Head of Product Design

Company: Griffin Fire
Location: Boston
Posted on: January 30, 2025

Job Description:

We're putting together a talented team to build the #1 training platform for Runners.
We help everyday runners become outstanding by providing world-class training, coaching, and community for everyone, whether you're improving your 5k time or training for your first marathon. To date, we have built iOS, Android, and Apple Watch apps that help people achieve their goals by coaching them through the full journey and syncing to their favorite fitness devices.
We're growing extremely fast and in November 2023 closed a new $6.5M funding round led by JamJar with participation from Eka Ventures, Venrex, and Creator Ventures. In 2024, we were selected by Apple as one of three global finalists for the 2024 iPhone App of the Year, reflecting the innovation and impact of what we've built. We want to grow as fast as we can into the future and are looking for individuals who will help us get there.
We're now looking ahead to the future and the people who want to help us build and scale Runna. Our aim is to reach millions of subscribers in the next 5 years and be the go-to training platform for any runner. Now is a magical time to join; we're still small, and everyone makes a foundational difference.
Who we're looking for
We are looking for a talented, creative, and positive team player to join our highly-skilled Product Design Team to help design new features for our iOS, Android, and Apple Watch applications and third-party integrations (Garmin, Strava, Coros, Suunto, etc.). You will work closely with our founders, designers, engineers, PM, and most importantly customers, to help shape the future of Runna.
As a Head of Design, your role will be to own the full end-to-end product design lifecycle at Runna from research and discovery to design and development:

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• Lead, mentor, and line manage all of the design team at Runna.
  
• Work with the whole design and product team as well as our amazing customers to discover and prioritize user needs across their journey.
  
• Lead user research, testing, UI, and UX strategy along with our product design team, ensuring consistent and high-quality work.
  
• Own design team culture, making it positive, inclusive, accountable, and fun!
  
• Be the voice for design within the company, advocating at all levels.
  
• Lead design processes, meetings, calls, ways of working, and more.
  
• Lead all hiring as we significantly grow our design team in 2025.
  
• Work collaboratively with engineers, product managers, and everyone across the wider company to make quick decisions in a collaborative environment.
  
• Own the design roadmaps and backlogs and collaborate with Product on Product Roadmaps.
  
  You will be reporting directly to Dom (Co-Founder and CEO).
  What experience we're looking for
  If you don't quite meet all of the below skills, we'd still love to hear from you as we might be able to tweak the role slightly or offer you a position better suited for you. We're also open to more senior and more junior candidates for this role.
  
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  • 7+ years experience in Product Design, currently working as a 'CDO', 'Head of Design' or 'Lead' (or equivalent) level designer.
    
  • Experience mentoring, managing, and hiring both senior and junior designers.
    
  • Experience with mobile apps.
    
  • Experience designing for large-scale user bases with a strong emphasis on user-first principles.
    
  • A design generalist; while you may have developed a specialism, you are an expert on everything design from testing and research to FIGMA and design systems.
    
  • Experience working closely with product and engineering teams in delivery.
    
  • Enjoy championing design across the organizations you've worked at.
    
  • Love speaking to users to understand needs, in order to solve problems as effectively as possible.
    
  • Played a big part in evolving design processes, creating amazing team atmospheres and are seen as the 'core' of the design teams you've worked in.
    
  • Obsess over small details that take designs to the next level (e.g., perfect pixel alignment, interaction, animations) as much as the bigger picture problems.
    
    Bonus points if you:
    
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    • Have an interest or background in fitness, running, or health.
      
      Interview process
      Our aim is to keep the interview process as straightforward and enjoyable as possible. However, for senior roles such as this, the process is extended such that you can really get a feel for the team and company before accepting an offer. The interview process will consist of the following stages:
      
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      • Kick off!
        
      • Quick screening call with Em (Talent Lead).
        
      • Introductory chat with Dom (25 minutes video call - covering your design experience to date).
        
      • Detailed experience, portfolio, and user testing/research interview with Dom (50 minutes video call).
        
      • Take-home design task (-2-3 hours to complete).
        
      • UI/UX review and app critique with Dom and Alp (50 minutes video call).
        
      • Whiteboard challenge with Dom and a Principal PM or Senior Product Designer (50 minutes video call).
        
      • Hiring, management, and design team leadership interview with Dom and Milly (Head of People) (30 minutes video call).
        
      • Meet the current team in-person (we'll get you into either our London or Boston offices).
        
        Once the process is finished, we promise to let you know our decision as soon as possible.
        We offer a salary of -130k - -150k+ in London (with US salary dependent on location), depending on experience, plus equity in the form of Runna stock options.
        We'll be growing our package of benefits over time. We currently offer:
        
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        • Flexible working (we typically work 2-3 days in our offices in Vauxhall and Boston).
          
        • Salary reviews every 6 months or whenever we raise more investment.
          
        • 33 days of holiday including public holidays.
          
        • A workplace pension scheme / 401k.
          
        • A brand new MacBook, a running watch of your choice, and anything else you need to do your best work.
          
        • Private health insurance (enhanced for US colleagues).
          
        • Enhanced family care policy (3 months fully paid leave when a new Runna joins the family, fertility support & other benefits).
          
        • An hour slot during work time each week to do a Runna workout.
          
          Note: we're open to exploring a 3-month contract initially to see if it's a good fit for both parties.
          Still have questions? Check out our Careers Page and FAQ.
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Keywords: Griffin Fire, Newton , Head of Product Design, Other , Boston, Massachusetts