Lead Product Designer – Sports Design (ESPN)
About the Role & Team
On any given day at Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology, we’re reimagining ways to create magical viewing experiences for the world’s most beloved stories while also redefining Disney’s media business for the future. Whether that’s evolving our streaming and digital products in new and immersive ways, powering worldwide advertising and distribution to maximize flexibility and efficiency, or delivering Disney’s unmatched entertainment and sports content, every day is a moment to make a difference to partners and to hundreds of millions of people around the world!
A few reasons why we think you’d love working here:
Building the future of Disney’s Sports and Entertainment ESPN business: DE&E Technologists are designing and building the experiences that will power ESPN’s media, advertising, and distribution businesses.
Reach and Scale: The products and platforms this group builds and operates delight millions of consumers every minute of every day – ESPN Streaming, ESPN+, ESPN digital products and much more.
Innovation: We develop and execute groundbreaking products and techniques that shape industry norms and enhance how audiences experience sports, entertainment & news.
About The Team
The Disney Entertainment & ESPN (DE&E) Technology Design team thinks beyond what is possible today. They discover, disrupt, and chart a course to where our fans and consumers will be next. Design brings the Disney magic to life by building digital customer experiences via the entire portfolio of both consumer-facing products and internal products and tooling. This includes Sports, Entertainment, News, Streaming and Enterprise Products and Experiences.
Disney Entertainment & ESPN’s Product Design team is seeking a Lead Product Designer who will be an exceptional role model to our growing team. You'll guide and mentor a hardworking design team, focused on crafting intuitive and sophisticated human-centric experiences for the ESPN Digital’s stats and scores experiences and sports betting products. The right person for this role must have experience in developing both comprehensive and future-forward experiences and a proven ability to inspire and mentor designers to push the boundaries, as well as keeping focus on optimizing the details of current experiences.
In this role you will play a pivotal part in shaping the next generation of ESPN’s digital products and will shape how sports fans worldwide follow live games, consume stats and scores and engage with sports.
This role requires deep levels of sports passion, knowledge and sports betting experience within a technology-first environment.
What You Will Do
Lead product design for the ESPN Design team, supervising the work of at least 1-2 other designers
Partner with product and engineering to identify requirements, use cases, and user journeys
Illustrate and communicate complex design solutions across uses cases by creating process flows, wireframes, prototypes, and high fidelity mock-ups
Use data collected from research, user testing, and market analysis to create truly user-centered designs
Collaborate with a design manager, product manager, and cross-team peers throughout the product development life-cycle to iterate on and deliver a user experience that meets the highest quality bar
Act as a quality control on the team and make sure documentations are in top shape before delivering to engineers and QAs
Use a variety of metrics to analyze and continuously improve the user experience
Mentor and provide design directions for senior, mid-level designers and associate designers
Exercise ethical decision-making and do what’s best for our viewers
Be the voice in the room that always puts the user first
Required Qualifications & Skills
MUST be a sports enthusiast
Minimum 7 years in Product Design at a technology company
Minimum 1 year(s) of experience leading other designers either as a project lead or people manager
Passion for evolving the design practice; it’s people, processes and tools
Consulting skills to help stakeholders & partners uncover project goals, constraints & dependencies; and then guide them to optimal solutions
Experience designing across multiple devices (iOS, Android, Web, Apple TV, Roku, Xbox, PlayStation, Fire TV etc.)
A strong portfolio demonstrating both personal and team-based work
A deep arsenal of design tools (Figma, Sketch, InVision, Framer, Mural, Keynote)
Proficiency in user-centered design thinking methodologies
Outstanding visual design aesthetics combined usable experiences that address problems
A strong drive in overcoming obstacles to make a product successful
An understanding of acquisition & conversion, data-informed design
Experience with experimentation design (A/B, MVT, Usability, etc.)
Be able to communicate directly with Product Managers, Stakeholders, and Developers to translate their visions and constraints, into beautiful, functional products that will delight our users
Excellent prioritization and documentation skills
Preferred Qualifications
Experience and comfortability with Prototyping
Experience doing complex Vision-work, running Sprints, or Broadcasting
Proven experience in a senior design leadership role, influencing product strategy and driving organizational impact.
Education
Bachelor's degree required, MBA or technical degree preferred
From classic animated features and exhilarating theme park attractions to cutting edge sports coverage, and the hottest shows on television, The Walt Disney Company has been making magic since 1923, creating unforgettable stories that connect with audiences around the world. And we’re just getting started!
The key to our success…. The Cast, Crew, Imagineers and Employees who honor Disney’s rich legacy by stretching the bounds of imagination to create the never-before-seen, bringing unparalleled entertainment experiences to people of all ages. Begin a career that delivers unparalleled creative content and experiences to audiences around the world and just imagine the stories you could be part of…
What is #LifeAtDisney like? It’s a series of magical moments with cast members and employees developing and telling our stories in the most innovative ways. Whether it’s a day spent as a Disney VoluntEAR, or celebrating the release of a new interactive experience, retail product or movie, our days are filled with the knowledge that we are creating entertainment experiences the whole family can enjoy. Follow @DisneyCareers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for a peek behind-the-curtain, and discover how you could connect to a world of stories with Disney!