Department: Promotion & Design Services Group
SUMMARY

This short-term position is part of the Promotion & Design Services Group [P&DSG]. The P&DSG is a service-based organization that shapes and guides, from a metaphysical foundation, the promotion and extension of products, services and events that constitute the "healing and saving" resources of The Mother Church. The Group shapes, supports, and shepherds promotional activities, ensuring an inspired and healing voice and message for each product and need, as well as appropriate quality and consistency across the organization.

As a short-term member of P&DSG, this position is part of a collaborative design service that develops and implements the overall artistic and design vision of the publications, products, communications, marketing and promotional materials of the Christian Science Publishing Society [CSPS], the Office of the Publisher's Agent, General Publications, Journal/Sentinel/Herald [JSH], Bible Lesson Products [BLP], the Office of the Clerk, The Mary Baker Eddy Library and other departments of The First Church of Christ, Scientist as assigned.

Under the direction of the User Experience Manager, the incumbent carries out all functions of this position in alignment with the organization's vision and mission and the department's principles.

User Experience supports client departments and Product Owners in their goal to provide a frictionless content and product experience to customers that will result in sustained engagement. Research, prototyping, and testing inform the content strategy and the design of digital products, and/or services that meet customer needs and fulfill their unique missions. Understanding the customer experience is the first step in removing barriers to discoverability, access, and engagement. To support this strategy we provide User Experience design, research, and testing at the Customer Research, Experience Ideation, Product Design, and User Testing level.

This position represents one of the User Experience Designers who may participate in agile product development as a cross-functional team [CFT] member as assigned. CFTs are structured and empowered to organize and manage their own work in such a way as to complete the priorities established by the Product Owner with quality ensured by the Design CoE. CFT work may include but is not limited to user research and analysis, user flows, wireframes, mockups, interactive prototypes, final visual and user interface designs, graphic assets, and development specs.

This position also implements user experience design projects independently and in collaboration with P&DSG management, P&DSG staff, client department management, and client department staff.

This position also leads the implementation of digital design projects and may manage other designers as assigned by the User Experience Manager.

The incumbent may lead assigned design work or contribute with a level of independence. The incumbent actively supports the professional growth of colleagues and the performance of the department in service to the organization.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

In the following areas, this role works collaboratively with each client department under the direction of the User Experience Manager in the development of compelling digital experiences.
General Assessment

Evaluate design, information architecture, and usability of existing websites and digital products from both a strategic and functional perspective
Review analytics reports to understand user behavior and content performance
Work with clients and teams to develop creative briefs

Research

Collaborate with User Research and Testing staff to align with methodology
Develop research and test plans in accord with User Research Methodology
Conduct user research and testing in accord with User Research Methodology including audience listening sessions, prototype testing, usability testing, surveys, etc.
Review user research and testing to develop insights
Prepare reports and presentations for teams and stakeholders
Develop audience documentation tools such as personas, user stories, and jobs-to-be-done

Design

Understand product owner goals, mission, and business needs and translate them into design solutions
Review user research and testing insights and translate them into actionable UX deliverables
Diagram and refine user flows
Create information architecture maps or other documentation
Develop rough sketches, wireframes, low-fidelity prototypes, high-fidelity prototypes, and interactive prototypes for websites, digital products, email
Develop refined visual designs with attention to refined information hierarchy, typography, and graphics/images
Collaborate with graphic designers to develop visual elements
Collaborate with copywriters to incorporate content appropriately

Implementation

Update and/or collaborate with developers to update content on websites and digital products when appropriate
Build and/or collaborate with developers to build new pages or sections of sites when appropriate

Development

Collaborate with developers to determine best approach to design implementation
Collaborate with developers to hand off designs for implementation
Provide clearly annotated prototypes to developers
Review designs on staging server and give feedback

Cross-Functional Team Member

Participate in a continuous agile product development framework
Attend all Scrum events
Collaborate with other team members
Self-organize and manage work
Develop product designs and prototypes
Participate in customer interviews and user tests
Collaboratively analyze and synthesize data into infographics
Share progress with stakeholders on a regular basis

General UX Projects and Product Development

Participates in strategy development of design projects with client departments and the User Experience Manager and works collaboratively to interpret and help define the creative brief to meet overall objectives.
Leads the implementation of design projects as assigned by the User Experience Manager
Develops and maintains the cross-product Design System
Collaborates with team members to incorporate Design System elements into their work
Supports bringing additional digital products into the Design System
Maintains and organizes electronic files according to professional standards and practices; archives completed jobs
Uses independent judgment to make decisions
May manage other designers on specific occasions as assigned

User Research and Testing

Collaborate with User Research and Testing staff to develop and support all aspects of user research and testing

STAFF MANAGEMENT AND JOB CONTACTSReporting relationships

Supervisor: User Experience Manager
Supervises: none

Regular contacts
This position regularly interacts with:

P&DSG staff
Christian Science Publishing Society product owners and staff
other managers and staff of various Church departments
outside vendors and developers

JOB REQUIREMENTS
Education/experience

Bachelor's degree; coursework in graphic design required, plus five to eight years of related professional experience. A strong grasp of the principles of Agile product development is required.
Knowledge/skills

The incumbent must possess the fundamental concepts, practices, and procedures of digital product design, editorial design, advertising design, and typography. The incumbent must have strong creative artistic vision, problem solving skills, and apply a mastery of skills in an area of specialization.
The incumbent must have a demonstrated desire to work as a collaborative member of a creative team.
The incumbent must be a "self-starter" with a demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously while meeting deadlines.
The ability to astutely implement client and manager direction in a humble manner is essential.
Solid communication skills and knowledge of grammar and style rules are strongly preferred.
Understanding of front-end web development is strongly preferred

Specific details include:

Maintain the service-model focus at all times
Take a barrier-removing, problem-solving approach to all work
Be a supportive team member
Communicate thoughtfully, thoroughly, and efficiently with clients, managers, and team members in a way that leads to progress
Understand agile team methodologies and concepts such as Scrum, MVP, Sprints, and Trello cards
Understand alignment of user, mission, and business needs
Maintain a customer-focused approach; understand user wants, needs, behaviors, challenges, etc.
Work toward a Design System approach
Exercise judgment to select the right level of design and prototyping for the need
Understand common steps of the UX design process
Understand UX Design concepts such as "You are not the user", "don't make me think",
Understand UX Design methods such as design thinking, affinity maps, personas, user stories, jobs-to-be-done, customer journey, multi-channel, design systems, mobile-first, etc.
Account for the impact of UX Design on Web Accessibility and SEO
Stay abreast of UX trends and practices
Be able to inform and instruct colleagues on all of the above
Demonstrated ability to balance work for multiple clients while meeting deadlines
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including presenting to colleagues and clients
Knowledge of grammar and style rules preferred

Technology skillsworking knowledge and proficiency with:

Design:Figma, Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Acrobat Pro)
Collaboration: G Suite, Zoom, Slack, Trello, Jira, Dropbox
Research: Airtable, Surveymonkey
Platforms: Wordpress
Languages: Understand basics of HTML, CSS, Javascript a plus

Client & Team Skills

Strong oral and written communication skills
Client and team interfacing ability with confidence
Strong interpersonal skills and effective relation building capacity with clients, team, and manager
Strong project management skills and organizational skills
Strong creative and innovative skills. Ability to use strong analytical and design skills to solve complex issues and support team success and continuous improvement
Must be detail oriented and well organized.

Metaphysical

Regularly pray to witness the demonstration of a unified expression of Church and work in obedience to the Golden Rule.

Work environment

Preference for onsite work in Boston, but may possibly work remotely with periodic visits to the Boston office as needed.

Engagement with Christian Science

Mother Church membership required
Primary class instruction preferred

In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification document form upon hire.

Equal Opportunity Employer
This employer is required to notify all applicants of their rights pursuant to federal employment laws. For further information, please review the Know Your Rights notice from the Department of Labor.

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