Yves Béhar’s fuseproject needs a Senior Product Lead

Founded in 1999 by Yves Béhar, fuseproject is an award-winning, integrated design agency. Taking a long-term approach to developing products, experiences, and brands, fuseproject works globally and across a wide array of industries as diverse as technology, furniture, fashion, environmental design, and consumer goods. We fuse together design disciplines including design strategy, industrial design, brand, packaging, experience design (UI/UX), and environmental design for corporate clients and startups such as Herman Miller, Samsung, USAID/DFID, PayPal, Movado, Kodak and many more.

The LOVE Turntable designed by fuseprojects brings the best of the old and the new – the texture of vinyl audio, with the benefits of digital track skipping and ease of transportation.

The Opportunity

We are currently seeking a creative, design-minded Senior Product & Portfolio Strategy Lead to help us answer the “what and why” of design. Senior Strategy Leads are experienced mentors on our strategy team who help clients and internal teams solve critical business and design challenges – framed by customer insights, competitive advantage, product and brand positioning, and creative thinking. They are expected to lead a range of design projects, from brand and product strategy and design to the development of future business visions or identifying new opportunity spaces. This role is a bridge to the client-based team offsite and will oversee the team at our SF-based headquarters. Note: While we are fully welcoming of former designers, this role requires comprehensive strategy-specific experience.

Responsibilities

+Providing strategic oversight across multiple programs and work streams that span physical product, digital, environmental, and service design
+Mentoring multiple strategists on multiple projects to help them achieve their best results, and the best outcomes for clients and the team
+Comfortable with collaborating with remote teams, and lead the SF-based team at our headquarters
+Ensuring that user needs and motivations are kept top of mind for clients and designers throughout the design process
+Organizing, conducting, analyzing, and synthesizing primary and secondary research on a global scale into actionable insights
+Leading brainstorms with a range of internal team members
+Designing client-facing presentations, which includes writing, thoughtful image finding, and designing visual information with the intent of telling a compelling story
+Leading client-facing workshops, which includes guiding multi-disciplinary groups through exercises that define objectives and success criteria, inform project direction, and inspire design
+Working with teams of industrial designers, digital designers, and graphic designers on the creative product and brand development process within tight, frequently changing timeframes
+Actively participating in a variety of strategic and creative activities to translate business, customer, market and competitive realities into business, product, and brand innovations for both large, existing corporations and not-yet-launched startup ventures
+Leading presentations and strategy sessions with senior executives; making substantiated recommendations to client’s product, brand, experience, and business strategy
+Collaborating with account management and team leads to define/refine scopes, briefs, and approaches to the projects
+Lead internal initiatives to improve our culture, management, tools & processes

Education and Experience Required

+7-10 years of experience in product innovation, product management, brand management, and/or strategy consulting
+At least 6+ years in a consulting environment
+Strong understanding of, interest in, and passion for design
+Ability to travel about 20% to the client site internationally
+Solid analytical skills with an ability to gather, analyze, and quickly synthesize key information to objectively craft and support recommendations; field research and ethnography experience
+Love for collaboration with a readiness to jump in and work with a diverse group of people and spearhead brainstorms and conversations; willing to put the good of the project before personal interests
+Organized, self-motivated, and detail-oriented, with the ability to work autonomously and be a self-starter in a demanding environment
+Comfortable and willing to present and defend your strategic point of view with senior team members and clients
+Demonstrated skill in verbal, written, and visual communications, with a particular emphasis on bold, impactful storytelling; strong visual design skills are a plus
+Familiarity with Keynote, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, and other creative software; expert use of these technologies is a major plus
+Bachelor’s degree
+MBA or graduate degree in related field preferred