Senior User Researcher - Public Sector

About Kin + Carta

At Kin + Carta, we work with large, global businesses and organisations that require seamless end-to-end experiences that elevate their brands, products and services and put the user at its heart. 

As part of the team you'll be working on products and services for some of the world’s most influential organisations. UX Researchers through to Product Designers work in dedicated teams, anyone who has worked at a startup or in a product company will feel right at home. We are involved from planning through to execution, being an advocate for the user at every step of the way. You'll help the team to make informed design decisions, placing the needs of the user and the business at the centre of every piece of work.

About you

You’re primarily focused on user-centred design, applying your abilities in facilitation, user research, interaction design, information architecture and user testing – amongst others. You'll enjoy engaging with users and project partners to understand the product’s context, and synthesize your findings into easily digestible formats for your team.

About the role

We're looking for an experienced Senior User Researcher to join a multi-disciplinary agile team to help deliver rapid but great-quality experiences for users. 

You will apply best practice in facilitating research interviews, usability tests and client workshops. You will plan ongoing user research programmes and define information architecture and interaction design solutions.

You will aim to continually improve the user experience and aid the user in achieving their primary outcomes simply, while always thinking about how to add delight. As a result you build trust with your clients.

You enjoy engaging with users and project partners to understand the product’s context, and synthesise your findings into easily-digestible and memorable formats for the product team.

You'll also be encouraged and supported in contributing to our Design Practice.

Designers at Kin + Carta are:

• Collaborative and ego-free, able to give and receive feedback to and from all team members regardless of role or level
• Designing, prototyping and building products and services used by people every day
• Confident using a variety of tools like Miro and are happy to learn the ones they don’t know
• Client-facing, taking an active role in the presentation of the team's latest design work
• Inquisitive and eager to continuously improve and learn
• Enthusiastic about agile methodologies, and software development practices
• Actively involved in growing the design team by finding and attracting talent
• Experienced in Agile methodologies, and software development practices.

As a Senior User Researcher at  Kin + Carta you:

• Are well on the way to mastering your UX design craft
• You have experience of wireframing and prototyping
• You are a champion for a user-centred approach to delivering on project objectives
• You know when to use different research methods and how to apply them correctly.
• You understand how to apply basic techniques for the analysis of research data and synthesis of findings
• You can present the clear findings of your research to the team and key stakeholders
• You are able to run workshops with clients and internal stakeholders
• You are able to work collaboratively with other designers, product design and development teams, engineers, product owners and the client
• Are eager to identify work to do and learn; focused on finding solid solutions to problems
• Contribute to the Design team by helping identify and interview great new teammates
• Assist on tasks that the Design team has identified to progress Kin + Carta’s capability
• Help create thought-leadership materials to communicate Kin + Carta’s strategic view
• Contribute to Kin + Carta’s by attending events and sharing the insights internally

• Pragmatic approach to user research and product development in a public sector context, balancing rigour with what is achievable within budget and technical constraints
• Analysing research findings and synthesising them into actionable outputs which the team can translate into intelligent design solutions
• Good awareness and understanding of ethical considerations related to research
• Previous experience conducting appropriate research activities with users with access needs
• Previous experience working in Agile teams
• Previous experience using a range of methodologies from qualitative and quantitate, across the different stages of the product lifecycle, from Discovery to Live
• Previous experience working in the public sector to GDS standards
• Been through one or more Service Assessments

Applying for the role

Please share examples of your work as PDFs or online case studies with your application. We’re interested in the activities you go through as you research, test and present your thinking and conclusions. For example; use of data, interviews, workshops, sketches, concepts, flows, experience maps, prototypes etc. ‘Finished’ visual designs are not the only focus here. All supplied examples will be handled in complete confidence.

K+C believes in creating a culture where diversity, regardless of its form, is just a part of who we are. We empower every one of our Kin to share what matters to them, creating a culture where every person, regardless of race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, or disability status is treated as a valued member of K+C.

Here’s what to expect from the interview process at Kin + Carta: 

Intro Call with the Talent Team (30 mins) – If your skills and experience match the role requirements, our Talent team will contact you to arrange a call.  The aim of this call is to get to know you and for you to find out more about Kin + Carta. This call can be held either by telephone or Zoom. After this call, if we feel like you are a good match for the role, you’ll be invited to a first-stage interview.

First-Stage Interview (60 minutes) - This will typically be a Q&A style interview via Zoom with two of our senior design team members. The interview will last approximately 60 minutes. This process is designed to help our team find out about your skills and experience but also what you enjoy and what motivates you. You will be asked to bring along a sample of work that you are proud of to this interview. It’s a great opportunity for you to ask our team questions and learn more about us! If you are successful in the first stage interview, you will progress to the next stage of our interview process. 

Second-Stage Interview (60 minutes)- This interview will also be a Q&A style interview via Zoom this time with two of our senior leaders. The interview will last approximately 60 minutes. It’s a chance for our team to see how you apply your skills and experience and assess how that matches our expectations for the role. It’s also a chance for you to meet more of our Kin (that’s what we call our colleagues here at Kin + Carta).

Making a Decision - Following the interview process, our hiring team will get together to discuss feedback and make a final decision. We aim to get back to you as soon as we possibly can! 

Our average recruitment process takes around four weeks. You will be assigned a dedicated member of our Talent team  to support you throughout the process. 

We will always do our best to accommodate any reasonable adjustment requests. Please just let us know how we can make the interview process more accessible for you.

Here at Kin + Carta, we believe in building a better and more welcoming world for everyone. We want you to know that whoever you are, wherever you’re from, and whoever you love, you are welcome at Kin + Carta. We put our commitment to our global IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Awareness) programme at the centre of everything we do. We’re also a certified B Corp, which means we are committed to being a force for good and operate to the highest social and environmental performance standards.