Innovation & Design Director

Made combines the best of Innovation Consultancies (business strategy, modeling, venturing) with the best of Design Agencies (user research, design, prototyping, building) to generate tangible impact. We've identified, designed, and built products and services that have changed the market.
As an Innovation & Design Director Building, you have a huge opportunity to create a real positive change in the world, by building and leading the domain of Building Innovation.

The building industry is evolving rapidly. New connected opportunities, changing customer behavior and environmental legislation force us to rethink the future. At Made we take a step back to rethink these futures from a human perspective and understand how to maximize the chances of innovation success for our clients. Made’s unique capabilities in innovation strategy, digital user experience and industrial design, together with our business design focus have enabled us to define, design and build award-winning solutions that deliver value, not only for our clients, but also consumers, for cities, infrastructures, and the environment.

We are looking for someone with a sound background in and a passion for Building Innovation and Construction, who can co-create this domain together with us: a strategic goal getter who has a well-defined vision, empathizes with clients & drives sales, and can be an ambassador within this domain towards colleagues and the external world.

At Made we call the domains we focus on “Hubs” and hence you will be called a “Hub Lead”. The 4 Hubs we focus on today are: Health & Sports Innovation, Building Innovation, Sustainable Innovation and Smart Products.

What will you do?

Hub Leadership

• Defining the short and long term vision and strategy to enter and develop the Hub (domain) or industry, supporting the purpose of Made.

• Building, implementing and updating the Hub's sales plan, fitting into the overall strategy and business plan from Management.

• Being an ambassador for the Hub domain within and outside of Made

Quality guarding

• Defining an R&D plan for your hub for the fiscal year with clear KPI's and managing the realization of that plan

• Having the highest decision power in project crews regarding quality, well-being and profitability

• Organizing feedback loops (f.e. hub alignments) to follow up the health of all crews (quality, well-being, profitability)

Thought leadership and domain expertise

• Researching hub market trends to be able to spot opportunities

• Building a strong knowledge and expertise base, shared within Made

• Building a network within the Hub vertical scene (suppliers, leading experts, etc.).

• Being considered a trusted source of inspiration and a leading voice in the domain

• Organizing domain-related events and activities for Made colleagues and Made clients and partners

Sales & Marketing

• Defining, maintaining and optimizing hub offerings (productizing)

• Defining and implementing a Go To Market Strategy aligned with Business Development and Marketing

• Doing Lead conversion activities

• Doing account management and client management for (key) clients

• Delivering inspiring marketing content regarding the domain of the hub to Marketing

Director role in Projects

• Being director in projects regarding the hub domain expertise, mentoring and coaching crews to deliver high quality, only stepping in if it escalates

• Making sure colleagues grow by coaching and training them on the job (f.e. (senior) project lead, designers, strategists) regarding stakeholder management, Up & cross selling, project strategy, domain expertise, etc....

• Making sure the lead converter of sold Hub-related projects onboards the project lead and the crew on the project specifics.

Hub Performance

• Making sure (monthly,) quarterly and annual sales and revenue Hub targets are being met.

• Being the end-responsible for the healthy budget status of your Hub-related projects and taking action if needed to resolve suboptimal results.

• Being the end-responsible for the accuracy Hub-related projects of the forecasts of our invoicing schedules.

• Approving (or not) scope, timing and or budget changes, considering what's best for Made in the long term (balancing quality, well-being, profitability)

Hub Longevity

• Sharing knowledge within Made and build up an active knowledge base that transcends the Hub lead

• Spotting liabilities (on short, mid and longterm) for the stability and steady growth of your Hub, sharing them with management and pro-actively sharing strategies and tactics to overcome those liabilities

• Actively spotting and sharing ways with management to make sure the stability and steady growth of the Hub isn’t depending on the Hub Lead only.

Support HR

• Sharing input and feedback for growth plans and evaluation talks to team leads

• Defining what the staffing needs and capabilities are to realize the hub business plan and sharing this with recruitment roles (quarterly)

Job Requirements

• Master’s Degree in the field of Design, Marketing, Engineering or Economics or at least 3 years of experience working in a leading position within Building Innovation.

• Proven experience and a solid existing network to leverage in the field of Building Innovation.

• You’re passionate about building & construction and you have the ambition to grow into a thoughtleader in this domain.

• You know how to develop business and to excite clients by showing them what’s next. You have experience in converting deals and negotiating quotes.

• You’re seen as a leader: you inspire the team and mentor our teammembers on the job to explore their full potential. People trust you will lead the Hub into a next level of maturity.

• You make crystal clear, nice-looking, and to-the-point presentations and know how to present them to a C-level audience (Google Slides, Keynote, …) and conference visitors: when you present, people listen (and they understand) and they feel inspired.

• You know user-centered design thinking tools and methodologies

• Fluent in English and preferably also in Dutch, but this is not a must.

• You would describe yourself as positive, proactive, taking ownership and client-focused..

• You’re a very good communicator: you know how to adapt your communication to your audience.

• Building relations is your middle name: you love establishing a strong and relevant network.

• You are the right kind of difficult: you know when to push and when to deliver.

• You’re a team player.

• You thrive in a fast-paced and service-oriented environment.

• Car license B

What we have to offer

• A full time job, a competitive salary and fringe benefits

• You will work in an organization that is all about exciting change and positive impact. For more than 15 years we have been discovering, designing, and building successful products and services that have changed the market. We walk the walk! We are a team of enthusiastic colleagues working within an award-winning spirit

• You will have the opportunity to create your vision and develop a strategy on Building Innovation, in line with and supported by Made’s purpose. You will act as thought leader and a true ambassador for Made within this domain.

• You will be leading projects for industry-leading corporates, ambitious SME’s and start-ups: they will all challenge you and help you develop your skills.

• We believe in self-organization and hence work with Holacracy.

• We offer room for personal development, the opportunity to attend events and conferences.

• We have an informal and open culture, where hard work goes hand in hand with lots of fun.