UX Research Specialist

Overview:

The UX Research Specialist uses their skills and knowledge in a wide range of research methods (incl. qualitative and quantitative methods) to understand Maya’s existing and potential customers and how they use our products. This person also knows how to make use of user research to inspire and shape company-wide strategy for product development. 

In this role, you will create understanding and empathy around user needs, stated and unstated, for the entire team including designers, product managers, developers, and marketers. You will do so by conducting primary research, exploring the behaviors and motivations of our users through methods like usability testing, field visits, ethnography, surveys, competitor analysis, and logs analysis.  

The researcher has at least 3 years of professional experience in user research, has a sense for great user experience and design, is a great communicator as well as able to work independently on their own initiatives.

What you will do:

• Set up research initiatives – You will identify emerging opportunities for improving the user experience by working closely with product teams to find important research questions that are aligned with the business objectives.  
• Execute research and generate insights – You’ll design and conduct studies that address both user behavior and attitudes using a wide variety of methods, and elicit actionable insights through the lens of UX, HCI and social sciences. You’ll be conducting both generative and evaluative research based on the research question. 
• Manage and run user testing initiatives– You’ll set up and manage the day to day running of our in-house user evaluation initiatives to better understand and measure the user experience and usability of our products. You’ll also be building up our user insights knowledge library based on the learnings from the lab. 
• Collaborate with stakeholders – You’ll communicate the insights in creative and compelling ways to designers, product managers, developers, marketers and other roles. You’ll also take your insights to shape how product teams think about medium and long-term product strategy as well as help teams tackle the root causes of wider customer experience issues. 
• Act as a subject matter expert in the domain of user research and accessibility by consulting and advising on the best product usability and market trends, research best practices and other customer experience standards. Using your holistic view of the whole product and users’ expectations, you will help build bridges between different parts of the business to advocate for the customer. 

What we are looking for:

• At least 3 years of in an applied research setting, including experience integrating user research into product designs, strategy, and policy  
• Excellent research skills, and familiarity with a wide range of methods and proven ability to triangulate to establish an impactful insights narrative, with the ability to work up to peer review standards 
• Fluency with visual storytelling and other communication tools that enable persuasive communicate findings to a non-technical audience 
• Track record of collaborating with multidisciplinary UX and/or product teams on technical implementation 
• Experience in digital banking and financial services is a plus.  
• Experience in accessibility is a plus.