Staff Product Designer, Performance Reviews

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Staff Product Designer, Performance Reviews

Company: Lattice

Location: Remote - US

Job Type: Full-Time

Category: Product Design / GTM Operations Enablement

Date Posted: May 04, 2026

Experience Level: 10+ Years

Remote Status: Fully Remote

🚀 Role Summary

• This role is pivotal in revolutionizing the performance review process through AI-native design solutions, impacting a core product area within Lattice's unified people platform.

• Requires a strong command of end-to-end user experience design, focusing on complex workflows and cross-product integration within a B2B SaaS environment.

• Candidates will be expected to act as builders, leveraging modern AI tooling and coding capabilities to prototype and drive product development, pushing the boundaries of current design and engineering stacks.

• The position emphasizes systems thinking, contributing to and evolving a robust design system to ensure a cohesive and high-quality customer experience across the entire platform.

📝 Enhancement Note: While the primary focus is Product Design, the emphasis on "Performance Reviews," "unified people platform," "Talent Management suite," and "cross-functional collaboration with Product, Engineering, Data, and Customer stakeholders" positions this role as having significant indirect impact on Go-To-Market (GTM) operations enablement through improved product adoption, user efficiency, and customer satisfaction. The "Staff" level designation indicates a senior individual contributor role with significant strategic influence.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• End-to-End Product Ownership: Take full ownership of the user experience for the Performance Reviews product, including ideation, design, prototyping, and collaboration through development and release.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with Product Management, Engineering, Data Science, and Customer Success teams to define product strategy, scope initiatives, and ensure successful execution against customer and business needs.

• Systems Design & Integration: Design features and workflows as part of a larger system, ensuring seamless integration and a cohesive customer journey across Lattice's entire product suite.

• Design System Stewardship: Champion, maintain, and evolve the company's design system, setting high standards for visual, interaction, and UX design, and contributing new components and layouts.

• Customer-Centric Design: Deeply understand customer needs through user research and data analysis, translating insights into effective and innovative design solutions.

• AI Tooling Integration: Proactively experiment with and apply AI tooling (e.g., Claude, Cursor, coding agents) to enhance design processes, increase efficiency, and deepen strategic thinking.

• Ambiguity Navigation: Lead through complex, ambiguous problem spaces, making thoughtful tradeoffs to prioritize impact and ensure timely delivery of high-quality products.

• Mentorship and Feedback: Actively contribute to a feedback-rich culture by providing constructive critiques, mentoring junior designers, and modeling transparency.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a senior-level product designer who acts as a strategic partner, influencing not just the UI/UX but also the product direction and operational efficiency through AI adoption. The expectation to "prototype in code" and "write the doc that aligns the room" points to a highly integrated role with engineering and product management, crucial for efficient GTM.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: A background or formal education in Graphic Design or Product Design is considered a very nice-to-have, indicating a preference for foundational design principles.

Experience:

• Core Design Experience: 7 to 10+ years of experience designing complex workflows, particularly those that span multiple products within a suite or have significant cross-product impact.

• Product Development Lifecycle: Proven success working from concept through to launch, with experience in iterative design and development cycles.

• Systems Thinking: Demonstrated ability to work with and evolve established design systems, including reusing components and building new ones.

• Cross-Team Collaboration: Experience working effectively across multiple departments to ensure holistic user journeys and design cohesion.

• Customer Insight Integration: Proven track record of leveraging quantitative and qualitative data from User Research and Analytics to inform design decisions.

Required Skills:

• Expert Visual & Interaction Design: Deep understanding of typography, hierarchy, spacing, grids, and responsive layouts; ability to create novel, high-quality UI and strategically diverge from standard patterns.

• Systems Thinking: Proficient in leveraging and contributing to design systems, understanding component-based design and its impact on scalability and consistency.

• User Empathy & Research: Strong ability to deeply understand customer needs, utilizing user research and data analytics to drive informed design decisions.

• Prototyping & Tooling: Comfortable with modern design tools, with a strong ability to prototype, work in coding tools, and leverage AI tools for accelerated workflows.

• Communication & Articulation: Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to succinctly articulate complex challenges and design rationale.

• Collaboration & Partnership: Proven ability to be a reliable and proactive partner to Product Management and Engineering, contributing to strategic alignment and team focus.

• Feedback & Mentorship: A proactive contributor to a feedback culture, offering constructive criticism and mentoring peers.

Preferred Skills:

• Hybrid Role Experience: Experience in a hybrid role (e.g., Design & Product, Design & Engineering) or equivalent background (shipping code, significant product definition contribution).

• Industry Experience: Experience in B2B SaaS, HR Tech, Performance Management, or internal tooling.

• Technical Proficiency: HTML/CSS/JS experience.

• AI Tooling Application: Demonstrated interest and ability to apply AI tooling to design processes for efficiency and depth.

📝 Enhancement Note: The experience requirement of "7 to 10+ years" combined with the "Staff" title implies a senior individual contributor role. The emphasis on complex workflows, systems thinking, and cross-product impact suggests this role is critical for ensuring a unified and efficient user experience, which directly supports GTM efforts by reducing friction for users and enabling broader product adoption. The "builder mindset" and AI tooling expectation are forward-looking and indicate a need for an adaptable, innovative candidate.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Complex Workflow Case Studies: Showcase 2-3 detailed case studies demonstrating experience designing complex, multi-stage workflows, ideally within a suite of products or with significant cross-functional dependencies.

• Design System Contributions: Highlight examples of how you have utilized, contributed to, or evolved a design system, demonstrating understanding of component libraries, style guides, and their impact on product consistency and scalability.

• Systems Thinking Examples: Present projects that illustrate your ability to think holistically about the user journey, connecting individual features to the broader product ecosystem and customer lifecycle.

• AI Tooling Integration: Include examples or explanations of how you've leveraged new technologies, particularly AI tools or coding, to accelerate your design process, solve complex problems, or enhance output quality.

• Problem-Solution Framing: Clearly articulate a customer or business problem, the process undertaken to understand it (including research and data), the design solutions explored, and the final implemented outcome.

Process Documentation:

• Workflow Design & Optimization: Demonstrate your ability to map, analyze, and optimize existing workflows, identifying bottlenecks and proposing data-informed improvements.

• System Implementation & Automation: Provide examples of how your designs were implemented within engineering constraints, and how you considered automation or efficiency gains in your design solutions.

• Metrics & Impact Analysis: Showcase how you measure the success of your designs, using quantitative and qualitative data, and how you articulate the impact on user behavior, efficiency, or business outcomes.

📝 Enhancement Note: For a Staff Product Designer role, especially one focused on a core product like Performance Reviews and emphasizing AI, the portfolio is crucial. It needs to demonstrate not just aesthetic skill but also strategic thinking, systems-level problem-solving, and an embrace of new technologies. The emphasis on "complex workflows" and "systems thinking" aligns with the need to create scalable and integrated GTM experiences.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: The estimated annual cash salary range for this role is $163,500 - $204,500 USD.

Benefits:

• Comprehensive Health: Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance.

• Life & Disability: Life, Accidental Death & Dismemberment (AD&D), and Disability Insurance.

• Wellness & Support: Emergency Weather Support, Wellness Apps, Paid Parental Leave, Paid Time Off (inclusive of holidays and sick time).

• Commuter & Home Office: Commuter & Parking Accounts, Lunches in the Office, Internet and Phone Stipend, One-time WFH Office Set-Up Stipend.

• Financial & Professional Development: 401(k) Retirement Plan, Financial Planning, Learning & Development Budget.

• Equity: Eligible for Incentive Stock Options, subject to plan terms.

Working Hours: Approximately 40 hours per week, with flexibility expected given the remote, asynchronous-friendly nature of the role and the company's global customer base.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary range provided is a strong benchmark for a Staff Product Designer in a US-based remote role, particularly in a well-funded SaaS company. The inclusion of stock options is a significant component of total compensation for senior roles. The benefits package is comprehensive, catering to both employee well-being and professional growth, which is attractive to high-caliber operations and design talent. The salary was estimated based on the provided range, and the benefits were extracted directly from the job description.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Human Resources Technology (HR Tech) / B2B SaaS, specifically a "unified people platform" focused on talent management. Lattice operates in a competitive but growing market where employee experience and organizational effectiveness are increasingly prioritized.

Company Size: Approximately 13 people on the Design team, with the overall company size not explicitly stated but implied to be larger than just the design team, supporting over 5,000 customers globally. This suggests a growing mid-stage company with established processes but still agile enough for rapid evolution.

Founded: 2016. This indicates Lattice has a track record and has moved beyond its startup phase, likely with a mature product suite and established market presence, now focusing on next-generation AI-native products.

Team Structure:

• Design Team: ~13 individuals, spanning Brand Design, Product Design, and Research. This is a moderately sized, specialized design team.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Works closely with Product, Engineering, Data, and Customer stakeholders, indicating a collaborative, integrated approach to product development.

• Reporting Structure: While not explicitly stated, a Staff Product Designer typically reports to a Design Manager or Director of Product Design. The emphasis on autonomy suggests a high-trust environment.

Methodology:

• AI-Native Product Development: Actively building the next generation of their product suite with an AI-native approach, implying a focus on innovation, experimentation, and leveraging emerging technologies.

• Systems Thinking: Emphasis on designing systems, not just features, indicating a strategic approach to product architecture and user experience.

• Data-Driven Design: Regular use of User Research and Data to inform design decisions, suggesting a commitment to evidence-based product development.

• Agile & Iterative: Implicit in a fast-paced SaaS environment, with a focus on "shipping the best products" and making "thoughtful tradeoffs."

Company Website: https://lattice.com/

📝 Enhancement Note: The company culture described is one of innovation, high trust, collaboration, and a strong focus on individual and team growth. The emphasis on AI and building the "next generation" product suite signals an exciting, forward-looking environment for designers. The size of the design team suggests opportunities for impact and influence, while the broader customer base indicates a stable and growing business.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: Staff Product Designer. This is a senior individual contributor role, typically a step below Principal Designer. It signifies a high level of expertise, autonomy, and the capacity to lead complex projects, mentor others, and influence product strategy without direct management responsibility. The focus is on deep expertise and strategic impact within a specific product domain.

Reporting Structure: The role likely reports to a Design Manager or Director of Product Design. They will work closely with Product Managers and Engineering Leads for their designated product area. This structure allows for focused execution while benefiting from broader design leadership and strategic direction.

Operations Impact: While not a traditional "operations" role, a Staff Product Designer significantly impacts GTM operations by:

• Enhancing Product Adoption: Designing intuitive and efficient workflows for core features like performance reviews.

• Improving User Efficiency: Streamlining processes that save users time and reduce administrative burden, leading to higher satisfaction and retention.

• Driving Feature Usage: Creating engaging experiences that encourage deeper utilization of the platform's capabilities.

• Supporting Customer Success: Providing tools that help customers achieve their talent management goals, reducing churn and increasing customer lifetime value.

• Enabling Sales: A well-designed, AI-enhanced product can be a strong selling point, demonstrating innovation and value.

Growth Opportunities:

• Technical & Strategic Depth: Opportunity to deepen expertise in AI-native design, complex workflow design, and design systems within a leading HR Tech platform.

• Leadership & Mentorship: Potential to mentor junior designers, lead design initiatives within their product area, and influence design best practices across the team.

• Career Progression: Pathways to Principal Product Designer, Design Lead, or management roles, depending on individual aspirations and performance.

• Learning & Development: Access to a dedicated Learning & Development budget for conferences, courses, and skill-building relevant to advanced design and AI technologies.

📝 Enhancement Note: The Staff level is a significant career milestone, offering substantial autonomy and influence. The "operations" impact is indirect but critical, focusing on how the product's design contributes to the overall success and efficiency of Lattice's clients and its own GTM efforts. The growth opportunities are tailored towards deepening specialized skills and advancing within the design discipline.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: Fully Remote. The company emphasizes a remote-first or remote-friendly approach, with an Internet and Phone Stipend and a one-time WFH Office Set-Up Stipend provided. This indicates a commitment to supporting remote employees effectively.

Office Location(s): Remote - US. While the company is global, this specific role is designated for candidates located within the United States, likely to align with timezone considerations for collaboration and potentially legal/tax reasons.

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Environment: While remote, the role stresses close collaboration with Product, Engineering, and Data teams. This implies a culture that fosters virtual teamwork, transparent communication, and shared ownership.

• Tools & Technology: Employees are expected to have reliable internet access and are provided with stipends to set up their home offices, ensuring they have the necessary tools and technology to perform their jobs effectively. The company also encourages the use of modern AI tools.

• Team Interaction: Regular interaction with design, product, and engineering colleagues is expected, likely facilitated through video conferencing, Slack, and project management tools. The company culture promotes feedback and transparency.

Work Schedule: Approximately 40 hours per week. Given the remote nature and global customer base, there's an implicit expectation of flexibility to accommodate different time zones and urgent project needs, while also respecting work-life balance. The company promotes asynchronous communication where possible.

📝 Enhancement Note: The remote-first environment is a key aspect of this role, supported by specific stipends and a focus on effective virtual collaboration. The US-based requirement for this role suggests a need for some level of synchronous collaboration, though the company likely supports asynchronous work to accommodate a distributed team.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: A review of your application, resume, and portfolio, focusing on experience with complex workflows, design systems, and AI tooling.

• Portfolio Presentation & Discussion: A dedicated session (likely 60-90 mins) where you present 1-2 key portfolio pieces, detailing your process, decision-making, and impact. Expect questions about your systems thinking, collaboration style, and approach to ambiguity.

• Cross-Functional Interviews: Meetings with Product Managers, Engineering Leads, and potentially other designers or researchers. These interviews will assess your collaboration skills, technical understanding, and ability to integrate design into the development process.

• Staff-Level Deep Dive: Discussions focusing on strategic thinking, leadership potential, experience with ambiguity, and your vision for evolving design within the company and the broader AI landscape.

• Final Interview/Hiring Manager Chat: A final conversation to ensure cultural fit, discuss compensation, and answer any remaining questions.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Focus on Impact & Process: For each case study, clearly articulate the problem, your specific role and contributions, the design process (including research and iteration), the challenges faced, and the measurable outcomes (quantitative if possible).

• Showcase Systems Thinking: Explicitly demonstrate how your designs fit into a larger product ecosystem and how you utilized or contributed to the design system.

• Highlight AI & Builder Mindset: Include examples or discuss your approach to using AI tools, coding, or rapid prototyping to accelerate your work and solve problems.

• Tailor to Lattice: Research Lattice's product and existing design language. Understand their customer base and the HR Tech space. Frame your experience in a way that resonates with their mission and challenges.

• Concise & Clear Storytelling: Be prepared to walk through your work efficiently. Use clear visuals and concise explanations. Practice your narrative.

Challenge Preparation:

• Design Challenge: Be prepared for a take-home design challenge or a live design exercise focused on a complex workflow or a problem related to performance reviews or AI integration.

• Problem Solving: Anticipate questions that require you to break down ambiguous problems, outline your approach, and justify your design decisions under hypothetical constraints.

• Collaboration Scenarios: Prepare to discuss how you would collaborate with product managers and engineers on challenging features, manage differing opinions, and ensure design quality through development.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process for a Staff level role is rigorous and multi-faceted. The portfolio review is paramount, demanding a clear demonstration of strategic thinking, technical capability, and problem-solving skills. The emphasis on AI and systems thinking suggests the company is looking for someone who can shape future product directions.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Design & Prototyping: Figma (standard for UI/UX design and collaboration), potentially tools for advanced prototyping.

• Design Systems: Figma, Storybook, or similar component management platforms.

• AI Tooling: Candidates are expected to be comfortable with and experiment with modern AI tools such as Claude, Cursor, and coding agents to accelerate workflows.

• Coding/Prototyping: Proficiency in coding tools for prototyping is highly valued. This could include web technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) or specific prototyping frameworks.

Analytics & Reporting:

• User Analytics: Tools like Amplitude, Mixpanel, or similar platforms for tracking user behavior, feature adoption, and conversion funnels.

• Data Visualization: Potentially tools like Tableau, Looker, or internal dashboards for analyzing quantitative data and presenting insights.

CRM & Automation:

• CRM: While not directly a CRM role, understanding how design impacts CRM data and user workflows is beneficial.

• Project Management: Tools like Jira, Asana, or Trello for managing design tasks, sprints, and collaborating with engineering.

• Communication: Slack for real-time communication and collaboration.

📝 Enhancement Note: The tech stack emphasizes modern design and collaboration tools, with a strong forward-looking emphasis on AI and coding-based prototyping. Candidates are expected to be adaptable and willing to learn new tools as the landscape evolves. The inclusion of AI tools like Claude and Cursor is a significant differentiator.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Growth & Learning: A strong emphasis on continuous learning, skill development, and professional growth, supported by a dedicated L&D budget.

• Collaboration & Transparency: High-trust environment where open communication, feedback, and shared ownership are encouraged across all functions.

• Impact & Ownership: A focus on delivering tangible value to customers and the business, with individuals taking ownership of their work and driving initiatives forward.

• Innovation & Experimentation: Encouragement to push boundaries, experiment with new technologies (especially AI), and build the future of the product.

• Customer-Centricity: A commitment to understanding and solving customer problems, evidenced by the use of data and research in design decisions.

Collaboration Style:

• Cross-Functional Partnership: Deep integration with Product, Engineering, and Data teams, working collaboratively to define strategy, scope projects, and ensure successful execution.

• Feedback-Driven Iteration: A culture that values constructive feedback, both given and received, to elevate the quality of design and product outcomes.

• Systems-Oriented Approach: A collective understanding that individual features contribute to a larger system, requiring alignment and coordination across product areas.

• Proactive Communication: Emphasis on clear, concise, and timely communication, especially in a remote environment, to keep stakeholders informed and aligned.

📝 Enhancement Note: The values highlight a dynamic, growth-oriented, and collaborative culture. For a Staff Designer, embodying these values means being proactive, a strong communicator, and a team player who can drive impact while fostering a positive team environment.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Navigating Ambiguity: The role requires comfort with undefined problems and evolving requirements, particularly in the nascent field of AI-native product design.

• Balancing Innovation with Execution: Integrating cutting-edge AI capabilities while ensuring a stable, scalable, and user-friendly experience for a core product like Performance Reviews.

• Cross-Product Cohesion: Ensuring the Performance Reviews product seamlessly integrates with other parts of Lattice's platform, requiring strong collaboration and systems thinking.

• Evolving AI Landscape: Keeping pace with rapid advancements in AI tooling and methodologies to continuously improve design processes and product capabilities.

• Stakeholder Alignment: Effectively communicating complex design decisions and strategies to diverse stakeholders (Product, Engineering, Leadership) to gain buy-in and drive consensus.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• AI Design Specialization: Opportunity to become a leader in applying AI to product design within the HR Tech space.

• Advanced Systems Design: Deepen expertise in designing and evolving complex, integrated product systems.

• Strategic Impact: Influence the direction of core products and contribute to the company's AI strategy.

• Mentorship & Leadership: Develop leadership skills through mentoring junior designers and leading design initiatives.

• Industry Exposure: Access to L&D budgets for conferences, workshops, and certifications to stay at the forefront of design and technology trends.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges are typical for a senior role in an innovative tech company, especially one embracing AI. The growth opportunities are substantial, offering a chance to gain deep expertise and leadership experience in a high-demand area.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• Ambiguity & Problem Solving: "Describe a time you were faced with a highly ambiguous design problem. What was your process for defining the problem, exploring solutions, and arriving at a decision?" (Prepare to discuss your structured approach, research methods, and decision-making criteria.)

• Systems Thinking & Collaboration: "How do you ensure a new feature or product area integrates seamlessly with an existing suite of products? Describe a time you collaborated across multiple teams to achieve design cohesion." (Focus on your examples of cross-functional partnership and understanding of holistic user journeys.)

• AI & Innovation: "What are your thoughts on the impact of AI on product design, and how have you experimented with AI tools in your workflow? What opportunities do you see for AI in performance management?" (Be ready to discuss specific tools, your experiences, and forward-thinking ideas.)

Company & Culture Questions:

• Lattice's Mission: "What excites you about Lattice's mission to build cultures where employees and companies thrive? How does your design philosophy align with this?" (Research Lattice's values and articulate your connection.)

• Team Dynamics: "How do you approach giving and receiving feedback within a design team? Describe your ideal collaborative relationship with Product Managers and Engineers." (Highlight your experience with feedback culture and cross-functional partnership.)

• Impact & Ownership: "Tell me about a project where you took significant ownership and drove it to a successful outcome. How did you measure its impact?" (Prepare a concise case study demonstrating your proactive approach and focus on results.)

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Storytelling: Structure your case studies as compelling narratives: Problem -> Your Role & Process -> Solution -> Impact.

• Focus on "Why": Clearly articulate the rationale behind your design decisions, supported by research, data, or strategic thinking.

• Show, Don't Just Tell: Use visuals effectively. Show wireframes, mockups, prototypes, and design system components.

• Quantify Impact: Wherever possible, present metrics that demonstrate the success of your designs (e.g., increased engagement, reduced task completion time, improved conversion rates).

• AI & Builder Evidence: Explicitly point out where you used AI tools, code, or rapid prototyping to accelerate your work or solve a specific challenge.

• Conciseness: Be mindful of time. Rehearse to ensure you can cover key points efficiently and effectively.

📝 Enhancement Note: Interview preparation should focus on demonstrating deep expertise, strategic thinking, and a proactive, collaborative approach. Highlighting experience with complex systems, AI tools, and quantifiable impact will be key for a Staff-level role.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Staff Product Designer position:

• Submit Your Application: Utilize the provided application link on the Lattice careers page.

• Curate Your Portfolio: Select 2-3 of your strongest case studies that best showcase your experience with complex workflows, design systems, AI tooling, and cross-functional collaboration. Tailor your presentation to highlight your systems thinking and ability to drive impact.

• Optimize Your Resume: Ensure your resume clearly details your 7-10+ years of relevant experience, emphasizing achievements in product design, workflow optimization, and any contributions to design systems or AI-driven innovation. Use keywords from the job description.

• Prepare for Interviews: Research Lattice, their products, and their mission. Be ready to articulate your design philosophy, your approach to ambiguity and collaboration, and how you've leveraged AI and coding tools in your work. Practice presenting your portfolio and answering strategy-based questions.

• Understand the Role's Impact: Be prepared to discuss how your role as a Staff Product Designer contributes to Lattice's overall business objectives and GTM success, particularly through user experience and product adoption.

⚠️ 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.