What will you be doing?

In this position, the Associate Director-Design Research leads product research, insights discovering, design strategy to create products that bring a smile to the lips and a flutter to the heart; regardless of whether it’s a corporate website, software application, vehicle, education, food industry, or consumer electronics devices. Senior Design Researchers/Associate Director Design Research are able to discover, understand, and communicate the business requirements of our clients, the emotional desires of their customers, and the context in which these two come together.

The Contribution:

• Plans, prioritizes, and coordinates user requirements analysis, task analysis, conceptual modeling, information architecture design, interaction design, and usability testing
• You excel at defining those methods which will best elicit the data needed for each project, crating screeners and research plans without oversight, lead, conduct and document qualitative user requirements gathering activates based on your expertise with a wide range of methodologies.
• Lead the analysis of the research findings, synthesizing the results of gathered research into meaningful and actional design insights and concepts.
• You will produce, either independently or in collaboration with others, a wide variety of supporting materials, including user requirements specifications, personas, storyboards, and customer journeys as well as specifications.
• Produce user requirements specifications, personas, storyboards, scenarios, flowcharts, design prototypes, and design specifications.
• Effectively communicate research findings, conceptual ideas, detailed design, and design rationale both verbally and visually.
• Work closely with development teams to ensure that design specifications are implemented.
• Participate as a contributor to an interdisciplinary team that includes other designers, project management, business and brand strategists, and hardware and software developers.

You Are:

Someone who wants to influence your own development. You’re looking for a company where you have The Opportunity To Pursue Your Interests Across Functions And Geographies, And Where A Job Title Is Not Considered the final definition of who you are, but the starting point. You bring to the organization the following competencies:

Minimum qualifications:

• Master's degree in Human-Computer Interaction, Cognitive Science, Psychology, Behavioral science, Social Science a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 6~10 years of work experience in an applied research setting, and (Physical or Digital) product research and development with a multidisciplinary team (Visual, Interaction, ID, Tech Engineer, etc.)
• Passion about discovering great insights and define opportunity/innovation spaces.
• Excellent communication skills, presentation skills and organization skills. Must be able to work both as an effective team player and an individual contributor.
• Fluent in both Chinese and English. 

Preferred qualifications:

• Strong both Qualitative and Quantitative research skills; solid analytical skills.
• Strong understanding of the strengths and shortcomings of different research methods, including when and how to apply them during each product phase.
• Good understanding of client management and project management. Ability to work effectively and collaboratively in a default consulting process that requires service mentality, willingness to learn and commitment to deliver.
• Good writing skill, both in Chinese and English.
• Working knowledge of local and global design research markets. Ability to apply design thinking in data gathering and analysis/synthesis activities.
• Excellent working knowledge of statistics and the principles of experiment design.