Lead UX Strategist

| Greater Denver Area | Hybrid
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We are looking for an action-oriented, perceptive, personable, and design-centric
researcher who is curious about the people, processes, and systems that create the world
around them. The UX team has been a key player in Vertafore’s software development
lifecycle for several years, and now the company is empowering the team to have greater
influence. As Lead UX Strategist, you will bring your years of diverse experience, keen
insight, and actionable strategies for building shared understanding to the needs of a
rapidly growing Product Development and User Experience organization. You will lead
coordinated efforts to bring a true user focus to the way Vertafore products are defined,
designed, and built.

 

Who We Are
At Vertafore, we value diverse perspectives, perpetual learning, and continuous
improvement. Each day we bring an open mind, a willingness to give and receive feedback,
and a dedication to creating quality user experiences.
Our Product Development teams solve problems with a strong customer focus and
collaborate in an open, inquisitive, and positive manner. As creative technologists, we see
the beauty of humanity in each other and therefore show respect for ourselves and those
around us. This allows us to show up for our team and take risks, knowing it’s okay to fail.
We regularly engage in coaching, mentoring, agile ceremonies (like stand-ups and
retrospectives), and fun team activities. We define problems based on user needs, not based
on technological capabilities. We endeavor to do things in new ways that add value to our
world.
All of these factors create a Product Development environment that is fun, collaborative, and
innovative. This is highlighted by our quality delivery, happy customers, and diverse, highly
empowered team with career mobility.
Come join us and be part of the action!

 

What You’ll Do
The Lead UX Strategist will play a critical role in bringing customers and end users to a
central focus in Vertafore’s agile product development process. This person will partner with
and support the UX Manager to establish a well-rounded, user-oriented, evidence-based UX
practice at our new Denver headquarters.
• Support the UX Manager in driving UX strategy, process, and cross-functional
collaboration across multiple products and over a dozen development teams
• Support the UX Manager in establishing a UX playbook of strategy, research, and design
• Establish evidence-based practices for UX Research in the midst of an agile-oriented
(SAFe) Product Development department and build an operational toolkit of research
methods, tools, and templates to support these practices
• Lead research efforts that uncover valuable customer and user insights and then propel
the materialization of those insights to become valuable design, product and business
outcomes
• Through user discovery and product definition exercises, build and maintain an
evidence-based Customer Insight knowledge base (journey maps, personas, other
archetypes and models)
• Build relationships with Product Managers and Product Owners and teach them the why,
when, and how of UX Research (both discovery and evaluation)
• Plan and facilitate workshops that teach and socialize user research, experience strategy,
and product definition, demonstrating the beauty of building shared understanding in,
with, and for cross-functional teams
• Create a user research recruiting program; build and maintain customer insight panel;
partner with a third-party customer insight provider
• Coach, mentor, and support UX team members across the full UX research process:
defining learning goals, choosing research methods, creating research plans, conducting
studies, and analyzing and synthesizing results
• Produce actionable, compelling, stand-alone research artifacts
• Partner with UX Manager to create living product definition tools, such as a Vertaforespecific
Product Definition Canvas
• Make recommendations to Product Managers and UX team regarding what user tasks
and behaviors need to be measured in which products and how Dev should approach
instrumentation of usage analytics
• Lead and participate in design studios and critiques and offer kind, constructive critique
and coaching to less senior team members

Skills & Requirements

What We’re Looking For in a Lead UX Strategist
• You’re a leader, a bridge-builder, and an effective communicator who asks the
nuanced and previously unasked questions.
• You have a strong yet nimble grasp of the theories, concepts, and methods of design
research and user-centered design which you have applied in a variety of contexts.
• You are able to lead at least 3 projects (at various stages) concurrently, meet
deadlines, and adapt quickly to changing priorities in a fast-paced agile environment.
• You have demonstrated competency in holistic, empathic user research practice,
including framing problems, vetting assumptions, identifying learning goals, and
creating and executing research plans (including primary and secondary research).
• Your toolbox includes in a variety of user research methods—traditional & nontraditional,
generative & evaluative, qualitative (thick data) & quantitative (big data).
• You have strong knowledge of UX best practices for web and software, including
content-first, mobile-first, responsive design, and accessibility standards.
• You are fluent in collaborating and negotiating with Product Managers and/or
Project Managers.
• You are fluent in collaborating and negotiating with software engineers, especially
senior software architects and other technical leads.
• You are competent presenting to and gaining buy-in from internal stakeholders,
including director level and above.
• You are competent leading design discovery and strategy workshops, design studios
(from a research standpoint), and design critiques.
• You can clearly document and communicate information architectures (site maps,
wireframes, taxonomies), system interactions (taskflows, user models), and creating
content strategies.

 

Who You Are
• You’ve been walking the UX walk for a minimum of 6 – 8 years, ideally in a mix of inhouse
and agency settings.
• You have a minimum of 5 years of practicing user research—both discovery and
evaluation.
• You are highly fluent in entire UX process as demonstrated by a compelling portfolio
of UX research, design and strategy work that showcases your problem framing,
research, problem solving, and visualization skills.
• You have experience working on enterprise applications, especially transactional
productivity applications in an agile/scrum environment.
• You use your strong written and verbal communication skills to coach, mentor,
inspire, and—mostly importantly—listen to and empathize with those around you.
• You balance rigor with adaptability, the forest with the trees, the “qual” with the
“quant”.
• Your working style demonstrates respect, initiative, ownership, transparency, and
accountability.
• You have demonstrated proficiency in Adobe Creative Cloud, Axure RP, Sketch, and
similar design tools.
• You have a knack for learning new tools as well as devising new, context-appropriate
design and research methods.
• You have a bachelor’s degree in design, HCI, social sciences, or related field.

 

Nice-to-haves:

• You have experience with content strategy or data-driven design.
• You have a master’s degree in design, HCI, social science, or a related field.

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Technology we use

  • Engineering
    • C#Languages
    • C++Languages
    • JavaLanguages
    • JavascriptLanguages
    • SqlLanguages
    • ReactLibraries
    • ASP.NETFrameworks
    • Microsoft SQL ServerDatabases
    • MySQLDatabases
    • OracleDatabases
    • AWS (Amazon Web Services)Services

Location

Great location in the heart of downtown Denver just a block away from the RTD lightrail.

What are Vertafore Perks + Benefits

Culture
Volunteer in local community
Vertafore offers employees 1 paid day to volunteer at the non-profit of their choice.
Open door policy
OKR operational model
Team based strategic planning
Open office floor plan
Employee resource groups
Employee-led culture committees
Quarterly engagement surveys
Hybrid work model
President's club
Employee awards
Remote work program
Vertafore is a Flexible First working environment which allows team members to work from home as often as you’d like while using our offices as a place for collaboration, community, and team buildin
Diversity
Highly diverse management team
Mandated unconscious bias training
Diversity employee resource groups
Hiring practices that promote diversity
Health Insurance & Wellness Benefits
Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
Vertafore employees can contribute up to $2750 annually to their FSA.
Disability insurance
Disability insurance covers 100% of annual salary for up to 90 days of disability.
Dental insurance
Our dental plan covers $1500 of expenses per person.
Vision insurance
The vision benefits plan covers 100% for annual eye exams with $175 for glasses or contact lenses.
Health insurance
Vertafore offers three different health plans to meet the needs of our employees.
Life insurance
Pet insurance
We offer a Pet Insurance plan through Nationwide.
Wellness programs
Team workouts
Vertafore's team fitness initiatives include in-office yoga, a partnership with Planet Fitness, and other recreational team sports.
Mental health benefits
Financial & Retirement
401(K)
401(K) matching
Vertafore provides employees with a 401(k) matching plan managed by [provider]. We match up to 50% of contributions up to 3% of an employee's annual gross pay.
Employee stock purchase plan
Performance bonus
Pay transparency
Child Care & Parental Leave Benefits
Generous parental leave
Vertafore provides up to 6 weeks of parental leave for the primary caretaker. We also provide 6 weeks of leave for the secondary caretaker.
Family medical leave
Adoption Assistance
We reimburse up to $2,500 for eligible adoption expenses and 6 weeks of paid leave.
Company sponsored family events
Vertafore sponsors family oriented events semi-annually.
Vacation & Time Off Benefits
Unlimited vacation policy
Paid volunteer time
Paid holidays
Paid sick days
Bereavement leave benefits
Company-wide vacation
Every year on the second Friday in April, our company shuts down for "Refresh & Recharge Day." It's a day to unplug and get back to what you love outside of work.
Office Perks
Commuter benefits
Company-sponsored outings
Vertafore hosts company outings annually.
Free snacks and drinks
In various areas of the office, Vertafore provides weekly fresh fruit services, bagels and donuts on specified days, as well as snacks and drinks.
Some meals provided
We provide free breakfast on Mondays and Fridays.
Company-sponsored happy hours
Recreational clubs
Vertafore sponsors recreational clubs that include sports, board games, video games, book clubs, etc.
Home-office stipend for remote employees
Onsite gym
Professional Development Benefits
Tuition reimbursement
Our tuition reimbursement plan offers an annual max of $5,250.
Lunch and learns
Promote from within
Mentorship program
Vertafore's mentorship framework is an independently led experience between a mentee and a mentor. Resources are ongoingly provided to start this relationship and keep it successful & valuable.
Online course subscriptions available
Personal development training

Additional Perks + Benefits

We felt like the stretch of no three day weekends from Feb - May was too long, so we added our own holiday! We celebrate Vertafore Rest and Recharge day in April, and the whole company has a long weekend.

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