This internship is for Summer 2022.

New Product Design Intern

San Mateo, CA

About the role: 

At PlayStation, we consider user experience the entire user journey. Often user experience is synonymous with UI work. However, in the Peripheral Product Development UXpD group, we look at both the physical and non-physical interfaces holistically. We are particularly interested in multi-modal design.

The peripheral group products include both physical and UI/UX products such as: PlayStation headsets, the Headset Companion app on the PS4 which allows you to tune your headset and DS4 controller back button attachment.

The New Product Design Intern will closely collaborate with a small product design team to create a method - or way of framing that facilitates and reveals new products that are desired by users, leverages technology, and can generate revenue within 1-3 years.

Focus areas may include but not limited to sound related and gaming peripheral products. Specific focus areas will be determined 3-6 months before internship begins.

Deliverables include:

• A minimum of 12 user interviews and observational work.
• 2-3 design deliverables which include user journeys, typologies, key insights, and relevant design thinking frameworks which help set the foundation for idea generation and concept exploration.
• Presentation of the findings at the end of the intern project.
• A successful project would be one where the UXpD team (user experience product design) sees the product landscape in a way where new products seem possible or see existing product lines in a new light that leads to better products.
• A successful outcome of the reframing would be 1-2 potential products or current product improvements that are further explored. Potentially, the typology may inform use cases and eventually product durability testing.
• Candidates should be open and curious. Successful candidates have an ability to learn, iterate, and embrace the messy world of product development. With new information, candidates adjust their opinions and consider differing opinions. When new insights are presented, candidates are able to suspend disbelief, and strengthen ideas before making a final judgement.
• Knowledge and interest in gaming and headphone manufacturing are a plus. However candidates with the drive to ramp-up, solid critical thinking and the interest in providing a new perspective are valued. So if this sounds exciting, we'd love to hear from you!
• Able to practice and produce design thinking methods and outcomes, and when appropriate explain rationale for methods.
• Collaborate and prototype with a small product design team to explore and strengthen concepts and understanding of opportunity areas.
• Able to deftly balance research, framing and making. Useful if the candidate has knowledge of ethnographic approach, and when needed can conduct creative design research under limited resources.
• Able to see the big picture, and understand the business needs to make tangible viable products that can be sold in the market.
• Our ideal intern should have a can-do demeanor towards explaining rationale to internal teams that are new to established user experience methods.
• On occasion, candidates should be willing to pitch in to do administrative tasks and assistance on ongoing projects as needed.

To get the conversation going, please answer the following question in the form below in 1-2 paragraphs. We mostly want to get a sense of your approach and how you think - and appreciate you taking the time to write your answers.