Main Responsibilities and Required Skills for a Design Researcher

A Design Researcher is a professional who plays a crucial role in the field of design by investigating, understanding, and evaluating user needs, preferences, and behaviors. They employ various research methodologies to gather insights and translate them into actionable recommendations for design teams. In this blog post, we will explore the primary responsibilities and the most in-demand hard and soft skills for Design Researchers.

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Main Responsibilities of a Design Researcher

The following list describes the typical responsibilities of a Design Researcher:

Advocate

Advocate for user-centered design principles within the organization.
Advocate the customer perspective within the POS and Customers team and across Square.

Analyze

Analyze and demonstrate the viability of those opportunities via modeling and POC evaluation.
Analyze and synthesize research findings into a reframed business challenge and insights.
Analyze highly complex business requirements.

Apply

Apply statistical analysis to validate research results.

Ask

Ask questions, gather data, and analyze data.

Assist in

Assist in planning, facilitation and communication of user research.

Attend

Attend scrums and meetings to comprehend scope.

Build

Build a user-centred culture in Shared Services through sharing work, training, and collaboration.
Build off these learning to create engaging customer experiences.
Build relationships with key stakeholders within and outside of the design team.
Build relationships with stakeholders and across teams.
Build user empathy across disciplines.

Clarify

Clarify for your team and customer how research helps unlock digital transformation.

Collaborate with

Collaborate closely with design, engineering, and business partners during all steps of research.
Collaborate directly every day with designers, developers, engagement managers, and clients.
Collaborate directly with designers, developers, engagement managers, and clients.
Collaborate effectively to get things done, building and nurturing strong relationships.
Collaborate with cross-functional teams to align research goals.
Collaborate with designers to integrate research insights into design processes.
Collaborate with developers to ensure research insights are implemented effectively.
Collaborate with marketing teams to understand target audience behavior.
Collaborate with other researchers to explore shared questions.

Communicate

Communicate and evangelize research results to engineering and business teams.
Communicate core themes and implications to the design team and other stakeholders.

Complete

Complete ad hoc tasks or special projects.

Concept

Concept development and visualisation and proof-of-concept prototyping.

Conduct

Conduct and evaluate quantitative and qualitative research.
Conduct competitive analysis and benchmarking studies.
Conduct contextual inquiries to observe users in their natural environments.
Conduct expert interviews to gain domain-specific insights.
Conduct exploratory, evaluative, and generative research.
Conduct field research to identify user needs and goals.
Conduct usability research both online and in the field.
Conduct usability testing sessions to assess user interactions.
Conduct user interviews to gather qualitative data.
Conduct user testing to validate prototypes and deepen understanding of users.

Contribute

Contribute and support strategic goals of the organization.

Create

Create business process scenarios and flows / wireframes for user interfaces.
Create clean, concise research reports.
Create descriptive and generative frameworks that chart a clear path forward.
Create user journey maps, personas etc...
Create user personas and journey maps based on research insights.

Cultivate

Cultivate your personal growth and career through mentoring, training and conferences.

Define

Define and measure UX approaches , metrics , and work with core stakeholders on research planning.
Define research methodologies based on project goals.

Deliver

Deliver legendary customer experiences.

Design

Design and facilitate ideation sessions and collaborative work activities.

Develop

Develop and execute automated unit testing suites.
Develop and maintain a research repository for future reference.
Develop interview scripts and survey questionnaires.

Drive

Drive accountability and problem-solving through the use of data and performance metrics.
Drive the results of the research projects into product roadmaps.

Ensure

Ensure Digital Channels projects do not launch with barriers to a legendary customer experience.
Ensure the best possible user experience launches based on research findings.

Exercise

Exercise authority in determining short and long term design needs, objectives, and approaches.

Facilitate

Facilitate design workshops and brainstorming sessions.

Fix

Fix bugs on existing scripts.

Focus on

Focus on improving the product and user experience in an iterative and collaborative environment.

Foster

Foster collaboration both inside and outside the team.
Foster culture of learning and collaboration with various teams to deliver change.

Generate

Generate technical specifications to design or redesign complex software components and applications.

Guide

Guide project stakeholders in reframing their questions and assumptions into research goals.

Help

Help evangelize the best ones within the company.
Help refine our internal processes.

Identify

Identify opportunities for continuous improvement in research methodologies.
Identify research objectives and develop research plans.
Identify topics, or questions for research from design-led activities.

Initiate

Initiate research discussions within design and cross functional team.

Innovate

Innovate and develop new approaches to measure user's experiences.

Interact

Interact and collaborate with research participants, partners and your teammates.

Iterate

Iterate and refine research methodologies based on feedback.

Lead

Lead and manage research vendors, in collaboration with TD Marketing Research.
Lead Design Researcher for XD Lab, Advanced Solutions and Digital Banking.
Lead multi-disciplinary customer teams through design thinking exercises.
Lead multi-disciplinary teams with varying levels of creative and analytical expertise.

Learn

Learn new tools and do self-guided work within a fast-paced environment.

Make

Make a difference by reducing emissions from air travel by helping our customers.
Make it easy for leaders to align over research.

Manage

Manage intra- and inter-team as well as external stakeholder relationships.

Maximize

Maximize the customer experience across all the company's channels—i.e.

Meet

Meet regularly with QA, Development, and Production teams throughout the project cycle.

Mentor

Mentor and coach junior UX researchers on the team.
Mentor and train junior researchers on research best practices.
Mentor other design researchers and lead by example in delivering excellent individual work.

Mix

Mix a range of methods, such as day-in-the-life ethnography, interviews and social media scanning.

Modify

Modify presentation style to engage audience with appropriate levels of detail and insight.

Monitor

Monitor and evaluate the impact of design changes on user experience.

Organize

Organize and analyze research data, such as interviews and observations.

Participate

Participate in an iterative design process in close collaboration with stakeholders in the field.

Perform

Perform market and ethnographic research.
Perform usability studies with consumers.

Plan

Plan and conduct practical and impactful research that varies in approach, scope, and timeframe.
Plan and execute user-centered design research studies.
Plan and facilitate field visits to gain customer insights.
Plan and implement user research strategies and methodologies.
Plan, lead, conduct, and deliver generative and evaluative design research studies.

Present

Present and advocate for research findings to our Clients.
Present clear, compelling visions to internal and external executives.
Present design research work to senior stakeholders.
Present research findings and recommendations to stakeholders.

Provide

Provide actionable insights to help enable the design of successful programs and interventions.
Provide feedback on testability.
Provide guidance and training on research tools and techniques to facilitate self-serve UX research.
Provide insights into the tools and systems used for research.
Provide recommendations and design implications based on outcomes of research activities.

Recommend

Recommend and justifies major changes to existing products / services / processes.

Recruit

Recruit participants for research studies.

Represent

Represent the team successfully with all types of stakeholders.

Research

Research and validate customer requirements.

Run

Run workshops, benchmarking, design.

Search

Search for, share and adopt ideas and best practices in and outside the company and industry.

Select

Select the country where you are applying for employment, and review.

Set-up

Set-up and run thoughtful, rigorous and curiosity-driven research.

Share and spread user research best approaches and practices across Cookpad.
Share work in progress, along with giving and receiving critiques.

Stay updated on

Stay updated on the latest design research tools and techniques.

Suggest

Suggest ideas to improve our output, working methods, and cultural activities.

Support

Support Client pitches with secondary user research.
Support designers and business stakeholders in prioritizing potential research activities.
Support in building and maintaining our qualitative research repository.
Support in growing your work experience and portfolio.
Support non-researchers conducting research activities to employ best practices.
Support with your professional goals and growth.

Synthesize

Synthesize complex or ambiguous data sets from primary or secondary research.
Synthesize research findings to uncover user insights.

Take

Take cross-functional teams out into the field to share our customer's experience first hand.

Test

Test and evaluate prototypes and design concepts.
Test concepts and prototypes in the real world.

Translate

Translate complex and ambiguous business strategy questions into human-centered learning objectives.

Understand

Understand and incorporate complex technical and business requirements into research initiatives.
Understand and incorporate technical and business requirements into research initiatives.
Understand COPPA and other privacy legislation and best practices for both kids and grownups.

Use

Use a diverse set of UX research tools.
Use data visualization techniques to communicate research findings.

Work with

Work closely with product managers to align research with product goals.
Work directly with your team to scope, design and execute design research.

Write

Write reports and research publications.

Most In-demand Hard Skills

The following list describes the most required technical skills of a Design Researcher:

Proficiency in qualitative research methods.
Experience with quantitative research techniques.
Knowledge of usability testing methodologies.
Familiarity with user-centered design principles.
Proficiency in data collection techniques, such as surveys and interviews.
Strong analytical skills for data interpretation.
Ability to use research and prototyping tools like UserZoom, Optimal Workshop, or InVision.
Competence in statistical analysis software, such as SPSS or R.
Experience in data visualization tools like Tableau or Power BI.
Knowledge of research ethics and guidelines.

Most In-demand Soft Skills

The following list describes the most required soft skills of a Design Researcher:

Excellent communication skills to articulate research findings and recommendations.
Strong empathy and the ability to understand users' perspectives.
Effective collaboration and teamwork skills.
Critical thinking and problem-solving abilities.
Strong observational skills to gather insights from user behavior.
Adaptability to work in fast-paced and dynamic environments.
Creativity and the ability to think outside the box.
Excellent organizational and time management skills.
Strong attention to detail to ensure accurate data collection and analysis.
Open-mindedness and a willingness to embrace feedback and iterate.

Conclusion

Design Researchers play a vital role in bridging the gap between users and design teams. Their responsibilities encompass various research activities to gain deep insights into user needs and preferences. Along with technical skills like qualitative and quantitative research methods, usability testing, and data analysis, they also need a set of soft skills including communication, empathy, collaboration, and critical thinking. By mastering these skills and responsibilities, Design Researchers contribute to creating user-centered and impactful designs.