The 5 things we look for in a UX Designer
When I joined Societe Generale’s UX team three years ago, I relished the challenge that lay ahead. There was so much for our team of just four designers to create!
Things have moved on since then. We’ve established our in-house methodology and our design system, and carved out a strong position for ourselves within the bank.
The team’s growing too, so as we set about recruiting new talent for the department’s second wave of expansion, we’ve been thinking hard about the skills and qualities that we’re looking for in our future colleagues. If you’re considering a position on the UX team of Societe Generale, consider these five factors that help make our team tick…
Everything starts with a Why?
Curiosity is the driving force of everything we do. In UX design, it’s a prerequisite. In finance, doubly so. Very little in our field could be described as ‘self-explanatory’. Investigation is always required!
Of course, as a team of designers, most of us don’t come from a financial background and nobody is expecting us to becoming the bank’s leading experts but it’s vital that we understand the user’s needs. That’s why our mantra is ‘Start with Why?’
Our job involves asking a lot of questions, to ensure that we understand the business, the user’s needs, and any potential pain points along the way. By stripping every complex notion down to its core and asking ‘why?’, each concept we meet gets progressively more familiar as our projects progress.
We firmly believe that there’s no such thing as a stupid question. Indeed, if we’re not sure about a specific point, the chances are we’re not alone. Curiosity fuels every improvement we make.
Alone together…
Our designers are all natural born collaborators. But it’s vital that they can also work self-sufficiently. Each individual on the UX team is responsible for the delivery of their own projects, and also leads pizza teams. They need to be able to brief their pizza teams on our methodology with confidence, and drive home the importance of following it. That’s our mission, in essence; to carry the torch for our UX methodology, challenge process, and stay at the leading edge of what we do.
With all that responsibility, our designers need to be comfortable working autonomously. That said, our team structure means help and advice are always on hand when they’re needed. And when there’s a decision to be made about our design system, we never hesitate to consult our peers. Our team spirit keeps us on top of ever-changing scenarios.
Mindfulness matters
As the great sage Rafiki-from The Lion King-would say:
“Look beyond what you see“
On a dynamic team like ours, we hop from project to project identifying similar situations and applying interfaces that work. We’re a transversal outfit, embedded with many business teams and involved in countless products, which gives us a unique global overview of the bank’s activities. It’s that overview — the ability to see forest beyond the trees, so to speak — that’s encouraged us to work towards a unified user experience across all of our design.
This thinking works on a smaller scale, too. Our weekly catch-up meetings are a great forum for the sharing of good ideas and solutions for the similar situations that we all face. By each keeping a broad overview of the department’s work, we make sure we’re not constantly reinventing the wheel. Instead, the best solutions from numerous previous use cases can be reapplied. A good example of this is the validation road, which displays the information about each validator in the workflow. It’s something I worked on for a specific use case, components of which have been reused over and over again across different core businesses.
A tidy mind and a systematic approach
There’s a lot to master in our advanced work environment, from the SG Design System to our technological frameworks. It might be a lot to learn for our new joiners. But once on board it will quickly become second nature.
We collaborate with expert developers, so there’s no need to cultivate high-end developer skills like web language, but you will have to be able to integrate technical problematics into your prototypes.
Systematic and well-ordered working practices will set you in good stead for the challenges of maintaining a seamless SG Markets experience.
Bring your uniqueness
Your CV will get you through the door, but it’s your personality that will seal the deal. The UX Design team now extends to 17 designers in two locations — London and Paris. Each of our team members brings their own valuable skills and experience to bear on our projects. But they also bring their personal passions and interests. We celebrate our team’s diverse talents and encourage them to share not only their professional expertise, but everything that makes them unique.
So, while we’ve all enjoyed the benefit of
’s leadership vision, ’s out-of-the-box thinking, and ’s technical expertise, we take just as much pride in Marine’s awesome skills with craft paper carving and ’s lead guitar duties in the company band he founded (they’ve played charity gigs on two continents!).
Passion and personality are the common factors that all of our designers share. Beyond that, we want you to be yourself, express yourself, and bring all of that uniqueness to work with you. After all, we work on a huge range of projects that are distributed among the team according to skill and personal interest. The more diversity we encompass, the better placed we’ll be to meet the demands that are made of us.
Ready to show us your true colours?
Of course, the points above aren’t a written-in-stone checklist for would-be job applicants. But as an insight into how we work and the qualities we expect of our team members, I hope it’s useful. Our role at Societe Generale brings us into contact with so many different people, both in-house and far beyond. The many countries and the diverse cultural backgrounds that we work with mean we need to be flexible enough to understand all sorts of expectations.
If you have the requisite skills, and you think ours is the kind of team you’d like to be a part of, we’d be delighted to hear from you. And if you have more questions about how we do things or want to apply, head to our Design website, or reach out in person.
