Edtech.com's Summary

Articulate is hiring a Senior Manager, Product Design. The role involves leading a team of senior designers to ensure usability and design quality throughout the product lifecycle while partnering closely with Product Management and Engineering leadership to drive strategic alignment and measurable business outcomes.

Highlights

Lead and coach a team of senior product designers across a broad product area.
Champion usability and design excellence to deliver cohesive, user-centered solutions.
Collaborate with Product Management and Engineering to improve cross-functional discovery, delivery, and iteration processes.
Own design standards and usability quality, ensuring solutions solve real customer problems and enable successful outcomes.
Coach design, product, and engineering leaders to foster healthy collaboration and prioritize impactful work.
Develop strategic direction for the product design team during periods of growth and change.
Required qualifications include 8+ years of product design experience with 3–5 years in people management and a deep understanding of user-centered design principles.
Preferred experience with SaaS, platform, or enterprise software design, familiarity with Figma, analytics tools, and usability testing methods.
Compensation range: $178,900 to $268,300 annually.
Contributes strategic leadership within the broader design organization and supports scaling of design operations and practices.

Senior Manager, Product Design Full Description

Position Summary

Articulate is the leading SaaS provider of online training solutions for the new world of work. Our industry-leading software and services make it simple for enterprises and SMBs to develop, deliver, and analyze online training that’s engaging and effective.

As a Sr Manager, Product Design, you are a strategic, people-first leader who ensures our designers own usability throughout the product lifecycle, champions design excellence, and builds high-performing teams. You lead a team of senior designers across a broad and evolving product area, helping them grow in scope, influence, and confidence. You coach not only your direct reports but also align with your management tripod peers to coach the tripods they operate within, modeling strong collaboration, strategic alignment, and outcome-driven design.

You are accountable for the design quality and usability of solutions shipped by your team and bring clarity and focus through ambiguity as our organization scales. You partner deeply with Product Management and Engineering leadership to cultivate healthy tripods and ensure usability is upheld across discovery, delivery, and iteration. You support and shape how empowered product teams move from discovery to outcomes, embedding design into every part of the product development process.

You operate with autonomy, hold deep domain expertise, and contribute strategic leadership across the broader design org.

Overall Impact

Lead a team of senior designers, coaching for craft, collaboration, influence, business impact, and career growth

Own the bar for usability and design quality across your team’s product area, ensuring solutions are usable, cohesive, and solve real customer problems

Partner with PM and Eng leads to coach the collaboration and discovery practices of multiple tripods

Drive clarity and focus across customer problem areas, reducing ambiguity and helping teams prioritize for impact

Actively shape design team systems, rituals, and practices as a peer to other functional leaders

Ensure that Product Design decisions align with company goals and drive measurable business outcomes.

Essential Functions

Team Leadership & People Development

Coach senior ICs and leads to strengthen strategic thinking, decision-making, and cross-functional influence, shifting from directive guidance to growth

Support performance, growth, and strategic planning conversations while fostering adaptability and psychological safety

Help your team stay focused and aligned through ambiguity by modeling clarity, inclusivity, and resilient leadership

Play an active role in hiring and onboarding, while also anticipating future skill needs to scale a diverse, high-performing design team for evolving business demands

Design Quality & Usability Ownership

Define and uphold what "good" looks like across all stages of product development, especially around usability, simplicity, and polish

Review design work across discovery, delivery, and iteration to ensure strategic alignment, usability quality, and execution standards

Hold your team accountable for shipping trustworthy, valuable, and testable experiences that address real user needs and enable successful outcomes

Partner with Research and Data to ensure user insights guide design decisions and uncover usability gaps early

Tripod Collaboration & Coaching

Act as a peer coach to your area’s PM and Engineering leaders, helping tripods improve discovery, collaboration, and prioritization practices

Help empower Design in effectively owning usability as part of the tripod’s shared accountability for outcomes

Guide teams toward evidence-guided, assumption-testing workflows and avoid solution-first traps

Model how to align early on what "usable enough" means in testing, and instill effective usability testing and alignment practices ahead of key releases

Strategic Influence & Org Leadership

Help define team level strategy, especially during moments of ambiguity, change, or rapid growth

Represent Design in cross-functional leadership forums and collaborate to shape roadmap direction, team health, and delivery quality

Lead cross-team initiatives that evolve design standards, operational systems, and customer experience quality. Ensure continuity across the end-to-end customer journey

Support the evolution of planning, staffing, and rituals as we scale our design practice and shift toward outcome-focused product development

Requirements

8+ years of product design experience, including 3–5 years in people management
Proven track record leading design teams through growth, change, and product discovery
Deep understanding of user-centered design principles and usability heuristics
Experience working in empowered product teams (e.g., tripods/trios) with ownership of outcomes
Excellent communicator and facilitator with ability to synthesize, align, and influence across disciplines
Passion for coaching, cross-functional collaboration, and user advocacy
Demonstrated ability to operate autonomously and provide strategic leadership in ambiguous or evolving contexts
Deep domain expertise within your product space
Ability to remain objective and identify solutions in the face of difficult dynamics, moments of ambiguity, or compressed timelines
Highly accountable and strong prioritization skills

Preferred

Experience in SaaS, platform, or enterprise software designFamiliarity with Figma, analytics tools, and usability testing methods

Experience designing and scaling design operations, systems, or rituals

Original Job Description