Principal, Design Strategist

Lab Summary:

Samsung Design Innovation Center is one of the leading overseas design studio in Samsung, located in San Francisco, CA. Our mission is to understand people and lifestyles to deliver meaningful experiences, through beautiful yet functional design, enabled by innovative cutting-edge technologies.

SDIC is working on various advanced product experiences, which can envision and shape the future of Samsung Business, working with various different internal teams through experience driven approach. Our work appears on smartphones, tablets, computers, televisions, wearables, and other devices we can’t describe yet. See some of our work at http://design.samsung.com/global/contents/sdic/

We are looking for a talented designers, strategists and creative technologists to join our group and bring new energy to our process. You should be ready to help at all stages of product design, from identifying unmet and latent needs, discovering new design opportunities, designing new product concepts to applying technology creatively to solve real user problems and create radically new experiences that re-imagine the way we interact with products.

Position Summary:

The Design Strategist is responsible for orchestrating product innovation efforts through the creation of well-structured, strategic, and inspiring narratives.  In parallel they drive the crafting of ideas and design concepts that turn complex and confusing into simple, understandable and desirable.

They achieve this through an understanding of people via qualitative and quantitative research the understanding of market opportunities through market research and competitive assessment, and the comprehension of feasibility via technology scanning activities.  The Design Strategist is skilled at synthesizing this data into core insights and creating compelling and persuasive narratives and narrative aids to enable storytelling.  Furthermore, the Design Strategist will work with Engineers, Designers and Creatives to translate insights and concepts into tangible prototypes and product designs.  Our work appears on phones, tablets, computers, televisions, wearables and other devices we can’t describe yet. We are looking for a talented collaborative Design Strategist to join our group and bring new energy to our process.

We are interested in passionate and self-motivated individuals who are comfortable in a highly fluid environment. You will bring drive, smarts, and curiosity; we will provide the environment for you to thrive and grow.

• Strong User Research, Strategy and Design experience
• Comfort and experience with research, including but not limited user and ethnographic research, market research, interviewing, survey design, and data analysis
• Storytelling skills and the ability to create compelling narratives using visual tools
• Experience working in a creative environment with designers, and an interest in human centered design (aka design thinking)
• A passion for consumer technology and innovation
• Experience in identifying emerging opportunities and delivering via new products or services
• Resource and project management skills

 Position Responsibilities:

• Conceptualize, document, visualize and develop ideas for experience and products and take them from germinal to shippable
• Work on experience, products and features in close collaboration with other stakeholders
• Creating experiences that successfully accomplish appropriately set goals
• Expected to lead projects and engage with a variety of stakeholders to get input and assess options
• Articulate design vision through prototyping, scenario modeling, strategic roadmaps, etc
• Creating well-structured, strategic, and inspiring narratives for entire deliverables, and works with the rest of the team to support the narrative
• Crafting ideas and design concepts that turn complex and confusing into simple and understandable
• Travel International and Domestic and work overtime when needed

Required Skills:

• Bachelor’s Degree required and Master’s Degree preferred in Design, HCI, Product Management, Engineering, or equivalent combination of education, training, and experience
• 14+ years of design strategy with Project Management/Leadership, User Experience as a foundation
• Document, visualize results of research, strategy and new ideas, high fidelity user scenarios
• Able to present and defend ideas to the internal team, and help critique and push the rest of the team to better work
• You should have experience and a proven ability to think commercially, strategically, and creatively
• Clear, concise and transparent communication style
• Action-oriented, diligent and flexible
• A clear understanding of user-centered design processes and proven methodologies for identifying and solving problems
• Time management skills, attention to detail, and ability to think and act strategically and proactively
• Be clear, concise, have transparent communication style, willing to take action, and open to starting a project, idea, concept from scratch