Lead Design Researcher

3 days ago

Chicago IL United States Ontrac Solutions Full time

Are you passionate about understanding the 'why' behind customer and employee behaviors? As a Lead Design Researcher, you'll be at the heart of shaping innovative products and services that resonate deeply with users. Your strategic, human-centered research will guide our organization in making data-driven decisions, reducing risk, and creating exceptional experiences.


The role requires a strategic, system-level thinker with expertise in the design process. You will develop robust knowledge of a suite of product areas and confidently lead cross-functional partners to frame problems and identify research opportunities. The Lead Design Researcher should be a natural collaborator who connects the dots across multiple teams and portfolios and engages design, product management, insights, CX, operations and business teams in the research process. You will plan and execute a wide range of complex research engagements using a mix of methodologies, including interviews, moderated and unmoderated usability tests, diary studies and surveys. You will be adept at analyzing data for meaningful patterns and translating them into actionable insights and recommendations. You will present and socialize research findings in a clear, concise and engaging way and facilitate cross-functional conversations to drive an experience vision grounded in customer and team member needs.


Job Responsibilities

  • Understand complex problem spaces and help frame opportunities based on customer needs and pain points.
  • Manage the research roadmap for a key business segment, identifying the most impactful research opportunities to drive innovation and inform product and business strategy.
  • Align cross-functional teams around robust, mixed-method research plans that balance timing and resource constraints and have defined learning goals, target users and tasks.
  • Coordinate research by developing screeners, discussion guides and research stimulus, in collaboration with the design team.
  • Conduct generative and evaluative research utilizing a range of methods, including interviews, moderated and unmoderated usability testing, diary studies, card sorting, surveys, secondary research, etc.
  • Distill research data into meaningful patterns and translate them into actionable insights and recommendations. Communicate and socialize learnings clearly and concisely, using storytelling and data to drive action.
  • Plan and facilitate cross-functional collaborative worksessions to define problems and develop new concepts.
  • Serve as a trusted advisor to product teams and develop positive long-term relationships by understanding stakeholder needs and balancing conflicting interests.
  • Advocate for customers and team members among cross-functional teams and in forums such as design reviews.
  • Lead research team internal initiatives to continuously learn and improve as a team.
  • Contribute to ongoing knowledge management and the archiving of reports and insights into a sharable, searchable repository.
  • Mentor junior researchers, playing an advisory role on their research studies.

Management Experience: At least 2 years of direct leadership, indirect leadership and/or cross-functional team leadership.

Basic Qualifications & Interests:

  • Bachelor’s degree and at least 8 years of experience collecting and analyzing qualitative research data OR a High School Diploma / GED and at least 10 years of experience collecting and/or analyzing qualitative research data.
  • Experience conducting research across the entire product development lifecycle, including discovery and evaluative research.
  • Experience scoping out and gaining buy-in for new research initiatives, including research objectives, methods, timing and budget.
  • Experience with a broad range of research methods, such as interviews, observations, usability testing, surveys and card sorting.
  • Experience analyzing qualitative research data for patterns and trends to drive improvements of products, services and processes.
  • Experience presenting research data in written and verbal formats.
  • Experience working collaboratively within a cross-functional team, including design.
  • Experience building positive and trusting relationships with stakeholders while managing the expectations and conflicting interests across the team.
  • Experience researching digital products, such as websites, apps, kiosks and software applications.
  • Experience visualizing product or service experiences to capture user actions, interactions and touchpoints.
  • Experience using time management skills such as prioritizing, organizing and tracking details and meeting deadlines of multiple projects with varying completion dates.

Preferred Qualifications & Interests:

  • Experience researching complex digital and omnichannel products and services.
  • Experience researching employee productivity tools.
  • Experience visualizing product or service experiences in the form of journey maps to capture user actions, interactions and touchpoints.
  • Experience working with external vendors to recruit research participants.
  • Experience with UserTesting, dscout, Qualtrics, Optimal Workshop or similar remote research tools.
  • Familiarity with engineering / development processes, particularly Agile.
  • Familiarity with quantitative research methods.
  • Experience in healthcare or retail industries.
  • Experience working in a design consultancy and/or within a larger company.
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