• Job Description

  Req#: SENIO001531

  Department: Promotion & Design Services Group

  
  SUMMARY

  This short-term position is part of the Promotion & Design Services Group [P&DSG]. The P&DSG is a service-based organization that shapes and guides, from a metaphysical foundation, the promotion and extension of products, services and events that constitute the “healing and saving” resources of The Mother Church. The Group shapes, supports, and shepherds promotional activities, ensuring an inspired and healing voice and message for each product and need, as well as appropriate quality and consistency across the organization.

  As a short-term member of P&DSG, this position is part of a collaborative design service that develops and implements the overall artistic and design vision of the publications, products, communications, marketing and promotional materials of the Christian Science Publishing Society [CSPS], the Office of the Publisher’s Agent, General Publications, Journal/Sentinel/Herald [JSH], Bible Lesson Products [BLP], the Office of the Clerk, The Mary Baker Eddy Library and other departments of The First Church of Christ, Scientist as assigned.

  Under the direction of the User Experience Manager, the incumbent carries out all functions of this position in alignment with the organization’s vision and mission and the department’s principles.

  User Experience supports client departments and Product Owners in their goal to provide a frictionless content and product experience to customers that will result in sustained engagement. Research, prototyping, and testing inform the content strategy and the design of digital products, and/or services that meet customer needs and fulfill their unique missions. Understanding the customer experience is the first step in removing barriers to discoverability, access, and engagement. To support this strategy we provide User Experience design, research, and testing at the Customer Research, Experience Ideation, Product Design, and User Testing level.

  This position represents one of the User Experience Designers who may participate in agile product development as a cross-functional team [CFT] member as assigned. CFTs are structured and empowered to organize and manage their own work in such a way as to complete the priorities established by the Product Owner with quality ensured by the Design CoE. CFT work may include but is not limited to user research and analysis, user flows, wireframes, mockups, interactive prototypes, final visual and user interface designs, graphic assets, and development specs.

  This position also implements user experience design projects independently and in collaboration with P&DSG management, P&DSG staff, client department management, and client department staff.

  This position also leads the implementation of digital design projects and may manage other designers as assigned by the User Experience Manager.

  The incumbent may lead assigned design work or contribute with a level of independence. The incumbent actively supports the professional growth of colleagues and the performance of the department in service to the organization.

  
  ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

  In the following areas, this role works collaboratively with each client department under the direction of the User Experience Manager in the development of compelling digital experiences.

  General Assessment

  • Evaluate design, information architecture, and usability of existing websites and digital products from both a strategic and functional perspective
  • Review analytics reports to understand user behavior and content performance
  • Work with clients and teams to develop creative briefs

  Research

  • Collaborate with User Research and Testing staff to align with methodology
  • Develop research and test plans in accord with User Research Methodology
  • Conduct user research and testing in accord with User Research Methodology including audience listening sessions, prototype testing, usability testing, surveys, etc.
  • Review user research and testing to develop insights
  • Prepare reports and presentations for teams and stakeholders
  • Develop audience documentation tools such as personas, user stories, and jobs-to-be-done

  Design

  • Understand product owner goals, mission, and business needs and translate them into design solutions
  • Review user research and testing insights and translate them into actionable UX deliverables
  • Diagram and refine user flows
  • Create information architecture maps or other documentation
  • Develop rough sketches, wireframes, low-fidelity prototypes, high-fidelity prototypes, and interactive prototypes for websites, digital products, email
  • Develop refined visual designs with attention to refined information hierarchy, typography, and graphics/images
  • Collaborate with graphic designers to develop visual elements
  • Collaborate with copywriters to incorporate content appropriately

  Implementation

  • Update and/or collaborate with developers to update content on websites and digital products when appropriate
  • Build and/or collaborate with developers to build new pages or sections of sites when appropriate

  Development

  • Collaborate with developers to determine best approach to design implementation
  • Collaborate with developers to hand off designs for implementation
  • Provide clearly annotated prototypes to developers
  • Review designs on staging server and give feedback

  Cross-Functional Team Member

  • Participate in a continuous agile product development framework
  • Attend all Scrum events
  • Collaborate with other team members
  • Self-organize and manage work
  • Develop product designs and prototypes
  • Participate in customer interviews and user tests
  • Collaboratively analyze and synthesize data into infographics
  • Share progress with stakeholders on a regular basis

  General UX Projects and Product Development

  • Participates in strategy development of design projects with client departments and the User Experience Manager and works collaboratively to interpret and help define the creative brief to meet overall objectives.
  • Leads the implementation of design projects as assigned by the User Experience Manager
  • Develops and maintains the cross-product Design System
  • Collaborates with team members to incorporate Design System elements into their work
  • Supports bringing additional digital products into the Design System
  • Maintains and organizes electronic files according to professional standards and practices; archives completed jobs
  • Uses independent judgment to make decisions
  • May manage other designers on specific occasions as assigned

  User Research and Testing

  • Collaborate with User Research and Testing staff to develop and support all aspects of user research and testing

  
  STAFF MANAGEMENT AND JOB CONTACTS
  
  Reporting relationships

  • Supervisor: User Experience Manager
  • Supervises: none

  Regular contacts
  
  This position regularly interacts with:

  • P&DSG staff
  • Christian Science Publishing Society product owners and staff
  • other managers and staff of various Church departments
  • outside vendors and developers
    
    

  JOB REQUIREMENTS

  Education/experience

  Bachelor’s degree; coursework in graphic design required, plus five to eight years of related professional experience. A strong grasp of the principles of Agile product development is required.

  Knowledge/skills

  • The incumbent must possess the fundamental concepts, practices, and procedures of digital product design, editorial design, advertising design, and typography. The incumbent must have strong creative artistic vision, problem solving skills, and apply a mastery of skills in an area of specialization.
  • The incumbent must have a demonstrated desire to work as a collaborative member of a creative team.
  • The incumbent must be a “self-starter” with a demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously while meeting deadlines.
  • The ability to astutely implement client and manager direction in a humble manner is essential.
  • Solid communication skills and knowledge of grammar and style rules are strongly preferred.
  • Understanding of front-end web development is strongly preferred

  Specific details include:

  • Maintain the service-model focus at all times
  • Take a barrier-removing, problem-solving approach to all work
  • Be a supportive team member
  • Communicate thoughtfully, thoroughly, and efficiently with clients, managers, and team members in a way that leads to progress
  • Understand agile team methodologies and concepts such as Scrum, MVP, Sprints, and Trello cards
  • Understand alignment of user, mission, and business needs
  • Maintain a customer-focused approach; understand user wants, needs, behaviors, challenges, etc.
  • Work toward a Design System approach
  • Exercise judgment to select the right level of design and prototyping for the need
  • Understand common steps of the UX design process
  • Understand UX Design concepts such as “You are not the user”, “don’t make me think”,
  • Understand UX Design methods such as design thinking, affinity maps, personas, user stories, jobs-to-be-done, customer journey, multi-channel, design systems, mobile-first, etc.
  • Account for the impact of UX Design on Web Accessibility and SEO
  • Stay abreast of UX trends and practices
  • Be able to inform and instruct colleagues on all of the above
  • Demonstrated ability to balance work for multiple clients while meeting deadlines
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including presenting to colleagues and clients
  • Knowledge of grammar and style rules preferred

  Technology skills
  
  working knowledge and proficiency with:

  • Design:Figma, Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Acrobat Pro)
  • Collaboration: G Suite, Zoom, Slack, Trello, Jira, Dropbox
  • Research: Airtable, Surveymonkey
  • Platforms: Wordpress
  • Languages: Understand basics of HTML, CSS, Javascript a plus

  Client & Team Skills

  • Strong oral and written communication skills
  • Client and team interfacing ability with confidence
  • Strong interpersonal skills and effective relation building capacity with clients, team, and manager
  • Strong project management skills and organizational skills
  • Strong creative and innovative skills. Ability to use strong analytical and design skills to solve complex issues and support team success and continuous improvement
  • Must be detail oriented and well organized.

  Metaphysical

  • Regularly pray to witness the demonstration of a unified expression of Church and work in obedience to the Golden Rule.

  Work environment

  • Preference for onsite work in Boston, but may possibly work remotely with periodic visits to the Boston office as needed.

  Engagement with Christian Science

  • Mother Church membership required
  • Primary class instruction preferred
    
    

  In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification document form upon hire.

  Equal Opportunity Employer
  This employer is required to notify all applicants of their rights pursuant to federal employment laws. For further information, please review the Know Your Rights notice from the Department of Labor.

• About the company

  The Christian Science Monitor, commonly known as The Monitor, is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition.

Notice