Lead User Researcher, Experience Design

Job Description

We are passionate people focused on transforming the customer experience and dedicated to creating innovative solutions to address the unique challenges of our extraordinary scale

Requisition #: R333382 Pub Date: 04/21/22 Apply Now Share This Job With a friend (or yourself)

Job Summary

Comcast is looking for an enthusiastic Lead User Researcher to join our Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (AI) discipline within our highly respected internal user research practice. This position would lead both quantitative and qualitative research activities with a key focus on development of our AI products. This is a fantastic opportunity to join a well-respected and collaborative in-house research team, translating insights to highly engaged and motivated stakeholders within a major corporation, and impacting strategy for AI products that touch millions of users. Your role as Lead User Researcher for AI will be to enhance Comcast’s AI capabilities by bringing customer needs and expectations in the focus of the systems we develop. You’ll foster positive relationships with our AI product, engineering, UX design, conversation design and analytics partners to develop and implement empirical research approaches, and deliver insights through expert analysis, storytelling and facilitation. Your background may be in social science, psychology, human-computer interaction, human factors, user experience or other related field. You will innovate, standardize, train, consult and guide others in user research best practices and mixed methods to drive design decisions for the AI team. You will have access to state-of-the art lab facilities, best-in-class data sources, training, and opportunities to attend conferences as part of a broader UX Research and Design community. You will be part of a diverse, world class research group with the opportunity to cross-skill and grow a quantitative and qualitative research skillset. The Technology, Product & Experience (TPX) Research team conducts a wide variety of UX and design research techniques to gather data and develop insights critical to improving our customers’ experience. We enjoy great flexibility and autonomy in scoping the research approach for each initiative we support. Our work touches multiple platforms including digital interfaces (online, mobile, TV), physical and printed materials, hardware and service design.

Job Description

Core Responsibilities

User Research Facilitation and Synthesis (80%)

• Partner with Artificial Intelligence (AI) Product, UX Design, Conversation Design, and Engineering to build research plans in support of human-centered AI practices for the entire product development life cycle.
• Lead primary research studies with customers including:
• Discussion guide development, participant recruitment, and preparation of testing materials and prototypes by other teams
• Facilitate and observe studies remotely, in our in-house user research labs, or in the field to gain first-hand knowledge of user behaviors.
• Analyze findings and synthesize findings with analytics, past relevant research, market research and other secondary sources to strengthen and reinforce the output of studies.
• Translate research insights into useful recommendations and direction.
• Perform activities such as heuristic reviews, industry and market research summaries and competitive reviews.
• Deliver data and insights from all activities and studies in presentations and readouts.
• Contribute to development of UX models and frameworks based on direct user evidence.
• Encourage members of design, business, and product teams to be involved as partners in studies to gain first-hand knowledge of user behaviors, mental models and needs.

User Research Leadership (15%)

• Actively participate in the development and execution of a 3-6 month research roadmap for quantitative and qualitative research projects in support of our Artificial Intelligence products.
• Foster relationships with AI/ML/NLP product, design, engineering, and analytics leadership and practitioners to inform the AI research roadmap.
• Collaborate with Sr. Manager on resourcing for execution of roadmap and assist with oversight and mentorship of junior research staff as needed.

Research Practice Development (5%)

• Contribute to a team toolkit of Artificial Intelligence specific research methods, techniques and publications that showcase subject matter expertise.
• Optimize and maintain work processes, models, materials and equipment (hardware and software) by reviewing their effectiveness with each study and recommending updates.
• Maintain currency with the AI user research field; share industry knowledge and best practices.
• Ensure a positive, collaborative cross-functional team atmosphere.

Experience Required:

• Degree in Cognitive Science, Human-Computer Interaction, Human Factors, or related discipline or equivalent experience. Master’s or PhD degree preferred.
• 5-8 years’ experience planning, conducting, analyzing, and reporting on user studies for discovery and evaluation; comfortable facilitating interviews.
• Experience conducting research for Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Natural Language Processing (NLP) products preferred.
• Expertise with a range of user research methods used to gather qualitative and quantitative data (discovery & strategic research, contextual interviews, formative, and summative usability testing, card sorting, survey development, secondary research analysis, competitive analysis, etc.)
• Familiarity testing with prototypes (rough drafts and sketches, paper prototypes, working prototypes) and live builds. Experience with rapid, iterative prototype testing is a plus.
• Analytical problem-solving skills, outstanding writing, and presentation skills; comfortable presenting to a group.
• Ability to organize and prioritize while working on multiple, simultaneous projects of varied size and complexity.
• Desire to continually stay current with technology, trends, tools and industry standards in UX, usability and user research.

Job Opportunities:

• Help establish best practices, research protocols, and collaboration methods as we build this new Human-Centered AI Research discipline within TPX User Research.
• Collaborate with strategy, design and product partners and gain comprehensive knowledge of the product lifecycle at a Fortune 50 company.
• Work on critical research under minimal supervision and drive your own strategic viewpoint.
• Collaborate with qualitative and quantitative researchers, including data scientists, and build knowledge of and experience in these associated disciplines

Career Progression:

• Comcast has a well-defined Competitive Research career path.
• Ability to move quickly along path commensurate with demonstrated capability.
• Comcast also actively looks to develop horizontal career paths and there are opportunities outside research for career development and progression.

Training:

Comcast actively invests in its talent and you will agree to an annual training plan that develops your skills and experience not just for your formal role but in view of planned career progression.

Employees at all levels are expected to:

• Understand our Operating Principles; make them the guidelines for how you do your job.
• Own the customer experience - think and act in ways that put our customers first, give them seamless digital options at every touchpoint, and make them promoters of our products and services.
• Know your stuff - be enthusiastic learners, users and advocates of our game-changing technology, products and services, especially our digital tools and experiences.
• Win as a team - make big things happen by working together and being open to new ideas.
• Be an active part of the Net Promoter System - a way of working that brings more employee and customer feedback into the company - by joining huddles, making call backs and helping us elevate opportunities to do better for our customers.
• Drive results and growth.
• Respect and promote inclusion & diversity.
• Do what's right for each other, our customers, investors and our communities.

Disclaimer:

• This information has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees in this role. It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities and qualifications.

Comcast is an EOE/Veterans/Disabled/LGBT employer.

Education

Bachelor's Degree

While possessing the stated degree is preferred, Comcast also may consider applicants who hold some combination of coursework and experience, or who have extensive related professional experience.

Relevant Work Experience

7-10 Years

Base pay is one part of the Total Rewards that Comcast provides to compensate and recognize employees for their work. Most sales positions are eligible for a Commission under the terms of an applicable plan, while most non-sales positions are eligible for a Bonus. Additionally, Comcast provides best-in-class Benefits. We believe that benefits should connect you to the support you need when it matters most, and should help you care for those who matter most. That’s why we provide an array of options, expert guidance and always-on tools, that are personalized to meet the needs of your reality – to help support you physically, financially and emotionally through the big milestones and in your everyday life. Please visit the compensation and benefits summary on our careers site for more details.

Base pay is one part of the Total Rewards that Comcast provides to compensate and recognize employees for their work. Most sales positions are eligible for a Commission under the terms of an applicable plan, while most non-sales positions are eligible for a Bonus. Additionally, Comcast provides best-in-class Benefits. We believe that benefits should connect you to the support you need when it matters most, and should help you care for those who matter most. That’s why we provide an array of options, expert guidance and always-on tools, that are personalized to meet the needs of your reality – to help support you physically, financially and emotionally through the big milestones and in your everyday life. Please visit the compensation and benefits summary on our careers site for more details.