About Momentum

At Momentum Design Labs we help global brands, startups and enterprises use innovation and human-centered design to create meaningful user experiences.

Our projects typically deal with data, and lots of it. We have completed more than 600 projects over the last 17 years. Our multinational design and development team representing 7 countries has a combined total of well over 110 years of user experience design. We’ve been providing quality, enterprise-level, user experience product innovation designs well before it became a competitive necessity.

We challenge and question our clients to drive innovation within their products, platforms and services, all based around what we hear from the end-users. As such we see no coincidence that we are rated the global # 1 User Experience agency for the 3rd year running on Clutch.co.

Responsibilities:

Momentum has an exciting opportunity for a UX Researcher to join the NYC office on a project by project basis. A solid end to end product and design understanding is a must. However, If you also double as a budding UX Product Designer who can prototype and create awesome UI’s; that’s a bonus we will not ignore.

We pride ourself on hiring only the best talent and will only interview experienced, enthusiastic characters who can fully understand, synthesise and articulate the information surfaced. You will play a fundamental part of Momentum’s projects and form the reasonings as to why we take products in the directions that our UX Designers will drive alongside our clients.

We are a UX agency and as a UX Researcher; you must be able to demonstrate a good working knowledge of ethnographic studies, competitive reviews, heuristic evaluations, complete user journey maps, write out user stories, and very importantly carry out user testing and validation processes, all with a keen academic understanding of the top UX thought leader’s principals from the likes of Jakob Nielsen, Steve Krug and Don Norman to name a few. To be working at Momentum means; you are able to deliver on a design thinking approach, hold 1 to 1 user interviews in a confident and professional manner, prep and run successful workshops with key stakeholders if necessary, and finally, document to a very high standard.

This role is based in New York City

Skills

Derive UX insights from quantitative/analytic data
Planning, designing and conducting usability testing from developing user recruitment through to test moderation, analysis and reporting
Conducting research to gather insights for new product and concept developments (including user requirements gathering and early-stage concept and prototype testing, guerrilla research, and other approaches to ensuring the user needs are fully understood)
Generative research: contextual inquiries, observation, in-depth interviews, diary studies, co-creation workshops
Evaluative research: customer feedback analysis, UX benchmarking, in-person usability tests, card sorts, tree tests, remote moderated and unmoderated tests, guerrilla tests
Modeling insights gained from user research into formats to enhance organizational understanding of our users – such as experience maps and actionable reports
Actively identify opportunities and trends within the research with an unbiased view
Working across teams with Momentum’s; strategists, delivery leads, UX/UI Designers as well as the client’s; product owners, designers and senior leadership as required to devise appropriate research strategies to generate focused insights
Collaborate throughout to make UX Research an impactful pillar of product development
When in build, working closely with designers and developers to turn user data into actionable product/service requirements that feed into prototype development, and influence product direction
Be accountable for all UX research within assigned products and regularly share insights with the research team, the wider Digital team and all relevant stakeholders
Applying knowledge in human factors and user-centered design process to the product and service design in an agile development environment
Presenting findings and related design/business recommendations and customer insights to senior decision-makers
Promoting user-centred design principles and best practice across the organization. Experience in running user research labs across platforms and devices
Excellent communication, interpersonal, and analytical skills including the ability to present research simply, clearly and persuasively to colleagues, partners and stakeholders
Support and manage the documentation of research
Support and implement the research strategy
Knowledge of accessibility-focused research is desirable
Willing to drive innovation and customer-centric thinking across the commercial and digital teams
Good understanding of industry-standard analytic platforms and how to synthesize data to form actionable insights
Passionate and proactive, constantly striving for the best user experience
Be a visible advocate for UX research across the company and lead by example — tackling research yourself when it makes sense

Requirements:

Have a Bachelor's degree in research or related fields such as Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Economics, sociology, anthropology, psychology etc.
3+ years of experience in user research in the context of product management, interaction design, information architecture, and visual design for digital experiences.
Experience conducting user research for complex business applications.
Good at influencing user needs to senior stakeholders, and acting as a persuasive advocate for those needs
Experience of working in Agile environments
Experience of conducting user interviews
Experience analyzing both quantitative and qualitative data and work with UX designers to produce artifacts to communicate findings to stakeholders.
Previous experience of managing, planning, designing user research testing
Previous experience in developing and conducting usability testing sessions
A natural skill to engage with people at a deep level. Whether observing or interviewing customers, or working with fellow team members and clients
Pragmatic and adaptable with the ability to effectively manage workloads in evolving environments
You’ve led research tasks that helped product teams better understand customers, and use that insight to deliver bar-raising user experiences.
You have a strong perspective on how teams can balance quantitative analytics data, with qualitative customer research

Bonus Points:

Strong knowledge of user centered design processes and principles.
Domain expertise in the financial sector a plus.
Experience with data visualization and visual design a plus.
Understanding of inclusive design and how to evaluate the accessibility of user interfaces.
Self-motivated and self-managed with a high degree of analytical ability and intellectual curiosity.
Not required, but a plus: link to your online research portfolio or attach research deliverable samples

Perks:

Core Contribution—Small team means a big impact. Every team member’s contribution has a tremendous impact on the project and our clients
Autonomy—Our staff own their work and you will have autonomy over how to get it done
Project Diversity—In a months span you may work on the next mobile social network, internet of things product, ad platform or financial services product
Occasional travel to clients from around the world, we often conduct our project kick-offs on-site
Kegerator and a kitchen full of snacks