Remote Product Design Manager at Close
🌎Location:USA Only. Full-Time
Available Time Zones: EST (UTC -5), CST (UTC -6), MST (UTC -7), PST (UTC -8), AKST (UTC -9), HST (UTC -10)
🌏 Why Choose Close?
💚 Our Core Values
💻 Our Collaboration Practices
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Who We Are
Close is a self-funded, thriving, entirely remote, and around 100-person team composed of conscientious individuals who prioritize independence and impactful work. We aim to enhance sales efficiency for small to medium businesses with our advanced, comprehensive CRM designed with communication at its core.
The Product team is dedicated to delivering remarkable SaaS solutions to over 6,000 businesses that rely on Close for their growth. We emphasize data-driven insights, exploring the underlying reasons for challenges, focusing on customer use cases, and maintaining open dialogues with our clients. For a glimpse into our process, check out The Making of Close, our internal Product & Engineering blog.
We are on the lookout for an experienced Product Design Manager to lead and develop our expanding team. This position involves overseeing the creation of our web, desktop, and mobile applications, and you will play a pivotal role in the design and rollout of new features. You will report directly to our Senior Director of Product.
This role is perfect for someone who thrives in a hands-on leadership environment, relishes the opportunity to manage a vibrant team, and is enthusiastic about crafting elegant solutions to intricate problems.
Purposeful Leadership: You will have the chance to lead and cultivate a talented group of designers, promoting a culture of creativity and excellence. Your leadership will meaningfully shape our design strategy and product development.
Scalable Impact: You will manage design projects that significantly influence our customers' everyday experiences. Your contributions will be vital to their success as we develop a top-tier CRM.
Focus on Quality Work: Our product development methodology is shaped by Shape Up. We operate in six-week cycles, delving deeply into problems and delivering impactful products promptly. Product, Design, and Engineering collaborate closely to find the best solutions, prioritizing sustainable progress and long-term success.
Design-Centric Approach: You will spearhead initiatives where design is paramount, setting a benchmark for how innovative solutions can arise from a design-led methodology.
Your Role Overview
Team Oversight
- Manage a remote team of over 5 designers (primarily Senior-level)
- Conduct one-on-one and team meetings, providing continuous performance feedback
- Establish and implement quarterly team objectives
- Cultivate a robust team culture while consistently elevating design standards
- Identify growth opportunities for team members
- Expand the team as necessary
- Enhance team operations and processes
Research Initiatives
- Lead user research initiatives to identify pain points, opportunities, and insights
- Encourage a culture of conducting regular qualitative and quantitative research within the design team (e.g., user interviews, surveys, usability tests)
- Ensure user research insights inform design choices
- Design & ConstructionConduct regular design critiques and reviews (provide written feedback, schedule video calls)
- Oversee design planning and tasks for each cycle
- Assist in shaping projects and ideas, particularly in the early phases
- Work closely with Product Management and Engineering at all stages
- Collaborate with Engineering on developing and structuring our design system
- Ensure alignment with Close's overall branding
- Take on a limited amount of individual design work
Vision Development
- Articulate and share an inspiring design vision that aligns with our product strategy and Close brand
- Contribute to long-term roadmap strategies
- Identify, plan, and advocate for “Design-driven” initiatives (e.g., redesign projects, etc.)
Who You Are
Experience & Location
- 8+ years of product design experience (4+ in a leadership role)
- Comprehensive expertise in all design facets: User research, interaction design, visual design, etc.
- Proven record of developing and refining processes for design teams
- History of close collaboration with Product and Engineering teams on successful initiatives
- Experience in creating and maintaining design systems
- Able to work primarily during US east coast hours (most product, engineering, and design staff are situated on the US east coast or in Europe)
Design & UX Proficiency
- Strong portfolio demonstrating elegant, simple solutions for complex SaaS products across desktop and mobile
- Solid grasp of information hierarchy, progressive disclosure, typography, spacing, color theory, etc.
- Thorough understanding of contemporary UX/UI patterns for desktop and mobile platforms
- Exceptional eye for software design aesthetics
Skills & Knowledge
- Passionate about helping product designers excel in their roles
- Comfortable with remote work and self-management
- Customer-centric and problem-focused
- Strong interpersonal skills, particularly in communication and collaboration
- A design advocate, yet capable of navigating constraints and making compromises (we prioritize fixed timelines with adaptable scopes)
- Well-versed in CSS, accessibility standards, etc.
- Experienced with Figma (proficient in components, variants, variables, etc.)
Bonus Qualifications
- Experience or knowledge of Shape Up
- Background in sales or familiarity with sales tools
- Experience in the B2B landscape
- Familiarity with GitHub Issues & Projects
🌏 Why Choose Close?
- Watch our recent culture video showcasing our annual team retreat in Italy
- Fully remote work environment
- 5 weeks of PTO plus a Winter Holiday Break with 2 additional PTO days for each year of service
- Flexibility to choose between a standard 5-day work week or 4 days at 80% pay
- One month of paid sabbatical every five years
- Paid parental leave options
- Comprehensive Medical, Dental, Vision plans with HSA options (for US residents)
- 401k matching up to 6% (for US residents)
- Dependent care FSA (for US residents)
- Discover our story and team 🚀
💚 Our Core Values
- Build a house you want to live in - Embrace long-term thinking and actions
- No BS - Maintain transparency and honesty, even in challenging situations
- Invest in each other - Foster successful relationships with colleagues and customers
- Discipline leads to freedom - Honor your commitments to yourself and others
- Aim for greatness - Continuously challenge yourself and those around you
💻 Our Collaboration Practices
- Focus on Productivity, Quality & Impact - We don’t monitor hours. We trust your judgment in prioritizing tasks and achieving high contributions.
- Asynchronous communication & collaboration - Our team spans the globe. We do not expect non-standard hours, favoring asynchronous interactions. Most teams schedule 2-5 hours of meetings weekly.
- Value Deep Work - Engage in focused work during standard hours, rather than after meetings!
- Autonomy & Freedom - Craft a sustainable work environment for yourself. We place significant trust and responsibility in our team members from the outset.