Senior Design Researcher

Klaviyo’s UX Design Team is made up of Product Designers, Researchers, Content Strategists, and Design Systems specialists. We are a collaborative group and take a human-centered approach to everything that we do. The Design Program Manager will help enable the UX team to run effectively, while also working closely with cross-functional partners to drive UX team objectives. You will lead design operations and programming for multiple initiatives - internal and external - that help drive overall impact for the UX team.

Our Design Research team exists to ensure our Product teams understand our customers better than our customers know themselves. We do this through conducting training for the organization; providing coaching and feedback to designers & PMs within product pods; and helping the organization make data-driven decisions through primary and secondary research that cuts across our product teams and extends beyond our current customers. We blend quantitative and qualitative research methods to help the organization understand the why, how much, who, what, and so what.

We help guide the research activities across the R&D organization (Design, Product, and Engineering) although we work across the entire organization partnering closely with customer success and marketing in addition to our partnerships with designers and product managers. You will be working globally with a team currently based across the US from the East to West Coasts.

About the role:

We’re looking for a Senior Researcher to work fluidly and collaboratively with the rest of the organization. You’re an experienced researcher with a wide range of qualitative and quantitative research methods. You love experimenting with research and can always find an optimal method for the job and constraints at hand. When the right method doesn't exist, you invent it. You know when to engage with teams in Design, Product, Engineering, Data Science and which questions to ask, where to probe, and how to land insights across a business. You believe that customer research is everyone's business and democratize it whenever you can. You know that true insights cannot be "delivered", but must be "developed". You’re passionate about products and believe great experiences are always inspired by a deep understanding of people. 

How you’ll have an impact:

• Create the conditions for product success, by providing strategic research that the team needs at all stages of the product lifecycle, and developing into a growing knowledge center that ensures human empathy and informs product decisions. 
• De-risk investments by conducting mixed research methods, develop insights that guide our product strategy across teams in Product, Design, Engineering and Data Science.
• Inform multiple product road maps through your research insights.
• Increase the velocity and volume of research within Klaviyo through partnerships, lunch and learns, and at least quarterly “top findings” synthesis.
• Drive changes to product and design through synthesizing and communicating research findings into meaningful recommendations and actionable results in order to inform business decisions. Lead stakeholders in translation of research findings into actionable results.

What you’ll need: 

• 6+ years directly designing and executing mixed method research projects that influence business decisions.
• Experience developing or combining research methods to achieve more actionable insights.
• Expertise in user-centered design principles, UX standards and fundamental user behaviors.
• Provide thought leadership within the organization to help us stay true to our value of putting the customer first.
• Bachelor or Master degree in HCI, Design, Sociology, Anthropology, Cognitive Psychology or a related field

Nice to have:

• Ability to develop creative approaches to researching complex user experience problems and convey ideas in a tangible form.
• You believe that "fun" and "engaging" are as important to research as "robust" and "insightful". You bring joy to research, while ensuring data integrity and validity.
• Demonstrated ability to build collaborative relationships remotely and cross-functionally to influence strategy and decisions.
• An entrepreneurial, forward thinking mindset and creative approach to problem-solving
• Strong business acumen; an understanding of business goals, strategies and pressures while being aware of industry trends and competitive actions as a context for doing research.
• Passion for being involved in the big picture, while fearlessly diving into the details.
• Knowledge of research methods and tools for conducting research across devices, with various customer segments and markets (including international).