Hi there, thanks for stopping by.
What follows is a bit lengthy, but will give you a better idea of what we do, what this role entails and how to apply.
What we do
We’re a boutique growth agency that gives a damn about our work, our clients, our people, and doing the right thing. We specialize in:
- user experience research and design
- full-service a/b testing and personalization (aka conversion rate optimization)
- data analytics
About your role and the team
If you would rather feel trusted to use your expertise and problem-solve than have your manager hawking over your shoulder micromanaging you, keep reading! Here at surefoot, we carve out time for you to get shit done and deliver real value to clients. Leave the wasted time, infighting with colleagues and finger-pointing to someone else. You didn’t become a UX/UI designer to deal with that stress mess day in and day out!
As a UX/UI designer, you’ll enjoy talking to a variety of people to help solve their problems and collaborating with kind, supportive co-workers who respect you and your time – both at and away from the virtual office. You’ll be recognized by peers, leadership and clients for your organizational skills and attention to detail, which are critical to your success. In fact, disorganized, dependent personalities don’t last long here. Nor do people with “that’s not in my job description” attitudes. When smart people collaborate instead of compete and bring solutions instead of problems, amazing things happen.
Speaking of collaboration, that’s something you’ll do regularly with our clients. We bend over backwards (but not forwards) to make sure they’re happy. Our goal is to be the best, most helpful agency they’ve ever worked with. To help us achieve that goal, we encourage you to share and celebrate your authentic self day-in-and-day-out with co-workers and clients alike. Even if it means letting your “weird” show every once in a while.
We’ll be honest; surefoot isn’t for everyone. We encourage and expect you to use your expertise, make decisions without a lot of oversight, go above and beyond to help a teammate or client, spend time to thoughtfully communicate asynchronously, and manage your own work schedule. If you’re a humble team player who likes to see and contribute to the success of something greater than yourself, then we want you to apply. Now.
UX/UI designer role description
As a UX/UI designer at surefoot, you’ll rely on data and usability best practices to craft functional, user-centric designs that solve users’ pain points. You’ll need to enjoy problem solving, delighting users and keeping up with the state of design for e-commerce (bonus points for a NNG/Baymard obsession). You won’t like this gig if you feel all your designs are home runs - after all, they will be A/B tested and many will fall flat! But if the idea of learning, iterating and honing the hell out of your design chops excites you, you’re reading the right job description!
You’ll collaborate internally with other designers, project managers, strategic directors and occasionally, our clients. Successful UX/UI designers are curious, personable, detailed and passionate about helping craft more delightful experiences for end users.
A day in the life of a UX/UI Designer
- start your morning with a cup o' joe and fire up your computer to check emails, contribute your Wordle screenshot or thoughts on having either Cheeto dust for fingers or tennis ball fuzz for skin to Slack, check-in on your Asana task list to plan your day, etc.
- it’s 10:30 CST, time for our team video stand-up to chit chat with teammates a bit, then talk about what you worked on yesterday, are doing today and any blockers.
- shortly after stand-up, you’ll set to work re-designing the buy box of a client’s PDP that user research has shown to be a key pain point of their site.
- after a stretch break and a #self-care Slack post to enter the monthly drawing for an extra hour of vacation time, you’re back at your desk to migrate your design to InVision and add tour points so your teammates and the clients understand your changes.
- you spend your early afternoon reviewing a research findings presentation from the UX research team, and adding potential hypotheses to test based on the learnings.
- around mid-afternoon, it’s time to tackle another design challenge - this time, a client’s navigation needs some love. You open the card sort results and set to designing something that is functional and more clearly aligns with users’ mental models.
- once “quitting time brain” begins to settle in, you do a final file wrap up to pass a design to a developer, then perhaps a few email/slack responses and checking in on #watercooler to interact with teammates before you close up shop for the day.
Role requirements
must-haves
- 3+ years of experience designing for e-commerce and the web
- 2+ years of experience with Adobe XD, Figma, Sketch, Zeplin, InVision
- Detail-oriented - you notice things like extra spaces, font mismatches, color imbalances and more
- Self-motivation, ability to work independently and remotely
- Strong desire to continuously learn and grow
- High "give a damn" factor - you care about the quality of your work, helping your teammates be successful, your clients, and those around you.
- Hobbies outside of work.
nice-to-haves
- Past agency experience
- Experience with user testing and user research
- Experience with A/B testing or personalization
- Background in graphic design, color theory, illustration or similar
- Some knowledge of basic HTML/CSS (even console dev)
- Experience creating low fidelity mock-ups
- Funny GIF library, good emoji usage, sense of humor
Salary and benefits
This is a full-time position open to U.S.-based applicants only. No Visa sponsorship is provided.
- Base salary: $100,000 to $130,000 (depending on experience)
- Benefits and perks:
- fully-remote team (even pre-COVID!)
- health insurance – we pay 85% of your premium, up to $400
- 401k with match
- 2.5 weeks paid vacation to start (more accrued annually)
- $2,000 technology / WFH office budget
- 11 paid holidays
- two 1/2 day Fridays per month
- career growth tracks (as an individual contributor or manager)
- self-care bonuses
- company-paid all-hands trips
- Climate Neutral smart thermostat reimbursement
- $400 learning budget
- client discounts
- new hire and client referral bonuses
- …more as the company grows, with your input solicited on benefits that matter to you!
Ready to apply?
Great, we’re looking forward to meeting you! To get the ball rolling, please submit your application.
If all is well there, you’ll move on to phase two which involves a Zoom video call or two to get to know one another a bit better. If we’re feeling good about that, we’ll contact your references.
And finally, if your references check out and confirm you’re not a stabber, we’ll ask you to do some actual paid work with us to determine fit for both parties. This paid project is a nice way for both parties to get a feel for one another’s work, communication style and more.
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All applicants will receive a response. We know through experience that different ideas, perspectives and backgrounds foster a stronger and more creative work environment that delivers better business results. We strive to create workplaces that reflect the clients we serve and where everyone feels empowered to bring their full, authentic selves to work. We are an equal opportunity employer and we are committed to building a company that embraces and celebrates diversity and inclusion. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We are also committed to working with candidates from all ability levels throughout the recruitment process to ensure they have what they need to be at their best. If you need accommodation during the application or interview process, please contact us to begin a conversation about your individual accessibility needs throughout the hiring process.