Are you our next User Experience Advisor!!!

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Ok, cool the conversation has work and Mark is in!   Check out his post User Experience / Design and Innovation On The Web!  Alright.... it wasn't hard to convince him, I just had to give him enough support and information to get MS corp on side... and he had done it!   Can you tell, I'm happy.  I can't wait to get the right person hired and really need the help from the community to get this right person that resonates!

So, here's my first crack at the job description.... Thoughts?  Any input would be great.

Thanks,

 John

 

Canadian User Experience Advisor

Do you have a right User Experience DNA?  Can you talk passionately about “Design and why it matters. Seriously, this is about PASSION.  Do you care about the way design affects every person on the planet … from consumer plastic goods sold at Target that are distinctive and cool, to restaurant menus that optimize the layout of food offerings to up-sell customers … design is everywhere, and if it’s your passion then I want you to join our team!

I’m looking for a User Experience Advisor to represent Microsoft in Canada.  This role is really important to us, as we realize that the notion of “User Experience” lies at the center of Microsoft’s continued long term success as a platform company.  As such, I’m not taking this position lightly.  I am looking for someone with great industry experience to ensure we are sharing the right vision, going in the right direction and helping build market credibility.    In this role, it’s your mission to engage with the broad community of designers, Web Agencies and other influential users to drive excitement around design related technologies for both the standards-web and Windows platform.  You will be our senior representative to the designer/user experience community sharing stories, highlighting solutions and unlocking the potential of the platform allowing our customers to build rich, immersive, compelling end-user experiences that stand-out and differentiate them in the industry. 

You must be able to talk about both design technology and the business value of great design in the software industry. You will be having many compelling and enthusiastic conversations to audiences within the design/user experience ecosystem, including designers and production artists, producers and client/services managers, as well as creative directors and general management.  As such, you need to have skills which allow you to engage in technical dialog with more traditional “development” organizations such as ISVs and IT departments, where the art and business of “design/user experience” is less understood and developed. 

It’s about showing what’s possible.  It is already well understood by industry that consumer facing applications such as e-commerce, media applications, and marketing websites, better software “UX” leads to more meaningful customer connections and long-term brand loyalty.  However, software UX’s value is not limited to these scenarios—the business value of UX is evident in all classes of software including traditional enterprise line-of-business applications such as CRM, ERP, etc., where UX delivers greater customer productivity and comprehension, which directly improves satisfaction and increases utilization. 

To design and build these new software experiences, the “creative professional” audience is a critical component of the development process.  These “designers” are the driving creative force behind the look and feel aspects of a user interface, as well as the usability, information visualization, and interactivity modeling that are central to the best applications being built today.  In order to realize improved software UX, these designers will need to be empowered to design and build the best possible content in the most productive and efficient collaborative environment together with professional developers. 

So who are you?  You could be a Producer, Client/Services Manager or creative director within the creative services industry.  Perhaps you are working a small or large creative agency/service organizations that specialize in producing creative work on projects for various mediums, including but not limited to Web, software application design, industrial design, and video/print.  You have several years of experience engaging with customers, managing relationship, and leading creative projects from customer acquisition through delivery of final solution.  Some of your skills might include:

  • Selling “user experience”, such as being able to quantify the business value of a creative project.  This includes strong understanding of design driven business metrics such as brand favorability, purchase conversion, usability, information clarity, and messaging and campaign development.
  • Assessing technology requirements for a creative project, such as evaluating different tools and platform capabilities and matching up appropriate technology to a project to meet final creative and business objectives.
  • Strong presentation and influencing skills, clear communication verbal and written, ability to pitch and lead/affect opinions, great client/relationship management abilities.
  • Strong insights into the creative process, gained from many years of working through and delivering creative solutions.  This can range from Creative Directors are senior creative professionals who oversee creative processes that span multiple creative disciplines and mediums.
  • You have many years of experience leading teams and participating as individuals in multi-faceted creative projects, with an emphasis or strong component around web and interactive projects. 
  • Brand development, content development (such as print, video, web materials), strategy development for marketing campaigns and advertising, information design and visualization

Responsibilities:

  • Able to engage and build relationship with designers including participating in online and offline designer communities, engaging with influential’s and third party communities.
  • Able to deliver articulate, effective, and audience-appropriate presentations / demonstrations with designer oriented content to both small and large audiences
  • Extend reach in the designer community by partnering with Audience Marketing.
  • Win the hearts of Designers to build positive perception of Microsoft with designers and our products.
  • Maintain knowledge of multiple versions of the same product and speak to future releases

Qualifications:

  • Experience with professional design tools, the market and customers for these tools, or as a professional designer/developer in the interactive and web design space is strongly preferred.
  • Production experience as part of a team building / delivering web and interactive content and applications, either in a creative or technical capacity.
  •  5 – 8 years related experience:
  • Demonstrated expertise with products such as: Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Dreamweaver, Director, and other professional design tools for photography, video, 3d, animation, and layout is a requirement.
  • Technical skills should include web standards expertise (HTML, CSS, XML, AJAX), and interactive programming with scripting languages eg. Javascript, Actionscript, Lingo, or Flex.
  • Passionate about rich internet applications, web design, interactive design, and user experience in all mediums from software to consumer products
  • Individuals may come from either a Technical or Creative background if they possess reasonable capacity in the other.
  • Flexibility in regards to work schedule and travel
  • Strong communication and negotiation skills