{"id":1177,"date":"2022-02-11T09:41:23","date_gmt":"2022-02-11T09:41:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/digitalteam\/?p=1177"},"modified":"2022-02-11T09:41:23","modified_gmt":"2022-02-11T09:41:23","slug":"we-design-digital-services-around-our-users-and-were-hiring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/digitalteam\/2022\/02\/11\/we-design-digital-services-around-our-users-and-were-hiring\/","title":{"rendered":"We design digital services around our users – and we\u2019re hiring!"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a…<\/strong> person interested in an exciting career in digital user-centred design<\/p>\n

I want to…<\/strong> learn some more about current opportunities at the University of Southampton<\/p>\n

So that I can…<\/strong> become a part of an award-winning digital user experience team<\/p>\n

We\u2019re really excited to be opening up a number of brand new design and UX roles in the University of Southampton\u2019s award-winning<\/a> Digital User Experience team. Whether you\u2019re already in the user-centred design industry or hoping to enter it, we want to give anyone who\u2019s interested a flavour of our work and what it\u2019s like to be part of our team.<\/p>\n

Our story so far<\/h3>\n

We’ve formed the new digital user experience team to continue the work of the OneWeb programme<\/a>. As part of it, you\u2019ll be responsible for delivering digital transformation across a whole organisation. You\u2019ll be inspiring and supporting the University in taking a user-centred, data-driven approach to digital operations, products and services, and building up iteratively from small beginnings to grand designs.<\/p>\n

Our ultimate goal is all about making people\u2019s digital experience better. This means that every service must be designed around user needs<\/strong>, because that\u2019s the key to delivering great products and services, which in turn means we can help our university achieve its strategic outcomes.<\/p>\n

What it\u2019s like to work here<\/h3>\n

We are:<\/p>\n

1) User-led<\/h4>\n

We are extremely committed to really<\/em> understanding our users, and have the willingness to do what it takes to deliver a user-led approach to our services. We are willing to challenge ourselves and our university in order to improve our services. This is a big part of our culture.<\/p>\n

For a number of years, we were engaged with our university under the umbrella of the OneWeb programme<\/a>. The work included some long-term design, research and product development and a lot of specialist work. This has set the tone for the next phase of a permanent team structure and some of our key priorities for the next 12-months.<\/p>\n

We tend to refer to OneWeb as an accelerator to digital transformation work. Metaphorically speaking, it allowed us to reach Mount Everest\u2019s Base Camp. We now need to climb up the mountain and enjoy the view, continuing on this challenging, yet rewarding, journey with our colleagues.<\/p>\n

\"Transition
\nOur selection of Beta stickers featuring three mountain peaks with a basecamp below, just like what OneWeb has allowed us to achieve so far.<\/span><\/p>\n

2) Multi-disciplinary<\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019re a growing team of multi-disciplinary practitioners from design and research to delivery and product management. Our team members often work across disciplines to get the best results possible. We try to create an open, democratic and self-motivated culture. We trust our team members\u2019 judgement and give them responsibilities to take actions and make decisions, always with support and discussion.<\/p>\n

3) Inclusive<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Everyone in our team has a stake in the direction that we\u2019re going in. We\u2019re interested in listening to diverse views as this often enables better outcomes. We have constructive team get-togethers to discuss the work we\u2019re doing, as well as bringing in other colleagues from different teams across the University, to get a sense of the bigger picture.<\/p>\n

Our work is collaborative. We\u2019re a tight-knit team and incredibly supportive of each other, and everyone contributes to this team culture. The design and research capability of our team is made up of a combination of designers, researchers, performance analysts, SEO, developers, delivery and product specialists who work very closely together, supported at a management level by myself and other heads of disciplines.<\/p>\n

We know that digital transformation can often be challenging so we put staff well-being before anything else. We\u2019re flexible around parental responsibilities and other care duties. We will always do our utmost to support our colleagues, listen and respond accordingly.<\/p>\n

4) Ambitious<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Throughout the OneWeb programme it became clear that by using end-to-end and user-centred service design we could make some big impacts for both the external user and the organisation. Establishing this connection between users\u2019 needs and business objectives lets us present some big opportunities to the organisation.<\/p>\n

The blueprint and the initial service have been developed for key areas, providing the foundation for far more benefits and innovations in future. We\u2019re excited to work further with colleagues from all areas of the organisation on this.<\/p>\n

5) Successful<\/strong><\/h4>\n

We\u2019re incredibly proud of some of our recent achievements<\/a>. As the saying goes \u201cnothing worth having is easily gained\u201d. We have an impressive story to tell that will lead to long-lasting change.<\/p>\n

As a new team it remains important that we continue to deliver value to help embed design thinking across different university teams, continually growing these ways of working.<\/p>\n

We also share our experiences at different sector and industry conferences (small and large) and we encourage our team to submit talks, contribute to our blog and get invited as guest speakers to events internally and externally about how we approach user-centred design thinking.<\/p>\n

\"Special
\nSpecial stickers to celebrate our award wins in December 2021: User Focused, Excellence in Content Strategy and the Collaborator Awards.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

6) Dare we say\u2026 fun?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

For the past few years we\u2019ve been working remotely, which meant we had to work extra hard to develop healthy relationships within our team as well as other parts of the University.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve hosted regular bi-weekly team events, and monthly \u2018show and tells\u2019 with university colleagues to discuss our work, progress and how it’s been achieved. We’ve also organised a lot of playful team building events from the comfort of our own homes when we can\u2019t meet in-person. We have held activities that involved our own award ceremonies, virtual storytelling, quiz games and much more! (We can get pretty creative and competitive with the quiz games.)<\/p>\n

\"A
\nWe were also the first digital transformation team to ever inadvertently combine a murder mystery party with a cutting edge fashion show.<\/span><\/p>\n

As we\u2019re moving into 2022, we\u2019re looking at introducing some physical get-togethers to ensure we develop healthy relationships through team engagement.<\/p>\n

Come and grow with us<\/h3>\n

How to apply<\/h4>\n

There are a number of new opportunities available as we\u2019re growing our future team.<\/p>\n

All the jobs we\u2019re currently recruiting for are on the University\u2019s jobs site<\/a>. They are:<\/p>\n