UX Research Manager

AnswerLab is a leading independent user-experience (UX) research firm founded in 2004, helping enterprise product teams scale user research and turn customer insights into measurable product and business outcomes. The company serves major global clients and offers services across usability testing, accessibility, research ops, and multi-phase programs that support product strategy and digital transformation.

As a Research Manager, you will lead a globally distributed community of UX researchers based across countries such as India, Switzerland, and Korea, partnering with a variety of stakeholder teams within a major tech client. Topics may include emerging technologies, broad usage trends among segments, data security/privacy, new product development, and much more. The ideal candidate will be a UX Research Leader with experience and enthusiasm for both qualitative and quantitative research, who has a keen eye for the nuances required from each client team, and will work flexibly to make them a reality.

You will partner closely with researchers to ensure they have the resources and capacity to both deliver exceptional insights to our clients and foster their career and professional development. You will ensure high-caliber client engagements through exceptional partnerships, research methods, insights, and deliverables.

To ensure success in this role, you must be able to:

• Leverage existing knowledge, context, and all relationships (internal and external) to navigate challenges by developing creative and effective solutions.
• Identify efficiencies and opportunities to scale research delivery for maximum profitability.
• Provide in-the-moment feedback to researchers to support continuous professional development and to ensure consistent performance at all client touchpoints.

You will lead a team of researchers to provide premier service by:

• Ensuring a high standard of program caliber and consistency in all client touch points (e.g., kickoffs, moderation, reporting) via onboarding, maintaining knowledge bases/documentation, and facilitating knowledge shares to new-to-program UXRs.
• Adhering to AnswerLab’s Core Values and Framework of Empathetic Leadership, which includes: creating capacity for our teams to navigate new challenges, creating and bolstering our own leadership capacity, and being active, empathetic listeners.
• Providing consistent, individualized support to direct reports via regular 1:1s and performance reviews.
• Enabling ongoing career development for UXRs through guidance and mentorship.
• Developing and maintaining cross-functional relationships, both inside AnswerLab and with our clients.
• Participating in key client and project team meetings (such as project kickoffs and/or report presentations).
• Taking an active role in the hiring and onboarding of new research members.

You will impact our clients’ business by:

• Cultivating strong client partnerships to align on evolving needs and identify opportunities to enhance experiences for both researchers and clients.
• Driving thought leadership on emerging UX topics, including AI-enabled research, automation and synthesis tools, novel qualitative and mixed-method approaches, scalable insight frameworks, and evolving industry trends, to help the internal research team and client stay ahead of the market.
• Developing and applying strategic knowledge of the account team/client industry by leveraging learnings across research projects.
• Building open, collaborative relationships and communicating comfortably and confidently with stakeholders at all levels, from product owners to designers to C-suite leaders.
• Demonstrating foundational business acumen in support of overall business health and performance, and proactively identifying opportunities to improve outcomes.

As a member of the Research Management team, you will contribute to AnswerLab by:

• Collaborating with other Research Managers to develop innovative and impactful research solutions that align with our clients’ business needs and are current with UX trends.
• Evaluating, evolving, and innovating project delivery practices by introducing new tools, processes, and approaches, and equipping the research team to execute cutting-edge research that helps clients stay ahead of the competition.
• Working with the core account team to innovate on the broader account delivery model to support account growth.
• Serving as a role model to all AnswerLab team members by exemplifying our core values.
• Contributing to the development and maintenance of the integrity of our research solutions, methodologies, deliverables, and processes.

Reports to a VP of Research. Partners daily with the US-based Research Manager counterpart and Project Manager to coordinate seamless handoffs and continuous coverage across time zones. Manages a globally dispersed team of researchers spanning multiple experience levels. Acts as a responsive, collaborative partner to the client point of contact and key stakeholders across product-area teams. Partners with Research Managers within the core team and across the broader organization to share insights and strengthen collective practice. Collaborates with internal teams, including Client Success, Design, IT, Marketing, and Operations.

We understand that outstanding candidates come from a variety of backgrounds. While specific experience is important, we are ultimately looking for candidates who have the personal characteristics to thrive in a growing client-focused business. The ideal candidate will likely meet many or most of the job criteria listed below.

• 5+ years of professional experience executing Qualitative and Quantitative research in a fast-paced, client-facing environment.
• 3+ years of experience overseeing a team of 5 - 7 researchers.
• At least 1 year of experience managing globally distributed teams across multiple countries and time zones.
• Self-starter and self-motivated, with the ability to work autonomously and lead a team of researchers with minimal supervision in a high-volume, client-driven business.
• Thrives in a fast-paced, growth-oriented, and time-critical environment.
• Superior organizational skills, keen attention to detail, and demonstrated commitment to the accuracy and completeness of information.
• Responsive with commitment to follow-through on requests.
• Ability to build trust quickly and effectively across a variety of relationships (e.g., stakeholders, direct reports, cross-functional roles).
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills and well-developed interpersonal skills.
• Ability to engage with senior-level business managers, executives, and research managers in Fortune 500 companies.
• Experience leading consulting engagements with clients -- either in research specifically or with a management consulting firm that uses analytical data to support conclusions.
• Well-versed in multiple research methodologies, such as 1:1 usability studies, diary studies, benchmarking, heuristics, competitive analysis, survey design and programming, quantitative analysis (e.g., Max-Diff, Logistic Regressions, Tree Tests), unmoderated usability, focus groups, and other user testing techniques.
• Experience crafting and evaluating discussion guides, screeners, test protocols, and final reports.
• Clear, concise, and engaging presentation skills, including building presentations and presenting results and recommendations to clients.
• Experience and demonstrated proficiency in a variety of software tools and digital platforms (Google Workspace, Microsoft Office Suite, Salesforce, Slack, etc.).
• Bachelor’s or advanced degree in Human-Computer Interaction, Psychology, Statistics, Economics, Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.

At AnswerLab, our mission is to create experiences people love. This means we strive to make our company a great place to work for people from all walks of life. Hiring people from a wide variety of backgrounds makes our company stronger and helps us achieve our mission.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and do not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, sex, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, status as a veteran, and basis of disability or any other federal, state, or local protected class.

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This job description outlines the primary responsibilities of the role and may evolve as business needs change. Applicants must have the right to work in the UK.