Product Design Director

Since June 2021, frog is part of Capgemini Invent. frog partners with customer‑centric enterprises to drive sustainable growth, by building and orchestrating experiences at scale, while harnessing the power of data and technology. We’re inventing the future of customer experiences by delivering market‑defining business models, products, services, brand engagements and communications. Joining frog means you’ll be joining the “pond,” a global network of studios, each with a thriving in‑person and vibrant virtual culture. You will also be joining our own exciting growth journey in the UK as we set out to be the growth partner of choice. frogs are curious, collaborative, and courageous, united by our passion for improving the human experience across our areas of expertise, while each bringing our unique and diverse skills and experiences to the table. We draw on our global reach and local knowledge to solve complex problems and create innovative, sustainable solutions that touch hearts and move markets. frogs prize humour, positivity, and community just as highly as performance and outcomes. Our culture is open, flexible, inclusive, and engaging. Working at frog means being empowered to meet the moment, and Make Your Mark on every project, in your studio, your community—and the world at large.

More about the role: We’re growing our team and are looking for a Product Design Director to join the pond. The role would combine oversight of projects with line management of the team, reporting directly to the Head of Product Design. You’ll be responsible for managing our teams in designing and launching innovative products, services and businesses - some of the bravest projects our clients have ever launched. You’ll also be responsible for the advancement of our approach, help to grow our culture, support and coach members of the team, and lead and inspire our clients. By developing great relationships with clients and partners you’ll also be responsible for finding and nurturing opportunities for new business. You will be joining the Product Design team within frog, part of our Creative and Design group. Our product design team is an incredibly talented bunch of hybrids and this is something we embrace. The team consists of people with a background in design, research, brand, digital transformation and strategy. We like hybrid leaders who span multiple areas of product design, often with particular strength in one or two of these areas, and especially those who have been a part of teams who have launched products to market, or who have worked on services in‑market. We’re flexible about what your experience is but a keen interest in how AI is rapidly reshaping what’s possible in design is important.

In this role, you will have multiple responsibilities:

• Project delivery: ensure we deliver high-quality work while maintaining our agreed margins. Oversee the delivery of complex product design projects. Ensure quality design work and inspire our clients to value high quality design. Have a strategic view of how our work will provide impact for the client and regularly review our scope, deliverables and relationship to ensure we are on track to provide as much impact as possible. Experience of leading and coaching teams across all stages of the product and service design process, from initial user research and insight through to workshops, ideation and concepting, prototyping and the final delivery of designs. Experience in how AI is reshaping these phases and processes to drive greater impact. Ensure projects are initiated successfully, overseeing project deliverables and providing timely feedback to the team. Input into team scheduling, before and during the project where necessary. Monitor overall resource allocation, initiating corrective action where necessary. Be accountable for project profitability, along with other related metrics such as utilisation.
• Client relationships: build trusted relationships with key clients. Provide strategic counsel to your clients’ senior leadership teams and nurture relationships with client partners. Develop and grow trusted relationships with senior clients and work with them to actively address any relationship issues impacting the project. Ensure client happiness on projects that you are overseeing.
• Team: inspire and lead teams to do great work. Ensure the happiness of individuals and the team on projects that you are overseeing. Help create the right environment for the team to do great work. Play a key role in identifying and managing any performance issues. Role model the giving and receiving of timely feedback. Be comfortable giving constructive feedback to the leadership team and clients.
• Sales: help bring in and win exciting work for business. Generate and convert new business opportunities with existing and new clients. Advance frog’s design approach and practice. Be responsible for helping win a set amount of revenue, working with your colleagues to qualify new opportunities and deliver high-quality responses to client briefs. Identify, shape and help win follow‑on opportunities with your current clients. Be aligned to specific key and growth clients and play a key role in the development and execution of the associated client plans. Help turn leads into new clients by supporting and/or leading initial conversations with potential clients. Contribute to the frog’s new business, marketing and thought leadership activities. Be proactive in building and growing client relationships. Be passionate about growing Idean as a business. Be confident discussing the commercial performance of individual projects and the business as a whole.
• Practice and development management: play a key role in shaping and supporting the development of the product design practice and team members. Be responsible for the growth and development of our product design Community of Practice and industry and regularly share your work and ideas with the broader team and community. Actively participate and lead activities in the product design Community of Practice, ensuring it is driving value to the team and studio. Play an active role in progressing the team by hosting skill development activities, such as demos, workshops and knowledge sharing sessions. Play an active role in growing the team by informing hiring plans, defining profile specifications, and leading hiring efforts. You have experience of speaking at conferences and contributing to the broader design community in the UK.

You Have:

• Experience of product design and development, digital transformation or customer experience design. Your experience should go beyond the strategy and include piloting and taking services live.
• A point of view and experience of using AI to reshape “what” we design.
• Experience of all stages of the design process, from initial analysis, workshops, sketches, ideas and concepts through to user research, prototyping and the final delivery of designs.
• A point of view and experience on how AI is shaping “how” we design.
• An understanding of the challenges and intricacies of designing for digital and non-digital ecosystems.
• A strong understanding of user‑centred design.
• Passion about helping to create an environment where people can do great work.
• The ability to form thoughtful and considered perspectives, supported by both objective fact and strategic conviction.
• The ability to inspire a team working for you to push for excellence and deliver bold, fresh thinking with experience in managing and leading teams.
• Encourage a culture of learning, sharing resources and providing reinforcement of individuals goals within the team.
• Strong business acumen and a hunger to learn more.
• The drive to deliver excellent work and lead others towards this.
• The drive to proactively identify and implement improvements to the way we work.
• Comfort leading sessions with senior clients. You should be experienced presenting to senior executives and large audiences, both formally and informally, facilitating workshops and ideation sessions.
• Strong feedback skills and the drive to role model these activities.
• Comfort reflecting on your individual performance and behaviours and, together with feedback from others, you will actively seek to continuously improve.
• Be entrepreneurial in spirit, making best use of all the tools available to you, across frog and the wider Capgemini family.

CSR: We’re also focused on using tech to have a positive social impact. So, we’re working to reduce our own carbon footprint and improve everyone’s access to a digital world. It’s something we’re really serious about. In fact, we were even named as one of the world’s most ethical companies by the Ethisphere Institute for the 10th year. When you join Capgemini, you’ll join a team that does the right thing. Whilst you will have London, Manchester or Glasgow as an office base location, you must be fully flexible in terms of assignment location, as these roles may involve periods of time away from home at short notice. We offer a remuneration package which includes flexible benefits options for you to choose to suit your own personal circumstances and a variable element dependent grade and on company and personal performance.

About Capgemini: Capgemini is a global business and technology transformation partner, helping organizations to accelerate their dual transition to a digital and sustainable world, while creating tangible impact for enterprises and society. It is a responsible and diverse group of 340,000 team members in more than 50 countries. With its strong over 55-year heritage, Capgemini is trusted by its clients to unlock the value of technology to address the entire breadth of their business needs. It delivers end‑to‑end services and solutions leveraging strengths from strategy and design to engineering, all fueled by its market leading capabilities in AI, cloud and data, combined with its deep industry expertise and partner ecosystem. The Group reported 2023 global revenues of €22.5 billion. Capgemini is proud to be a Disability Confident Employer (Level 2) under the UK Government’s Disability Confident scheme. As part of our commitment to inclusive recruitment, we will offer an interview to all candidates who: Declare they have a disability, and Meet the minimum essential criteria for the role. Please opt in during the application process.