Lavalife – Director, Product Design

Company URL:
Year(s) of Experience: 10+
Number Of Positions: 1
Date Posted: Apr 25, 2006

About Us

Lavalife Corp., one of the leading providers of technology-based meeting services for singles, allows its members safe access to like-minded singles – anywhere, anytime.

Lavalife's head office and call centre is located in Toronto, Canada and employs over 270 staff. Current revenues exceed $100 million. Lavalife is a subsidiary of Vertrue Incorporated (Nasdaq: VTRU)

Lavalife's initial growth came from the innovative development and application of interactive voice response (IVR) technology. Today the company integrates and leverages its proprietary IVR technology with internet and Mobile technologies to provide singles with multiple choices on how to connect.

Lavalife is an exceptionally dynamic organization. We have an open concept environment that has been modeled to build teamwork, trust and integrity.

About You

You are energetic, dynamic, and passionate about details that helps businesses and teams succeed. You are flexible, open-minded, and comfortable in a fast-paced, challenging environment. You are able to address multiple tasks simultaneously and bring a professional attitude to your work, clients and colleagues.

Job Purpose

Lavalife is looking to hire a Director of Poduct Design for its Sales and Marketing Team.

As the Director of Product Design, you will be responsible for the interaction design of Lavalife's Web and IVR (phone) products, translating business needs into successful consumer products.

Working with the VP of Operations and Strategic Projects, the Director will manage ongoing product maintenance and enhancement, devise product design strategy, and direct others in reaching the goals dictated by the vision of the organization.

The Director of Product Design's primary responsibility is to architect enhancements and new features that meet high standards of usability and customer-centric design, always using standard processes with documentation to support. This could include, but is not exclusive to, functional specifications involving interface schematic, user flow diagrams, use cases, and/or storyboards. Information architecture for Lavalife products could include high-level descriptors of content or for deep, information-rich products, mapping three or four levels of navigations. Search optimization nomenclature, user research and testing are also part of this role.

The Director will also be responsible to keep up–to-date on competitor's products and strategies.

You will also direct/lead a team of 3 designers.

Role (Essential Job Responsibilities, Duties, Tasks)

• Product Design and Industry Competitive analysis
  • Percent of Job 60%
• Working Collaboratively with partners and internal teams
  • Percent of Job 15%
• Product Strategy
  • Percent of Job 15%
• Product Design Admin (planning, performance management, scheduling, etc)
  • Percent of Job 10 %

Critical Core Competencies

• Thinking Clearly & Analytically
  • Reformulates problems into workable terms
  • Makes recommendations, follows though, and demonstrates good judgment
  • Takes initiative towards solving problems
  • Understands inter-relationships and the “big picture”
  • Recognizes when he/she needs to change course and does so, sometimes even making a full stop and starting down a new path
• Attention to Detail
  • Takes time to double check work
  • Ensures accuracy
  • Assesses “big picture” as well as its impact on details
• Identifying & Solving Problems
  • Identifies potential problems before they become issues
  • Researches and proactively offers solutions to problems as they arise
• Flexibility
  • Respects and supports change
  • Interested in learning new ways of working

Critical Management Competencies

• Strategic Planning
  • Keeps abreast of development in the industry
  • Utilizes internal and external best practices
  • Seek to maximize efficiencies through partnerships with other functions
  • Has a solid understanding of our business and industry
• Coaching, Mentoring
  • Provides constructive feedback effectively and when appropriate
  • Encourages growth and development
  • Takes an active role in developing staff
  • Contributes to building “bench strength” and developing succession candidates
  • Encourages associates to take responsibility for self-development and career management
• Delegation Ability
  • Properly distributes workload to other members of staff to alleviate imbalances
  • Gives others opportunity to learn new duties or projects

Skills, Knowledge, Attributes, and Relevant Work Experience

He/she must have proven to be successful in the areas of information architecture, user-interaction design, and product lifecycle management with strong understanding of technology. Excellent communication skills and the ability to write clear and thorough functional specifications documentation are a must for this position.

General Attributes

• Detail-oriented
• Excellent analytical skills
• Exceptional Communication Skills
• High energy
• Ability to influence / persuade
• Strong hands-on management & communication skills

Product Design Knowledge

• Information Architecture
• Heuristics/Usability
• Product flow sequencing
• Expert in Visio software
• Taking a product to market

Education and Qualifications

• 10+ years experience in information architecture and interaction design in a creative, entrepreneurial environment
• Strong knowledge of web or software project management
• University Degree or equivalent
• Demonstrated experience understanding customer needs relative to product functionality

To Apply

To apply for this position check out the LavaLife corporate site at www.lavalife.com/corp and create a profile under the careers section.