Associate Director, Org Design

The Position: Associate Director, Org Design (Strategy)

What does the strategy practice do at frog? We develop customer insights, market perspectives, and organizational knowledge that informs and provokes the development, evaluation and implementation of new services, products, systems, and in some cases, entirely new businesses. Our work creates tangible business value for our clients and meaningful products and services for the people they serve.

We are looking for an Associate Strategy Director, Org Design to join the strategy team in our New York office. You should have experience and a proven ability to think commercially, strategically, and creatively. This experience may come through work in strategy consulting, OD consulting, or within a corporate innovation team.

Our clients come to us to build new businesses and experiences. We are successful when our collective ideas become real. We have deep expertise in product, service and experience design, but sometimes that is not enough. Our clients need help to become customer-centric organizations that are versed in user centered design and able to launch and support new offerings. As we help our clients transform through design, we need to map, coach and even run aspects of their organization for them. We believe that the wisdom and capability are already there in the organization, and can be ignited to accelerate change.

The Contribution:

Are you a passionate, strategic leader with a diverse background across industries and company types? Do you seek to bring your multi-disciplinary approach to tackle some of the most complex problems that organizations face today? Do you have deep curiosity about both the data and the emotions that cause leaders and organizations to make choices? Do you believe that small changes can lead to big impact, and that organizations should have not only a mission, but also a soul? Do you feel that your interests and background don’t fit well in a box… when you are searching online for that next opportunity, are you not sure what the right keywords are? Have you seen organizations fall short of fulfilling their promise to their customers despite being resource-rich, and have you also seen organizations accomplish more than they should have been due to their sheer force of will? Are you a voracious learner whom others lean on to have a model or framework to suit any situation? Are you an experienced OD leader who would like to be released from the HR function to operate more broadly across the business?

We don’t want to be “the Bobs”; we are not interested in traditional workforce reengineering, outsourcing or restructuring. We firmly believe that organizational change needs to be experienced through product and service design rather than taught in classes or mandated by senior leadership.

The Associate Director will have responsibilities in three primary areas:

1. Client program work: lead the Org Design work stream within programs; maintain organizational assessment data and generate reports; develop strategic client relationships; design and facilitate meetings and workshops; coach team members
2. Participate in new business: a key member of pursuits and proposal development
3. Build our Org Design practice: asset development; POV evolution; writing and speaking publicly; knowledge management of our assets and IP.

The Associate Director will work closely with clients to understand their needs, and structure and sell frog engagements to help our clients outwit their competition, delight customers, and increase their business value.

You Are:

You are looking for a company where you have the opportunity to build your leadership skills, and to try out new approaches to organizational design. You have an interest in human centered design, and a passion for bringing new services and products into the world. You want to join a team where you are judged on your contribution and output, and not your title. You bring the following competencies:

• 10+ years of experience leading organization transformations as an internal or external consultant
• An existing base of Org Design tools and methodologies that will resonate with our clients and delivery teams, and experience in training others to adopt and use those tools. And not tied into these frameworks, you can create frameworks and communicate the logic to aid problem solving
• Artfully balances humility and confidence to bring value and learning to teams and client programs
• Strategic thinker – can detect patterns and themes and can rapidly toggle between macro and micro views of the problem and solution
• Can define and defend a point of view on a business challenge and articulate the right thing to do based on the available evidence. And be able to articulate and defend this position.
• Can define story, oversee creation of content, and communicate to client organization
• A history of researching, writing, and speaking publicly on business, strategy, innovation, organisational design, and related topics
• Hands on research expertise within organisations, from ethnographic and other qualitative research methods to quantitative research skills including survey design and data analysis.
• A solid understanding of user-centred design and the design process, and experience with intra / entrepreneurship a plus
• Proven leadership skills in coaching, training and mentoring
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills – a deep confidence in your craft coupled with humility and openness to trying new approaches
• Visual communication and whiteboard skills; you are a master facilitator
• Experience in supporting or leading business development efforts
• Business level ability in English, every additional language is a plus

It would be a bonus if you had:

• Financial analysis and business case development skills
• Good math and statistical skills, with experience in Excel modelling
• Experience with SPSS or other statistical software
• Experience working in a creative environment with designers, and an interest in human centered design (sometimes called design thinking)
• MBA or MSOD or PhD I/O Psych or comparable degree
• ADDIE or other instructional design certified (preferred)
• Executive coaching certification (preferred)
• Experience with Keynote and Adobe Creative Suite (preferred)

Other role specifics:

• Based in our Brooklyn or Austin studio (currently hybrid) with ability to travel up to 50%.