Job Description
Lead User Experience Researcher
Cleveland, OH, United States
United States
Job Description
The Lead User Experience Researcher is responsible for conducting excellent UX research that helps to ensure useful, usable and desirable digital experiences for our customers, partners, and employees. Through an in-depth knowledge and application of research techniques, the Lead User Experience Researcher will inspire change at all stages of product development and infuse teams with information to help create quality products.
Responsibilities
Strategy and Planning
- Partner with key stakeholders and other UX team members on strategic roadmaps and the identification of research needs to support successful product evolutions.
- Identify user needs, determine feature usefulness and uncover new opportunities through UX research. Contribute findings and help generate innovative solutions to shape product strategy.
- Act as the go to on UX research, with in-depth knowledge of research techniques, UX best practices and standards. Use research-related services, theories and methods to support your recommendations.
- Execute research activities, tending to the strategy and details required in the planning, execution and reporting phases. Create standard approaches as well as custom plans that fit within given scope, time and needs.
- Develop expert-level knowledge of competitive and complementary products to bring new ideas to the team.
Acquisition and Deployment
- Collect and analyze user behavior through field visits, ethnography, usability testing, click-stream analytics, surveys, card sorts and online experiments (A/B testing). Partner and educate designers in the creation of personas, scenarios, user journeys, story maps, user flows, etc.
- Present top-notch, engaging, written and in-person presentations.
- Lead the UX team in the creation of UX research standards
- Collaborate on design concepts as a result of research, providing input on design considerations and on occasion enhancing wireframes/prototypes.
- Provide product usability, evaluation and support to development teams.
- Lead the creation and maintenance of user-research documentation and standards.
- Utilize, assess and maintain a portfolio of customer insight tools including survey tools, user research tools, analytic platforms, a/b testing tools, etc.
- Create plans for ongoing product success measurement that leverages input from end users through thoughtful data collection, observations, and careful analysis.
Operational Management
- Utilize a flexible approach to changing priorities per stakeholder/customer feedback in an Agile work environment.
- Collaborate with designers, marketing, eCommerce, product, IT and customer support on the implementation and support of research findings and artifacts.
- Gain a deep understanding of business operations & industry practices to successfully aid in strategy, design, decision making and recommendations.
- Mentor and coach a team of designers, providing feedback and perspective, helping to ensure a cohesive experience across all touchpoints.
- Make presentations to management, clients, and peer groups, guiding them towards decisions that lead to exceptional experiences.
Incidental Functions
- Mentor and coach designers, developers, product owners and/or Professional Apprentices.
- Schedule and lead project and communication meetings.
- Conduct research into new technologies, including tools, components, and frameworks.
- Provide input to manager on the User Experience team evolution & growth strategy.
- Participate in hiring activities and fulfilling affirmative action obligations and ensuring compliance with the equal employment opportunity policy.
- Establish and maintain research standards, principles and patterns to be used across all channels and experiences.
This position is not eligible for sponsorship for work authorization now or in the future, including conversion to H1-B visa.
This position can be remote.
Qualifications
Formal Education & Certification
- Bachelor’s Degree (or foreign equivalent) or in lieu of a degree, at least 12 years in experience in the field of Information Technology or Business (work experience or a combination of education and work experience in the field of Information Technology or Business).
Knowledge & Experience
- 8+ years IT and/or Business experience.
- 5+ years of UX experience.
- 5+ years’ experience as a UX practitioner conducting research and working with internal clients and/or external agencies/partners.
- Highly skilled at executing UX research methodologies e.g. interviews, surveys, usability testing, field studies, etc. and fitting them into a full user-centered design process.
- High degree of both design expertise and business acumen, including familiarity developing new software solutions.
- Good understanding of standard expected interfaces and basic user behaviors.
- Understanding of Google Analytics with experience extracting UX insights.
- Well versed in Microsoft Office applications.
- Understanding of various essential business functions of an organization.
- Strong technical knowledge coupled with business intelligence and ability to understand customer’s needs.