UX Design is on my Mind

Posted on August 7, 2013. Filed under: wildcard | Tags: Design, UX, wildcard |

We have a really special group of people working on Wildcard.  We all think in slightly different languages (engineering, strategy, etc), we all have different capabilities, everyone owns something here, but nobody yet owns UX Design.  Our engineering is exceptional, our vision grand, our execution tight, and our empathy…well, our empathy is “medium.”  It could definitely be better.  We are looking for the leader within our group to own our user’s voice and approach every conversation and decision through the eyes of our users.  We need to design product that achieves our world changing goals while remembering to make every user’s life at least a little easier every day.

I used to think that the person who would own UX design at wildcard would have designed a search experience at Google, or an Operating System at Apple, or some sort of complex system that touched both infrastructural technology on one side and users on the other…because those problems are analgous to the ones we’re solving…but that was before I really started talking to UX designers and understanding the fundamentals of design thinking and process.  What I realized is…that the system design side of things…we actually have down pretty well…the mechanics and complexities of how our technology interacts with itself and surrounding environments and layers in the stack is a strength of ours…. it’s actually the opposite voice that is the key to creating a product our users will love.  We need the simplicity of a human being, thinking in human emotions and thoughts, not machines and systems, to take what is an amazing feat of technology and help us think about how to help our users understand, interact with, and take advantage of it in a way that fits their mobile lives.

I really value the process of understanding our true goals and the best design to achieve them.  Formal training or background in Human Computer Interaction is obviously a compelling foundation for our UX Designer to rest on, but it’s not at all a requirement…Empathy, understanding, and super importantly a passion for UX Design and our users is a requirement for sure.  If you’ve led UX Design on a product that users love BECAUSE of the ease and simplicity of the application, that’s really interesting to us.  If you are super confident in your ability as a UX Designer, and would prefer to communicate directly with our founders and engineers instead of some PM or middleman, that is SUPER interesting to us.  It’s not always easy to speak all of the different languages that people here at Wildcard think in, but if you are great at asking questions, and can follow a lot of different styles of thought, and contribute your own style confidently and clearly, that is SUPER interesting to us.  If your goal is to be a “Product Lead” and assume some of the responsibilities you might find in a PM at a larger company, but first and foremost to own UX Design and make sure our users are happy everyday, that is SUPER INTERESTING to us.

I know this isn’t a conventional job listing for “UX Designer” with skills, experience requirements, etc…but this isn’t a conventional company and it isn’t a conventional role. This is really “UX Designer Plus” for an exceptional, experienced, humble, awesome person who wants to take a step into a leadership role and work amongst engineers and founders who are at the top of their respective fields.  If your intrigued, here are some background links:

1)   What is Wildcard? https://jordancooper.wordpress.com/2013/08/05/what-is-wildcard/

2)   There is some good language on what we do in the jobs section of our splash page: http://www.trywildcard.com/

Reach out and say hi, even if you have a job, even if you are happy there, I’d love to share our passion and vision for what the mobile internet needs to become.  All inquiries will be kepy STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL. Jordan.cooper@gmail.com