting directly to the Head of Product Design.

You’ll be responsible for managing our teams in designing and launching products, services and businesses - some of the bravest projects our clients have ever launched. You’ll also be responsible for the advancement of our approach, help to grow our culture, support and coach members of the team, and lead and inspire our clients. By developing great relationships with clients and partners you’ll also be responsible for finding and nurturing opportunities for new business.

You will be joining the Product Design team within frog, part of our Innovation, Strategy and Design Capability Unit. Our product design team is an incredibly talented bunch of hybrids and this is something we embrace. The team consists of people with a background in design, research, brand, digital transformation and strategy.

We know that unicorns don’t exist, however, we do like hybrid leaders who span multiple areas of product design, often with particular strength in one or two of these areas, and especially those who have been a part of teams who have launched products to market, or who have worked on services in-market. We’re flexible about what your experience is.

In this role, you will have multiple responsibilities:

Project delivery -​​ ensure we deliver high-quality work while maintaining our agreed margins

• Oversee the delivery of complex product design project
• Ensure quality design work and inspire the client towards these standards.
• Have a strategic view of how our work will provide impact for the client and regularly review our scope, deliverables and relationship to ensure we are on track to provide as much impact as possible.
• Experience of leading and coaching teams across all stages of the product and service design process, from initial user research and insight through to, workshops, ideation and concepting, prototyping and the final delivery of designs
• Ensure projects are initiated successfully, overseeing project deliverables and providing timely feedback to the team.
• Input into team scheduling, before and during the project where necessary. Monitor overall resource allocation, initiating corrective action where necessary.
• Be accountable for project profitability, along with other related metrics such as utilisation.

Client relationships - build trusted relationships with key clients

• Provide strategic counsel to your clients’ senior leadership teams and nurture relationships with client partners.
• Develop and grow trusted relationships with senior clients and work with them to actively address any relationship issues impacting the project.
• Ensure client happiness on projects that you are overseeing.

Team - inspire and lead teams to do great work

• Ensure the happiness of individuals and the team on projects that you are overseeing.
• Help create the right environment for the team to do great work.
• Play a key role in identifying and managing any performance issues.
• Be comfortable giving constructive feedback to the leadership team and clients.

Sales - help bring in and win exciting work for business

• Generate and convert new business opportunities with existing and new clients; generating circa £2 million of consulting revenues.
• Advance frog’s design approach and practice
• Be responsible for helping win revenue, working with your colleagues to qualify new opportunities and deliver high-quality responses to client briefs.
• Identify, shape and help win follow-on opportunities with your current clients.
• Be aligned to specific key and growth clients and play a key role in the development and execution of the associated client plans.
• Help turn leads into new clients by supporting and/or leading initial conversations with potential clients.
• Contribute to the frog’s new business, marketing and thought leadership activities; be proactive in building and growing client relationships.
• Be confident discussing the commercial performance of individual projects and the business as a whole

Practice and development management - play a key role in shaping and supporting the development of the product design practice and team members

• Be responsible for the growth and development of our product design Community of Practice and industry and regularly share your work and ideas with the broader team and community.
• Actively participate and lead activities in the product design Community of Practice, ensuring it is driving value to the team and studio.
• Play an active role in progressing the team by hosting skill development activities, such as demos, workshops and knowledge sharing sessions.
• Play an active role in growing the team by informing hiring plans, defining profile specifications, and leading hiring efforts.

You shall have

• Experience of product design and development, digital transformation or customer experience design. Your experience should go beyond the strategy and include piloting and taking services live.
• Experience of all stages of the design process, from initial analysis, workshops, sketches, ideas and concepts through to user research, prototyping and the final delivery of designs
• An understanding of the challenges and intricacies of designing for digital and non-digital ecosystems
• A strong understanding of user-centred design
• Passion about helping to create an environment where people can do great work
• The ability to form thoughtful and considered perspectives, supported by both objective fact and strategic conviction.
• The ability to inspire a team working for you to push for excellence and deliver bold, fresh thinking with experience in managing and leading teams.
• Encourage a culture of learning, sharing resources and providing reinforcement of individuals goals within the team.
• Strong business acumen and a hunger to learn more
• You should be experienced presenting to senior executives and large audiences, both formally and informally, facilitating workshops and ideation sessions.
• Be entrepreneurial in spirit, making best use of all the tools available to you, across frog and the wider Capgemini family.

Equal Opportunities at frog

frog and Capgemini Invent are Equal Opportunity Employers encouraging diversity in the workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, gender identity/expression, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, genetics, veteran status, marital status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

frog is a global business with teams working from every corner of the world. To help us process your application, please ensure that your application documents (CV, cover letter, portfolio, etc.) are all in English.

Since June 2021, frog is part of Capgemini Invent

As the digital innovation, design and transformation brand of the Capgemini Group, Capgemini Invent enables CxOs to envision and shape the future of their businesses.

Located in more than 36 offices and 37 creative studios around the world, it comprises a 10,000+ strong team of strategists, data scientists, product and experience designers, brand experts and technologists who develop new digital services, products, experiences and business models for sustainable growth.

Capgemini Invent is an integral part of Capgemini, a global leader in partnering with companies to transform and manage their business by harnessing the power of technology. The Group is guided everyday by its purpose of unleashing human energy through technology for an inclusive and sustainable future. It is a responsible and diverse organization of 270,000 team members in nearly 50 countries. With its strong 50 year heritage and deep industry expertise, Capgemini is trusted by its clients to address the entire breadth of their business needs, from strategy and design to operations, fueled by the fast evolving and innovative world of cloud, data, AI, connectivity, software, digital engineering and platforms. The Group reported in 2020 global revenues of €16 billion.

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