User Researcher

**About Us**:
**THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF 809 CONNECTED BUSINESSES**

Digital and Innovation in Westminster City Council is a world of extraordinary stories, where creative and enterprising people put local residents and businesses first.

Today, Westminster is the most connected borough in London. But, when David joined us in the mid-2010s, small businesses were still struggling to get connected to fibre. Without gigabit-capable broadband, some companies even resorted to biking memory sticks around the city, simply to share files with clients.

Although still in a junior role, David took the initiative and successfully made the business case for £2.8 million of European funding to support connectivity for small businesses across Westminster. Feedback from businesses has been overwhelmingly positive as the project has enhanced their communications with clients. The new connectivity allows them to make video calls and work remotely. As the pandemic hit and many more people needed to work from home, it became clear just how vital this investment had been.

Fast-forward a few years. Westminster is leading the way for connectivity, as a result of the project businesses are thriving, and David is heading up a service of his own responsible for delivery of the Smart City strategy.

**The Role**:
As a User Researcher you can make your own powerful contribution to our brand new Digital & Innovation Service. Bringing a relentless focus on delivering the right outcomes for our users, you’ll be part of a team of User Researchers within our UX function. As we embrace whole new ways of working, you’ll help us drive real change to the digital landscape and the culture of Westminster City Council.

You’ll be at the heart of an ambitious programme which stems from an important realisation: that we can best address the challenges and opportunities facing residents, businesses, visitors and workers across Westminster by embracing innovation, technology, and partnerships. The programme brings an inclusive, user-centred, participatory and problem-led approach to delivering quality services and world-leading experiences for everyone we serve.

You’ll play a key role in our user research community, setting standards and taking responsibility for the professional development of other user researchers. Working across the whole of our Digital & Innovation portfolio, you’ll support core IT, technology, customer, digital and Smart City aspects.

Taking the lead on user research of new, complex products and services, your work will touch a range of different product teams at the same time. You’ll put the user at the centre of all you do.

In this varied and vital post, you could find yourself working in a variety of ways - from joining a product team iterating a product to continuously improve, through to helping a service team deliver against a set of requirements. As the bridge between data and lived experience, you’ll use qualitative and quantitative evidence to help services understand what people need from us and how to design services to meet those needs. Engaging with all kinds of residents to understand the diversity of need in the borough, you’ll become a trusted advisor on assisted digital delivery and digital inclusion.

Along the way, you’ll work with talented colleagues in User Research, Service Design, User Experience Design, Online and Digital Transformation, and Customer Service. Together, you’ll help Westminster become The Digital Local Authority. And ultimately, you’ll help us deliver better outcomes for the people of Westminster.

Please refer to the **Job Description** for more information

**About You**:
You’ll bring a deep understanding of professional user research, user-centred design and service design. Your knowledge spans the product development lifecycle, software development practices, assisted digital, digital inclusion and how to build accessible online services. Knowledge of the cross-government DDAT framework is also vital.

Your understanding of people and collaboration is just as important. You have a successful track record of working across multidisciplinary teams to deliver digital products using agile methodology. And you demonstrate significant experience in understanding and balancing client, organisational, and technical needs when making recommendations. Your familiarity with diverse research methods enables you to elicit valuable insights into resident and staff needs, and translate the findings of your research into recommendations and reports that clearly explain problems and solutions.

**What We Offer**:
Westminster is an amazing place. We are home to more than 200,000 residents from all backgrounds, over 50,000 vibrant and vital businesses and three-quarters-of-a-million people work in Westminster. Westminster City Council’s strategy is to work towards a Fairer Westminster. A Fairer Westminster is one in which our communities are at the heart of our decision-