Our Mission at LearnVest:

LearnVest is redefining the American approach to personal finance. Our planners leverage financial technology to create simple, affordable, realistic plans for anyone who wants to feel confident about their money and optimistic about the future.

Since launching in 2010, LearnVest has been one of the premier financial technology companies in the country, helping thousands of people make progress on their financial goals. LearnVest was acquired by Northwestern Mutual in 2015 and is now scaling its technology and personal finance approach to help millions of people across both the LearnVest and Northwestern Mutual brands.

Description:

The User Experience Research Lead is a creative problem solver that can develop systems of research to solve complex product and design problems from the tactical to the strategic. Employing a variety of different research approaches, you are going to help LearnVest improve our existing experiences and develop new ones. You’ll need to be good at research (both qualitative and quantitative) and good at making that research become part of our narrative and decision making. This is a leadership role so you’ll need to be able to manage and mentor other researchers.

Responsibilities:

• Champion our end users through research
• Manage more junior researchers and help them develop their career growth
• Collaborate with stakeholders across design, product, marketing, etc to understand their needs and develop research solutions to help drive the business forward
• Design and execute research from start to finish
• Evolve the practice of UX Research through the introduction of best practices and tools
• Evangelize the role of UX Research through deliverables, workshops, communications, etc
• Serve as an expert on our end users by connecting dots across different research projects

Qualifications:

• An undergraduate degree in psychology, social science, statistics, business, marketing or a related field
• 5 or more years of experience leading research efforts with end users
• Firm grasp of the language of research, design, product, engineering, as well as the business
• Expertise in a variety of research techniques both quantitative and qualitative including surveys, one on one interviews, card sorts, and tree tests
• Experience with the nuts and bolts of executing research from end to end
• Ability to design and build complex surveys with platforms like Qualtrics or Confirmit
• Proficiency at developing interview guides and other qualitative research instruments
• Ability to consult with stakeholders to think through problems and develop research plans that go beyond ad hoc projects
• Experience managing ongoing and ad hoc research studies with shifting priorities
• Translation of research data into consumable insights that tell a story about our business and products
• Being an authority on the intersection of research and design
• Effective at communication up to and including the C-suite

Things that we value:

• Enthusiasm in ambiguity and uncertainty
• A strong point of view with a healthy dose of humility
• A collaborative mindset, thick skin and a great sense of humor
• Willingness to take risks and fail (and fail again. And again)
• Boring and long research decks make you cringe
• Keeping it short, sweet, and smart in presentations
• Exposing the real story beyond just the numbers
• A belief in our vision