User Experience Researcher

Job Requisition ID: 17019

Additional Locations: Remote

We are seeking an exceptional User Experience Researcher to join our awesome UX team and help us understand, craft, and carry out studies that highlight solutions for product development and emerging technologies. You will work closely with interaction designers, visual designers, copywriters, product managers and engineering teams to support the user experience for the HMH product platforms and applications, including mobile, web, and desktop clients.

Our users, work with digital video in media and enterprise contexts. Candidates will develop a deep understanding of the end-to-end user experience and will work with product and design teams to ensure that our products are effective, engaging, and easy to use. This role requires skills in interviewing, usability testing, and survey design, from recruiting and planning through facilitation and data analysis. We are looking for additional expertise with research methods such as ethnography, card sorting, collaging, etc.

Job Responsibilities

• Identify research needs by working closely with Stakeholders, PM, and UX Design teams
• Create comprehensive research plans, using the most appropriate research methods
• Uses methodology techniques and products to develop a test strategy and plan, define type/category/scope, execute test cases, and analyze results
• Own the entire research process from start to finish including, defining, recruiting, scheduling, moderating, synthesizing, reporting, and presenting reports
• Be a strong advocate for the user - evangelize user-centered design practices and the importance of usability within the development groups and other cross-functional organizations
• Collaborate with design, product, and engineering teams to scope studies, build team empathy, and communicate findings, outputs may include personas and user journeys
• Prepare, conduct, and validate working hypothesis' with customers through usability research of wireframes, clickable prototypes and published product, and participate in design critique
• Make recommendations about the most suitable study design and participant pool based on study goals, combining research techniques, or creating innovative approaches as needed
• Create facilitators' guides and interview protocols
• Create and execute unmoderated usability studies on SaaS tools (usertesting.com/userzoom etc…)
• Analyze and synthesize qualitative and quantitative data from user research studies
• Apply appropriate statistical methods when analyzing and reporting quantitative data
• Create presentations and reports to communicate findings and recommendations to product teams and senior leadership
• Prioritize recommendations and follow through to ensure they are implemented
• Mentor and teach product and UX colleagues how to conduct effective research
• Create and communicate resources, tools, and best practices to advance our UX research program

Requirements

• 1+ years of experience conducting UX Research for product and design teams, 2 - 3 years preferred
• Broad experience designing both qualitative and quantitative research studies, analyzing results and creating reports with actionable product and design insights
• Skilled in the ability to articulate study and UX research methodologies to stakeholders and senior leadership
• Previous experience working with Product Management, Design, and Engineering leads
• Obsessive attention to detail, and the ability to advance multiple projects with competing deadlines across the finish line
• Deep understanding of research methods and how to apply them to business objectives to collect statistically valuable insights

Nice to have

• Bachelor's Degree in design, HCI, Psychology, Anthropology, Cognitive Science, Human Factors or related field
• Demonstrated understanding of UI complexities such as cross-browser requirements and UCD Heuristics
• Experience working in Agile development teams and with other development methodologies
• Exceptional communication skills with a special focus on creative ways to tell the story of research projects in a memorable, engaging style, must be comfortable presenting work to Sr. Management

Physical Requirements

• Might be in a stationary position for a considerable time (sitting and/or standing).
• The person in this position needs to move about inside the office to access file cabinets, office machinery, etc. Constantly operates a computer and other office productivity machinery, such as a calculator, copy machine, and computer printer.
• Must be able to collaborate with colleagues via face to face, conference calls, and online meetings.

Position cannot be performed in Colorado.

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ABOUT US:
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (NASDAQ:HMHC) is a global learning company dedicated to changing people's lives by fostering passionate, curious learners. As a leading provider of pre-K-12 education content, services, and cutting-edge technology solutions across a variety of media, HMH enables learning in a changing landscape. HMH is uniquely positioned to create engaging and effective educational content and experiences from early childhood to beyond the classroom. HMH serves more than 50 million students in over 150 countries worldwide, while its award-winning children's books, novels, non-fiction, and reference titles are enjoyed by readers throughout the world.

For more information, visit http://careers.hmhco.com

PLEASE NOTE:
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is an equal employment opportunity employer and participates in E-Verify. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of gender, race/ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, or other protected group status.