Product Strategy and Design Lead

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Product Strategy and Design Lead

Company: Adventist Health

Location: Altamonte Springs, Florida, United States

Job Type: Full-time

Category: Product Strategy & Design Operations

Date Posted: 2025-09-16T18:42:07

Experience Level: 10+ Years (Senior Level)

Remote Status: On-site

🚀 Role Summary

• Lead human-centered design and product strategy initiatives within AdventHealth's IT innovation team (FORGE).

• Drive user research, including ethnographic studies, usability testing, and field interviews, to inform product development and ensure alignment with customer needs.

• Translate complex user insights into actionable strategies, journey maps, and service blueprints to guide product teams and stakeholders.

• Facilitate design workshops and sprints to foster collaboration, uncover perspectives, and visualize solutions, ensuring team and stakeholder alignment.

• Communicate research findings and strategic recommendations effectively to diverse audiences, including leadership, to influence product road mapping and decision-making.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is crucial for bridging the gap between user needs and technological solutions within a healthcare innovation context. The "Product Strategy and Design Lead" title, coupled with responsibilities focused on research, insight synthesis, and stakeholder communication, strongly indicates a role that influences the GTM strategy for new or improved digital products by ensuring they are user-centric and solve real-world problems. This aligns with the broader operations focus on efficiency and effectiveness through well-designed processes and tools.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• End-to-End User Research Ownership: Spearhead the entire research lifecycle, from defining critical questions and planning studies to executing ethnographic research, usability testing, and in-depth field interviews.

• Insight Synthesis and Strategic Communication: Transform raw user data and qualitative feedback into synthesized, actionable insights, comprehensive journey maps, and detailed service blueprints that clearly articulate user needs and pain points.

• Solution Visualization and Prototyping: Create rapid prototypes and conceptual scenarios (prioritizing clarity over polish) to explore and validate potential solutions, facilitating a deeper understanding of user interactions and workflows.

• Workshop Facilitation and Design Sprints: Design and lead inclusive design thinking workshops, design sprints, and other intensive solutioning sessions to elicit diverse perspectives, foster collaboration, and drive consensus on product direction.

• Cross-functional Alignment and Storytelling: Effectively communicate research findings, strategic recommendations, and proposed solutions to product teams, business stakeholders, and leadership, utilizing compelling storytelling to build support and ensure alignment.

• Voice of the Customer Representation: Serve as the primary advocate for the customer, ensuring that all product decisions are grounded in human behavior data and user insights, thereby translating business needs into tangible, customer-focused solutions.

• Product Portfolio Strategy Guidance: Guide solutioning strategies and processes that support the product team and business stakeholders in developing effective roadmaps, ensuring a clear path from user insights to product implementation.

• Independent Project Leadership: Manage and execute design strategy and research projects autonomously, requiring minimal direct supervision while demonstrating strong initiative and problem-solving capabilities.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities emphasize a proactive, independent role in defining product direction based on deep user understanding. This requires not just design skills but also strategic thinking and the ability to influence stakeholders, which are key operational competencies in ensuring successful product adoption and impact. The focus on "existing or in-progress solutions" suggests a strong emphasis on process improvement and optimization of current offerings rather than solely new product development.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in Visual/Graphic Design, Interaction Design/HCI, Visual Communications, or a related field.

Experience:

• A minimum of 7 years of progressive experience in gathering and leveraging customer insights to inform design and business decisions, holding roles such as Product Strategist, Product Designer, User Experience Designer, or User Researcher.

• Demonstrated experience in user research methodologies, including ethnographic studies, usability testing, field interviews, and data synthesis.

• Proven ability to translate complex user needs and business requirements into compelling user experiences and strategic product recommendations.

• Experience working within Agile and SCRUM development methodologies and understanding software development workflows.

• Familiarity with design sprint methodologies or similar intensive solutioning workshop activities.

Required Skills:

• User Research Expertise: Mastery of qualitative and quantitative user research techniques, including ethnographic studies, in-depth interviews, usability testing, and survey design.

• Insight Synthesis: Proven ability to analyze and synthesize complex data sets into clear, actionable insights, journey maps, and service blueprints.

• Prototyping & Wireframing: Proficiency in creating low-fidelity wireframes, user flows, and high-fidelity UI mockups using industry-standard design tools.

• Communication & Storytelling: Exceptional verbal, written, and visual communication skills, with a strong ability to present research findings and strategic recommendations persuasively to diverse audiences.

• Facilitation Skills: Demonstrated ability to plan, lead, and facilitate design thinking workshops, brainstorming sessions, and stakeholder meetings effectively.

• Agile/SCRUM Acumen: Deep understanding of Agile principles and SCRUM frameworks, including experience working within these methodologies.

• UX Vision & Strategy: Ability to articulate a clear UX vision and develop iterative plans to achieve broader product goals over time.

• Design Thinking Principles: Strong foundation in design thinking methodologies and a user-centric approach to problem-solving.

Preferred Skills:

• Master's degree in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), MBA, or a related advanced field.

• Experience working within the healthcare industry, understanding its unique business objectives, operational challenges, and regulatory landscape.

• Proficiency with specific design and prototyping tools such as Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD, or similar.

• Knowledge of testing and QA best practices within a software development lifecycle.

• Experience in creating user interface specifications and style guides.

📝 Enhancement Note: The requirement for a strong portfolio demonstrating conceptual thinking, creative problem-solving, and specific deliverables like user flows, wireframes, prototypes, and UI specifications is critical. For operations roles, this translates to showcasing process improvement projects, data analysis outputs, and system design contributions. The emphasis on "healthcare knowledge" and "healthcare operations experience" suggests that candidates with a background in healthcare IT or a related field will have a significant advantage, as they will understand the operational context and stakeholder needs more readily.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• User-Centric Case Studies: Present 3-5 detailed case studies showcasing end-to-end product strategy and design projects, highlighting your role and contributions.

• Research Methodology Documentation: Clearly document the user research methods employed (e.g., ethnographic studies, usability testing, interviews), the rationale for their selection, and how insights were gathered and synthesized.

• Strategic Deliverables: Include examples of strategic outputs such as user journey maps, service blueprints, personas, user flows, and competitive analysis reports.

• Prototyping & UI Design Examples: Showcase high-fidelity UI mockups, interactive prototypes, and wireframes that demonstrate your ability to translate insights into tangible solutions.

• Problem Definition & Solutioning: Clearly articulate the problem space addressed in each case study and demonstrate how your design strategy and solutions effectively addressed those specific challenges.

Process Documentation:

• Workflow Design & Optimization: Provide examples of how you have mapped, analyzed, and improved existing user workflows or designed new ones to enhance efficiency and user satisfaction.

• Data-Driven Decision Making: Illustrate how you have used user data and insights to drive product decisions and iterate on designs, demonstrating a quantifiable impact.

• Cross-functional Collaboration: Show evidence of how you have collaborated with engineering, product management, and business stakeholders, including how you facilitated alignment through design documentation and presentations.

• Impact Measurement: Where possible, present metrics or qualitative feedback demonstrating the success of your design interventions in terms of user adoption, efficiency gains, or problem resolution.

📝 Enhancement Note: For an operations-focused perspective, the portfolio should emphasize the process of design and strategy development, not just the final aesthetic. Applicants should highlight how their design work directly contributed to operational efficiency, improved user workflows, or solved specific business problems within a healthcare context. Demonstrating the ability to document and communicate these processes and their outcomes is key.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range:

Benefits:

• Comprehensive Health Coverage: Medical, dental, and vision insurance plans available.

• Paid Time Off (PTO): Generous Paid Days Off from Day One, accrued based on tenure.

• Student Loan Repayment Program: Support for employees managing student loan debt.

• Career Development & Growth: Opportunities for professional growth, training, and advancement within AdventHealth.

• Whole Person Wellbeing Resources: Access to programs and resources focused on physical, mental, and spiritual well-being.

• Mental Health Support: Dedicated mental health resources and support services.

• Retirement Savings Plan: 401(k) plan with potential employer matching.

• Life and Disability Insurance: Coverage options to provide financial security.

Working Hours:

• This is a full-time position, typically requiring approximately 40 hours per week. While core business hours are expected, there may be flexibility depending on project needs and team collaboration requirements, particularly during critical design phases or workshops.

📝 Enhancement Note: AdventHealth's explicit mention of "Benefits from Day One," "Paid Days Off from Day One," "Student Loan Repayment Program," and "Whole Person Wellbeing Resources" are significant differentiators. For operations professionals, benefits that support work-life balance, financial well-being, and continuous professional development are highly valued. The salary estimate is based on general market data for similar senior-level design and strategy roles in the Florida region, adjusted for the specialized healthcare IT sector.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Healthcare (specifically, Healthcare Information Technology and Innovation)

Company Size: AdventHealth is a large, multi-state healthcare system, employing tens of thousands of individuals. This indicates a stable, well-resourced organization with established processes and opportunities for large-scale impact.

Founded: AdventHealth was founded in 1908. With over a century of history, it signifies a long-standing commitment to its mission and a deep understanding of the healthcare landscape.

Team Structure:

• FORGE - IT Innovation Hub: This role is part of FORGE, AdventHealth's internal IT innovation team. This suggests a dynamic, forward-thinking environment focused on leveraging technology to improve healthcare delivery.

• Cross-functional Collaboration: The role will likely collaborate closely with product managers, software engineers, clinical stakeholders, IT leadership, and other designers to drive product strategy and execution.

• User-Centric Focus: The team's mission is centered around deep user empathy and real-world testing, indicating a culture that prioritizes understanding the needs of patients, clinicians, and care teams.

Methodology:

• Human-Centered Design (HCD): The core methodology is HCD, emphasizing empathy, ideation, prototyping, and testing throughout the product development lifecycle.

• Agile & SCRUM: The team operates within Agile and SCRUM frameworks, requiring iterative development, frequent feedback loops, and adaptive planning.

• Data-Driven Insights: A strong emphasis is placed on leveraging user research and behavioral data to inform strategic decisions and validate solutions.

Company Website: [AdventHealth Website - e.g., www.adventhealth.com]

📝 Enhancement Note: Working within an established healthcare system like AdventHealth, especially within its innovation arm (FORGE), offers a unique blend of mission-driven purpose and technological advancement. The large company size suggests robust infrastructure and potential for career growth, while the innovation focus implies a culture that encourages experimentation and new approaches to healthcare challenges. Understanding how innovation integrates with established operational processes will be key for candidates.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This position represents a senior-level individual contributor role within the product strategy and design function. It requires significant autonomy and the ability to lead initiatives, acting as a subject matter expert in human-centered design and product strategy.

Reporting Structure: The Product Strategy & Design Lead will likely report to a Director or Senior Manager within the FORGE innovation team or a related IT/Product Development leadership role. They will work independently on projects, collaborating with various cross-functional teams and stakeholders across the organization.

Operations Impact: The role has a direct impact on the effectiveness and adoption of healthcare technology solutions. By ensuring products are user-centric and address real-world needs, this position contributes to improved patient care, enhanced clinician workflows, greater operational efficiency, and ultimately, better health outcomes. The insights generated and strategies developed will influence the IT roadmap and investment decisions.

Growth Opportunities:

• Leadership in Design & Strategy: Potential to grow into a Lead Designer, Design Manager, or Senior Product Strategist role, overseeing larger portfolios or leading a team of designers.

• Domain Specialization: Deepen expertise in healthcare IT, digital health, and specific clinical or operational areas, becoming a sought-after specialist.

• Cross-functional Mobility: Opportunities to move into related product management, innovation strategy, or business analysis roles within AdventHealth.

• Professional Development: Access to training, conferences, and certifications relevant to user experience, design thinking, product strategy, and the healthcare industry.

📝 Enhancement Note: For an operations professional, this role offers a pathway to influence product development from a user-centric and strategic perspective, impacting how technology is leveraged to achieve operational goals. The growth opportunities highlight a potential career trajectory within a large organization, allowing for specialization or broader leadership roles in product and innovation.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: This is an on-site role, indicating a traditional office environment within AdventHealth's facilities. The FORGE team likely fosters a collaborative and innovative workspace designed to encourage brainstorming and teamwork.

Office Location(s): The primary location is Altamonte Springs, Florida. This likely means working from a corporate office or innovation hub within that area.

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Spaces: Expect access to meeting rooms, brainstorming areas, and potentially dedicated spaces for user research and prototyping activities.

• Technology & Tools: The team will be equipped with standard office technology and likely access to specialized design and collaboration software.

• Team Interaction: The role involves significant interaction with colleagues within the FORGE team and other departments, fostering a dynamic and communicative work environment.

Work Schedule: The role is full-time, with typical business hours. However, the nature of innovation and product development may occasionally require flexibility to meet project deadlines or facilitate workshops with diverse stakeholder availability.

📝 Enhancement Note: An on-site role in an innovation hub like FORGE suggests a more hands-on, collaborative approach to work. This environment is often conducive to rapid iteration and problem-solving, which aligns well with operational efficiency goals by encouraging direct communication and immediate feedback loops.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: A recruiter or hiring manager will likely conduct an initial screening call to assess basic qualifications, experience, and cultural fit.

• Portfolio Review & Discussion: Candidates will be asked to present their portfolio, discussing key projects, their role, design process, and the impact of their work. Be prepared to articulate your strategic thinking and user research methodologies.

• Case Study or Design Challenge: A practical exercise may be given, requiring candidates to analyze a problem, propose a design solution, or conduct a mini-research plan. This will assess problem-solving skills, design thinking, and communication abilities.

• Team/Stakeholder Interviews: Interviews with team members, potential peers, and key stakeholders (e.g., product managers, clinical leaders) to evaluate collaboration style, technical acumen, and alignment with the team's mission.

• Final Interview: A discussion with senior leadership to finalize the decision, focusing on strategic vision and leadership potential.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Curate Selectively: Choose 3-5 projects that best demonstrate your end-to-end product strategy and design capabilities, focusing on complexity, impact, and relevance to healthcare.

• Tell a Story: For each project, clearly articulate the problem, your process, your specific contributions, the challenges faced, and the measurable outcomes. Emphasize the "why" behind your design decisions.

• Showcase the Process: Include artifacts like user personas, journey maps, wireframes, prototypes, and research findings to illustrate your user-centric approach.

• Highlight Strategic Thinking: Explain how your work informed business decisions, influenced roadmaps, and contributed to strategic goals.

• Be Ready to Discuss: Prepare to answer detailed questions about your process, tools, and decision-making rationale.

Challenge Preparation:

• Understand the Context: Research AdventHealth's mission, values, and current initiatives in healthcare innovation. Familiarize yourself with common challenges in healthcare technology.

• Practice Problem Framing: Be ready to break down complex problems, identify key user groups, and define success metrics.

• Articulate Your Process: Clearly explain your approach to user research, ideation, prototyping, and validation, demonstrating flexibility and adaptability.

• Focus on Impact: Quantify results whenever possible, using data or qualitative feedback to support your claims about efficiency improvements or user satisfaction.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process heavily emphasizes the portfolio as a demonstration of applied skills and strategic thinking. Operations candidates should tailor their portfolio to showcase process improvement, data-driven decision-making, and the impact of their design work on efficiency and user workflows, aligning with operational objectives.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Design & Prototyping Software: Proficiency expected in tools like Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD, InVision, or similar for creating wireframes, user flows, mockups, and interactive prototypes.

• User Research Platforms: Familiarity with tools for conducting remote usability testing, surveys, and user interviews (e.g., UserTesting.com, SurveyMonkey, Zoom).

• Collaboration Suites: Experience with tools for team collaboration, project management, and documentation (e.g., Jira, Confluence, Slack, Microsoft Teams).

• Presentation Software: Mastery of tools like PowerPoint, Keynote, or Google Slides for presenting findings and strategies to stakeholders.

Analytics & Reporting:

• Data Analysis Tools: While not explicitly stated as a primary responsibility, understanding how to interpret data from analytics platforms (e.g., Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Amplitude) to inform design decisions would be beneficial.

• Reporting Dashboards: Experience with dashboarding tools for visualizing user behavior and project progress.

CRM & Automation:

• While not directly managing CRM or automation systems, an understanding of how user experience impacts the adoption and effectiveness of these systems within a healthcare context would be advantageous.

📝 Enhancement Note: For a role focused on product strategy and design, proficiency in leading design and prototyping tools is paramount. Understanding the broader technology ecosystem, including how user experience impacts the adoption of CRM, workflow automation, and data analytics platforms, adds significant value from an operations perspective, as it connects design to overall system efficiency.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Mission-Driven: A strong commitment to AdventHealth's mission of "Extending the Healing Ministry of Christ," ensuring that technology serves patient well-being and care.

• User-Centricity: Prioritizing deep empathy and understanding of patients, clinicians, and care teams in all design and strategic decisions.

• Collaboration: Fostering an inclusive environment where diverse perspectives are valued and actively sought to achieve better outcomes.

• Innovation & Agility: Embracing new ideas, experimenting with solutions, and adapting quickly to evolving needs and technologies within the healthcare landscape.

• Data-Informed: Utilizing research and analytics to guide decision-making and measure the impact of design interventions.

Collaboration Style:

• Cross-functional Integration: Actively engaging with diverse teams (product, engineering, clinical, business) to ensure holistic product development.

• Open Communication: Encouraging transparent dialogue, constructive feedback, and sharing of insights to drive collective understanding and progress.

• Workshop-Driven: Utilizing facilitated sessions as a primary means of collaborative problem-solving, ideation, and alignment.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on mission, user-centricity, and collaboration aligns with operational principles of service excellence and stakeholder alignment. For candidates, demonstrating how they embody these values in their approach to process design and problem-solving will be key to fitting into the team's culture.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Balancing User Needs with Business Constraints: Effectively advocating for user needs while navigating technical limitations, budget considerations, and stakeholder priorities within a large healthcare organization.

• Integrating Innovation within a Large System: Ensuring that new digital solutions are successfully adopted and scaled within AdventHealth's existing operational framework and IT infrastructure.

• Synthesizing Diverse Stakeholder Input: Managing and synthesizing feedback from a wide range of users and stakeholders, each with unique perspectives and needs.

• Measuring Impact in Healthcare: Demonstrating the tangible impact of design interventions on patient care, clinical efficiency, and operational outcomes, which can be complex in the healthcare sector.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Advanced Design Methodologies: Deepen expertise in emerging UX research, design thinking, and product strategy techniques.

• Healthcare Industry Insights: Gain specialized knowledge of healthcare IT, clinical workflows, patient engagement strategies, and regulatory compliance.

• Leadership Skills: Develop skills in strategic planning, stakeholder management, and team facilitation through leading projects and initiatives.

• Industry Conferences & Training: Opportunities to attend relevant conferences, workshops, and pursue certifications in UX, product management, or healthcare innovation.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges highlight the complexities of implementing user-centric design in a large, regulated industry like healthcare. Growth opportunities are geared towards developing deep domain expertise and leadership capabilities, valuable for advancing within operations-focused roles that require strategic influence and technical understanding.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "Describe a time you used user research to significantly shift product strategy or influence a key business decision. What was your process, and what was the outcome?" (Focus on research methodology, insight synthesis, and impact.)

• "How do you balance the needs of diverse user groups (e.g., patients, clinicians, administrators) when designing a solution? Provide an example." (Focus on user segmentation, empathy, and inclusive design.)

• "Walk us through your approach to facilitating a design sprint or workshop. How do you ensure all voices are heard and that actionable outcomes are achieved?" (Focus on facilitation skills, process management, and collaboration.)

Company & Culture Questions:

• "What interests you about AdventHealth's mission, and how does your approach to design align with our values?" (Research AdventHealth's mission, vision, and values.)

• "Describe your experience working in an Agile/SCRUM environment. How do you collaborate with product managers and engineers?" (Highlight adaptability, teamwork, and understanding of development cycles.)

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Structure for Impact: Begin with a concise overview of your career and design philosophy. Then, dive into your selected case studies, dedicating ample time to each.

• Focus on the "Why": For each project, clearly explain the problem statement, the user needs identified, and the strategic rationale behind your design decisions.

• Show, Don't Just Tell: Utilize visuals effectively – journey maps, wireframes, prototypes, research findings – to illustrate your process and solutions.

• Quantify Results: Whenever possible, present metrics or qualitative feedback that demonstrate the positive impact of your work on user experience, efficiency, or business objectives.

• Engage Your Audience: Encourage questions throughout or at the end, and be prepared to discuss your work in detail, demonstrating deep understanding and passion.

📝 Enhancement Note: Interview preparation should focus on demonstrating a strategic, process-oriented approach to design, mirroring the analytical and problem-solving skills required in operations roles. Emphasize how your design work contributes to efficiency, user adoption, and achieving organizational objectives.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Product Strategy and Design Lead position:

• Submit your application through the provided link on the AdventHealth careers portal.

• Portfolio Customization: Ensure your portfolio prominently features case studies that highlight your user research capabilities, strategic thinking, and process-driven design approach, with a focus on the impact of your work.

• Resume Optimization: Tailor your resume to emphasize your 7+ years of experience in user research, product strategy, and design, using keywords such as "human-centered design," "user research," "product strategy," "Agile," "prototyping," and "stakeholder management." Quantify achievements where possible.

• Interview Preparation: Practice articulating your design process, research methodologies, and the strategic impact of your work. Prepare to discuss specific projects in detail, focusing on problem-solving and user advocacy.

• Company Research: Thoroughly research AdventHealth's mission, values, and the role of the FORGE innovation team. Understand their commitment to extending the healing ministry of Christ and how technology supports this.

⚠️ 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.