User Researcher

eTeam; Worthing; On-site; GBP 42,000 - 62,000; Full time

Job summary

eTeam is seeking a skilled User Researcher for a 6-month contract to generate insights, plan and conduct usability testing, and guide product teams in shaping service design.

You will lead research initiatives, translate data into user stories, and mentor junior researchers while collaborating with designers, analysts and developers in an agile environment.

Qualifications

• Proven experience with usability testing methodologies and translating insights into requirements.
• Experience planning and conducting in-house research and concept testing.
• Ability to test and validate user needs for digital services in an iterative environment.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with evidence-based recommendations.
• Excellent communication with senior stakeholders and cross-functional teams.
• Knowledge of user-centered design practices.

Responsibilities

• Plan, design and conduct in-house usability tests and user research.
• Lead usability testing processes from recruitment briefs to reporting.
• Collaborate with Service/Product Managers to derive insights and shape concepts.
• Turn user data into actionable user stories for product/service directions.
• Mentor junior researchers and share best practices within the team.
• Design and analyse ad-hoc quantitative surveys and qualitative studies.
• Engage with wider user research community to adopt good practices.

Job description

Duration: 6 months contract + potential extension

Job Description:

• Generate new and useful user insights and translate them into features and actions that will allow service/product managers to iteratively improve their service for users.
• Plan, design and conduct in-house research to test new service ideas and concept development (including user requirements gathering, early stage concept and prototype testing, guerrilla research and usability testing sessions, and other approaches to ensure the user need is fully understood in the service design).
• Lead the formal usability testing process for a digital service - from developing user recruitment briefs through to test moderation, analysis and report writing.
• Work with Service/Product Managers to devise appropriate research strategies to generate focused insights and to convert concepts into high quality stimulus material.
• Work closely with designers, business analysts and software developers to turn user data into actionable user stories that influence product/service direction and prototype development.
• Work with Service/Product Managers to devise appropriate research strategies to generate focused insights and to convert concepts into high quality stimulus material.
• Work closely with designers, business analysts and software developers to turn user data into actionable user stories that influence product/service direction and prototype development.
• Design, script and analyse ad-hoc quantitative surveys.
• Manage ad-hoc qualitative/quantitative research projects such as proposition development, visual identity and customer experience mapping.
• Be involved in the wider user research community identifying good practices we can adopt and sharing our experiences.
• Share knowledge of tools and techniques with technical and non-technical team members in the wider digital team and across government, acting as mentor to other junior user researcher(s).

Requirements:

• Proven experience of using a variety of usability testing methodologies to reveal actionable customer insights and gather user needs for web based services.
• Proven experience of creating research strategies/approaches.
• Proven experience of managing, executing and analysing usability test sessions, and facilitating workshops.
• Excellent analytical and problem solving skills, and the ability to quickly develop recommendations based on quantitative and qualitative evidence.
• Confident in explaining user needs to senior civil servants and acting as a persuasive advocate for those needs both within the team and the department at large.
• Extensive knowledge of human factors, ethnography, and the user-centred design process for product and service design in an iterative development environment.
• Demonstrable knowledge, experience in and passion for user centred design practices.
• Proven experience of audience modelling and developing design personas.
• Experience across web content, tools and transactional services, especially those with complex user journeys (involving development of a logical sequence of steps to complete transactions).
• Comfortable working with data, from gathering and analysis through to design and presentation.
• Comfortable in the capacity of mentor for other user researcher(s).
• Have excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to quickly develop strong working relationships in high pressure environments.
• Degree in HCI/Usability/Cognitive Psychology/Market Research or related field.
• Experience of working in an agile development environment with designers, business analysts and developers to create new digital products and services
• Will need skill with and knowledge of requirements capture methods and techniques, business systems and analysis, Front End process, software development life cycles and associated processes.
• Will need to be able to use Data modelling techniques.