Program Manager - UX Research Team

UX Program Manager - UX Research TeamLocation: Remote (PST)Duration: 1/6/25 - 3/31/25Pay Range: $60/hr - $65/hrTypical Day in the Role• Purpose of the Team: The team is a user research or UX research team with about 70 to 80 researchers. They work with different product groups within the Experience and Devices division, conducting user research to inform product decisions. Their engagements include working on products like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Copilot, and Loop, as well as with the core team and the Customer Success and Engineering team. The research focuses on various topics, including small and mid-size business admins.• Typical task breakdown and operating rhythm: The role will consist of Responding to Team Members' Requests: Assisting team members with access to research tools, troubleshooting issues, and providing support. This takes up a couple of hours each day. Meetings: Participating in a handful of meetings each week, collaborating with the sponsor, research supplier staff, and other business managers. Content Creation and Management: Drafting newsletter articles, updating SharePoint content, and managing technical aspects like virtual machines and tenant in Azure. Heads-Down Work: Spending a significant portion of the day working on various tasks, including analyzing information, drawing conclusions, and ensuring the team has the necessary resources.Compelling Story & Candidate Value Proposition• Unique Selling Points:Variety of Tasks: The role offers a diverse range of responsibilities, from setting up research tools and virtual machines to drafting newsletter articles and managing SharePoint content.Interaction with the Team: The role involves significant interaction with team members, making it ideal for someone who enjoys helping others and being known within the team.Non-Traditional PM Role: This position is not a typical program manager role; it spans research operations, communications, and technical management, providing a broad and dynamic work experience.Candidate Requirements• Years of Experience Required: 8-10 overall years of experience in the field.• Degrees or certifications required: No specific degree is required to be eligible for this role.• Disqualifiers: Candidates with less than 1 year of tenure will not be eligible for the role.• Best vs. Average: The ideal resume would contain experience in tech: A significant portion of their career spent in the tech industry. SharePoint and Azure Experience: Prior experience with SharePoint and Azure, even at a basic level, is beneficial. Familiarity with UX Research: Experience working in or with UX research teams, understanding their needs and processes.• Performance Indicators: Performance will be assessed based on meeting deadlines, quality of work, feedback.Top 3 Hard Skills Required + Years of ExperienceAzure, technical skillsCommunicationOrganizational abilitiesRoleThis role is for a Research Operations (ResOps) PM that will play a critical role in the functioning of the X3 Research team. In this role, you will work closely with the team's Business Manager on key workstreams and have regular contact with members of the team, from leadership to individual researchers. You will provide team members with information and resources to help them get their jobs done easily and efficiently. You will oversee several key communication assets for the team, such as the team knowledge management infrastructure, internal website, and newsletters. You will play a key role in many operational processes, such as overseeing and assigning research tools to team members, analyzing usage and making investment recommendations to the team leader.ResponsibilitiesResearch Tools: Assign researchers with seats to a variety of research tools available to them. Pull usage reports (monthly), recommend areas where further investment is needed, communicate findings to leadership and team. Meet quarterly with research tool suppliers to review usage, understand product roadmap. Organize training sessions for the team. Contribute to research tool capacity and budget planning during the fiscal year planning process.Knowledge Management: Maintain team's knowledge management infrastructure, which consists of 2 SharePoint sites (Working Folders, Hub) and templates and collections in HITS (a research insights repository). Work may include creating new templates/content, authorizing access and troubleshooting technical issues.CI Research: Request tenants and set up virtual machines with encrypted passwords in Azure. Assist researchers with setting up virtual machine access for their CI research projects. Monitor and add capacity (tenants and virtual machines) as needed.Communications: Create and maintain content about and for the team on the Hub SharePoint site. Create newsletter articles (every other month) based off of previously published research.Onboarding/Offboarding: Update onboarding content as needed. Collaborate with team Business Manager and Exec Admin on onboarding/offboarding action items as needed.Ad hoc projects as the need arises.Skills and Experience (Required)5+ years of work experience in program management, project management or operations rolesThrives in a fast-paced environment and juggle multiple workstreams simultaneously.Picks up new information and learns processes quickly.Operates effectively in an ambiguous environment. Can find the right experts to consult and locate information that exists outside of the team.Strong project management, organization, and planning skills with attention to detail.Strong written and verbal communication skills. Responsive; answers messages and emails within 24 hours.Knowledge and experience working with SharePoint, in addition to core Microsoft 365 apps (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Microsoft Forms).Problem solver and "can do" mindset. Digs into issues and persists through to solutions.Forward-looking and proactive. Identifies and creates information/resources and takes actions that enable the team to operate smoothly.Skills and Experience (Desirable)Prior experience or experience working in tech, preferable with a UX team and/or in research operations.Experience working with Azure

Created: 2025-01-15