Yes, I am looking for a Manager, User Experience Research.
Forget that title – I need a Manager of “How we are doing”
This is more than just usability testing.
I like questions. I’d expect this person to be good at asking questions and even better at figuring out ways to answer those questions.
The most basic question that I need this person to ask and answer is “How are we doing?”
Now, I know the financial numbers and every hour I get my reports as to what is selling and what people are searching for. But I need this person to be about to ask “How are we doing?” from an experience point of view. Listening to our current customers of course. But also seeing if those customers and their lives are changes and how we might need to change with them in order to stay relevant. Even looking for new types of customers that we might be able to earn the right to serve.
I want this new manager to be able to lead their team forward in any way necessary to answer that driving question. If it is focus groups, usability tests, remote interviews, card sorts, ethnographic-like observation, surveys, in-store intercepts,
Did we get better over the last month?
What do our users want?
What is the job that our experience needs to do for them?
This person should make it easier for me and my managers to earn their bonus, get promoted because we will know how the experience is doing and how it has changed since last month, last quarter, last year.
Is this too much to ask? Am I just desiring too much insight? Yes, I would like a combination of a mind-reader, cultural anthropologist, private investigator, time-motion studier, analyst and talk-show host.
Here are all the nitty gritty details