Senior Manager, User Research

Job Description

Disney Streaming Design is a growing practice of multi-disciplinary learners, creators, and storytellers. We are passionate about building best-in-class products around exclusive content for a global audience. We live in the space where art and science meet, connecting insights, technology, and human-centric design principles to craft a compelling end-to-end experience. We believe in researching customer needs, innovating through technology, delivering at the highest standard of craft and positioning, cultivating a culture of collaboration, celebrating wins, but never settling.

UX Research, Senior Manager

Job Description
The Disney Streaming UXR team is seeking a curious, innovative and rigorous user experience research leader with deep research & strategy expertise to co-lead our Inclusive Innovation Strategy team of bright, energetic and talented UX Researchers.

In this role you will co-manage and grow the Inclusive Innovation Strategy team while also coaching our partners in product and design (across all verticals and horizontals) to understand, envision, and implement human-centered experience strategies for launches, incremental improvement and innovation across our streaming experiences worldwide. You will lead the team through research methods spanning from ambiguous and strategic to tactical and evaluative. Your team will apply human-centered approaches to understand the landscape of needs driving our viewers, be the tip of the spear to wayfind through potential innovation opportunities with strategic research and collaborative ideation, and communicate a strategic & inclusive vision for subsequent design and development efforts.

If you are passionate about empowering teams and embedding just a little bit of research DNA into the hearts and minds of your partners across Product and Design, this may be the perfect role for you.
This is a full-time position located in NYC. While we have embraced a flexible working arrangement and our teams are currently working from home, we expect candidates for this role to be based in NYC once we are all back in the office physically.

Responsibilities:

Your Responsibilities

Team Leadership:
• Managing researchers and strategists from a diverse spectrum of skills and career paths
• Collaborating with senior UXR and Design leadership to define and support the team mission and goals while supporting the mentoring and development of direct reports
• Accelerating product inclusion & innovation strategy with an insights-based framework that supports new feature innovation as well as incremental improvements
• Demonstrating inclusion-centered project leadership for your team through direction, delegation, and as a hands-on practitioner working directly with our cross-functional partners.

Thought Leadership:
• Guide project teams in the execution of experience research to discover JTBD (emotional and functional), pain points, and mental models impacting behavior and translate findings into new innovation opportunities and incremental improvements across Disney Streaming.
• Build, maintain and leverage strategic insight frameworks that uncover, demonstrate and quantify opportunity gaps and pain points in our viewer experience, and collaborate with relevant stakeholders to define and articulate new experiences.
• Create, iterate upon, codify and evangelize inclusive experience strategy and codesign methods to ensure we are creating viewing experiences that don't force our viewers to adapt to an experience that hasn't been designed with them in mind.
• Command of advanced storytelling techniques to present complex mixed methods research findings so that it is easy to grasp and easily actionable for the audience, from the most junior UX Designer to the most senior C-Suite individuals. In addition, demonstrate internal and external thought leadership in talks across the DMED organization, TWDC, and at external events.
• Coordinating with Design, UX Research Operations and Product Peers to Envision and Prioritize work for the Inclusive Innovation team.
• Coordinating team activities, managing team resourcing, internal and external communication with product & design teams and general UXR project management
• Create fun and engaging ways to bring your team together both during and post-pandemic

Basic Qualifications:

Experience And Skills
• Excellent facilitation skills, and the ability to lead, influence, motivate and inspire cross-functional teams.
• Ability to communicate effectively at all levels, collaborate to solve problems, clearly present ideas and solutions, and keep colleagues and stakeholders informed.
• Ability to act as a user and viewer experience champion and evangelist, both internally and externally.
• Experience applying Design Thinking & Codesign to ambiguous situations, digital and non-digital, to frame problems and opportunities, and to work cross-functionally toward their solutions.
• Experience managing a team of UX research/design strategy and/or UX practitioners with proven ability to empower aligned and autonomous teams.
• A resilient and tenacious growth mindset and flexible optimism that leans toward adaptability and collaboration, allowing you to thrive in ambiguous environments
• Ability to clearly articulate the connection from research insights to actionable design strategy decisions through storytelling and effective research strategy presentations.
• Command of a variety of research and experience strategy methodologies including alignment workshops, stakeholder interviews, ethnographic interviews, ethnography, codesign, affinity mapping, contextual inquiry, diary studies, qualitative and quantitative concept testing, benchmarking/competitive analysis, usability, strategic frameworking, persona/profile development and other appropriate qualitative and quantitative research techniques.
• Basic research strategy methods such as: persona development, ecosystem & journey mapping, service design blueprinting, jobs to be done, and various value proposition testing methods.
• The rigor to apply the right research at the right time for the right problems.
• Ability to clearly draw and articulate the line from research insights to actionable design & strategy decisions through storytelling and effective human-centered presentations.
• Ability to deliver high-quality user research solutions in an environment with frequently shifting priorities and new market opportunities.
• Ability to guide the design process through ideation workshops, and other collaborative working sessions, and to impart these skills to your team.
• Proven experience as a collaborator, connector and relationship-builder
• A true passion to ''give your work away'' and share your research knowledge across the Disney Streaming organization

Basic Qualifications
• At least 4 years of experience in managing research teams at a program level with cross functional teams
• At least 8 years of professional experience

Preferred Qualifications:

7+ years of research team management

Required Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Human Factors, HCI, Psychology, Sociology, Cognitive Science, Research & Strategy, Anthropology or related field

Preferred Education

Ph.D. or Master's degree in Computer Science, Human Factors, HCI, Psychology, Sociology, Cognitive Science, Research & Strategy, Anthropology or related field

This role is c

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Jobcode: Reference SBJ-rb128o-3-137-174-216-42 in your application.