Strategist, Mindset

We are looking to hire a Strategist to join our Mindset Consultancy team in London. Working at WGSN is fast-paced, exciting and full of opportunities to grow and develop. We are a team of consumer and design trend forecasters, content creators, designers, data analysts, advisory consultants and much more, united by a common goal: to create tomorrow. WGSN's trusted consumer and design forecasts power outstanding product design, enabling our customers to create a better future. Our services cover consumer insights, beauty, consumer tech, fashion, interiors, lifestyle, food and drink forecasting, data analytics and expert advisory. If you are an expert in your field, we want to hear from you.

Role Overview: We are looking for a Strategist to join our dynamic, ambitious and close-knit consultancy team. Working closely with our team of global consultants, you will be responsible for researching and building strategic qualitative and quantitative analysis in-line with our clients’ business needs.

In order to succeed in this role, you will need to demonstrate:

• A strong understanding of cultural trends, consumer mindsets, new product development and the role data and analytics plays in commercial success.
• Confidence in translating macro and consumer trends into thought-provoking insight across the key industries of Interiors, Food & Drink, Beauty, and Fashion.
• You will be an excellent collaborator, highly commercial, proactive in working across multi-disciplinary teams to build innovative research, and willing to stretch and apply your research skill set across different industries and client briefs.

The team: You will be part of a dynamic and high-performing team, made up of 40+ consultants and trend researchers who bring together bespoke solutions for a wide range of clients across the globe. You will be working with industry experts and thought leaders with backgrounds in creative strategy, product innovation, design, marketing, buying and merchandising, data analytics and of course, trend forecasting.

Key Accountabilities:

• Work with the Senior Consultant and Director to deliver the defined Consultancy strategy to clients, ensuring the appropriate methodologies and frameworks are employed for all project teams.
• Conduct primary and secondary research using various methodologies and deliver insights that provide actionable recommendations that will benefit our client's future business.
• Develop research methodologies and design project frameworks to individual project requirements, training and overseeing junior team members on methodologies where applicable.
• Support Mindset’s commercial activity by developing compelling research plans and frameworks to deliver against specific client briefs.
• Own and manage research workstreams, developing innovative trend intelligence and forecasts that lead to repeat business and deepen client relationships.
• Ensure accurate and up-to-date project management for designated projects. Where appropriate, oversee the project admin of more junior colleagues.
• Present to key stakeholders both internally and externally, participating in Q&A and client workshops where appropriate.
• Travel nationally and internationally to deliver high-value consulting projects to clients.
• Work across time zones with a diverse set of clients.

This list is not exhaustive and there may be other activities you are required to deliver.

Skills, Experience & Qualifications Required:

• Strong knowledge of consumer behaviour, cultural trends, and marketing trends, with the ability to pinpoint trends that will have a great impact across industries.
• Experience in working across multiple research methodologies (qualitative and quantitative) to develop thought-provoking insight.
• Ability to understand and analyse quantitative data and pinpoint consumer, marketing and product trends that will impact the market.
• Analytical problem-solving skills with experience in solving unstructured problems involving quantitative data, through a structured and hypothesis-driven approach.
• A solution-minded approach, with the ability to interpret client briefs and apply appropriate methodologies to build a compelling research plan.
• Good presentation skills with proven experience of presenting to internal stakeholders, external clients and/or at events.
• Confident and articulate in both written and visual communication, with a confident style of writing and reporting in English.
• This role will work across industries such as Interiors, Food & Drink, Beauty, and Fashion. Prior experience in some (but not all) of these categories is required.
• Technical skills: Microsoft Office, Google Workspace. A basic knowledge of data visualisation software such as Tableau is an advantage.

What We Offer: Our benefits and wellbeing package offers flexible benefits you can tailor to your own personal needs, including:

• 25 days of holiday per year - with an option to buy/sell up to 5 days.
• Pension, Life Assurance and Income Protection.
• Flexible benefits platform with options including Private Medical, Dental Insurance & Critical Illness.
• Employee assistance programme, season ticket loans and cycle to work scheme.
• Volunteering opportunities and charitable giving options.
• Great learning and development opportunities.

More About WGSN: WGSN is the global authority on consumer trend forecasting. We help brands around the world create the right products at the right time for tomorrow’s consumer.

Our values:

• We Are Everywhere: The future is everything, it happens everywhere. WGSN is the world-leading forecaster because we track and analyse consumer behaviours, product innovation, design and creativity, everywhere.
• We Are Future Focused: We utilise our global resources and intelligence to research, source and analyse quantitative and qualitative data to produce our forecasts. Everything we do is focused on working with our customers to create a successful and positive tomorrow.
• We Are Rigorous: We source, review and assess quantitative and qualitative data to produce robust, actionable forecasts. To provide credible insights and design solutions for our clients, it is essential that rigour runs through everything we do.

Our culture: An inclusive culture is one of our key priorities. We want our people to truly be themselves and thrive. We love having a diverse team of people who bring new ideas, different strengths and perspectives & reflect the global audience we work with.

Inclusive workforce: We are committed to supporting the environment and sustainability, including ensuring our pension plan defaults to sustainable options and striving to be net zero by 2030. Recognising great performance is a key part of our culture. Our Awards schemes recognise and reward the brilliant achievements of our people.

We offer a flexible working environment with a wide range of flexible, hybrid and agile working arrangements. Conversations about flexible working have always been—and will continue to be—actively encouraged here, but we do not offer full remote working.

We want to ensure everyone has the opportunity to perform their best when interviewing, so if you require any reasonable adjustments that would make you more comfortable during the process, please let us know so that we can do our best to support you.