Research & Design Manager

How will this role impact First Command?

Our goal in Marketing is to effectively communicate what makes First Command unique to the market we serve so that prospective clients will make First Command the first place they turn in order to plan for their financial security. The User Experience Researcher & Designer will be a key a member of the Experience Design and broader Marketing team.

In this role, you will create understanding and empathy around user needs, stated and unstated, for First Command, including designers, product managers, developers, and management. You will do so by conducting primary research, exploring the behaviors and motivations of our users through methods like field visits, surveys, usability testing, user interviews, card sorting, ethnography, and data analysis. Additionally, you will build designs and convey them along with research to stakeholders.

A key metric for success in this role will be the ability to influence stakeholders.

The financial services industry is highly competitive, but we believe that First Command provides a unique value proposition for our nation’s military families and therefore must sharpen our insights so that how we approach and communicate with clients and prospects makes our value proposition relevant.

• 50% Leading and mentoring researchers/designers and 50% doing the following:
• Understanding and influencing stakeholders and agile teams to improve the user experience
• Assisting with quantitative and qualitative studies for First Command. This includes consulting with the business on study objectives and methodologies, creating the project plan and timeline, survey creation and pretesting, managing any contractors, leading analysis, and writing and delivering final reports
• Evangelizing the importance of user research & design in all phases of software development, from concept to release
• Assisting in communicating with all of First Command the wants and needs of the client
• Collaborating with the business stakeholders, IT, other researchers, marketing, and design leaders to ensure research translates into business impact
• Assisting with strategizing research into end-to-end client journeys
• Working closely with UX and data teams and using research methodologies to discover, learn and validate needs within various market opportunities
• Creating & validating new designs through ad-hoc or formalized user feedback sessions with internal users or clients

• A Degree in related studies (Human Computer Interaction, Data Science, Interaction Design, Cognitive Science, Psychology, etc.), or equivalent real-world experience

• 3-6 years in UX related role doing research and design
• 2-3 years managing UX researchers/designers
• Experience managing qualitative and quantitative research projects including multi-phase, multi-mode projects.
• Ability to do design work in tools such as Figma (the primary one we use)
• Familiarity with current and emerging KPI’s, benchmarks and success metrics (Net Promoter Score, Customer Satisfaction Scores, Customer Effort Score, System Usability Score, etc.)
• Experience with survey and measurement tools (Ex: Qualtrics, )
• Experience turning insights in to action, with the ability to tell a compelling story about the wants and needs of our clients

• A passion for leading, career growth, and a strong ability to motivate others
• Caring and compassion for others including a commitment to psychological safety
• Promoting UX maturity and advocate for the value it provides the organization
• Knowledge of UX Trends
• Must be comfortable communicating with and influencing leaders at all levels
• Genuine passion for problem-solving, are comfortable with ambiguity, and rise to challenges with creativity
• Must be comfortable working closely with passionate researchers, designers, product owners, scrum masters, technologists, marketers, and data scientists that all care deeply about driving our customer experience vision
• Takes a collaborative approach to projects, continually holding the user’s perspective while balancing a diverse range of stakeholder objectives