Hi there, thanks for stopping by.

What follows is a bit lengthy, but will give you a better idea of what we do, what this role entails and how to apply.

What we do

We’re a boutique growth agency that gives a damn about our work, our clients, our people, and doing the right thing. We specialize in:

• user experience research and design
• full-service a/b testing and personalization (aka conversion rate optimization)
• data analytics
• email

About your role and the team

If you would rather feel trusted to use your expertise and problem-solve than have your manager hawking over your shoulder micromanaging you, keep reading! Here at surefoot, we carve out time for you to get shit done and deliver real value to clients. Leave the wasted time, infighting with colleagues and finger-pointing to someone else. You didn’t become a UX researcher to deal with that stress mess day in and day out!

As a UX Researcher, you’ll enjoy talking to a variety of people to help solve their problems and collaborating with kind, supportive co-workers who respect you and your time – both at and away from the virtual office. You’ll be recognized by peers, leadership and clients for your organizational skills and attention to detail, which are critical to your success. In fact, disorganized, dependent personalities don’t last long here. Nor do people with “that’s not in my job description” attitudes. When smart people collaborate instead of compete and bring solutions instead of problems, amazing things happen.

Speaking of collaboration, that’s something you’ll do regularly with our clients. We bend over backwards (but not forwards) to make sure they’re happy. Our goal is to be the best, most helpful agency they’ve ever worked with. To help us achieve that goal, we encourage you to share and celebrate your authentic self day in-and-day-out with co-workers and clients alike. Even if it means letting your “weird” show every once in awhile.

We’ll be honest; surefoot isn’t for everyone. We encourage and expect you to use your expertise, make decisions without a lot of oversight, go above and beyond to help a teammate or client, spend time to thoughtfully communicate asynchronously, and manage your own work schedule. If you’re a humble team player who likes to see and contribute to the success of something greater than yourself, then we want you to apply. Now.

UX Researcher role description

As a UX Researcher at surefoot, you’ll help lead the charge on improving our clients’ websites by conducting various types of research. You’ll need to enjoy talking to strangers on video calls and should also look forward to the challenge of distilling their responses into straightforward results presentations for client stakeholders. You’ll need to have experience asking non-leading questions and “going off script” at times to draw out the real reason an interviewee is hesitant or vague. You’ll collaborate internally with project managers, UX designers and occasionally, our clients. Successful UX researchers are curious, personable and passionate about helping craft more delightful experiences for end users.

**Something important we want you to know ahead of time is that this job may be a bit different than your standard research gig in that you won’t be working on a single site or app for several months in a row. Instead, you’ll be working on various projects for a variety of clients. One day it could be configuring a card sort, the next could be scheduling and conducting user interviews. 

TL;DR – if you’re someone who enjoys “deep working” on the same product or app day-in-and-day-out, this job probably won’t light your fire. 

A day in the life of a UX Researcher

• start your morning with a cup ‘o joe and fire up your computer to check emails, contribute your Wordl screenshot or thoughts on having either Cheeto dust for fingers or tennis ball fuzz for skin to Slack, check-in on incentives getting sent to interview participants, etc.
• it’s 10:30 CST, time for our team video stand-up to chit chat with teammates a bit, then talk about what you worked on yesterday, are doing today and any blockers.
• shortly after stand-up, you’ll set to work writing an interview script for an upcoming user study to learn more about the effort it takes users to complete certain tasks on an e-commerce website.
• after a stretch break and a #self-care Slack post to enter the monthly bonus drawing, you’re back at your desk to conduct a few Zoom user interviews where you’ll try to get to the heart of a user’s struggles with one of our client’s PDPs.
• you spend your early afternoon putting together a research findings presentation for an upcoming call with a client and distilling your interview learnings into clear, actionable recommendations and next steps.
• around mid-afternoon, it’s time to create a screener in Respondent.io (or similar) to recruit users for an upcoming study on their wine buying preferences. Cheers to this activity!
• once “quitting time brain” begins to settle in, you double-check your respondents have received their incentives, then perhaps a few email/slack responses and checking in on #watercooler to interact with teammates before you wrap things up for the day.

Role requirements

must-haves

• 3-5+ years research experience in e-commerce/web product design.
• Demonstrable experience gathering requirements, prioritizing, planning research and identifying and recruiting participants. 
• Examples demonstrating how you analyze & summarize research results.
• Comfort talking to strangers and walking them through prototypes without leading them to answers.
• A love of asking questions, seeking answers, and working with others to solve unique and interesting design problems.
• Experience with research tools, such as Respondent.io, Optimal Workshop, Typeform (or similar).
• Comfort making design recommendations based on research and best practices.
• Ability to communicate clearly and concisely with good “email voice”.
• Self-motivation, ability to work independently and remotely, the desire to continuously learn and grow.
• Hobbies outside of work.

nice-to-haves

• Examples demonstrating how you’ve influenced teams or companies to become more user-centric.
• Experience with A/B testing and the armchair psychology behind what motivates people to do the things they do.
• Experience with or excitement about building new processes, automation, workflows, etc. to help further establish surefoot as a leader in the space.
• Experience with analytics tools such as Google Analytics, Heap or Hotjar.
• Funny GIF library, good emoji usage, sense of humor.

Salary and benefits

The position is open to U.S.-based applicants only. No Visa sponsorship is provided.

• Base salary: $80,000 to $100,000 (depending on experience)
• Benefits and perks:
  • fully-remote team (even pre-COVID!)
  • health insurance – we pay 85% of your premium, up to $400
  • 401k with match
  • 2.5 weeks paid vacation to start (more accrued annually)
  • $2,000 technology / WFH office budget
  • 11 paid holidays
  • two 1/2 day Fridays per month
  • self-care bonuses
  • company-paid all-hands trips
  • Climate Neutral smart thermostat reimbursement
  • $400 learning budget
  • client discounts
  • new hire and client referral bonuses
  • …more as the company grows, with your input solicited on benefits that matter to you!

Ready to apply?

Great, we’re looking forward to meeting you! To get the ball rolling, please submit your application.

If all is well there, you’ll move on to phase two which involves a Zoom video call or two to get to know one another a bit better. If we’re feeling good about that, we’ll contact your references.

And finally, if your references check out and confirm you’re not a stabber, we’ll ask you to do some actual paid work with us to determine fit for both parties. This paid project is a nice way for both parties to get a feel for one another’s work, communication style and more.

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All applicants will receive a response. We know through experience that different ideas, perspectives and backgrounds foster a stronger and more creative work environment that delivers better business results. We strive to create workplaces that reflect the clients we serve and where everyone feels empowered to bring their full, authentic selves to work. We are an equal opportunity employer and we are committed to building a company that embraces and celebrates diversity and inclusion. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We are also committed to working with candidates from all ability levels throughout the recruitment process to ensure they have what they need to be at their best. If you need accommodation during the application or interview process, please contact us to begin a conversation about your individual accessibility needs throughout the hiring process.