About the Role
Made Tech wants to positively impact the country's future by using technology to improve society. We believe being design-led can create positive outcomes in the public sector through critical services enabled by technology. We are building a community of designers and researchers to support the public sector growing demand for a design-led approach to service delivery.
Senior User Researchers are experienced practitioners who are confident at working with UCD colleagues and professions outside of our service line such as the Data & tech teams. They collaborate with these teams to understand challenges people face when using public services.
They do this by conducting user research through employing the use of qualitative / quantitative methodologies with real people, ensuring what their team is learning in research informs the end-to-end design of a chosen
Key responsibilities
Acts as the research subject matter expert on a multidisciplinary team, facilitating the end-to-end research process and communicating research decisions to the team and stakeholders
Scope the focus of research, so everyone involved has a shared understanding of what success looks like
Comfortable in selecting the most appropriate qualitative / quantitative research methods when designing a research project
Able to work as a solo researcher within a multidisciplinary team on client deliveries
Advocating for user research within the project delivery and with stakeholders
Plan research that informs the design of public services that are helpful, usable and successful
Understands and help teams to apply a range of methods to analyse research data and synthesise findings
Creates compelling and actionable insights which are suited to the research development phase
Identifies key project stakeholders, builds relationships and works with them regularly to include and update on the progress of research
Presenting findings in ‘show & tells’ / in key meetings to project delivery team and key stakeholders
Analyse and interpret research findings so that teams can confidently confirm or challenge their understandings of problems and ideas
Advocates for teams to make decisions based on research findings
Skills, knowledge and expertise
Practice
Experienced in user centred, lean and agile research methodologies including:
Usability testing
Contextual enquiry
Rapid research
Survey development
Measurable and evaluative research
Accessibility and inclusive design
Understands and adheres to Made Tech’s research standards, the MRS code of practice and GDPR
Provide clear and informative communications with research participants, including sharing GDPR policies
Community
Support the hiring and onboarding of researchers
Help define Made Tech design principles through delivering good public services
Represent the community publicly and internally
Contributes to communities of practice by discussing, sharing suggestions, approaches, ideas and sharing best practice
Takes a proactive approach to learning (e.g. new research methods / analysis techniques) and shares knowledge back to the UR community.
Proactively seeking feedback on own work and providing constructive feedback to colleagues
Desirable: Skills in either Service Design, Content Design, Interaction design.
Key measures
Delivery of good public services for users with clients
Case studies of how to design and deliver good public services and outcomes
Growth and happiness of the UCD community at Made Tech
Competencies
Client Focus
Drive to Deliver
Learning and Mentoring
Experienced in their Profession
Facilitation
Tech Stack
Usability testingContextual enquiryRapid researchSurvey developmentMeasurable and evaluative researchAccessibilityInclusive designGDPR