Design Research Lead

2 weeks ago

London, United Kingdom Ford Motor Company Full time

Design Researchers lead the team through a journey of human-centered research to uncover insights that contribute to all phases of the design process. They champion the voice of the users and leverage inspiration to discover hidden opportunities.

**Basic **Qualifications**:

- Bachelor’s degree in sociology, anthropology, psychology, design or another liberal arts degree
- 5+ years of qualitative research experience culminating in a sound ability to lead a team, scope a research process, lead fieldwork, conduct interviews and do desk research
- 3+ years of experience leading highly collaborative, interdisciplinary project teams in human-centered design

**Preferred Qualifications**:

- Master’s or PhD in sociology, anthropology, psychology, design, or another liberal arts degree
- Experience working on highly collaborative teams, or other multidisciplinary teams
- Experience working with engineering and design teams
- Passionate about automotive and transportation industry
- Experience in designing and/or facilitating group collaboration workshops
- Experience using design thinking principles or methods in a formal, in-person setting
- Experience utilizing design thinking and/or human-centered design in large organizations
- 2+ years’ experience working with quantitative data, surveys, numbers, and analysis to derive research insights

**Lead your Team**
- Lead interdisciplinary teams through the design process, where harmonious collaboration is imperative
- Manage team research budget, including compensation for participants and team travel
- Inspire teams through collaboration as well as direction, vision, and planning of all aspects of project work and deliverables
- Manage communication with internal stakeholders and external partners
- Teach and support others as they learn prototyping skill set

**Plan and Inspire**
- Design and plan generative, qualitative research, including selecting target users and identifying experts, analogous companies, and services
- Conduct external benchmarking to inform the design research plan
- Develop profiles and screening criteria for research recruiting

**Experiment and Think Creatively**
- Experiment with different tools and methods to execute on research plans, e.g. co-creation
- Use and help the team use methods such as field observation, analogous research, conversations with experts and extreme users, concept evaluation, and participatory design, to explore the edge of what’s possible in the near and far
- Design compelling research experiences that generate actionable insights
- Partner with other disciplines to develop visual aids for research, e.g. flashcards, storyboards
- With the design team, create research stimuli to deeply understand user needs, uncover possibilities, and test assumption

**Facilitate and Synthesize**
- Facilitate research events such as co-creation workshops
- Synthesize research findings and unearth systems-level patterns and frameworks
- Help develop creative storytelling tools to enable designing for user goals, values, and aspirations
- Make research findings relevant and impactful for design through a variety of formats such as insights, decks, stories, videos, experiences, and exhibits

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