Sr. Design Researcher

General Motors • Mountain View, CA

1d

About The Position

About the team: GM’s Human Interface Design Studio is hiring a Senior Design Researcher to help shape the future of web and app experiences across General Motors and its marquee brands. As part of our team, you’ll collaborate with design, product, engineering, brand, and marketing teams to craft well designed research initiatives, point of views, and frameworks to inspire and inform user-centered designs. What You’ll Do As a Senior Design Researcher on the web and app team, you will focus on strategic projects that inform comprehensive design guidelines that inform how we leverage best practices and design patterns across product, engineering, design, and other stakeholders. This role will work closely with cross-functional partners to curate, organize, and proliferate these guidelines. Additionally, this role may be assigned to special projects across the web and app studio on an as needed basis. Key Characteristics Strong design taste and sensibilities as evidenced by an in-depth understanding of design best practices, heuristics, and current trends The ability to communicate your point of view through storytelling in a compelling, convincing manner with the broader team. A demonstrated track record owning and leading design research, working cross-functionally and thinking strategically to inform research for one or more broad or complex product areas. A strong working knowledge and extensive experience of multiple generative and evaluative research methods, how to apply them in a fast-moving organization, and experience mentoring or coaching other researchers on the use of these methods. The ability to translate insight into action. You help teams understand customer needs, attitudes, and behaviors through thoughtful and actionable research. Your work informs both strategic and tactical efforts. Knowledge of the product design process and experience collaborating with other researchers, designers, content strategists, product managers, and engineers to help transform complex problems into easy-to-use products. You recommend how to best address our research goals and questions, so your partners don’t have to. The ability to translate research findings into product priorities and strategic narratives, new business opportunities, within and across different projects. Adaptability and a growth-mindset, seeking out and welcoming feedback from senior leaders and managers. Ability to produce great work in short timeframes, multi-task across different projects and platforms and adapt to the ever-changing priorities of the business.

Requirements

• 5 or more years executing user research to inform interactive product design required.
• Strong portfolio with work samples showcasing expertise in user research required.
• Excellent written, visual, and verbal communication skills.
• Knowledge of design thinking methods.
• Familiarity with common design user experience research tools (e.g., dScout, Optimal Workshop, Qualtrics, User Testing, and Figma).
• Familiarity with data science practices and working closely with data scientists/analysts in the design space (A/B testing, data analysis, etc.).
• Proficient in multiple user research methodologies is required (contextual inquiry, empathy interviews, ethnography/observational research, heuristic evaluation and expert reviews, usability testing; surveys, card sorting/tree testing - information architecture, focus groups, competitive evaluation, SUS testing).
• Proficient in all aspects of study planning/fielding/analysis/synthesis/socialization of key findings (i.e., team consultation, recruiting, methodology and metrics development, analysis, reporting results, socialization of key findings, etc.) required.
• Ability to work collaboratively required.

Nice To Haves

• Automotive experience strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

• Curate and organize design guidelines, interaction principles, and requirements in a centralized web app leveraged by internal GM stakeholders with the goal of reducing ambiguity, accelerating delivery, and increasing consistency across teams.
• Ensure product guidelines remain dynamic, scalable, and aligned with evolving business and customer needs.
• Design and field mixed methods research studies including live studies, un-moderated studies, field studies, participatory design, heuristic evaluations, and remote usability testing to inform and inspire product and design decisions.
• Enhance your work by actively seeking out research and metrics from internal and external sources to provide comprehensive recommendations that inform design and business strategy.
• Collaborate seamlessly and flexibly with cross-functional partners to drive best-in-class thinking from all parts of the organization.
• Work quickly and efficiently without sacrificing quality and knowing how to adapt to the ever-changing priorities of the web and app experiences.
• Work on multiple projects concurrently in a very fast paced environment, ensuring that quality deliverables are achieved on time.
• Stay up-to-date with the latest industry news and developments.
• Contribute to the continued evolution of the team’s workflows and processes to further improve quality and performance.
• Have exceptional communication & presentation skills, both written and verbal.

Benefits

• GM offers a variety of health and wellbeing benefit programs. Benefit options include medical, dental, vision, Health Savings Account, Flexible Spending Accounts, retirement savings plan, sickness and accident benefits, life insurance, paid vacation & holidays, tuition assistance programs, employee assistance program, GM vehicle discounts and more.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed