Lead User Researcher

Summary

A lead user researcher is an expert practitioner, leading and aligning user research activities across several teams. At this role level, you will:

ensure that teams take a user-centred, evidence-based approach to service design and delivery

develop and assure good user research practice

Work Activity Components

Title	Details
Contribute, plan and drive user research (Level 5)	Plans and drives the user research activities providing expert advice and guidance to support adoption of agreed approaches.
Collect, analyse and share (Level 5) User research	Leads the collection and analysis of data related to people's behaviours, needs and opinions.
Involve, synthesise and inform (Level 5) User research	Synthesises findings, develops insights and presents findings to inform decision making and drive actions.
Collaboration (Level 5) User research	Provides advice to design teams on how to improve services so they are accessible to everyone.

Behavioural Skills

Title	Details
Information Acquisition	Identifying gaps in the available information required to understand a problem or situation and devising a means of resolving them.
Commercial Orientation	Understanding commercial considerations and ensuring alignment with them when making decisions or recommending actions.
Attention to Detail	Applying specific quality standards to all tasks undertaken to ensure that deliverables are accurate and complete.
Interacting with People	Establishing relationships, contributing to an open culture and maintaining contacts with people from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines. Effective, approachable and sensitive communicator in different communities and cultures. Ability to adapt style and approach to meet the needs of different audiences.
Teamwork	Working collaboratively with others to achieve a common goal.

Technical Skills

Title	Details	Depth
Systems Ergonomics and Iterative Design	Iterative methods and techniques to allocate and optimise the division of functions between the human, machine and organisational elements of IT systems and the functions themselves in terms of ergonomic impact. Systematic and iterative design of the physical and cognitive interfaces to create an effective user experience in a software system, product or service with attention paid to variety of locations and access devices employed by users.	Proficient in

Other Skills

Title	Details	Depth
Presentation Techniques	Methods and techniques for delivering effective and accessible presentations, either face-to-face or online within various contexts and to a variety of audiences.	Familiar with

Training

Title	Details
Information and Data Modelling	Tools and techniques used to investigate, analyse and model the structure, relationships and use of data and information within an organisation.
Human Factors Techniques	Methods and techniques for understanding human needs and limitations and for designing usable, accessible and ergonomically sound systems. Examples: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) approaches and iterative design methods and accessibility. Recognising ever evolving user expectations for use of a variety of access devices and locations and opportunities for environmental savings e.g. reducing office space, travel, etc.
Usability Evaluation Techniques	Methods and techniques for the assessment of IT product usability, accessibility and health and safety throughout the lifecycle of development projects.
Security Awareness	Tools and techniques to help users and employees understand the role they play in helping to combat information security breaches and for IT and security professionals to prevent and mitigate risk.

Professional Development Activity (PDA)

Title	Details	PDA Group
Deputising	Standing in for supervisor or manager on a temporary basis during periods of absence.	Broadening Activities
Job Shadowing and Special Assignments	Undertaking temporary periods or secondments in other roles, particularly those that offer a new perspective on own function or exposure to other environments and cultures.	Broadening Activities
Mentoring	Acting as a mentor, advising those for whom there is no direct responsibility, on matters to do with their job role, career and professional development.	Broadening Activities
Gaining Knowledge of Broader IT Issues	Increasing and maintaining currency of knowledge of broader IT issues through reading, attending and participating in seminars or conferences, special studies, temporary assignments etc.	Increasing Knowledge
Gaining Strategic Knowledge of Employing Organisation	Developing a comprehensive understanding of the business environment in which the employing organisation operates and its position, policies and direction in relation to health and care, country and global issues.	Increasing Knowledge
Participation in Professional Body Affairs	Taking an active part in professional body affairs at branch, specialist group, committee or board level.	Participation in Professional Activities
Negotiating and Influencing	Undertaking learning and practice of negotiating with and influencing others.	Developing Professional Skills
Management Development	Undertaking learning and best practice of the skills appropriate to managing all or part of an organisation, including business and financial management, benefits management, people management, management of change and strategic planning. This will require both on and off the job learning and may include participation in an appropriate development programme such as MBA or DMS (Diploma in Management Studies).	Developing Professional Skills

Organisational Skill Name and Description

Framework	Skill	Level
Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework	Analysis and synthesis Analysis and insight involves examining, interpreting and analysing data to help make informed decisions.	Expert Analysis and synthesis You can: help an organisation to adopt a wide range of analysis and synthesis techniques, and to continually assure, improve and innovate their practices to generate clear and valuable findings
Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework	Inclusive research Incident management involves coordinating the response to incident reports, ensuring effective prioritisation, investigation and resolution.	Practitioner Inclusive research You can: help teams understand the diversity of users of government services effectively include all kinds of users in appropriate research activities advocate inclusive practices and help teams design and deliver accessible services that work for all users
Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework	Research Requirements definition and management involves identifying and validating user or business requirements for a product or service.	Expert Research You can: help an organisation adopt a wide range of user research methods lead a community of practice to help an organisation continually assure, improve and innovate their user research
Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework	Society and technology Service support involves fixing service faults and maintaining the underlying infrastructure, ensuring processes are in place to keep the service running efficiently.	Practitioner Society and technology You can: help teams understand the ways that digital technology is changing user behaviour, and the challenges and opportunities for the design and delivery of government services
Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework	Strategic insight Strategy involves creating a plan to achieve a team or organisation's objectives.	Practitioner Strategic insight You can: understand organisational goals and challenges align research activities across teams to inform policy and proposition
Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework	Technical understanding (user-centred design) Performance measurement involves collecting and interpreting data to identify how a team, product or service is performing.	Practitioner Technical understanding (user-centred design) You can: demonstrate knowledge of the technologies used to build and operate digital services collaborate closely with colleagues in different digital disciplines
Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework	User-centred and Agile practices	Practitioner User-centred and Agile practices You can: understand and demonstrate experience in a range of user-centred practices help inexperienced teams adopt user-centred practices and embed them into their Agile workflow advocate user research, and engage sceptical colleagues and stakeholders

Framework

Skill

Level