Senior Product Designer

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Senior Product Designer Company: HappyCo Location: Adelaide, South Australia, Australia Job Type: Full-Time Category: Product Design / User Experience (UX) Date Posted: 2026-01-23 Experience Level: Senior (8-10+ years) Remote Status: Hybrid

🚀 Role Summary

• Own and drive the end-to-end design of complex mobile workflows for frontline property and maintenance teams, focusing on user experience and operational efficiency.
• Champion a clear mobile product experience vision in collaboration with Product Management and Design Leadership, ensuring alignment with company goals and long-term strategy.
• Design for challenging real-world conditions, including offline usage, unreliable connectivity, performance limitations, and high-pressure environments.
• Leverage emerging technologies, particularly AI-powered experiences, to reduce user effort, improve accuracy, and accelerate outcomes for field operations.
• Translate deep customer understanding and actionable insights into visible, impactful product improvements and strategic decisions across the organization.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is positioned as a Senior Product Designer with a strong emphasis on mobile-first design for operational workflows. The emphasis on "high autonomy, speed, and a willingness to break down silos" suggests a significant level of individual contribution and cross-functional influence. The mention of "AI-powered experiences" and "turning customer exposure into visible, actionable insight" points to a data-driven and forward-thinking design approach, typical of senior roles aiming to drive strategic product evolution.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• End-to-end ownership of core mobile workflow design for maintenance and property teams, from discovery through delivery and post-launch iteration.
• Co-author and champion a compelling mobile product experience vision, collaborating with Product Management and Design Leadership.
• Design resilient and performant mobile solutions that address real-world constraints like offline functionality, variable connectivity, and device diversity.
• Proactively identify and drive cross-product improvements, moving beyond single-feature or single-team scope.
• Translate complex operational challenges into intuitive, scalable, and mobile-first user experiences.
• Conduct pragmatic user research, including interviews, usability testing, and rapid validation loops, to deeply understand user behaviors and needs.
• Integrate authentic customer context (quotes, workflows, edge cases) into product discussions and decision-making.
• Balance user needs with business objectives, technical feasibility, and operational realities, challenging misaligned solutions.
• Rapidly design, prototype, test, and iterate using high-fidelity mobile prototypes, leveraging AI tools to enhance speed and creativity.
• Define and track meaningful mobile UX metrics (e.g., task completion rates, time-on-task, drop-off points) in partnership with Product and Engineering.
• Analyze product usage data to identify friction points, emerging behaviors, and opportunities for improvement.
• Synthesize and share customer insights regularly across design, product, engineering, and wider organizational teams.
• Contribute to and evolve HappyCo’s mobile design system, based on Material 3 with custom extensions.
• Actively participate in design critiques and formal UX reviews, providing and receiving high-signal feedback.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a blend of strategic product thinking and hands-on design execution. The emphasis on "owning" workflows and "co-authoring" vision, alongside driving "cross-product improvements" and "making insights visible," indicates a senior individual contributor role with significant influence and accountability, requiring strong collaboration and communication skills. The inclusion of "AI-driven tools" and "mobile UX metrics" points to a modern, data-informed design practice.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: While no specific degree is mandated, a strong portfolio demonstrating equivalent practical experience and mastery of design principles is essential. Experience: Typically 8–10+ years of experience in product design, with a proven track record of owning and delivering complex, real-world mobile products.

Required Skills:

• Product Design Expertise: Proven ability to own and evolve core mobile workflows end-to-end.
• Mobile-First Design: Deep understanding of designing for mobile constraints (offline, connectivity, performance, device variability).
• User Research & Validation: Proficiency in planning and executing lightweight user research, including interviews, usability testing, and rapid feedback loops.
• Prototyping & Iteration: Skill in rapid design, high-fidelity prototyping, testing, and iterative refinement.
• Customer Obsession: Demonstrated habit of deeply understanding user needs and translating them into product solutions.
• Data-Informed Decision Making: Ability to monitor post-launch work, analyze usage data, and use insights to drive iteration and product improvements.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Experience partnering effectively with Product Managers and Engineers to define scope, navigate trade-offs, and deliver outcomes.
• Problem Framing: Ability to translate complex operational problems into simple, resilient, and user-friendly solutions.
• Design Systems: Experience contributing to and working within established design systems (familiarity with Material Design is a plus).
• Ambiguity Tolerance: Comfort operating independently in ambiguous environments and taking initiative.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience designing B2B or operational mobile products (e.g., field service, logistics, inspections, healthcare, fintech).
• Proven track record of influencing outcomes and breaking silos beyond immediate scope.
• Hands-on experience utilizing AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Cursor, Figma plugins) to accelerate design processes.
• Familiarity with mobile platform constraints and patterns (Flutter, iOS, Android).
• Experience diving into technical discussions and collaborating closely with engineers on feasibility and implementation.
• Exposure to analytics or adoption tooling (e.g., Gainsight, Adora) and using data to guide iteration.
• Strong synthesis and communication skills to make insights visible and actionable for diverse audiences.

📝 Enhancement Note: The experience requirement is framed around "demonstrated impact owning complex, real-world products" rather than strict years, emphasizing practical expertise. The "Strongly Valued" section provides clear signals for candidates who want to stand out, particularly regarding AI tool proficiency and B2B/operational product experience.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• End-to-End Workflow Ownership: Showcase a minimum of one complex mobile workflow that you owned from initial discovery and problem framing through to delivery and iteration, demonstrating your full design process.
• Problem/Solution Framing: Clearly articulate the user problem and business context for each case study, detailing your approach to understanding the problem space before jumping to solutions.
• Measurable Impact: Present quantifiable outcomes and impact achieved through your design work. This should include metrics related to user efficiency, task completion, adoption rates, or reduction in errors, explicitly linking your design decisions to these results.
• Real-World Constraints: Include examples that demonstrate your ability to design for challenging environments, such as offline capabilities, poor connectivity, or performance limitations, and explain your design trade-offs.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Highlight instances where you collaborated with product managers, engineers, and other stakeholders, illustrating how you navigated trade-offs and influenced decisions.

Process Documentation:

• Discovery & Research: Provide examples of how you conducted user research, user interviews, and usability testing, and how you synthesized findings into actionable insights.
• Design Iteration & Prototyping: Showcase the evolution of your designs through wireframes, high-fidelity prototypes, and iterative testing, demonstrating how feedback shaped the final product.
• System Contribution: If applicable, include examples of your contribution to or extension of design systems, illustrating your understanding of scalability and consistency.
• AI Tool Integration: Demonstrate how you've leveraged AI tools within your design process to accelerate ideation, research synthesis, or prototyping.

📝 Enhancement Note: A strong portfolio is critical for this role, as indicated by the explicit requirement for "depth of thinking, clear problem framing, and measurable impact." The emphasis on "real-world constraints," "cross-functional collaboration," and "AI tools" signals what HappyCo's design leadership values. Candidates should focus on showcasing their ability to deliver tangible results in challenging mobile environments.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: Given the Senior level (8-10+ years experience), location (Adelaide, SA, Australia), and the nature of a tech company like HappyCo, a competitive salary range can be estimated.

• Estimated Range: AUD $150,000 - $200,000 per annum.

Benefits:

• Generous Paid Parental Leave
• Competitive and Equitable Pay
• Stock Options
• Access to Employee Assistance Programs for physical and mental wellness
• Monthly stipends for Wellness
• Monthly stipends for Home Office expenses

Working Hours:

• Standard full-time hours are assumed, likely around 40 hours per week.
• Flexibility: The company emphasizes a flexible, supportive culture and offers "flexible hours" and "hybrid and remote-friendly policies," indicating a degree of autonomy in managing work schedules, provided core collaboration needs are met.
• Cross-Time Zone Collaboration: Requires willingness to collaborate across time zones (Australia & North America), which may involve regular early morning starts to connect with North American colleagues and customers.

📝 Enhancement Note: Salary is estimated based on industry benchmarks for senior product designers in major Australian cities, considering the tech sector and company stage, acknowledging that specific compensation will depend on candidate experience and internal equity. The benefits package is comprehensive, with a notable emphasis on wellness and flexibility. The mention of cross-time zone collaboration is a key factor for understanding daily work patterns.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Technology (PropTech - Property Technology) Company Size: The specific size isn't explicitly stated, but the mention of "thousands of daily mobile users" and "teams across HappyCo" suggests a growing, mid-to-large-sized tech company with established operations. Founded: Not explicitly stated, but the company appears to be in a growth phase, indicated by its focus on innovation and talent acquisition.

Team Structure:

• Product Team Triad: The Senior Product Designer will work as part of a "product triad" alongside a Product Manager and Engineering Lead within the mobile product team. This structure emphasizes close collaboration and shared ownership.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Significant collaboration is expected with "Design Leadership," "Product Management," "Engineering," and "teams across HappyCo" to share insights and influence broader decisions.
• Design Team: The role involves active participation in "Product Design team critiques" and "formal UX reviews," indicating a structured design function within the company.

Methodology:

• Customer Obsession: A core tenet, driving deep understanding of user needs and integrating real customer context into all product discussions.
• Data-Driven Iteration: Emphasis on monitoring product usage, defining UX metrics, and using data to validate changes and inform ongoing improvements.
• Agile & Experimental: Encourages "experimentation," "speed," and "lightweight validation loops" for rapid learning and delivery.
• AI Integration: Proactive use of AI tools to enhance efficiency and creativity across the design workflow.

Company Website: https://happy.co/

📝 Enhancement Note: HappyCo positions itself as a values-driven company focused on employee growth, collaboration, and a positive work environment ("Make Work Happy"). The PropTech industry context means the product solves real-world operational problems for property management and maintenance teams, requiring a practical and user-centric design approach. The "product triad" model is a common agile structure for efficient product development.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This is a Senior Product Designer role, indicating a high level of individual contribution and expertise. It requires significant autonomy and the ability to own complex projects end-to-end, influencing product direction and strategy. The role is defined by "high-impact judgment and broad ownership, operating independently regardless of title or formal level."

Reporting Structure: The Senior Product Designer will likely report to a Design Lead or Head of Design, while working day-to-day within a product triad structure alongside a Product Manager and Engineering Lead. This dual reporting/collaboration structure is typical for senior individual contributors.

Operations Impact: The Senior Product Designer's work directly impacts the efficiency, accuracy, and user satisfaction of frontline property teams using HappyCo's mobile products daily. By simplifying complex operational tasks and reducing friction, their designs contribute to increased productivity, better data capture, and ultimately, improved business outcomes for HappyCo's clients. The role also influences strategic product direction, particularly in adopting new technologies like AI.

Growth Opportunities:

• Design Leadership: Opportunity to influence the mobile product experience vision and contribute to the evolution of the design system and design practices.
• Strategic Influence: Potential to shape roadmaps, priorities, and long-term product strategy through customer insights and design expertise.
• Mentorship: The company culture emphasizes "high support," suggesting opportunities for mentorship from senior design and product leaders.
• Skill Development: Exposure to AI-driven design tools, complex operational workflows, and cross-functional collaboration provides opportunities to deepen expertise in cutting-edge product design practices.
• Cross-Functional Impact: Ability to influence decisions beyond the immediate product team by effectively communicating customer insights across the organization.

📝 Enhancement Note: The role emphasizes "high autonomy" and "broad ownership," suggesting that career progression will be tied to demonstrated impact, strategic contribution, and leadership in design thinking, rather than solely hierarchical advancement. The focus on influencing product strategy and cross-functional impact is key for senior growth.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: The company offers a "hybrid and remote-friendly" policy, suggesting a blend of in-office and remote work. The Adelaide office likely serves as a hub for in-person collaboration and team building. Office Location(s): The primary advertised location is Adelaide, SA, Australia. The company also mentions collaboration with teams in North America, indicating a distributed global presence.

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Environment: The "product triad" model and emphasis on critiques/reviews foster a collaborative design and product development environment.
• Tools & Technology: Access to modern design tools, likely including Figma, prototyping software, and potentially AI-assisted design platforms. The company also utilizes mobile platforms like Flutter, iOS, and Android.
• Team Interaction: Regular interaction with Product Managers, Engineering Leads, Design Leadership, and other cross-functional teams is expected. The need for "early morning starts" to connect with North American colleagues highlights the global nature of the workspace.

Work Schedule:

• While full-time hours are standard, the company promotes "flexible hours" and "work-life balance."
• Core working hours will likely need to accommodate early morning meetings with North American counterparts, suggesting a need for adaptability in daily scheduling.

📝 Enhancement Note: The hybrid nature of the work environment and the global collaboration requirements necessitate strong self-management, communication skills, and adaptability from candidates. The emphasis on "making work happy" suggests a culture that values employee well-being alongside productivity.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: Likely an HR or recruiter call to assess basic qualifications, cultural fit, and interest.
• Portfolio Presentation & Design Challenge: A key stage will involve presenting a portfolio showcasing end-to-end case studies. This will likely be followed by a design challenge, either take-home or live, to assess problem-solving skills, design thinking, and execution under pressure.
• Hiring Manager/Team Interviews: Interviews with Design Leadership, Product Management, and Engineering Leads to delve deeper into experience, collaboration style, and technical acumen.
• Cross-Functional Interviews: Potential interviews with stakeholders from other departments (e.g., customer success, operations) to assess broader business understanding and communication skills.
• Final Round: May involve a final discussion with senior leadership to confirm fit and strategic alignment.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Storytelling: Structure your portfolio around compelling narratives. For each case study, clearly define the problem, your process, your role, the constraints, the solutions you designed, and most importantly, the measurable impact.
• Show, Don't Just Tell: Use visuals (wireframes, prototypes, final UI) to illustrate your design process and solutions. Explain your rationale behind key design decisions.
• Quantify Impact: Emphasize metrics and outcomes. How did your design improve user efficiency, reduce errors, increase adoption, or achieve business goals?
• Highlight AI Usage: If you have examples of using AI tools to enhance your workflow or outcomes, be prepared to discuss them specifically.
• Address Constraints: Showcase how you handled real-world mobile constraints (offline, connectivity, performance) and the trade-offs you made.
• Focus on Seniority: Demonstrate ownership, strategic thinking, and the ability to operate with autonomy, not just execution skills.

Challenge Preparation:

• Understand the User: If a design challenge is given, quickly orient yourself to the target user (property teams, maintenance technicians) and their context.
• Problem Framing: Spend time clearly defining the problem before jumping into solutions. Ask clarifying questions if possible.
• Process Over Perfection: Demonstrate a clear, logical design process. It's often more important to show how you think than to arrive at a single "perfect" solution.
• Time Management: Be mindful of time constraints. Prioritize key aspects of the challenge.
• Communication: Clearly articulate your thought process, assumptions, and decisions.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on a portfolio that demonstrates "depth of thinking, clear problem framing, and measurable impact" is paramount. Candidates should prepare to articulate their design process, the rationale behind their decisions, and the tangible results of their work, especially how they've handled complex mobile workflows and leveraged AI.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Design & Prototyping: Figma (as it's the industry standard and HappyCo contributes to a design system based on Material 3, likely using Figma). High-fidelity mobile prototypes are a must.
• AI Design Tools: ChatGPT, Claude Code, Cursor, Lovable, Figma Make, or similar tools for ideation, research synthesis, prototyping, and insight generation.
• User Research Platforms: Great Question or similar tools for managing recruitment, insights, and follow-up for user research.

Analytics & Reporting:

• Product Instrumentation: The role requires owning the design perspective on mobile product instrumentation to ensure workflows are measurable.
• UX Metrics Tools: Familiarity with defining and tracking metrics related to task completion, time-on-task, drop-offs, retries, and adoption.
• Data Analysis Tools: While not explicitly listed, proficiency in or collaboration with teams using tools for analyzing product usage data is implied.

CRM & Automation:

• Mobile Platforms: Flutter, iOS, Android patterns.
• Integration Tools: Familiarity with how mobile applications integrate with backend systems and data sources is beneficial.
• Analytics/Adoption Tooling: Exposure to tools like Gainsight, Adora, or similar for understanding user behavior and driving adoption.

📝 Enhancement Note: HappyCo is looking for a designer who is not only proficient in standard design tools but also forward-thinking, actively incorporating AI into their workflow and understanding the importance of data and analytics in shaping product decisions. Familiarity with Flutter is a strong plus given its mention in the context of mobile platforms.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Customer Obsession: A primary driver, ensuring that user needs and real-world context are central to all design and product decisions.
• Impact-Driven: Focus on delivering meaningful, measurable improvements for users and the business, with a habit of monitoring work post-launch.
• Collaboration & Transparency: Working closely within product triads, design teams, and across the organization, sharing insights and feedback openly.
• Speed & Agility: Embracing experimentation, rapid iteration, and efficient workflows, balanced with strong judgment and quality.
• Ownership & Autonomy: Empowering individuals to take initiative, own complex problems, and operate independently regardless of title.
• Continuous Improvement: A commitment to evolving the product, design system, and team practices based on learning and feedback.

Collaboration Style:

• Product Triad Synergy: Close, day-to-day partnership with Product Managers and Engineering Leads, sharing responsibility for product roadmap and execution.
• Design Critiques & Reviews: Active participation in formal and informal feedback sessions to elevate design craft and quality.
• Cross-Functional Insight Sharing: Regularly communicating customer insights and product performance data to inform decisions across the company.
• Global Connectivity: Proactive engagement with colleagues across different time zones, fostering a connected global team environment despite geographical distribution.

📝 Enhancement Note: The company culture is built around a set of core values that emphasize user-centricity, data-driven decision-making, and a collaborative, autonomous work environment. The "Make Work Happy" slogan suggests a commitment to employee well-being and a positive workplace experience.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Designing for Real-World Constraints: Creating seamless user experiences for field teams operating with unreliable connectivity, limited battery life, and in high-pressure environments requires innovative problem-solving.
• Balancing Speed with Quality: Delivering meaningful customer-facing improvements within the first month while maintaining high standards for design quality, scalability, and evidence-based decision-making.
• Translating Complex Data into Action: Effectively synthesizing and communicating insights from product usage data and customer research to diverse audiences to drive strategic product decisions.
• Cross-Time Zone Collaboration: Effectively collaborating with teams in North America while based in Australia, requiring careful scheduling and communication strategies.
• Influencing Beyond Scope: Driving improvements and influencing outcomes across product boundaries and within the wider organization requires strong communication and stakeholder management skills.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• AI-Powered Design: Gaining hands-on experience and expertise in leveraging AI tools to transform the design process.
• PropTech Domain Expertise: Deepening understanding of the property management and maintenance industry, its operational challenges, and user needs.
• Mobile UX Optimization: Mastering the nuances of designing for complex, mission-critical mobile applications in challenging environments.
• Strategic Product Influence: Developing skills in shaping product vision, strategy, and roadmaps through data-driven insights and user advocacy.
• Design System Evolution: Contributing to and expanding a modern design system, potentially influencing its future direction.
• Mentorship & Leadership: Opportunities to learn from senior design and product leaders and potentially mentor junior designers as the team grows.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges presented are inherent to the role and industry, offering significant opportunities for growth. Candidates who are proactive problem-solvers and eager to learn will find this role rewarding.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• Product Vision & Strategy: "How would you approach defining and championing a long-term vision for the mobile product experience, especially considering the integration of AI?" Be ready to discuss your process for envisioning future states and aligning them with business goals.
• User Research & Insight Translation: "Describe a time you translated complex user behavior or data into a clear, actionable insight that led to a significant product improvement. What was your process, and how did you communicate it?" Prepare a specific example from your portfolio.
• Design for Constraints: "How would you design a critical workflow (e.g., property inspection) for users who experience frequent connectivity drops and may only have a few minutes to complete it? What trade-offs would you consider?" Focus on your approach to resilience and efficiency.
• AI in Design: "How have you used AI tools in your design process, or how would you propose using them to enhance efficiency and user value in our mobile products?" Be prepared to discuss specific tools and use cases.

Company & Culture Questions:

• "What interests you about HappyCo and our mission to 'Make Work Happy'?" Research the company's values, industry, and product.
• "How do you approach collaboration within a cross-functional 'product triad' and with remote/global teams?" Discuss your communication style and experience with agile methodologies.
• "How do you ensure your work has a measurable impact, and how do you track success post-launch?" Demonstrate your understanding of product metrics and data analysis.

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Structure Your Narrative: For each case study, clearly outline the problem, your role, the process, the solution, and the impact. Use a consistent format.
• Focus on Impact: Quantify your achievements whenever possible. Use metrics to demonstrate the value of your design decisions.
• Showcase Your Process: Explain why you made certain decisions at each stage, demonstrating your critical thinking and problem-solving approach.
• Highlight Collaboration: Illustrate how you worked with PMs, engineers, and other stakeholders, and how you navigated trade-offs.
• Prepare for Questions: Anticipate questions about your design choices, challenges, and how you would handle hypothetical scenarios relevant to HappyCo's product.
• Be Ready to Discuss AI: Have specific examples of how you've used or would use AI tools to enhance your work.

📝 Enhancement Note: Interview preparation should focus on demonstrating strategic thinking, user empathy, a data-driven approach, and the ability to execute in a complex, collaborative environment. Be ready to articulate your process, justify your decisions, and showcase tangible results.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Senior Product Designer position:

• Submit your application through the provided Lever link: https://jobs.lever.co/happyco/dc268965-c4ec-4afe-b331-c2df57b3324f
• Curate Your Portfolio: Select 2-3 of your strongest mobile product design case studies that best showcase your end-to-end ownership, ability to handle complex workflows, and measurable impact. Ensure each case study clearly articulates the problem, your process, your specific contributions, and the quantifiable results. Highlight any experience with operational or B2B mobile products and the use of AI tools.
• Tailor Your Resume: Emphasize your 8-10+ years of relevant product design experience, focusing on mobile-first design, user research, prototyping, and cross-functional collaboration. Use keywords from the job description such as "mobile workflows," "customer obsession," "AI tools," and "impact."
• Practice Your Portfolio Presentation: Rehearse presenting your case studies, focusing on clear storytelling, articulating your design rationale, and highlighting the impact of your work. Be prepared to discuss your process in detail and answer in-depth questions about your decisions.
• Research HappyCo: Understand HappyCo's mission, product offerings (especially in PropTech), company values, and culture. Prepare thoughtful questions about the product, team, and challenges.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and operations industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.

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