Senior User Research Lead – International Expansion

Experience Design at Wayfair (Content Strategy, Product Design and User Research) is accountable for the cohesive vision for exceptional end-user experiences with a comprehensive view of a given end-user’s end-to-end journey across all touchpoints. 

User research is one of our best kept secrets. We are a world class and rapidly growing team that drives strategic business, design, and product impact at scale. We define and solve big ambiguous problems. Driving through discipline excellence our function has a voice and is respected throughout the company.  

Our open role(s) offer you an opportunity to turbocharge your research career in a high performing research environment. 

At Wayfair the research team is structured in a global operational model, which means that in joining us you have regular access to learning, feedback, and input from researchers leading tracks of work across a range of end users (agents, corporate employees, customers B2B + B2C, field workers and suppliers), geographies, and digital storefronts. 

User researchers at Wayfair are leaders, storytellers, and courageous trail blazers who leverage the full range of methods and techniques to deliver a nuanced understanding of the end-user and their needs. Self-starters in nature, they thrive in fast paced, fluid environments that allow team members to leverage their strengths and passions to influence what we do and how we do it.  

Whether you prefer to lead research projects, individuals, and/or teams, at Wayfair we have a professional growth path and career track that allows you to plan for and pursue your aspirations.  

Responsibilities:

The international expansion team is responsible for bringing Wayfair’s suite of customer-facing websites and Apps to new markets and optimizing the experience for each non-U.S. market so we deliver the best possible experience. Our existing businesses in Canada, the U.K., and Germany are already among the fastest growing at Wayfair but there’s still tons of opportunity ahead and leaders across the company are looking to this team to further accelerate our growth.

There are currently two open roles on this team:

• One role is focused on optimizing in our existing markets
• One role is focused on expanding into new EU markets

As the Senior Research Lead for an entire product vertical, you’ll own your own team (or individual) research agenda, executing against ambiguous goals. You will generate appropriate strategy, innovation, and project plans over the long term (~>6 months). You’ll influence vertical leadership by establishing a perspective on the user experience of your domain and leveraging that perspective to guide teams through effective decision-making. You set and hold a world class bar for team performance and the quality of research output and partnership within your scope.

Skills:

• Work with business, product, and design teams on web and mobile products
• Influence a diverse set of stakeholders through excellent relationship building, and providing insight and deep domain expertise in research practices and product strategy and development
• Lead with a strong voice and informed perspective. Embodies a research leader and thought partner 
• Lead the development of team members through dedicated management, mentorship, or less formal coaching and advice.
• Participate in research initiatives across multiple workgroups, coordinating efforts to achieve unified strategy and solutions for touchpoints across the end user’s journey
• Apply deep knowledge and craft expertise in conducting foundational, formative, and evaluative research
• Lead generative research to define problem spaces and identify opportunity areas
• Lead evaluative research to optimize planned and existing technology solutions
• Use a range of qualitative and quantitative methods such as: contextual interviews, field research, surveys, diary studies, focus groups, or concept, remote and usability testing.
• Using artifacts, prototypes, and other stimuli to gather feedback from, and learn about, users
• Communicate research findings and prioritized recommendations to internal stakeholders in a clear and compelling way
• Contribute to and build internal body of end user knowledge
• Leverage and contribute to research best practices