Director, Digital Experience Research and Design – Clinical Experiences

Details

• Department: Growth Marketing & Digital Experience
• Schedule: Monday - Friday, 8 hour shift
• Location: Remote
  
  

Benefits

Paid time off (PTO)

Various health insurance options & wellness plans

Retirement benefits including employer match plans

Long-term & short-term disability

Employee assistance programs (EAP)

Parental leave & adoption assistance

Tuition reimbursement

Ways to give back to your community

• Please note, benefits and benefits eligibility can vary by position, exclusions may apply for some roles (for example: Travel, PRN, Short-Term Option, etc.). Actual compensation offer will vary based upon role, education, experience, location, and qualifications. Connect with your Talent Advisor for additional specifics.
  
  

Responsibilities

The Ascension Digital Experience Research & Design (xRD) team seeks a dynamic Director of Experience Research and Design for our Clinical Experience product portfolio. In this role, the Director will play a pivotal role in shaping the digital experience of our patients, clinicians, nurses, and other clinical care team members. The xRD Director will lead product design teams and collaborate closely with clinical leadership, product management, and engineering to ensure a seamless and user-centric experience.

In this role, you will have a direct impact on the following areas:

• Work across our Clinical Transformation and Clinical Experience teams as a “Strategic Tile Lead”, partnering with cross-functional colleagues to shape strategy and oversee program and product delivery.
• Partner with Product Management, Clinical Informaticists, Clinician Leadership, and Digital Engineering to develop quality experiences that drive healthcare engagements and product strategy.
• Collaborate with other xRD Leaders to implement digital product design and human-centered design research best practices to ensure quality, consistency, and engaging experiences for Ascension Clinical Experiences.
• Drive UX research and design to create excellent and consistent experiences across a range of clinician, nurse, support staff, and patient programs and applications — digital care plans, pre-visit communications, connected care solutions, surgical scheduling, EHR app data visualizations, as well as enhancements for clinical experiences such as discharging, rounding, handoff, nurse call systems, and AI-driven tools for navigation, ambient listening, and patient interactions.
• Oversee staff, manage budgets, prioritize work and drive quarterly planning. Additionally, manage capacity and program prioritization, implement Digital Product Design Center of Excellence best practices, and ensure quality control.
  
  

Background:

Ascension, one of the largest non-profit healthcare systems in the United States, is dedicated to providing compassionate care to all individuals, particularly those facing poverty and vulnerability. We leverage human-centered design, data, and technology to create innovative products that transform healthcare experiences.

Our multidisciplinary Digital Experience Research and Design (xRD) team employs human-centered design methodologies to understand user needs, explore solutions, and bring valuable products to market. Working collaboratively with product management, clinicians, engineering, and other Ascension teams, we inform Ascension's clinical experience strategy and contribute to the organization's mission and growth through continuous value delivery.

Our vision is to craft seamless, end-to-end healthcare and clinical experiences through a cohesive ecosystem of well-designed applications, products, and services that prioritize user needs at every stage of development.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Set Strategy and Ensure Delivery: In collaboration with your Clinical Transformation and Clinical Experience, product, and engineering portfolio lead counterparts, refine the strategic direction for your digital experience product portfolio, align feature teams with the vision, and lead discovery and delivery planning each quarter.
• Interdisciplinary Research and Design: Guide your portfolio's interdisciplinary research and design activities to integrate human-centered design principles into product development strategies for clinician and patient facing products.
• Oversight and Direction of Research & Experience Design Team: Oversee a cross functional team of product designers, researchers, and communication designers.
  
  

Responsibilities:

• Drive the established vision for the strategic workstreams and align feature teams with this vision, including quarterly discovery and delivery planning.
• Collaborate with Clinical Experience, Clinical Transformation, and xRD leadership to ensure timely and on-spec implementation of deliverables in line with the strategic vision.
• Manage staff and workload and capacity planning in collaboration with clinical, product, and engineering portfolio leads.
• Prioritize features and experiences based on the Clinical Experience & Transformation strategies and success metrics, refining prioritization as needed based on measured outcomes and performance metrics, including OKRs and KPIs.
• Engage stakeholders and communicate the vision, strategy, budget, project plans, and delivery progress.
• Stay informed about market, competitive, legislative, and product trends to refine roadmaps, deployment strategies, and the clinician experience.
• Coordinate planning efforts with Engineering and Product to align with business objectives.
• Create, build, manage, and track the portfolio budget against the plan and make refinements as required.
• Serve as a subject matter expert in human-centered design, design thinking, and digital product (UX) design for your portfolio.
• Ensure proper staffing and cultivate a strong team of individual contributors and/or contractors to deliver on strategic goals.
• Oversee cross-functional discovery activities, from research to usability testing and ongoing analytics review.
• Lead workshops with key stakeholders to review and approve design work and drive user-centric alignment.
• Ensure adherence to internal and industry best practices, including interaction conventions, brand standards, accessibility practices, and the Helix design system.
• Inspire Clinical Experience teams and Ascension leadership by communicating experience visions and advocating for exceptional design in healthcare.
  
  

Requirements

Education:

• High School diploma equivalency with 5 years of applicable cumulative job specific experience required, with 2 of those years being in leadership/management OR Associate's degree/Bachelor's degree with 3 years of applicable cumulative job specific experience required, with 2 of those years being in leadership/management.
  
  

Additional Preferences

• 5 years of experience required, 10 years preferred.
• 2 years of leadership or management experience required, 5 years preferred.
• 10+ years of experience in the creation of digital experience design specifications.
• Experience managing a team of Digital Product Designers, Researchers and Communications Designers.
• Proven experience driving clinical product design in cross-functional, highly matrixed, and complex organizations at scale, with expertise in designing for EMR and clinician workflows.
• Skilled in collaborating with clinicians, nurses, hospital operators, and clinical informaticists.
• Extensive experience bringing healthcare products to market at scale in complex regulatory environments, from corporate systems to local market facilities.
• Strong portfolio of leading research and design programs.
• Proficiency in agile software development practices.
• Experience collaborating with product management and digital engineering teams.
• Skilled in communicating compelling product visions through storytelling, presentation design, and writing.
• Provider-based Healthcare experience is a plus.
  
  

Portfolio required. Please include a link to your portfolio on your resume.

#clinicaltransformation

Why Join Our Team

Ascension associates are key to our commitment of transforming healthcare and providing care to all, especially those most in need. Join us and help us drive impact through reimagining how we can deliver a people-centered healthcare experience and creating the solutions to do it. Explore career opportunities across our ministry locations and within our corporate headquarters.

Ascension is a leading non-profit, faith-based national health system made up of over 134,000 associates and 2,600 sites of care, including more than 140 hospitals and 40 senior living communities in 19 states.

Our Mission, Vision and Values encompass everything we do at Ascension. Every associate is empowered to give back, volunteer and make a positive impact in their community. Ascension careers are more than jobs; they are opportunities to enhance your life and the lives of the people around you.

Equal Employment Opportunity Employer

Ascension will provide equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all associates and applicants for employment regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, citizenship, gender, sexual orientation, gender identification or expression, age, disability, marital status, amnesty, genetic information, carrier status or any other legally protected status or status as a covered veteran in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws.

For further information, view the EEO Know Your Rights (English) poster or EEO Know Your Rights (Spanish) poster.

As a military friendly organization, Ascension promotes career flexibility and offers many benefits to help support the well-being of our military families, spouses, veterans and reservists. Our associates are empowered to apply their military experience and unique perspective to their civilian career with Ascension.

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