Product Design Strategist, Paper

• We believe the best designers are a step ahead of the project managers they work with. If you've ever felt like you're capable of more than your job title suggests - if you're the designer who keeps track of dependencies, anticipates developer needs before they ask, and connects business goals to user goals - this role was designed for you
• Strong portfolio demonstrating illustration skills and visual design that connects with younger audiences (elementary through middle school)
• Experience designing consumer products, gaming experiences, educational tools, or youth-focused apps where engagement and retention actually matter
• Comfort with modern design tools (Figma, etc.) and excitement about new workflows that amplify creative output
• An eye for detail and an instinct for what makes interfaces feel
• Deep curiosity about game mechanics, habit formation, behavioral psychology, and what makes students come back tomorrow
• Ability to balance qualitative insights with quantitative data to make product decisions - and the judgment to know which should lead
• Track record of not just designing features but defining them, scoping them, and managing them through to measurable impact
• Comfort writing specs, setting priorities, and having the difficult conversations about what not to build
• You spend your first conversation with any stakeholder asking questions about goals, constraints, and context before jumping to solutions
• You see how your work fits into the bigger picture of customer experience, growth, and business opportunities
• You can articulate design decisions in terms of business strategy, not just user needs or aesthetic preferences
• You understand that exceptional design work is dead in the water without the acute management skills to carry it from idea to delivered solution
• Comfort with ambiguity and excitement about defining your role as you grow into it
• Willingness to experiment with new workflows and share what you learn with the team
• Belief that the best solutions come from people who understand both the "what" and the "how"

Desirable

• The line between product designer and product manager is blurring - and we're looking for someone who lives in that space naturally
• This role is approximately 60% product design and 40% product strategy, but really it's 100% about owning outcomes. You'll design interfaces that make learning feel less like homework and more like leveling up. You'll define what gets built and why. You'll manage the details that turn good ideas into shipped products. And you'll use modern tools to work faster and more creatively than traditional workflows allow
• Design the experiences that move metrics: Craft beautiful, engaging interfaces for elementary and middle school students, making complex educational concepts feel accessible and fun
• Define what gets built and why: Shape product strategy by connecting user needs, business goals, and technical constraints into coherent solutions, then make the tough calls about feature prioritization and scope
• Manage the details that matter: Keep track of schedules, dependencies, and unresolved decisions while bringing developers the complete picture - edge cases, error states, and precise interaction documentation
• Bridge business strategy and user experience: Understand Paper's business context before tackling design problems, connecting educational outcomes, student engagement metrics, and business impact to create solutions that satisfy all stakeholders
• Paper reaches millions of students who need more than just answers - they need confidence, encouragement, and learning experiences that actually work for them
• The interfaces you design and the product decisions you make will directly impact whether a struggling student gets unstuck, whether they come back tomorrow, and whether they start to believe they're capable of more
• This isn't about creating another dashboard or workflow. It's about building product experiences that help students discover they're smarter than they thought
• Your work will be judged not by how polished your Figma files are, but by whether students learn more and engage more. That's the outcome you'll own

• Your portfolio - Emphasize work for younger audiences, examples of game mechanics or habit-forming features, and projects where you shaped product strategy (not just executed designs). Show us the business context, the decisions you made, and the outcomes you achieved
• Your resume - Highlight where you've gone beyond traditional design deliverables to manage projects, define features, or drive measurable impact
• A brief note (300-500 words) addressing:
• Why this hybrid role excites you and how it aligns with where you see your career going
• An example of when you connected business goals and user goals to create a solution that satisfied both
• How you approach working in fast-moving environments where individual contributors can have outsized impact