design+jobs

Montreal, QC

Original posting on StandoutJobs

Title: Experience Designer to help design a better world.

Location: Montreal, Canada.

Languages: Must be extremely fluent in written and spoken English. French an bonus.

Compensation: TBD based on experience.

Summary: Akoha, an online social reality game is seeking a User Experience guru

Come and join Akoha as we create the game that will make the world a better place!

About Akoha

Akoha is a funded startup making the world’s first social reality game. We’re a small team of startup veterans from the Internet, venture capital and gaming communities in Montreal. We’ve hit the stage at TechCrunch50 and TED 2009 and are some of the pioneers in using games to make the world a better place. We want to change the way people think about how on-line communities can affect their real-world lives.

What we’re looking for is an Experience Designer who wants to design a better world.

You deeply believe that great design can change the world and you’re just looking for the opportunity to make it a reality.

We’re looking for a key User Experience guru to help the passionate team at Akoha take our design skills to the next level. For the right candidate this is the opportunity of a lifetime to join a well-funded, experienced team with a killer idea on the brink of a break-out success. We believe that creating incredible product design expertise throughout the company will be a key component of Akoha’s success and we’ll stop at nothing to ensure we find the right person to lead the charge.

You know you’re the right candidate if you’re a self-proclaimed design-freak. You notice great design everywhere and anywhere. From the simple pen that writes perfectly to the five-star hotel that provides your every whim before you’re even aware of it, designing these experiences makes you as giddy as a schoolgirl. You have a great combination of practical, theoretical and team management experience and has demonstrated the ability to instill a world-class internal design culture.

Reporting to the VP of Product Development, you and our development team will bring Akoha to the next level. Your primary responsibility is to delight our players in every way imaginable.

The Perfect Candidate

You know you’re the perfect candidate if you:

Push the boundaries: You’re an leader in the UX field (maybe just waiting to be discovered) but despite getting great results you’re constantly looking for ways to push the boundaries. You relish the opportunity to get together with other leaders in the field to trade ideas about how to integrate the new-new thing into your daily practice.

Lead the pack: Everyone says you’re the best at what you do. While your humility prevents you from tooting your own horn too loudly, you secretly know this to be true.

Self-proclaimed Design-Nerd: You own a t-shirt that says "Design will save the world! Just ask me how…" (and you deeply believe that). You see ways of using great design in every aspect of your life and examples of bad design make you feel physically unwell.

You’re Tough but Fair: While you understand that you’re not always right, you’re ready to make the call when necessary and you’re not afraid to ruffle some feathers to make sure that the user gets the experience that they deserve.

Awesome Facilitation Skills: While you’ve done it all before you know that getting the design right requires everyone’s input and creativity. You’ve worked hard to hone your facilitation skills but no-one would know that because you lead design sessions with the aplomb of a orchestra conductor.

You’re Never Satisfied: Your personal matra is the Fine Young Cannibals ’80 hit "I’m Not Satisfied". From your team’s performance to your own personal development, you’re constantly looking for ways to improve the things that you do. For you, "Good" is never good enough and "Great" can always be better.

You’re a Data Junkie: Stepping into do design without the right data just makes you feel dirty. Likewise, when the team has pushed the newest changes you’re stuck to the analytics page like bubble-gum in mop-top. Your know that pushing features without being able to track the results is just plain wrong and your dedication to user testing has been described as "religious".

Have Legendary Energy: Your colleagues wonder where you get all your energy and your team suspects that you may be using illegal substances to provide you with your unfailing pep (it’s not true). Your secret is that you love your work and it’s what gives you the drive to keep up the pace.

Bonus points awarded if:

Have a Love of Games and Game Design: You love games and you’ve designed games in your spare time (or ideally you’re a full-blown game designer!) You love all types of games and you play any type of game you can get your hands on: board-games, soduko, hide-and-seek, you name it. In your spare time and you justify your urge to buy the newest console game by saying that you need to "evaluate it for work".

What the Job Entails

Reporting to the VP of Product Development, your primary responsibility is to delight our players in every way imaginable. Other top-line responsibilities include:

• Champion the development and evolution of Akoha’s in-house design practice;
• Ensure that product design supports product and company strategies;
• Work with players, partners, and teammates to gather and analyze qualitative and quantitative research;
• Create and collaborate on, clear design documents that support product development;
• Shape Akoha into a game that is both fun and magical for its players.

You have:

• Years of UX design experience, working with a team that produced amazing results;
• Designed web software that people love;
• Design experience in other fields: game, print, landscape, fashion, etc.;
• Lead a design process in another organization;
• Amazing facilitation skills;
• Fluent oral and written English, with French as a great asset;
• A tendency to work hard and get stuff done, on-time, without breaking a sweat.

You like:

• Free snack food, drinks, and pulling delicious shots of espresso.
• Passionate co-workers who are as smart and enthusiastic as you are.
• Optional Dress-Up Fridays. Every day is casual day, but sometimes you just have to rock out.
• TEDtalks (especially the design ones)
• Working with some of the leading change makers in the world who are fighting for the environment, battling poverty, funding education, improving health-care, and nurturing the arts.

Want to work with us? We want to talk to you.

Note: This is a full-time position, available immediately and based in Montreal (A beautiful city that we are happy to help you relocate to if you are not local)

How To Apply

We will not begin setup interviews with candidates until May 4th.

Please have your application submitted before that date.  We want to give all applicants the time to put together a great application with all the trimmings.  If you have another opportunity you are considering and need to hear from us please let us know and we’ll try to accomodate your schedule.

Required elements for your application:

• Cover letter explaining why you would be perfect for this role
• Your CV and portfolio
• Links to any blog posts you’ve written on user experience design
• Links to any talks you’ve presented
• Any examples of your work you are free to share (stuff like User Mental Model Diagrams, Navigation Patterns Documents, Paper Prototype Documents, Storyboards or Sketchboards, Wireframes)
• Something to surprise us and show us your personality

Apply for this Job