Sr. UX Researcher

This role will help usher in next-generation experiences for our portfolio of brands. The Sr. UX Researcher will work across our brands, planning, managing, and conducting research for our customer-facing digital interfaces including web, app, and in-restaurant screens. UX Research is part of a centralized UX Research & Design Team at Inspire Brands. The Sr. UX Researcher will be an advocate for our brands’ customers who use our web, apps and customer-facing devices. They will be an expert at using qualitative research methods such as field studies and interviews to learn and understand our customers’ needs, behaviors, and emotions, and gather insights that inform product strategy and design. They understand both the business goals as well as UX execution and will collaborate with design leads, and other teams including Brand, Product Management, Engineering, and Performance Analytics to create innovative experiences across all our brands.

This role is based in the Atlanta Support Center, to support frequent research in our Atlanta-area restaurants with occasional travel to other company stores as needed.

 

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead User Research: Using proven UX methodologies (like contextual interviews, focus groups, usability studies, heuristic analysis, ethnographic research, and diary studies) manage data collection and analysis, synthesize qualitative and quantitative data to identify root causes of UX issues, identify new user needs and present results to cross-functional teams and leaders.

• Grow User Research Competency: Establish user research best practices, and develop new tools, methodologies, and/or standards for measuring the user experience of customers. Collaborate and communicate across UX, Product, Brand, Performance Analytics, and Engineering teams to disseminate and implement best practices. Over time work with leadership to hire, mentor, and grow the user research capability.

• Advocate for Customers: Discover and analyze user behavior, needs, and motivations, and the relationship they have with a product (digital or otherwise). Represent the “voice of the customer” and inspire cross-functional teams to put users at the center of evaluation and actions.

• Translate insights into action: Translate user research findings into specific recommendations for improving product/platform designs and prioritize with agile teams, as well as validate design iterations with users to feed insights into the product roadmap.

• Building Relationships: Build strong relations with cross-functional teams including consumer insights, content development, delivery, innovation and operations, and technology partners to understand issues and priorities, collaborate on a user engagement roadmap, and work together to conduct meaningful research leading to a deep understanding of experience needs/gaps and sharing insights across teams.

 

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE QUALIFICATIONS

• 4 Year degree in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Psychology, or a related field

• Minimum 5 years of professional experience conducting research using a wide variety of research methods for digital design organizations or related fields.

• A healthy understanding of how to balance the fast-paced, flexible nature of research in an Agile environment with the rigor and confidence levels present in more academic research.

• Experience running moderated and unmoderated usability tests, including expertise in task scenario best practices.

 

REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, OR ABILITIES

• Self-directed, organized, efficient; a deep and insightful thinker who likes the challenge of a complex problem, and is an effective communicator, presenter, and negotiator.

• Direct experience in both traditional and modern approaches to recruitment, diverse research methods, and reporting.

• Expert knowledge of user research principles, methodologies, and deliverables

• Strong ability to identify key research objectives in partnership with product, design, brand, and engineering teams to address research needs for a variety of brands and projects throughout the product life cycle.

• Strong knowledge of a wide variety of research methods and the experience to select the right research to do at the right time and synthesize insights into coherent, digestible deliverables that visually reflect those results including service design blueprints, journey maps, and process flows.

• Strong ability to collaborate and present research to multiple teams and leaders across the organization, communicate end-user needs and solutions effectively, build consensus, and justify decisions.

• Strong ability to socialize, collaborate, and present research to multiple teams and leaders across the organization.

 

Inspire Brands is a multi-brand restaurant company whose portfolio includes nearly 32,000 Arby’s, Baskin-Robbins, Buffalo Wild Wings, Dunkin’, Jimmy John’s, and SONIC Drive-In restaurants worldwide.

We’re made up of some of the world’s most iconic restaurant brands, but we’re much more than just a restaurant company. We’re a team of hundreds of thousands who individually and collectively are changing the way people eat, drink and gather around the table. We know that food is much more than a staple—it’s an experience. At Inspire, that’s our purpose: to ignite and nourish flavorful experiences.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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