User Researcher đ„
We are looking for someone with strong experience in User Research, who is passionate about using their critical thinking, pragmatism, and people skills, to help develop products that encourage positive change.
We have operations in Spain, Portugal and the UK, and at this moment in time everyone in the Vizzuality team is working from home. So you will be very welcome to join us if you live and are eligible to work in any of these 3 countries.Â
The job is for a full-time contract and we are offering between 25K - 35K Euros.
1.Would you like to be part of Vizzualityâs story?
Are you motivated by the desire to help build a sustainable planet for all life on Earth? Are you looking for a new opportunity?
Vizzualityâs purpose is to reach a fair and sustainable planet by creating tools that radically empower people to make positive changes now.
We are a world-leading technology agency based in Madrid, Cambridge, and Porto. We design and develop data-driven tools and applications for international organisations who focus on Climate Change, Biodiversity and Inequality.
Solving such large and complex problems will bring you into contact with new technology and some of the worldâs most interesting organisations and academics in machine learning, remote sensing, and planetary data. Youâll be working on projects like these:
https://www.globalforestwatch.org/ [1]
https://trase.earth/ [2]
https://resourcewatch.org/ [3]
https://www.half-earthproject.org/maps/ [4]
2.Our Culture âThis is how we do things hereâ
Our aim is to help the world become a better place, therefore we need to make sure we care about our people and give them the power to build great things. These are some of the things that define our culture:
We Trust:Â
- Our team structure relies on self-organisation.Â
- We want to work with colleagues who don't have to look âupâ for approval, nor look âdownâ and give instructions.Â
- As soon as you step inside, we will provide you with the best tools and technology, and then we will trust you to do great things.Â
We Care:Â
- For ourselves, our colleagues, the organisation.Â
- We know what we do is important and we have a strong sense of responsibility for the work we do.Â
We Grow:Â
- As we are always embarking on new projects and challenges, a continuous learning mindset and a âCan Doâ attitude is a mustÂ
- We are conscientious, we focus on learning and achieving our goals
- We give power to people so they can make decisions, and plot their own paths with help from all around them
We have fun:Â
- We also know that you need to balance seriousness with fun.Â
- If you can make people smile you will be off to a great start!
3.Skills and experiences we are looking for in a candidate
(*) Even if you think you don't tick all the boxes below, we'd still love to hear from you. Nobody checks every box, and we are looking for someone excited to join the team and aligned with our purpose!
Regardless of your background (ie. Sociology, Anthropology / Ethnography, HCI Specialist, Service Design, etc.) if you have research experience, high levels of autonomy, and can lead an entire research process without support right after the onboarding period, we are looking for you :)
Must-have skills and experience:
- User Research: Youâre competent with a range of social science and user research methods. You can complete great research by collecting primary and secondary data through a number of qualitative and quantitative methods.Â
- Communication: You have well developed communication and active listening skills, which enable you to understand project needs (from client, users and stakeholders) and also define project goals and impact indicators.Â
- Influence: You can get your message across in a clear, concise and engaging way. Your excellent English language skills (written and spoken) allow you to lead discussions with the project team and clients about product strategy.Â
- Actionable Insights: You are very good at synthesizing raw data to then craft insights and priorities in a format that will be digestible and actionable for the rest of the team (and client). You use a range of communication methods to make sure user research is considered and useful throughout the whole development phase.Â
- Experience working with cross functional teams: Working and collaborating with other teams/profiles (i.e. Design, Data Science, Business Development, Engineer, etc) is part of your DNA.
Nice to have: Anything else to impress us? Over time, weâd like this role to take on more responsibilities. If you have some experience in any of the points below, or would like to learn more about any of them, we would love to hear more about it in your application.Â
- Passion: You are passionate about climate change, biodiversity and/or social inequality, and driven by our purpose when it comes to achieving a sustainable and fair future. Alternatively you have an appetite for themes such as data visualization, academic science or geospatial technology.
- Facilitation: You enjoy coming up with creative activities for improving group dynamics, and show willingness and some experience when it comes to taking responsibility for leading strategy workshops or design sprints.
- Advocacy: This is all about sharing the value or the content of research inside and outside Vizzuality. You might be working on proposal writing, writing blog posts or speaking at conferences and in front of potential or current clients, to share your insights and knowledge with the wider community.
- Impact assessment: You are able to use a range of tools and methods to track the impacts and success of your research practice or of our products, and then make recommendations to improve them (e.g. Google Analytics).Â
We are a Self-Managed Organisation: Below you will find some characteristics that make people successful in an organisation like ours:
- Motivation: The ambition to excel in the pursuit of unselfish, collective goals; deep personal humility and a focus on self improvement.
- Curiosity: The instinct to seek new experiences, knowledge and feedback with an openness to learning and change.
- Insight: The ability to gather and make sense of information that suggests new possibilities.
- Engagement: The capacity to use emotion and reason to communicate a persuasive vision and connect with people.
- Determination: The ability to fight for difficult goals despite challenges.
4.These are some of the things you will be doing and achieving in your first year at Vizzuality
Most of your time will be spent working on a selection of our projects. Youâll be present when we conceptualise projects, making sure weâre building concepts and proposals that respond to the needs of potential or existing users. Youâll then bring that thinking into the initial discovery and through to final delivery, in collaboration with our designers, developers and scientists. You will work closely with the team and our clients, and at points facilitate group discussions with them to reach the best solution possible. At each stage youâll be leading the planning, execution and communication of appropriate activities (e.g. recruiting, interviews, discussing designs, usability testing...) to add value to our projects through User Research.Â
This position will require you to juggle creativity with pragmatism. You will be working on several projects at the same time, and find out the best ways to carry out research or communicate insights. At times when the activity on projects will be quieter, we will encourage you to explore other domains of your interest (communications, design, internal initiativesâŠ).
In 1 month.Â
- You will get to know your colleagues and some of our partners and clients.Â
- The âResearch & Designâ team will show you our workflows and projectâs lifecycle. With the support of your peers you will get hands-on exposure to a couple of projects and will help them with the different challenges and opportunities.
- Depending on the project need, you could be working with the other User Researcher or other team members in drafting the best research approach, carrying out research (mostly remote), all the way through presenting the final insights to the team.
In 6 months.
- You will have a solid understanding of the projectâs lifecycle and companyâs culture.Â
- You will be in charge of a couple of projects in maintenance status and gradually become the main User Researcher of new ones supported by the other User Researcher.Â
- You will participate in workshops, create strong research strategies and do deep analyses to ensure the rest of the team has access to the best insights.
In 1 year.
- You will be actively participating in internal initiatives to help the âResearch & Designâ team flourish and improve the company's processes.Â
- You will be the main User Researcher of new projects. You will take ownership of your work and responsibility from conceptualization through completion, every step of the way partnering with a multidisciplinary team.Â