Overview
[As of June 2020, Quora has become a “remote-first” company. This position can be performed remotely from anywhere in the world, regardless of any location that might be specified above.]
About Quora:
The vast majority of human knowledge is still not on the internet. Most of it is trapped in the form of experience in people’s heads, or buried in books and papers that only experts can access. More than a billion people use the internet, yet only a tiny fraction contribute their knowledge to it. We want to democratize access to knowledge of all kinds — from politics to painting, cooking to coding, etymology to experiences — so if someone out there knows something, anyone else can learn it. Our mission is to share and grow the world’s knowledge, and we’re building a world-class team to help us achieve this mission.
About the Team:
Designing a global ecosystem for knowledge sharing, and the platform for businesses to reach our audience, requires a multidisciplinary approach. To deliver our mission, we are designing systems that make knowledge sharing rewarding and discovery easy, while scaling to support the participation of the entire planet. We’re building a diverse team with people of different backgrounds and experiences, empowered to shape strategy.
Our designers leverage what they learn about psychological and social dynamics, communities and networks, and systems and policy design, in addition to more typical design skills. Product design plays a significant role in product strategy and direction – our VP of Design reports directly to our CEO. Working on everything from ranking to UI, from internationalization to moderation systems, design decisions are validated through A/B testing and user studies alike, as we value rigor and empathy in equal measure. We pursue candor, holism, and awareness in our work.
About the Role:
Quora designers are strategic minded generalists who code. As a product design lead, you’ll be responsible for what you design from start to finish because designers at Quora control the interface — and contribute to product direction. This not only ensures the right solution is being designed but the right problem is being solved. Product design plays a significant role in product strategy and direction — our VP of Design reports directly to our CEO. As an integral part of that structure, you will be embedded in a product team focused on a major, user-facing area of Quora.
We value rigor and empathy in equal measure, both are essential to democratize access to knowledge. Designers reason through complex product decisions, translating strategic goals to product systems and features. Collaborating closely with cross functional teams to advance design’s perspective, designers implementing their solutions themselves. Design decisions are validated through A/B testing and user studies. A senior designer will prototype, iterate and ship new features, bug fixes, and small improvements all in a week.
Responsibilities:
- Lead design and development with a product team focused on a major, user-facing area of Quora.
- Identify high-impact opportunities for the business, design strategies and features in pursuit of goals.
- Navigate ambiguity and clearly communicate decision rationale to designers and cross functional partners alike.
- Contribute to team growth and development through mentorship and evangelizing best practices
- Work autonomously to quickly and pragmatically execute on multiple projects
- Streamline and manage UI complexity (complexity reduction is not always the solution), resulting in polished UI design, clear information hierarchy, a holistic feature set.
- Build what you design in React
Minimum Qualifications:
- Ability to be available for meetings and impromptu communication during Quora’s “coordination hours” (Mon-Fri: 9am-3pm Pacific Time). Learn why here
- Portfolio that demonstrates digital design capabilities across apps and other platforms.
- 5+ years experience designing complex products with clear, effective interactions to accomplish business goals.
- 5+ years experience shipping production-level code in front-end technologies: React, HTML, CSS, JS
- Experience coordinating, directing, and guiding the work of other designers on your team.
- Experience leading multiple projects end-to-end: collaborating effectively with designers, engineers, product managers, and data scientists
- Proven track record of aligning stakeholders at a strategic level for complex social products
- Experience with A/B testing and use of data analysis frameworks
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience maintaining and improving a design system.
- Skilled at delivering high quality mobile experiences for social media products.
We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.