UX Research Manager
Summary
As a User Experience Research Manager you are responsible for delivering business outcomes by empowering your reports to excel at their research responsibilities in order to improve the overall experience of Workiva's platform. This includes UX team management and administration, building and improving UX processes, advising and coaching on Product Team discovery processes, maintaining recruitment channels, and being an advocate for good data driven decision making within R&D and out to the rest of Workiva.
Equally important is your responsibility for mentorship. As a member of the UX leadership team, you will help grow and refine the team’s skillset, both with individual reports and the team as a whole.
You will also be responsible for shepherding one or more organization-spanning UX Research programs in areas such as quantitative UXR or Jobs to be Done.
What You'll Do
Management: Creates and implements processes and policies that optimize operational effectiveness and efficiency and that enhance employee performance
- Aligns UX values with the desired business results of the company, helping to define the objectives that matter to both the team and the business
- Coaches UX team members (and their peers in PM, Dev, etc.) on how to understand user problems in order to prioritize and resolve them appropriately
- Provides objectives and empowers the appropriate personnel to achieve successful outcomes
- Provides critical feedback to team members on research planning, facilitation, analysis, and reporting and advises on best practices of user experience research
- Ensures a consistent user experience across product teams
- Coordinates multiple UX team members to accomplish cross-team objectives, minimizing the duplication of effort
- Facilitates continuous improvement of quality and productivity by leading the UX department in ongoing reevaluation and revision of processes, tools, and standards
Team-Building & Mentorship: Builds a strong sustainable organization with high levels of employee engagement by attracting and developing superior talent and rewarding superior performance of teams and individuals
- Provides UX employees with coaching, feedback, and developmental opportunities including leadership development to enhance their skills, motivation, and performance
- Maintains an atmosphere of respect, mutual support, flexibility, continuous learning, good humor, and commitment to business goals and customer needs to fulfill the company vision
- Matches staff skills and talent to tasks to ensure optimal engagement and performance
- Rewards superior team and individual performance in ways that enhance employee engagement, commitment, and satisfaction
- Manages staff recruitment, supervision, scheduling, performance management, development, evaluation, and disciplinary actions
- Demonstrates the charisma and assessment capability to attract top talent
- Identifies and resolves interpersonal conflicts and resource issues
Support Business Goals: Clearly articulates business goals, balanced by user needs and use-cases, that ensure that the product meets expectations as defined by upper management
- Provides management oversight for generating insight about users needs and usability requirements and measuring user outcomes
- Ensures that team members focus on delivering the right insights, at the right time, with the right amount of effort
- Provides leadership for the user experience team to fully understand and resolve issues, concerns, and problems that result in delivering high quality product experiences
What You'll Need
Skills
- Demonstrates a solid understanding of user experience principles and research methodologies
- Solid skills in qualitative, quantitative, and experimental research methods
- Solid understanding of user centered design, human factors, or human computer interaction
- Proficiency with gathering and interpreting user data
- Ability to manage teams
- Time management skills
- Demonstrated leadership skills
- Excellent communication skills
- Ability to effectively recruit team members
Experience
- Six to ten plus years of applied research expertise in user experience, customer experience, software development or a related discipline.
- A proven track record of direct report/peer engagement and advancement, whether in a management position, as a mentor, or as a coach.
- Demonstrated exceptional proficiency in user experience research including usability, analytics, applied ethnography, statistics, and/or additional methodologies is preferred.
Education
- B.A./B.S. degree in design, software engineering, psychology, related field or equivalent experience
- Master’s degree or PhD in human computer interaction, human factors, user experience or similar degree preferred
Travel Requirement
- Up to 10% to meet with customers or key stakeholders
Working Conditions & Physical Requirements
- Reliable internet access for any period of time working remotely, not in a Workiva office
How You'll Be Rewarded
- Base Pay Range in Colorado: $161,000 - $222,000
- A discretionary bonus typically paid annually
- Restricted Stock Units granted at time of hire
- 401(k) match
The base pay range represents the low and high end of the hiring range for this job. Actual pay will vary and may be above or below the range based on various factors including but not limited to relevant skills, experience, and capabilities.
Where You’ll Work
Our values drive how we work and who we hire. You will see these values ingrained in how we support our customers, work with team members, build our products and in the work environment we’ve created.
Customer Success: Always delight our customers.
Trust: Rely on each other.
Integrity: Do the right thing, every time.
Collaboration: Share resources and work together.
Innovation: Keep creating solutions and finding better ways.
Inclusion: Support a diverse community where we all belong.
Accountability: Be responsible for your success and failure.
We believe our people are our greatest asset, and our unique culture gives employees the opportunity to make an impact everyday. We give our employees the freedom and resources they need—backed by our culture of collaboration and diverse thought—to continue innovating and breaking new ground. We hire talented people with a wide range of skills and experiences who are eager to tackle some of today’s most challenging problems.
At Workiva, you’ll enjoy:
Fantastic Benefits: With coverage starting day one, choose from competitive health, dental, and vision plans on the largest physician networks available.
Casual Dress: Workiva has a casual work environment, most people wear jeans to the office.
Involvement: Ability to participate in Employee Resource Groups, (Women in Tech, Women in Sales, Ethnic Diversity, Veterans, Rainbow (LGBTQ), Remote Employees, Caregiving) Volunteering, Company wide celebrations, and more
Work-life Balance: We have competitive PTO, VTO and Parental Leave. We encourage employees to spend time enjoying life outside of work.
Learn more about life at Workiva: www.linkedin.com/showcase/workiva-life-and-careers/
Learn more about the company: https://www.linkedin.com/company/workiva/
Learn more about benefits: https://www.workiva.com/careers/benefits
Workiva is an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer. We believe that great minds think differently. We value diversity of backgrounds, beliefs, and interests, and we recognize diversity as an important source of intellectual thought, varied perspective, and innovation. Employment decisions are made without regard to age, race, creed, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, disability status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression genetic information, marital status, citizenship status or any other protected characteristic.
Workiva is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities. To request assistance with the application process, please email [email protected].
Workiva supports employees in working where they work best - either from an office or remotely from any location within their country of employment. Effective October 18, 2021, proof of COVID-19 vaccination is required to visit any Workiva office, attend in-person meetings, or travel for business purposes.