Job Description
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 weโre 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 โ 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 youโll 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 โ 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 โ 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 โ 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 โ conceptualize and oversee the delivery of assets and artifacts that bring a diverse group of stakeholders along for continued investment decisions
WHAT WEโRE 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 โ we like to say, โYou donโt know, but you know how to knowโ
- Ability to handle complexity โ 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 โ itโs not your ideas that drive you, itโs their problems
- You inspire people to work with you โ youโre a top-notch collaborator
- You have a strong sense of ownership โ youโre 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 โ there is no one right answer, and one brilliant brain is not enough to solve any of the problems we work on
