User Researcher

About us

The Financial Times is one of the world’s leading news organisations, globally recognised for its authority, integrity and accuracy, with a mission to deliver quality information and services worldwide.

At the FT, curiosity thrives and ambitious thinking is rewarded. Here, you’re given the chance to reach millions, create work that matters and deliver impartial journalism in a polarised world.

In our warm, collaborative culture, you’ll connect with a diverse community of experts who support your growth, career aspirations and wellbeing.

Your future at the FT will be filled with opportunities that challenge and inspire you. With no fixed path, you’ll discover new skills and forge a career that can take you anywhere.

Build a newsworthy career at the FT.

 

Our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion 

We believe in the power of unique perspectives and want all voices in our organisation to be heard, respected and valued. A supportive workplace is one where employees feel they can be themselves and operate to their full potential. We are committed to removing barriers for everyone, with a focus on addressing those faced by underrepresented groups.

 

Job Description

We’re looking for a User Researcher to join the Product Research & Design team in our London Office.

You’ll be working in our Professional pillar, using a wide range of research methods to help us get a deeper understanding of our audiences.

You’ll work alongside a fully empowered team of engineers, designers, product managers, with support from relevant stakeholders from around the FT such as Commercial, Data, Editorial, and Marketing.

You’ll help deliver end-to-end product experiences, from exploratory research to opportunity definition, from ideation to concepts, testing, shipping, and iterating.

You’ll receive regular guidance and support from your team, your line manager, our Director of Product Design & User Research, and of course the whole User Research team. We work hard to foster a safe environment where we proactively share and discuss our work to inspire, support and guide each other.

 

What you’ll be doing week to week:

• Planning and prioritising. You’ll have an equal stake in your team's direction. You’ll always be learning, planning and prioritising your areas of focus and approach together.
• Continually collaborating. Jumping into and leading team activities with product managers, designers, and engineers through all stages of the development process. Creating a shared understanding of user needs, motivations and behaviours in relation to product and business goals.
• Researching and learning about users. Designing, planning and conducting relevant research activities to best meet team objectives and timelines. To understand the behaviours, motivations and mental models of customers and users, using varied and appropriate methods. Recruiting an appropriately wide range of participants to ensure we're building in an accessible way from the start.
• Empathy and experience mapping. Understanding users' feelings, motivations and expectations. Mapping experiences, journeys and flows, to help us understand and prioritise pain points and opportunities, taking the team along on the journey. Providing a broader picture to inform strategic decisions.
• Ideating, iterating and testing with integrity. Working with teams to help evolve ideas into concepts, to shape these concepts with research, and iterate based on what you learn. Contributing to high ethical standards throughout the design process.
• Synthesising learnings and sharing insights creatively. Taking what you've learnt and disseminating knowledge in the most impactful forms for your team, pillar, and the business. Ensuring your work is reusable and contributes to our shared understanding of all kinds of users.
• Evolving! We strive to continually improve and evolve. Evolving our process by adding new or unfamiliar techniques and abandoning obsolete ones. Evolving our product until we achieve objectives, rather than stopping once we’ve shipped.

 

What we’re looking for from you

We welcome applications from people who can demonstrate strong end-to-end User Research competencies. 

• You have experience shipping features and iterating across a few products. You’ll likely have been practising user research for around two years.
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