Principle UX Researcher

An experienced Principal UX Researcher to lead the UX Research discipline for the programmes of work we work on, who can advocate on how as a department can conduct research that helps ensure we ”build the right thing, and build the thing right”.

They will be open, curious and neutral in their approach, with experience in representing an unbiased and impartial viewpoint within a team, that is well-versed in deciding on a research methodology that will achieve the best possible outcome in the time available. They will be strong oral and written communicators that can synthesise and analyse findings and be able to report back to the teams in structured, thoughtful and engaging ways.

They will advocate for how research can play an active role in decision-making within the teams themselves, to help reduce uncertainty every step of the way — and ensure we build things that add value to our organisation and our users. This role helps mitigate risk of investing in the wrong areas or going in tangential directions (avoiding hefty investment of money and time on development or process). Also, they will unlock the insight into how we can increase customer and user adoption, satisfaction, and loyalty.

They will be instrumental in driving the future of our products within teams, in helping recruit, run and document UX research activity — and storing it for others to easily access in our digital research repository, Dovetail.

They will be methodical, organised and structured in the way they approach the storage of insight and findings, and advocate the philosophy of using “micro research” approaches in decision-making. They will be detail-oriented and efficient with their time, to ensure research is readily available, searchable and discoverable for others to use within our repository. They will also advocate how teams can autonomously search for, and share this knowledge and insight across the whole of our programmes of work (to ensure we are efficient with our time, and prevent wasted effort conducting new research that may cover old ground.)

They will be keen in advancing and improving lean ways of working, and how to educate others from different disciplines on how we endeavour to run a good quality research practice. They will drive educating others to develop a deeper shared understanding of the importance of neutrality and quality, as well as the methodologies we use. They will be instrumental in highlighting when research is needed when working in embedded teams, and encourage Product Owners and Managers to factor in the time required to dedicate to research and discovery into their roadmaps.

They will be involved in helping drive the future of our products by being engaged in both self-contained research projects, as well as being embedded in the day-to-day workings of certain teams that require it. They will help encourage teams to treat Design and UX research as a ‘team sport’ and embed this philosophy into the ways teams work.

They will help ensure whole teams (members from all the disciplines) develop a deeper empathy for our business and our users, so they can learn and understand how our business works and how our users think and feel. By doing this they help develop both a deep understanding, but also an empowered shared responsibility and accountability — so everyone knows why we are delivering what we are delivering. This ultimately helps teams build the best possible experience they can within the parameters they face.

Job Title:
Principle UX Researcher

**Job Description**:
What you’ll do

As the Principal User Researcher — you will play an instrumental role in:

- planning and conducting primary and secondary research, and build rapport with users in a neutral manner to get to the bottom of their problems and pain points.
- driving and defining the research and design process and practice in product at dentsu
- demonstrating a deep experience and expertise in understanding when to run Discovery, Evaluative, Exploratory research and Usability studies.
- taking an active role in Research Operations where necessary; from assisting in the management of co-creation communities and how we engage with them, to ways of tracking our respondents’ interactions with the research and wider team.
- mentor and coach Product UX/UI designers in the team, on building their research awareness and skills.
- help recruit users, including monitoring and improving the way we engage with the users/customers of the products we build.
- managing our research repository - Dovetail. This will involve evaluating quantitative and qualitative research, understanding and tagging research, and creating actionable insights.
- clearly and confidently communicating research findings to varying audiences.
- collaborating in cross-functional teams to verify and validate ideas and uncover insight.

Experience
- Have experience in “micro research” techniques using tools such as Dovetail or similar repos