Ux/service Designer

UX Designer

Would you like to help enrich the lives of learners around the world?

At RM, we’ve been pioneers of education technology since 1973. We provide technology and resources to the education sector, supporting over 10 million students worldwide. We work with over 28,000 schools, nurseries, and education trusts in 115 countries to deliver customer-centric solutions that improve education outcomes.

What we do helps learners at all stages of their lives, from preschool to higher education and professional qualification; we partner with schools, examination boards, central governments and other professional institutions to enrich the lives of learners.

RM Group operates through three businesses: Technology (Managed Services, Software and Infrastructure for Schools), Assessment (Software and Services), and TTS (Educational Resources). Within the assessment market we are experts in providing solutions for online exam testing and marking and the management and analysis of educational data.

We are looking for a seasoned UX Designer who has end-to-end UX skills in the product development lifecycle, and the versatility and adaptability to meet the needs of different business areas. You understand the principles of continuous discovery and product iteration, are comfortable with ambiguity, and have a strong bias for action. You actively seek out opportunities to conduct user research and gather data at all stages of the design process. You are known for your initiative, pragmatic approach to design, and expertise in balancing user needs with business objectives.

You will execute hands-on design for one of our large, core products that is used by global leaders in the education sector. You will advocate for and work to the design strategy, and design customer journeys that link across our digital assessment portfolio. You will collaborate with product managers, engineers, support teams, account teams, etc. to support them across all stages of the design process.

This is an exciting opportunity for someone looking to be part of an ambitious, purpose-led company looking to transform learning and assessment.

Portfolio Context

You will be responsible for the end-to-end user experience of a core product that is central to our Assessment portfolio. This is a high-impact role where you will have the opportunity to drive key product initiatives, build credibility for design, and collaborate closely with cross-functional partners. You will present design strategies and recommendations, and advocate for the user's perspective. Your work will directly influence the product direction and help shape the overall design culture.

Responsibilities

Responsibilities include conducting user research, shaping the product vision and roadmap, designing intuitive interfaces, and validating solutions with users. You will build strong relationships with product management, engineering, and other stakeholders to ensure the successful delivery of impactful features as well as larger, end-to-end assessment propositions. Excellent communication and collaboration skills are a must, as you will be working closely with diverse partners, including offshore engineering and delivery teams, to ensure successful implementation.

You should have a strong grasp of interaction design principles, be proficient with industry tools like Figma, and have some familiarity with content design. But beyond just technical skills, you should bring a user-centric mindset, creativity, analytical thinking, and a bias for action. You may need to wear multiple hats and collaborate with other disciplines like marketing and customer success. You should be comfortable working autonomously and taking initiative to drive projects forward.

Our product context is an inter-modular SaaS platform, which means you need to gain deep expertise in how your product is affected by other products and the interactions between them on a technical, UX, and operational level. You must have a strong willingness to deeply understand the technical aspects of your product, and be able to map that to the user experience at the level of the product and the platform. Given this, service design skills and experience in large enterprises with matrix environments would be highly advantageous.

Main responsibilities:

• Lead the UX strategy and roadmap for a core product in our Assessment portfolio. Bring stakeholders and product team members to a shared understanding of this and demonstrate progress proactively.
• Define and map the end-to-end user experience across the platform for 1-2 core user groups, with a deep understanding of the experience particular to your assigned product. You will explore and document the current-state experience. You will also conduct user research and work with internal SMEs to understand, define, and blueprint a future-state experience.
• Lead the design and prototyping of ideas and solutions, always focusing on user needs.
• Regularly sync with offshore development teams to get early feedback, align on feasibility, conduct design reviews, and ensure the user-centricity of final implementations.
• Plan and conduct user research and evaluation activities, turning raw research data into insights.
• Work directly with customers and users to understand their needs and translate them into tangible solutions.
• Collaborate with development and product teams to turn prototypes into working products.
• Facilitate and lead workshops.
• Produce design assets such as user journeys, workflows, personas, wireframes, and prototypes – and know which ones are right for the job.
• Engage with senior leaders to understand the business value of your product, inform your design, and to advocate for the value of great user experience.
• Be an active member of the design community, sharing best practices and tools with the team and wider business.

Experience

You have proven experience working as a UX designer or product designer within cross-functional teams, taking a user-centric approach to design and collaborating effectively to build high-quality software products or services.

UX/Product design excellence

Laser focus on user centricity – you enjoy working directly with customers and users, and actively seek opportunities to do so.

Has generalist end-to-end UX skills.

Important: UI skills are a given but for this role they are only a baseline; you must have experience in converting a business need into research objectives, then turning insights into designs that address both business and user needs.

Strategic design skills are a must; you know how to uncover and define the business value of your design and how it contributes to the product and business strategy.

Proven ability to apply design frameworks in your work, such as the Design Council double diamond, and can contribute on all stages of design and product development.

Proficient in Figma or similar tools, and has experience in using and contributing to design systems.

Champion for accessibility.

Ownership of design

Comfortable leading on design activities across a range of different projects and with a high level of autonomy.

Must be able to passionately and pragmatically advocate for the value and inclusion of design in product roadmaps, particularly when there are competing priorities.

Proven experience adapting design approach to different project contexts.

Apply UX metrics and interpret data to gauge if product goals and objectives are being met.

Communication skills

Able to communicate the rationale, value, and next steps of designs.

Can negotiate trade-offs and priorities within cross-functional product teams.

Excellent in written and verbal communication skills. Storytelling skills are a must.

Experience in presenting work at various stages of the design process to different levels within an organisation, and to non-design stakeholders.

Produce quality designs to communicate ideas, concepts, and solutions.

Can solicit, receive, and action feedback.

Collaborative, strategic approach

Proactively engage with internal stakeholders, teams, and customers.

Attend monthly workshops for in-person collaboration and fostering strong working relationships.

While we’re looking for a generalist UX/product designer with strategic design skills, it would be advantageous if you’re T-shaped and have expertise in one or more of the following:

• service design
• content design
• visual design
• creating design systems.

This Is The Role For You If:

• You have previous experience as the sole designer or lead designer in a product team, and have experience setting the design direction for a product or team.
• You have significant experience executing on design work in a matrixed, in-house environment. Ideally you have experience working within a SaaS platform environment.
• You’re looking for a broad remit. You know how to navigate ambiguity, have a well-honed design instinct, and love shaping your own delivery plan in line with the business priorities. You're comfortable with frequent changes in product scope.
• You are a proactive communicator and problem solver. You are known as