Principal UX Researcher, Online and Buyers

Since we opened our doors in 2009, the world of commerce has evolved immensely, and so has Square. After enabling anyone to take payments and never miss a sale, we saw sellers stymied by disparate, outmoded products and tools that wouldn’t work together.

So we expanded into software and started building integrated, omnichannel solutions – to help sellers sell online, manage inventory, offer buy now, pay later functionality, book appointments, engage loyal buyers, and hire and pay staff. Across it all, we’ve embedded financial services tools at the point of sale, so merchants can access a business loan and manage their cash flow in one place. Afterpay furthers our goal to provide omnichannel tools that unlock meaningful value and growth, enabling sellers to capture the next generation shopper, increase order sizes, and compete at a larger scale.

Today, we are a partner to sellers of all sizes – large, enterprise-scale businesses with complex operations, sellers just starting, as well as merchants who began selling with Square and have grown larger over time. As our sellers grow, so do our solutions. There is a massive opportunity in front of us. We’re building a significant, meaningful, and lasting business, and we are helping sellers worldwide do the same.

The Role

Square UXR, part of Block Customer Insights, is looking for a Strategic UXR Research Lead to drive research strategy in support of  product development. This is a leadership role focused on shaping the vision and direction of how SQ helps sellers scale through buyers and online. You will be a key partner to Design, Product, and Business leadership, helping to define strategic priorities and develop 0-1 solutions. You must have a strong business strategy mindset, and the ability to drive execution with senior xfn stakeholders. We will be looking for applied experience and expertise in the online space or in the seller space.

This team oversees products in the Square ecosystem that help sellers sell online, engage loyal buyers, and manage and pay staff. You will work closely with cross-functional partners to ensure Square’s ecosystem products are strategically positioned to help unlock key business and customer outcomes, such as accelerating ease of product adoption, growing omnichannel revenue, and saving customers’ time while staying compliant. 

You will:

• Develop and articulate clear, compelling points of view that drive alignment across multiple teams and business units. 
• Define and shape the strategic vision for Online and Buyers products through customer and market insights, ensuring product development is aligned with customer problems and business strategy 
• Lead generative and evaluative research that informs and influences long-term strategy, identifying key opportunities for growth and differentiation
• Craft compelling, data-driven narratives that align teams, guide decision-making and drive action.
• Collaborate and strategize with cross-functional partners in Design, Product Management, Marketing, and Engineering to build in research at appropriate times through the product development or go-to-market cycle
• Collect and analyze user behavior through mixed methods research including in depth interviews, ethnographic research, contextual inquiry, card sorting, surveys, usability studies, and other relevant research methodologies
• ​​​​​​​Evaluate product design (in market and new concepts) in order to better serve Square sellers through a strong focus on user experience, as well as identifying growth opportunities

You Have

• 8+ years of experience conducting and leading impactful UX research.
• 3 or more years of experience driving high profile workstreams in a large, matrixed organization.
• Deep experience leading research that contributes to 0 to 1 innovation.
• A track record of using research to influence decisions across the whole product development process and marketing and creative strategy, through successful collaboration with product managers, design, product marketing, data science, etc.
• Agile approach to building research plans that deliver on wide-ranging team needs under tight timeframes.
• Masterful expertise with a wide range of qualitative research methodologies such as one-on-one interviews, diary studies, ethnographic field research, usability testing (lab and remote), heuristic evaluations, and co-creation workshops.
• Experience and comfort with quantitative research methodologies, including surveys / survey design, experiments, data collection and analysis.
• Experience managing 3rd party vendors and agencies for recruiting, moderation, or end to end research support, when required.
• Solid project management skills, including planning log