Design Analyst-ACT!

Position Overview: The Design Analyst is responsible for creating detailed specifications of new features and feature enhancements for the ACT! line of products. The Design Analyst ensures that appropriate design techniques and logical processes are employed in turning new feature ideas into real product enhancements.  Other key responsibly of the Design Analyst include: feature research, use case scenarios, UI design, usability, and user testing.  The ideal candidate will have at least a year of experience in user testing and/or hands on functional and UI design of Windows or web applications.

 

Day-to-day responsibilities include the management and execution of plans to develop specific features for existing products and services, including:

Key Responsibilities:

1. Creating ?developer ready? detailed functional design specifications for new product features based on defined business requirements.

2. Assisting in the design of graphical user interfaces taking advantage of the latest ideas of User Centered Design.

3. Offering solutions to complex design issues during the product development cycle, keeping in mind scope limitations and the impact of other integrated products.

4. Quickly assimilating and adhering to ACT!?s design processes and procedures in the creation of those design documents.

5. Working collaboratively with representative Product Management, Development, Documentation and Quality Assurance team members to come up with the best functionality possible, while maintaining ownership of the feature throughout the design, development and testing process.

6. Maintaining open communications on questions, comments, criticisms and other issues relating to the assigned feature and report regularly on the status of the design.

7. Conducting various brainstorming, collaboration, and design review meetings for assigned features, while remaining open to new and different ideas about the purpose and functionality of the new feature.

9. Completing other duties, consistent with company goals, as assigned by the team lead or Design Manager.

 

Required Skills: REQUIREMENTS:

1. Must demonstrate quality software and user interface design expertise in a commercial business application software environment with at least 1 year of Windows software or web design experience.

2. Experience in contact management software or related small-business applications is desirable.

3. Must be able to emulate the role of a user and remain objective in giving definition to product feature enhancements.

4. Must have exceptional problem solving, analytical, interpersonal and communication skills to be able to resolve issues during the product development cycle.

5. Must be able to perform as a member of a team interacting with a large R & D group, able to take direction while retaining the ability to work on their own initiative with limited supervision.

6. Should be able to complete multiple and varied tasks in a changing environment, be able to work to strict deadlines, and have a high attention to detail.

7. Should be able to prepare project time-effort estimates for product design deliverables.

8. Should have an understanding of database design, operating systems, and the product development cycle.

9. Ideally, would have experience using the tools utilized in program implementation [Microsoft: Word, Visio, Outlook, Visual Basic, and Adobe Photoshop].

11. Ideally would have hands-on knowledge of ACT! Software, Flash, and/or HTML. An additional plus would be knowledge of ACT! competitor products.

12. Ideally would have participated in an organization using extensive collaboration efforts in the design process.