Director, Experience Design Research

Director of Experience Design Research Role Overview
The Director of Experience Design Research sets the vision, operating model, and bar for a modern research practice that discovers human-centered business opportunities and delivers decision-quality insights that shape product strategy, de-risk delivery, and unlock accelerated revenue growth.

You will evolve the culture from "research as validation" to "research as strategy"-embedding discovery, framing, and insight storytelling into how we prioritize, fund, and build.
Key Responsibilities

1) Research Strategy & Portfolio Leadership


* Define a research strategy and portfolio tied to strategic business bets; set learning agendas and research roadmaps that inform "where to play/how to win," not just "how to ship."


* Maintain an enterprise view of open questions, knowns/unknowns, and insight reuse; establish governance so research accelerates learning velocity across teams.


* Embed researchers (and research rituals) across the product lifecycle to influence early decision-making, not just late-stage testing.

2) Insight-to-Action & Business Impact


* Operationalize an insight-to-action pipeline-from fieldwork and synthesis to narratives that drive prioritization, investment cases, and portfolio decisions.


* Partner with Finance/Product to quantify impact (e.g., conversion, activation, retention, NPS/CSAT, cost-to-serve) and attribute lift to research-informed changes.

3) Culture Change & Capability Building


* Lead the shift from transactional research to a discovery-first culture-coaching leaders and teams to ask better questions, frame problems, and connect human truths to economic value.


* Establish democratized research programs (training, guardrails, tools) so non-researchers can safely learn, while the core team focuses on high-leverage strategic work.


* Model an inclusive, craft-loving, growth-oriented team culture consistent with leading design org values.

4) Methods Excellence & Research Operations


* Ensure excellence across qual/quant methods, mixed-methods synthesis, and advanced techniques (e.g., segmentation, JTBD, service safari, diary/telemetry fusion).


* Build ResearchOps: recruiting pipelines, knowledge graph/insight library, panel governance, data ethics, privacy/compliance, and quality standards.


* Create a shared insight repository and taxonomy so findings compound over time and inform strategy and roadmaps beyond a single team.

5) Executive Influence & Enterprise Storytelling


* Translate complex human insights into clear strategic narratives for executives-using artifacts (landscapes, opportunity maps, service blueprints) that drive alignment and investment.


* Serve as a trusted advisor to senior leaders on where human needs and business models intersect, shaping portfolio bets and incubation opportunities.

Qualifications Must-Have


* 10+ years in Experience/UX Research or Design Strategy, including 5+ ...