Sr. Manager, Design Insights & Member Experience

Senior Manager, Design Insights & Member Experience

As the Senior Manager, Design Insights & Member Experience, you are a strategic design leader responsible for applying the core principles of Design Thinking and Service Design directly to the member experience innovation pipeline. Your mandate is two-fold: to strategically frame complex problems and to tactically validate and refine the usability and desirability of design concepts across digital and physical touchpoints.

Reporting to the Director or VP of Member Experience & Innovation, you will drive the practical execution of Human-Centered Design (HCD). This role is distinguished by its heavy design focus—it partners with the central Consumer Insights team for broad context but owns the deep dive into design-specific research, journey mapping, and concept testing to ensure a high-quality, resonant member experience.

This role follows a hybrid schedule and requires regular, in-person work at our Hampton, NH or future Boston, MA office. Our hybrid model is M/T/W in office and TH/F are optional work-from-home. Candidates must reside within commuting distance of one of these locations. Fully remote work is not available for this role.

Strategic Design & Design Thinking Leadership

Apply foundational design strategy skills to scope, define, and manage innovation projects:

• Strategic Framing & Problem Definition:
  Utilize Design Thinking methodologies to strategically frame complex member problems, define opportunity spaces, and establish the research agenda for experience innovation projects.
• Service Design Tools:
  Lead the development of comprehensive current-state and future-state service blueprints and detailed journey maps to articulate the strategic intent, user experience, and operational dependencies of new service models.
• External Partner Leadership:
  Lead and manage external research or design consulting firms on specific, high-priority projects, owning the project's insights direction, methodology, and final deliverable quality.
• Workshop Facilitation:
  Plan and lead high-impact design thinking workshops and ideation sessions with cross-functional partners and franchisees to collaboratively generate and align on strategic solutions.

Tactical Design Validation & Experience Testing

Lead hands-on, evaluative research to ensure successful design execution. This is the core tactical output of the role:

• Evaluative Design Testing:
  Design and execute rapid, iterative testing methodologies (e.g., usability testing, A/B testing, concept testing) on specific wireframes, digital prototypes, visual designs, and physical mockups to gather actionable feedback on design feasibility and user flow.
• In-Gym Pilot Testing:
  Conduct contextual inquiries, observations, and interviews directly within clubs to rigorously test and evaluate the real-world operational and member experience of pilot programs (e.g., new layouts, self-service kiosks, operational processes).
• Actionable Recommendations:
  Translate qualitative and quantitative testing data into clear, prioritized design recommendations that directly inform the next iteration cycle for designers and product managers.

Collaboration & Partnership

Ensure seamless integration of design strategy and insights into the execution workflow:

• Design Partnership:
  Act as the primary research and insights partner to the Experience Design and Product teams, ensuring design decisions are continuously informed by validated member behavior.
• Insights Integration:
  Partner with the central Consumer Insights team to leverage foundational market context, using those strategic insights to inform the focus and scope of project-specific tactical design research.
• Franchise Alignment:
  Collaborate with operational and franchise partners to ensure new designs and service models are operationally viable and scalable across the Planet Fitness system.

• Bachelor's degree in a related field such as Service Design, Strategic Design, User Experience Design, or a closely related discipline
• 5-7+ years of experience in a design research, service design, or strategic consulting role, demonstrating mastery of Design Thinking and Human-Centered Design (HCD) principles
• Strong foundational knowledge in strategic design, complemented by expert proficiency in hands-on, tactical research methods (e.g., ethnography, usability testing, iterative concept validation, in-context observation)
• Proven ability to plan, facilitate, and synthesize core strategic design artifacts such as service blueprints and detailed journey maps
• Demonstrated experience managing vendors or external consulting firms to deliver high-quality design research and strategic outputs
• Previous experience as a practicing designer (e.g., UX/UI, Service Design) or time spent at a strategic design/innovation consultancy, a plus
• A passion for fitness, wellness, and delivering exceptional customer experiences
• Extremely detail-oriented, efficient, and organized with an exceptional ability to establish…