Design Research & Experience Strategist

Kaleidoscope Innovation; Cincinnati (OH); On-site; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Kaleidoscope Innovation is looking for a Design Research & Experience Strategist in Cincinnati, Ohio. This role involves leading and growing the research practice, translating user insights into actionable strategies, and fostering cross-disciplinary collaboration.

The ideal candidate will have over 7 years of experience in design research, strong facilitation skills, and the ability to mentor teams. Benefits include opportunities for professional growth and a collaborative work environment.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in design research or related fields.
• Proven ability to translate research insights into strategies.
• Strong facilitation and communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead design research initiatives and establish research standards.
• Translate research findings into strategic frameworks and product direction.
• Foster a collaborative research culture and mentor team members.

Skills

Design research

Experience strategy

Qualitative research methods

Facilitation skills

Communication skills

Job description

About The Role

We are seeking a Design Research & Experience Strategist to lead and grow our research practice while expanding the role of research across product, service, brand, consumer, medical, and digital experience opportunities. The ideal candidate is a self-starter who can identify opportunities, build structure where ambiguity exists, and translate user understanding into actionable strategies that inform design, innovation, and business decisions.

What You'll Do

Research Leadership

• Lead design research initiatives including front-end discovery, contextual inquiry, ethnography, stakeholder interviews, concept evaluation, journey mapping, and opportunity framing.
• Develop research plans tailored to business questions, project phases, user populations, and client objectives.
• Establish and maintain research standards, templates, and best practices to ensure quality and consistency.
• Mentor researchers and cross-functional team members in research planning, fieldwork, synthesis, and insight communication.

Experience Strategy

• Translate research findings into strategic frameworks, experience principles, service concepts, product direction, and innovation roadmaps.
• Facilitate workshops that align stakeholders, define priorities, and move teams toward actionable outcomes.
• Identify opportunities to expand research into broader strategy engagements including service design, brand experience, and front-end innovation.

Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration

• Build flexible project teams integrating Design Research, Industrial Design, Human Factors, UX/UI, Graphic Design, and Engineering.
• Train and guide team members to support research activities such as observation, synthesis, journey mapping, and insight translation.
• Foster a collaborative research culture that values rigor without creating silos.

Practice Growth & Business Development

• Partner with leadership to shape research and strategy offerings that respond to client needs and market opportunities.
• Support proposal development, project scoping, and client presentations.
• Help define and package offerings around design research, experience strategy, service design, and innovation strategy.

Required Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in design research, experience strategy, service design, innovation strategy, or related fields.
• Strong knowledge of qualitative research methods including contextual inquiry, ethnography, interviews, journey mapping, and concept evaluation.
• Demonstrated ability to translate research insights into actionable strategies, frameworks, and design principles.
• Experience managing, mentoring, or guiding researchers and cross-functional teams.
• Strong facilitation skills including client workshops and stakeholder alignment sessions.
• Excellent communication, storytelling, and presentation skills.
• Background in consulting, agency, product development, healthcare, consumer product, or innovation environments.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in medical device, healthcare, consumer product, digital product, or brand strategy.
• Familiarity with human factors, usability engineering, or regulated product development.
• Experience partnering with Industrial Design, Human Factors, UX/UI, Graphic Design, and Engineering teams.
• Ability to support business development through proposals, scoping, and client conversations.
• Experience building or evolving a design research practice.
• Comfort working across both strategic front-end ambiguity and tactical evaluative research.

What We're Looking For

The ideal candidate is a principal design research leader who has grown into experience strategy. You are comfortable working in ambiguity, confident leading clients and teams, and energized by building something larger than a single discipline. You balance research rigor with business pragmatism — knowing when deep research is required, when a lean approach is appropriate, and how to bring the right disciplines into the process.

• Self-starter with strong ownership and initiative
• Strategic thinker who can connect user insight to business value
• Collaborative leader who can integrate multiple disciplines
• Clear communicator and compelling storyteller
• Low ego, high standards