User Research Consultant — Plan, Advise & Shape Products in Manchester

Hippo is recruiting for intermediate consultants in user research. User researchers design, plan and conduct research into what people need from a service and produce recommendations for user-centred service design. Working with designers, product owners, developers and other members of Agile teams, you will also test services as they are being designed and use research evidence to help explain design decisions to clients.

As an intermediate consultant in user research, you’ll come to Hippo with strong user research skills and some experience of advising others on how to design user-centred services. In return, we’ll provide exciting opportunities to develop further within your profession and as a consultant with clients.

What you’ll do:

• Plan, and execute a range of user research to support product design
• Identify the most appropriate research methods depending on the phase of the service lifecycle
• Help the team to build empathy for the service users
• Support usability evaluation sessions
• Use a range of tools to collect data, and write research reports to present findings
• Effectively present your findings and related design/business recommendations and customer insights to stakeholders
• Collaborate with other members of Agile, multidisciplinary teams within a user-centred design process
• Learn from insights from user research and metrics to define and improve the service, and explain your decisions clearly
• Run workshops with your team and stakeholders
• Work with the Hippo research and design community to share best practice

Skills and experience that you need:

• Experience of working with senior stakeholders
• Experience of using different research methods (qualitative and quantitative) to gain insights
• Working knowledge of user-centred design principles and practices
• Understanding of a client’s strategic objectives and how the insights from your research support them
• Ability to explain your findings and deal with challenges from stakeholders

What makes us great:

• Contributory pension scheme (Hippo 6% with employee contributions of 2%)
• 25 days holiday plus UK public holidays
• Perkbox access for a wide range of discounts
• Critical illness cover
• Life assurance and death in service cover
• Volunteer days
• Cycle-to-work scheme for the avid cyclists
• Salary sacrifice electric vehicles scheme
• Season ticket loans
• Financial and general wellbeing sessions
• Flexible benefits scheme with options of: private health cover, private dental cover, additional company pension contributions, additional holidays (up to an extra 2 days), wellbeing contribution, charity contributions, tree planting

Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at Hippo:

At Hippo, we’re dedicated to creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace that works for everyone. We understand that having a diverse team unlocks our capacity for innovation, creativity and problem solving. Only by building a community of diverse perspectives, cultures and socio-economic backgrounds can we create an environment where all can contribute and thrive. We actively encourage applications from underrepresented groups including women, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+, neurodivergent and people with disabilities. We are committed to providing an inclusive and accessible recruitment process that reflects our workplace culture. We are a registered Disability Confident Employer, Mindful Employer, Endometriosis Friendly Employer and a member of the Armed Forces Covenant. Hippo continually strives to remove barriers, provide accommodations and offer reasonable adjustments to ensure equity throughout our practices.

Hippo locations:

We are headquartered in Leeds and have offices across the UK in Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, London and Bristol. We're on the lookout for top talent nationwide but you need to be located within reasonable travelling distance from one of our offices which will be your contracted office location. Given the dynamic nature of a consulting business, you may be required to work on-site at a Hippo office or at an in/out of town client location for a number of days per week (client dependent) and therefore candidates will need to be open/flexible to travel. Plus, we offer a generous relocation support package of up to £8k (please ask for terms and conditions) to help make your move a smooth one.