Manager, Product Research - Product Experience Clinics & KPIs

generalmotors; Warren (MI); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

General Motors is seeking a Manager, Product Research in Warren, MI, to lead a team of researchers shaping product experiences, software features, and vehicle UX. The role partners with Product and Program Management to translate customer insights into actionable product direction.

The ideal candidate will have a Bachelor's degree, 7+ years of research leadership experience, and a proven ability to drive customer-centric outcomes across complex hardware-software ecosystems.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• 7+ years of relevant experience.
• Experience leading primary research projects or as primary stakeholder.
• Demonstrated people-leadership experience; coaching and development.
• Ability to manage multiple projects, priorities, timelines and stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor researchers/analysts; set goals and provide feedback.
• Partner with Program Management and Software Product teams; translate priorities into research plans.
• Design and execute bespoke qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method research.
• Develop decision-ready deliverables communicating customer needs and opportunities.
• Manage study materials, budgets, suppliers, and stakeholder expectations.

Skills

Leadership

Project management

Stakeholder management

Communication

Research design

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Tools

AI-enabled tools

Job description

Job Description

Hybrid. This role is categorized as hybrid. This means the successful candidate is expected to report to Warren, Michigan three times per week, at minimum or other frequency dictated by the business.

The Role

General Motors is seeking a Manager, Product Research - Product Experience Clinics & KPIs to lead a team of researchers and/or analysts within Global Customer Research (GCR) Product Research. This leader will bring the voice of the customer into GM’s vehicle software, digital experiences, features, and emerging technologies.

The Manager partners with Program Management and Software Product teams to understand and anticipate customer needs, vehicle-usage contexts, and experience opportunities in, on, and around the vehicle. The role supports the development of planned customer experiences—software-orchestrated coordination of vehicle features—that meet customer needs and exceed expectations, enabling meaningful innovation and industry-leading CX/UX.

This role is ideal for a customer-centered research leader who combines strong project execution and people leadership with the ability to turn complex customer learning into clear product direction. The successful candidate will serve as a trusted research partner to stakeholders, guide a portfolio of bespoke research, and develop a capable team that delivers rigorous, timely, and actionable insight.

What You’ll Do

Partner with product and program teams

• Build trusted working relationships with Program Management and Software Product stakeholders; understand their priorities, decision timelines, and customer-learning needs.
• Translate stakeholder priorities into research plans aligned to product-development milestones and the broader GCR research roadmap.
• Lead framing conversations that clarify the business decision, target customer, learning objectives, scope, success measures, and intended use of findings.
• Partner with stakeholders to develop dual-use stimuli that support internal decision-making and customer research, creating a clear connection between product intent and customer feedback.
• Represent the customer perspective in cross-functional forums and provide a clear, evidence-based point of view.

Lead customer research that informs product decisions

• Plan, design, and execute bespoke qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method research that provides timely, actionable insight for Software Product and Program Management partners.
• Lead foundational, benchmarking, and contextual research to inform product requirements, experience design, feature prioritization, usability evaluation, validation, and launch readiness.
• Plan and execute pre-launch confirmatory and market-assurance experience studies; identify opportunities to improve user experiences before late-stage decisions are fixed.
• Select appropriate approaches, including interviews, ethnography, usability testing, in-vehicle evaluation, journey research, concept and feature testing, surveys, and competitive benchmarking.
• Translate learning into concise, decision-ready deliverables that clearly communicate customer needs, implications, opportunities, and recommended actions.
• Ensure read-across analyses are completed when opportunities exist to synthesize learning across studies, customer themes, product areas, or technology domains.

Lead people, projects, and resources

• Directly lead, coach, and develop researchers and/or analysts; set clear goals and expectations, provide timely feedback, and support professional growth.
• Build a high-performance culture characterized by customer focus, intellectual curiosity, collaboration, accountability, constructive challenge, and continuous improvement.
• Manage an assigned portfolio, including priorities, work plans, milestones, budget, supplier support, and stakeholder expectations.
• Direct study materials, suppliers, logistics, fieldwork, analysis, reporting, and stakeholder follow-through to meet agreed scope, timing, quality, and budget expectations.
• Provide clear status communication to leadership and stakeholders; surface material risks, scope changes, trade-offs, and resource needs early.
• Manage research suppliers, budgets, schedules, tools, and facilities in accordance with GM processes and policies.

Your Skills & Abilities (Required Qualifications)

• Bachelor’s degree.
• 7+ years of relevant experience.
• Working knowledge of vehicle or product-development processes and the role of customer research in product and program decision-making.
• Experience leading primary research projects or serving as a primary stakeholder for primary research, from framing through application of findings.
• Demonstrated people-leadership experience, including setting goals, coaching, and developing team members.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects, priorities, schedules, and stakeholders in a complex, changing environment.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to create clear, concise, and actionable research deliverables.
• Strong presentation, facilitation, and persuasion skills; able to communicate effectively with technical, business, program, and leadership audiences.
• Proficiency using AI-enabled tools to improve the speed, quality, and effectiveness of research and day-to-day work.
• High degree of creativity, resourcefulness, and sound critical thinking, with strong problem-solving, organizational, and stakeholder-management skills.

What Will Give You a Competitive Edge (Preferred Qualifications)

• Software product development experience.
• Post-graduate degree.
• Direct market research experience across quantitative and qualitative methodologies.
• Experience in automotive, mobility, connected services, consumer technology, digital products, or other complex hardware-software ecosystems.
• Experience conducting UX research related to in-vehicle experiences, human-machine interfaces, connected services, or emerging vehicle technologies.

GM does not provide immigration-related sponsorship for this role. Do not apply for this role if you will need GM immigration sponsorship now or in the future. This includes direct company sponsorship, entry of GM as the immigration employer of record on a government form, and any work authorization requiring a written submission or other immigration support from the company (e.g., H1-B, OPT, STEM OPT, CPT, TN, J-1, etc). This role is categorized as hybrid. This means the selected candidate is expected to report to a specific location at least 3 times a week {or other frequency dictated by their manager}. The selected candidate will be required to travel <25% for this role. This job is not eligible for relocation benefits. Any relocation costs would be the responsibility of the selected candidate.

About GM

Our vision is a world with Zero Crashes, Zero Emissions and Zero Congestion and we embrace the responsibility to lead the change that will make our world better, safer and more equitable for all.

Why Join Us

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Benefits Overview

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Accommodations

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