In a nutshell:

We are in search of a Sales/Business-Development Director to join our IDEO Products team in San Francisco. This person will identify new customers, frame solutions for customers, and work with IDEO leadership to integrate IDEO Products into client relationships and programs.

Once here you will:

Surface and establish partnerships, sell our core products, and act as a primary representative of IDEO Products to the outside world. You will be responsible for leading growth of our business—collaborating with business owners to set sales goals, and working with sales and marketing teams to achieve those goals and manage our sales funnel. In addition, you will use your frequent interactions with clients to help identify, and pilot new opportunities to evolve and expand our offering.

• Sales: Direct and manage the the sales pipeline. Lead the sales process from lead generation through contract signing. Enable visibility and transparency of our pipeline and new business process through regular updates. Given our small size, this role has both strategic and tactical components: in addition to being an important voice in defining the funnel and qualifying leads, this role includes direct tactical responsibility for lead generation, pipeline maintenance, and closing deals.
• Integration: Be an expert on IDEO’s Design for Change frameworks and philosophies. Build, shape, and craft stories that promote these characteristics with clients, partners and colleagues. Be deeply immersed within a design culture made up of multiple disciplines, where the scoping of projects and creating opportunities is paramount.
• Insight & Experimentation: Conduct customer discovery and research through conversations.  Gather insights on our customers, our positioning, and our product that inspire us to design and position our products in the best way for clients. Collaborate with Design for Change Managing Directors and current/interested customers to evolve our offering.
• Business Development: Lead new business development including marketing, sales, client management and growth, financial planning, etc. Curate a client relationship that spans across engagements, developing existing client contacts to identify further opportunities to deliver IDEO support and partnership. Elevate and amplify IDEO Product’s reputation, influence, and leadership in the market globally by creating new networks, partnerships, and externally-facing programs (e.g., roundtables, summits, councils, workshops, publishing, research reports)
• Offer Evolution: Keep abreast of the market landscape so that we position ourselves to win where we should. Identify and define value that’s already being created; evolve our current revenue model(s), and plan continuous experiments around ways to create value and generate revenue

Relevant Experience and Mindset:

You’re a self-directed, flexible team player who embodies great interpersonal skills, learns quickly, and relishes the opportunity to support potential clients and project teams in translating challenges and questions into opportunities for innovation.

This role requires design sensibilities, business acumen, and client empathy. You bring at least 7 years of experience in areas such as business development, consulting, business design, and strategy.

Additional experience might include:

• Relationship building
• Storytelling to clients, investors or other stakeholders
• Fluency in design thinking
• Comfort with, and excitement for engaging with senior executives
• Strategic and judicious decision-making with diligent, consistent follow-through
• Managing and prioritizing a pipeline of opportunities against deadlines and sales goals
• Research in the form of customer interviews and/or focus group discussions
• Flexibility and ability to travel for client meetings
• Comfort with CRM tools (e.g. Salesforce)

What does IDEO offer you?

IDEO is a place unlike any other. It’s a place where you can solve diverse, complex challenges for our clients or the organization. You’ll work alongside thoughtful individuals who lead with curiosity, empathy, and optimism. Sure we work hard, but we also intentionally craft moments that allow our community to pause, create, and connect. We encourage our community to bring their whole selves to work, respect the need for work-life balance, and allow for autonomy in the design process and your career.

Learn more about IDEO Products and the work we’re doing:

• Creative Difference, a data-driven tool to help leaders build  innovative and adaptive organizations
• Fast Company Article on Creative Difference, March 2017
• OI Engine, a platform for communities and organizations to collaborate in online challenges, using IDEO’s design thinking process
• IDEO U, an online school where anyone can unlock their creative potential

Application requirements and instructions:

Resume and Cover Letter