Contextual Inquiry Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Research (Primary - 80%)

• Plan and execute generative research: user interviews, contextual inquiry, diary studies, and ethnographic observation to uncover unmet needs and opportunity spaces.

• Design and run evaluative research: usability studies, concept testing, prototype reviews, and survey-based validation at key product milestones.

• Define research questions collaboratively with product, design, and engineering partners, then own execution from recruitment through synthesis.

• Develop and maintain a research repository that makes insights discoverable and actionable across teams.

• Communicate findings clearly to audiences ranging from ICs to senior leadership, adapting depth and format to the audience.

• Advocate for the user in roadmap and prioritization conversations, backed by evidence.

• Contribute to and evolve team research standards, tools, and practices.

Design & Communication (20%)

• Create clear, well-structured deliverables that translate research into action: journey maps, synthesis artifacts, storyboards, annotated findings decks, and opportunity frameworks.

• Collaborate closely with product designers to ensure research insights are reflected in design decisions and interaction patterns.

• Facilitate participatory design activities and co-creation sessions with users and internal stakeholders.

Front-End Contribution (Light)

Make targeted HTML, CSS, and JavaScript contributions to our design system - primarily to support research prototypes and interactive stimuli for studies.

Work within existing component library patterns; you won't be architecting systems or building production features from scratch.

Collaborate with design engineers to ensure research prototypes accurately represent intended interactions.

Research Expertise

• 5+ years of UX research experience, with a demonstrated mixed-methods practice spanning both generative and evaluative approaches.

• Deep fluency in qualitative methods (interviews, contextual inquiry, diary studies) and strong working knowledge of quantitative methods (surveys, behavioral analytics, A/B test interpretation).

• Experience recruiting and managing research participants across diverse populations.

• Proven ability to design research that drives product decisions - not just informs them.

• Familiarity with research operations: managing vendors, tools, panels, and research repositories.

Design Fluency

• Ability to produce polished, well-structured synthesis artifacts - journey maps, mental model diagrams, opportunity frameworks - that designers and PMs can act on directly.

• Proficiency with Figma or equivalent tools for creating research communication materials and lightweight prototypes.

• Understanding of interaction design principles sufficient to critically evaluate design decisions and contribute meaningfully to design reviews.

Technical Skills

• Working knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript at a level that enables building and modifying interactive prototypes for research purposes.

• Comfort contributing to an existing component library - reading documentation, following established patterns, and making targeted changes.

• Familiarity with design systems concepts (tokens, component patterns, variants) is a plus; deep front-end engineering expertise is not required.

Collaboration & Communication

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with a track record of influencing product direction through research.

• Experience facilitating workshops, alignment sessions, and research readouts with cross-functional teams.

• Comfortable operating with ambiguity; able to scope and prioritize research independently in a fast-moving environment.

• Mentorship experience or genuine interest in developing junior researchers.

• Healthcare insurance: We provide medical, dental, and vision insurance, and a flexible spending account that allows you to set aside pre-tax dollars to pay for eligible out-of-pocket expenses.
• Stock options.
• Personal time off: A healthy work-life balance is critical to your success at the office. Smarsh offers a "take-what-you-need" time off policy as well as flexible work arrangements.
• 401K Match: Smarsh provides a 4% 401K match for which employees are fully vested on day one.
• Sabbatical: The Smarsh sabbatical programme provides a time to recharge, study or simply do something you are passionate about away from the workplace. Employees are eligible after six years of service.
• Recognition: We're big on kudos for a job well done. Our employee-recognition programme enables co-workers to nominate their peers who best embody our core values for recognition.