Senior Director of Experience Research

The Ascension Studio is seeking a Senior Director of Experience Research to lead our experience research practice in our work to create the future of people-centered healthcare. This role will be responsible for setting strategy for the experience research discipline and providing leadership oversight of experience research work across the organization.

This position can be based out of St. Louis, Chicago, or Austin.

What You Will Do

As a Senior Director of Experience Research you will help lead the discipline and help set the strategy and vision for the team and represent it across Ascension. You will collaborate closely with design, product and engineering leaders to prioritize research opportunities, develop research roadmaps and drive strategic alignment to organizational initiatives.

The Experience Research team is responsible for understanding end-to-end patient and provider journeys, challenges, and unmet needs to identify the most impactful opportunities for us to address. As a comprehensive healthcare system that includes a vast range of healthcare services, this could include the design of virtual care delivery, nurse communications, remote health monitoring, operating room operations, financial transparency and payment, care coordination, and more. The Experience research team works collaboratively with designers and product managers on field research, concept envisioning and iterative testing.

Expert knowledge of research methods and experience applying a mixed-methods research approach for digital products and services are critical to this role. You will be part of a growing team and will help drive research excellence through industry best practices. Using powerful insight-to-impact stories and innovation workshops you will evangelize the value of a human-centered design approach in the organization by helping demonstrate both the qualitative and measurable impact that Experience Research has on outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

Set and drive strategy for scaling research and design impact across the organization
Hire and cultivate research and service design talent
Oversee, prioritize, and activate exploratory, formative and summative research initiatives
Scope, staff, and advise complex and strategic research programs, including both those within the Products organization and in an advisory capacity to other teams within Ascension
Serve as subject matter expert on qualitative and quantitative research methods, human-centered design and design thinking
Guide and participate in research activities across exploratory, evaluative, and validation phases, including but not limited to qualitative and quantitative data gathering, contextual inquiry, ethnography, empathy exercises, co-design sessions, synthesis methods, usability evaluations, and A/B testing
Ensure quality of research work, drive research excellence as well as research team compliance with relevant regulations and best practices
Disseminate research findings to various teams through communication assets such as reports, presentations, user journey maps, design principles, frameworks, workflows, day-in-the-life scenarios, and use case summaries
Train Ascension associates in research methods and best practices

Work Experience:

7 years of professional experience in user experience research, 10 years preferred.
5 years of leadership or management experience preferred.
Experience building and leading UX Research or Service Design teams and operations
Strong knowledge of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies and their application, especially human-centered and design thinking methods
Experience conducting ethnography, semi-structured interviews, focus groups, contextual field visits, workflow analysis, surveys, usability testing and human factors studies
Strong knowledge of statistics and research study design

Preferred Qualifications

Experience conducting experience research in healthcare
Experience representing Experience Research and human-centered design with executive leadership
Experience working on multiple fast-paced research projects across the product lifecycle
Experience collaborating with technical and non-technical business stakeholders and managing engagements with external partners
Experience working with agile design and development teams Excellent storytelling and communication skills

What You Will Need

Education:

Bachelors degree required.
Preferred focus in Human Factors, Design Research, Service Design, Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Human Computer Interaction, Interaction Design, Industrial Design, or similar field.
Masters degree preferred.

Work Experience:

7 years of experience required.
10 years of experience preferred.
5 years of leadership or management experience preferred.