Senior User Researcher

Summary

A senior user researcher is an experienced practitioner who can plan and lead user research activities in larger teams and on more complex services. At this role level, you will:

build user-centred practices in new teams

align user research activities with wider plans to inform a service proposition

supervise and develop other user researchers to assure and improve research practice

Work Activity Components

Title Details
Contribute, plan and drive user research (Level 4) Contributes to selection of the user research approaches for projects and initiatives and plans own user research activities. Supports adoption of agreed approaches.
Collect, analyse and share (Level 4) User research Collects and analyses data related to people's behaviours, needs and opinions.
Involve, synthesise and inform (Level 3) User research Provides evidence drawn from data and research analysis to represent the user in product and design discussions.
Collaboration (Level 4) User research Works closely with designers and design teams to help form design responses to identified research findings, ensuring design remains focussed on user needs.

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.
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. Familiar with

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
Investigation Techniques Investigation and elicitation techniques (such as interviews, workshops, observation, statistical analysis) to obtain complete and accurate information about business areas and systems of interest.
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.
Accessibility Methods and techniques that ensure that users with physical impairments or learning disorders are not disadvantaged by the system.
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
Research Assignments Exploring a topic which is not part of own normal responsibilities and presenting findings to colleagues and/or management Increasing Knowledge
Gaining Knowledge of Activities of Employing Organisation Developing an understanding of the potentially diverse range of activities (service, governance, administrative, regulatory, commercial, charitable, industrial, etc.) undertaken by the employing organisation. Increasing Knowledge
Gaining Knowledge of IT Concepts and Techniques Undertaking study, learning and, where possible, practice in IT concepts and techniques external to own function. 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
Team Leadership Undertaking learning and practice of the skills required to lead teams, including motivation, direction, coaching, delegation, appraisal, counselling and developing others. Developing Professional Skills

Qualification Components

Title Awarding Bodies
FEDIP Senior Practitioner The Federation for Informatics Professionals
CXA - Certified User Experience Analyst Human Factors International

Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework Skills

Skill Level

Agile research practices

Agile delivery involves encouraging teams to build incrementally, test and iterate their work based on regular feedback and other useful data.

Practitioner Agile research practices

You can:

  • advocate for agile working
  • adapt how you design and conduct research to respond to the complexity of the product environment
  • understand the strategic decisions the team needs to make so you can design appropriate research
  • influence decisions about priorities and agile processes in the team

Analysis and synthesis

Analysis and insight involves examining, interpreting and analysing data to help make informed decisions.

Practitioner Analysis and synthesis

You can: understand and help teams to apply a range of methods to analyse research data and synthesise findings effectively engage sceptical colleagues in analysis and synthesis advise on the choice and application of techniques, and can critique colleagues’ findings to assure best practice

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

Research management, leadership and assurance

Leadership and guidance involves providing effective leadership and management through team motivation, decision making, risk management, mediation and professional development

Practitioner Research management, leadership and assurance

You can:

  • evaluate the quality of research against accepted professional standards for user research
  • explain what good user research practice involves
  • give constructive feedback to other user researchers to ensure work meets good practice standards

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.

Working Society and technology

You can: understand the social and technological context of government services align user research activities to help your team understand changing user behaviour

Stakeholder relationship management

Stakeholder relationship management involves managing stakeholder requirements and communications throughout a project, while remaining focused on the user needs.

Practitioner Stakeholder relationship management

You can:

  • influence stakeholders and manage relationships effectively
  • build long-term strategic relationships and communicate clearly and regularly with stakeholders

User research methods

User research involves methods to identify user needs and understand how users interact with a product or service.

Practitioner User research methods

You can:

  • use a wide range of user research methods, and can help teams to adopt them
  • plan user research for services with challenging user needs and complex user journeys
  • advise colleagues on the choice and application of research methods to assure best practice

User-centred practice and advocacy

User focus involves understanding the user needs to develop a detailed understanding of the problems that need to be solved.

Practitioner User-centred practice and advocacy

You can:

  • evaluate and choose approaches for building your team’s understanding of the user
  • advocate for user research with sceptical colleagues and stakeholders
  • help inexperienced teams to adopt user-centred practices
  • identify the most important challenges and opportunities for your team's service development
  • align research plans to address team priorities

The Professional Body Responsible for this job family is BCS. This job role profile was created in collaboration with BCS, using Role Model Plus.

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