Lead User Researcher

As a Lead User Researcher you will be responsible for managing the end-to-end delivery of research. You will lead other researchers and work collaboratively with inter-disciplinary teams, supporting through research, in the development of crafted, valuable customer experiences that meet the needs of the people that use them.

At Zone, our Lead User Researchers play a pivotal role in informing the design and strategic direction across a wide remit of projects, from proposition development, through to the delivery of services and products.

As a lead you will be responsible for guiding team members and stakeholders through the end-to-end research, inspiring and motivating buy-in and ensuring that decisions along the way are informed by the right insights that will help achieve product-market fit.

You will work collaboratively with multidisciplinary teams across various clients, from those attempting to disrupt the market to those driving optimisation and innovation across existing ones.

Requirements:

This job is for you if you…

Passionate about ensuring products and services are grounded in deep understanding and meet the needs of the people that use them.

To do this, our Lead User Researchers:

• Are driven by curiosity and empathy, understanding research participants as real people first (then as users) and are not afraid to champion their voices
• Glean deep insights through a range of qualitative and scaled qual methodologies, often planning integration with large data-driven research
• Work in an integrated fashion with colleagues leading a quantitatively focused insights gathering
• Support discovery phases and help teams shape compelling propositions and, where appropriate, provide insights through rapid ethnography, concept testing and guerrilla research methods
• Understand requirements and where appropriate, challenge established perspectives and approaches, backed up by validated insights
• Help teams to resonate with the needs of customers always demonstrating deep empathy
• Contribute to the development of research practices within our agile frameworks, ensuring a culture where the customer is kept at the heart of design solutions
• Understand the need to make services usable and accessible for everyone, putting diversity and inclusion at the heart of our research and design practices
• Are willing to travel to support research activities

Your experience includes:

• Proven experience leading the entire research process, ensuring quality outcomes – from planning to executing standalone qualitative and integrated quantitative research activities, through to analysis and synthesis, storytelling and presentation
• Comprehensive experience of qualitative research methods; including interviews, lab studies, expert evaluations, participatory design sessions and workshops, ethnographic research methods and persona development
• Working experience of the practicalities of running testing: recruiting processes; scheduling and logistics, protocol development, interviewing and moderating, analysis and research deliverables
• Practical working experience within lean and agile methodologies
• Formed close relationships and earned trust with stakeholders
• Established best practices and refine ways of working
• Provide context and coaching for other team members in ways of working, processes and practices
• Guiding and mentoring members of your team to support their individual progression

Benefits:

What we believe

Wellness is hugely important to us, so we believe in working flexibly to ensure our colleagues get the balance they need to meet the demands of their personal and professional lives. We strive to provide the very best experience for our clients and staff and do this through a shared philosophy.

Why us?

We have a deep belief in the transformative effect of great customer experiences, and we help some of the UK’s biggest brands on their transformational journey. We are practitioner-led and work collaboratively with our clients, so we all go further, faster. Our lean, multi-disciplinary teams deliver value quickly, opening up new possibilities for our clients at pace. We love what we do, and we love working with like-minded teams to deliver compelling products, services and communications. Zone is committed to equal opportunities for all.