Job Description

European Senior Business Designer In a nutshell:

IDEO is in search of a Senior Business Designer who will work as members of IDEO’s multidisciplinary project teams. IDEO Business Designers are excited to work at the intersection of strategy and design to drive competitive advantage and strategic growth for our clients whilst improving the wellbeing of people and planet. Business Designers’ secret weapons are their ability to use business tools to design viable, regenerative, and inclusive solutions, and take ideas from abstracted to plausible.

As a Senior Business Designer, you will work with a broad set of collaborators to bring a variety of concepts and solutions to life and to market. Business Design at IDEO means both designing a new product, service, platform or business ecosystem as well as simultaneously designing the broader business strategy and roadmap for execution.

This position is based our of either our London or Munich studios, though will be remote through October 1, 2021.

What might an IDEO Business Designer work on?

• Designing a profitable new consumer experience, product, service, platform, or business ecosystem
• Developing the strategy, business model and system that underpins a new offer or venture
• Identifying and developing a go-to-market roadmap for a new solution
• Creating organisational structures, capabilities, and operating models to help the client company drive its own innovation
• Designing, running, and measuring experiments that gather feedback to inspire and improve new concepts

Relevant Experience, Skills, & Mindsets:

• A minimum of 4 years of full-time working experience, with experience in the fields of sustainability, social innovation or circular economy a plus
• An MBA or a Masters degree in business is helpful but not a requirement
• Strong business acumen; i.e., broad knowledge or exposure to strategy, marketing, finance, operations, product development, organisational design, etc
• Experience bringing ideas to market (creating new solutions, launching new products, etc), whether as an entrepreneur or intrapreneur
• Builds and interprets financial models and businesses cases to quantify business impact
• Interprets and communicates complex business ideas to different audiences
• Creatively problem-solves in a business context, i.e. generate multiple alternative ways to solve a business problem, including ways that are not obvious
• Has a passion for system design and system change with the ability to map complex systems in order to spot opportunities for change
• Comfort working in ambiguous situations with limited direction
• Insatiable curiosity to learn more about new models and systems of value creation
• Outstanding verbal and written communication skills
• The ability to speak multiple languages

What does IDEO Europe offer you?

IDEO is a place unlike any other. It’s a place where you can solve diverse, complex challenges alongside thoughtful, intelligent individuals who lead with curiosity, empathy, and optimism. We work hard, but we also intentionally craft moments that allow our community to pause, create, and connect. We encourage our community to bring their whole selves to work, respect the need for work-life balance, and allow for autonomy in the design process and your career.

IDEO Europe has studios in London and Munich, and a limited number of employees working remotely from other European countries. Over the past 30 years we have grown in the scale of our influence and impact. Although we still work across every industry and sector, our consistent purpose to deliver positive impact through design, has meant that we have enabled companies all over the world to be creatively competitive.

This role may be based out of our London or Munich studio, however, until further notice to manage the health and safety of our teams our workforce is predominantly working remotely due to COVID-19. We hope to return to our studios in a hybrid fashion when it is safe to do so and will be guided by Government guidance in the UK and Germany.

Commitment to Diversity

At IDEO, we are committed to the work of advancing diversity, equity and inclusion within our organisation and in the world. Our purpose of having disproportionate, world-changing impact through design is directly connected to our ability to bring many different perspectives to the table. This applies to our candidates, the people we hire, the clients and customers we serve, and the communities we learn from in our research.

As a human-centered organisation, we are committed to working with and designing for people of every race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, socio-economic status, physical ability or attribute, religion, national origin, or political belief. We recognize that this commitment requires ongoing work and sustained attention, as well as adaptation to new insights and best practices.

Read our most recently updated Commitments to further Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion here .

Learn about Business Design:

• What is a Business Designer?

Day in the life of a Business Designer

How Business People can Become Business Designers

An Insider’s Guide to Business Design

MBA Internships: Design Thinking in Practice at IDEO

• Curious about the mindsets of Business Designers? About the value and critical thinking Business Designers bring to innovation projects? Check out these thought pieces authored by IDEO Business Designers.

Your Competitors Aren’t Who You Think They Are

Don’t Throw Away Your Innovation Budget

How To Think About Long Term Strategy When You Can Barely See Past Tomorrow

Prototype the Future of Your Business With This 4-Step Design Exercise

4 Strategies To Chart A Path Forward When There Is No Map

When Building A New Venture, Friction Isn’t Just Inevitable - It’s Invaluable

What Does It Really Mean to “Act Like A Startup”?

• Learn more about IDEO’s work in the Circular Economy.

Application instructions:

Please apply with a resume, cover letter, and response to the application prompt below. In your cover letter, please tell us more about your interest in both IDEO and Business Design, and where you see alignment between your experience and this opportunity.

Application Prompt (500 word limit)

• What's a business model that excites you?
• Where else might you want to apply this?
• How would you gather evidence to demonstrate it could work?

Equal Opportunity Employer

IDEO is an equal opportunity employer; applicants are considered for all roles without regard to race, color, religious creed, sex, national origin, citizenship status, age, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, marital, parental, veteran or military status, unfavorable military discharge, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state or local law.