We are recruiting for a Designer within our Fairer Start Mission

About Nesta

We are Nesta, the UK’s innovation agency for social good. We design, test and scale solutions to society’s biggest problems. Our three missions are to give every child a fair start, help people live healthy lives, and create a sustainable future where the economy works for both people and the planet.

For over 20 years, we have worked to support, encourage and inspire innovation. We work in three roles: as an innovation partner working with frontline organisations to design and test new solutions, as a venture builder supporting new and early stage businesses, and as a system shaper creating the conditions for innovation.

Harnessing the rigour of science and the creativity of design, we work relentlessly to change millions of lives for the better. Find out more at nesta.org.uk.

About A Fairer Start

Our mission, ‘A Fairer Start’, aims to close the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their peers in the UK at age 5. We use our innovation methods, including design, behavioural science, data science, evidence and experimentation, arts and more to achieve our goals.

The role

We are looking for a designer who can confidently work across the entire design process—in particular, someone who has deep experience conducting user research and capturing data to shape recommendations, as well as prototyping and testing social innovations. Any experience relating to the early years system/services and working sensitively with economically disadvantaged parents to understand their motivations/pain points would be a bonus. Nesta’s Design & Technology practice has a broad range of experience and different backgrounds, including the design of services, behavioural interventions, digital technology, physical products, architecture, brand and graphics, and more. What we have in common is a focus on designing for social impact and for the benefit of people and the planet.

In this role, you will be part of a team of around twenty people who work full-time on the Fairer Start mission, including researchers, behavioural scientists, data scientists and policy specialists. You will work in multi-disciplinary teams to develop and deliver projects, sometimes leading project teams and sometimes contributing as a team member. You will work closely with senior leaders and other colleagues from a range of professional backgrounds within Nesta, as well as stakeholders and collaborators who are external to Nesta. You’ll also interact with other methods experts from across Nesta, the Behavioural Insights Team, and partner organisations, who work on mission projects on a more ad-hoc basis. You will work closely with other designers in the Fairer Start mission and be part of the community of designers and technologists who make up Nesta’s wider Design & Technology practice.

This role is for someone who has worked on projects that have met the needs of end users, developing briefs and delivering solutions as part of an interdisciplinary team through an applied design process. Designers in the mission work on a range of different projects, meaning your tasks will vary from day to day. The successful candidate will regularly:

• Lead different forms of research and testing with end users
• Create physical and digital prototypes at different levels of fidelity
• Guide and engage non-designers from inside and outside of Nesta through a design process
• Clearly communicate project outcomes and make recommendations on the direction of mission programmes

Responsibilities

As a Designer, your work will involve using your design expertise to create solutions to some of society’s biggest problems. You will be expected to:

• Plan, undertake and support user research to inform strategic decisions and the design of potential solutions.
• Design, develop, and test potential solutions with end users and the people that deliver them, as well as encourage and support others to do so.
• Facilitate workshops and design sprints to rapidly design, test and iterate prototypes.
• Produce design iterations from low-fidelity sketches to functional prototypes.
• Support the end-to-end design of interventions often involving multiple channels, touchpoints and partners.
• Ensure Nesta and our partners balance the needs of end users/stakeholderswith business and social objectives.
• Work with a multidisciplinary team to design, prototype and test social impact solutions.
• Facilitate and participate in collaboration, including co-design or multidisciplinary working.
• Work with and support others within the mission and across Nesta to use design approaches and skills for social impact.
• Contribute to the identification, development and pitching of new work.
• Contribute to improving Nesta’s approach to design.
• Support the overall delivery of projects within the mission.

Required experience

• Experience in a design discipline, such as service design, user experience design, product design, etc.
• Experience working on multiple design projects that have met the needs of end users and stakeholders. Ideally working across the end-to-end journey of a service that involves multiple channels and touchpoints.
• Experience undertaking a range of activities from client engagement to user research, prototyping and testing.
• Experience in guiding diverse groups/non-designers through a design process.
• User research: Ability to conduct and plan for interviews, observations, ethnographic/immersive research and other research methods. While you are not expected to be a quantitative researcher within the team, you are expected to be comfortable using quantitative data.
• Evidence and context-based design: You are able to work with others to use evidence (qualitative and quantitative) to inform the design of projects, products, and services. You can absorb large amounts of conflicting information and use it to produce simple designs.
• Prototyping: You have experience in using a variety of methods of prototyping and user testing; and know how to choose the most appropriate ones. You know how to solicit feedback to iterate on ideas.
• Communication skills: You can listen to the needs of users, stakeholders and partners, and interpret them in a way that is clear for both audiences. You know how to manage stakeholder expectations. You can be flexible and you are capable of proactive and reactive communication.
• Facilitating decisions and risks: You know how to identify key risks with a design and strategies and adapt to them using a range of techniques. You can generate multiple solutions to a problem and test them.
• Community collaboration. You know how to work collaboratively within a group, actively networking with others and varying feedback for the appropriate time to ensure the discussion sticks. You can use your initiative to identify problems or issues in the team dynamic and rectify them.

Desirable experience

• Experience of applying agile, lean and design thinking principles.
• Experience of creating functional prototypes using code or other technologies.
• Experience of designing interventions with a social purpose.
• Experience of applying behavioural science principles to design.
• Experience of designing interventions relevant to our Fairer Start Mission.
• Experience working within and/or knowledge of the Early Years sector.