THE ROLE OF A RESEARCHER & DESIGN STRATEGIST

Our human-centered design orientation applies inside the firm as well as out, so we are obsessed with finding and supporting the highest-quality talent for all of our work. This role is critical to the success of our projects and to the firm at large, so we’re hyper-focused on creating success in every direction.

Regardless of the phase of a project, the Researcher & Design Strategist is a highly engaged, collaborative role, where you will both lead and support the design, execution and analysis of a huge variety of market research and live experimentation – from desk research to interviews and ethnography, to ads and landing pages tests, to medium to high fidelity functional prototypes (and much much more; hopefully you’ll teach us some new techniques too).

We are targeting a Spring 2024 start date but are flexible.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Design and execute primary and secondary research – identifying and prioritizing assumptions and defining a path to test them through user research and in-market experimentation
• Support and/or drive the early development of a new solution – identifying target users, defining key features, designing business models, managing prototype builds, and crafting go-to-market strategies
• Contribute to a practical plan for de-risking an opportunity – helping discern how best to deploy the limited resources (team and budget) available and then iterating that plan as we learn more from the market
• Ruthlessly prioritize and iterate (approach and/or solution) based on feedback from users
• Support communicating to key stakeholders in the process of venture building – conceptualize and oversee the delivery of assets and artifacts that bring a diverse group of stakeholders along for continued investment decisions

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR

• 4+ years relevant experience across a combination of the following areas:
• research and human-centered design
• innovation/design consulting
• product strategy or product design / early prototyping
• corporate innovation strategy
• Well-versed in applying human-centered design principles to the research, development, and execution of new products and services
• Experience with activating and contributing to teams in dynamic (virtual and live) environments
• Comfort and courage with navigating the unknown through rigorous testing and iteration – we like to say, “You don’t know, but you know how to know”
• Ability to handle complexity – weighing a variety of competing factors to make sound decisions with imperfect and/or incomplete data
• We strive to recruit a group of unique individuals, but our team members tend to share these attributes: Curiosity | Perceptiveness | Optimism | Courage | Entrepreneurialism | Discernment | Humility
• This role will require occasional travel - for firm and/or client service activities (like research or workshops)

WHAT YOU WILL NEED

• You lead with genuine empathy – it’s not your ideas that drive you, it’s their problems
• You inspire people to work with you – you’re a top-notch collaborator
• You have a strong sense of ownership – you’re willing to do whatever it takes to serve the mission, the team and the customer
• You are focused on results and appreciate the entrepreneurial constraints of limited resources
• You respond well to complex situations, working with customers and partners to solve problems
• You move quickly and have the confidence to act decisively when needed
• You know what to measure, when, and how to communicate success/learnings to others who have not been in the trenches with you
• You have the ability to work with remote teams
• You appreciate the power of a diverse organization and contribute to the culture of co-creating impactful solutions
• You know that these problems require teams to solve them – there is no one right answer, and one brilliant brain is not enough to solve any of the problems we work on