Lead User Researcher (Vancouver, Hybrid)

Location: Canada

State/Province/City: British Columbia

City: Vancouver

Business Unit: Store Support Centre (SSC)

Time Type: Full-time

Description & Requirements

who we are
lululemon is an innovative performance apparel company for yoga, running, training, and other athletic pursuits. Setting the bar in technical fabrics and functional design, we create transformational products and experiences that support people in moving, growing, connecting, and being well. We owe our success to our innovative product, emphasis on stores, commitment to our people, and the incredible connections we make in every community we're in. As a company, we focus on creating positive change to build a healthier, thriving future. In particular, that includes creating an equitable, inclusive and growth-focused environment for our people.

About this team
The User Experience Research team is part of our Global Digital Omni and Guest Support organization (including e-commerce, guest app, in-store digital experiences, and other guest and employee touchpoints). The User Experience Research team produces actionable insights that help our guests (aka customers) and educators (aka employees) have joyful and seamless experiences that deliver directly to customer needs and business goals. This role will advocate for our guests and educators throughout the product development process by uncovering unmet needs, motivations, expectations, and potential barriers. 

About this role
As a Lead User Researcher, you will lead user research activities across several teams in our Educator Experiences domain, including Guest Support Center and Digital Retail experiences. Ensuring that teams take a user-centered, evidence-based approach to service design and deliver, while leading highly strategic research activities that have long term and over-arching impact within lululemon. 

You will be a part of a collaborative team working with User Experience Designers, Product Managers, Developers, and other agile team members delivering digital experiences for our guests and educators. Generating insights and actionable feedback that helps us unlock elevated experiences across our ecosystem. The end result of this process will deliver customer loyalty, satisfaction, and advocacy to the lululemon community as well as reinforcing our brand promise. 

A day in the life: 
  • Lead and align strategic business and user insights activities across multiple teams throughout the product development process – from ideation to post launch – creating business impact and educator love.
  • Lead and conduct complex user research sessions using a wide variety of research techniques and methodologies that provide defined, actionable and timely insights to specific customer needs.
  • Be an advocate for our users, storytell the insights gathered to stakeholders up to the senior leadership level   .
  • Create the user research strategy and approach (including methodologies) across a team of researchers, considering impact, the business goals, the broader product vision, and company objectives.
  • Summarize and storytell research findings to stakeholders at all levels, clearly articulating user needs, to influence decisions.
  • Provide leadership, consultation, and guidance to other researchers on the team and product designers as they are conducting their own research, ensuring methodologies and recommendations are sound.
  • Actively coach less senior user experience researchers, providing actionable feedback on approach, methodologies, and considerations to support their growth and the overall maturity of the User Experience Research team.
  • Lead, participate in, and support quarterly planning to both advise on when/where research should occur and how to best resource to achieve user insight goals.
  • Contribute research to centralized library, ensuring current and future employees can benefit from the data.
  • Be creative, stay curious and explore new ways and opportunities to gather insights.
  • Stay up to date with current research tools and stay informed about new possibilities.
  • Contribute to the UX Research team culture, process and documentation.

Qualifications: 
  • BS or BA degree (or equivalent experience) in Human-Computer Interaction, UX/UI/Design, Human Centered Design (HCD), Psychology or related area.
  • 10+ years' experience working in the field of User Research or related field, preferably in retail, ecommerce, or similar industries.
  • Experience designing, conducting and analyzing studies using Fable, or similar tools designed to gather insights about accessible experiences for users with unique / specialized (ADA compliant) interaction needs   .
  • Expert-level knowledge conducting unmoderated and remote testing on Usertesting.com, User Zoom, or similar tools to derive user acceptance.
  • Expert-level knowledge and experience conducting   moderated user sessions in-person or online that derive concrete and actionable feedback for product improvement.
  • Skilled at creating and analyzing surveys, tree sort tests, card sorting, etc. using tools like Optimal workshop.
  • Expert level experience integrating findings with data from other sources (Adobe Analytics or Quantum Metric) to establish a blended quantitative and qualitative view of user needs.
  • Fluency in both qualitative and quantitative methodologies (e.g., interviewing, field studies, questionnaire development and survey research, experiments, usability studies, contextual inquiry, instrumentation, biometrics, etc.).
  • Demonstrated experience designing and executing research programs that have positively affected the outcome of user experiences, product teams, business goals, and strategic planning.
  • Excellent written and oral communication.
  • Strength in persuading through compelling presentations and impactful storytelling, including creation of presentations or other assets. 
  • Ability to distill complex ideas into clear and succinct assets to be consumed by a wide audience.
  • Ability to develop creative approaches to researching complex user experience problems. 
  • Experience mentoring junior members of the user experience research team.
  • Clear examples of your work demonstrating the above-listed skill sets.

must haves
  • Acknowledge the presence of choice in every moment and take personal responsibility for your life.
  • Possess an entrepreneurial spirit and continuously innovate to achieve great results. 
  • Communicate with honesty and kindness and create the space for others to do the same. 
  • Lead with courage, knowing the possibility of greatness is bigger than the fear of failure. 
  • Foster connection by putting people first and building trusting relationships. 
  • Integrate fun and joy as a way of being and working, aka doesn’t take yourself too seriously.

Additional Notes
Immigration support is potentially available for this role.

#LI-Hybrid #LI-AC1