User Researcher at Microsoft

Microsoft’s Business Applications and Platform Studio is looking for a User Reseracher II to help drive innovation in our AI Enterprise Resource Planning (AI ERP) software.

The Company and Team

At Microsoft, we have a clear mission and bold ambitions: empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more through our technology and innovation. To make that a reality, our D365 Finance team is reimagining how organizations create, maintain, and report on their financial records with the infusion of powerful AI capabilities.

Our team’s charter is to empower and enhance Finance professionals by making data entry easier, designing real-time dashboards, automated workflows, and robust reporting. We drive to improve their efficiency, reduce errors, and foster collaboration, all with the power of AI as their Copilot.

We’re growing and if you’re a seasoned User Researcher who loves to learn, create, innovate, and empower users to achieve more, we’d love for you to be a part of our mission to revolutionize Finance together!

The Role

You’ve worked on multiple digital projects already and you’re interested in learning more about the financial industry and building AI-driven solutions.

You’re a strong storyteller with an experimental mindset who inspires change at all stages of product development by delivering engaging, insightful, and action-oriented recommendations that are easy to digest and act upon.

You are a tireless advocate for the customer by helping the product team understand what makes a user’s experiences useful, valuable, and delightful.

You enjoy working with multi-disciplinary teams (all the way from product managers and engineers to data scientists and researchers) and have strong written and verbal communication skills that can bring your team together to create simple and effective customer experiences.

The role’s broad scope will give you ample room to flex your research muscles — both on projects that have immediate impact on our Microsoft business applications portfolio and our greater AI investments, but also explorations that shape our long-term strategy, vision and the UX direction of the company.

Responsibilities

Responsibilities

You will build a deep understanding of users, competition and market, and conduct analyses in a fast-paced, agile environment. You will improve products by uncovering actionable insights for the existing offering, as well as gaps, needs, and opportunities to guide future investments.

Responsibilities:

• Conduct mixed methods research to inform product design, including but not limited to: usability studies, heuristic evaluations, interviews, contextual inquiry, focus groups, surveys, user journey maps, UX health studies and personas.
• Conduct a mixture of qualitative and quantitative research activities to inform product design, including but not limited to: usability studies, heuristic evaluations, interviews, contextual inquiry, focus groups, surveys, user journey maps, benchmarks and personas.
• Identify, evangelize, and pursue research opportunities that help your product team stay ahead of industry trends and customer needs.
• Communicate your findings in a clear, concise, and visual (when appropriate) manner to our key stakeholders on the product and design teams, and drive meaningful action based on those findings.
• Create durable research insights that align with user-centered design principles and positively impact the AI-ERP product suite and the Dynamics research studio.

Qualifications

Requirements:

• A minimum of MA/MS in Experimental Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Human Factors, Human-Computer Interaction or a related field, OR significant industry experience
• At least 5 years of experience conducting product design research or the equivalent with strong knowledge of both qualitative and quantitative methodologies.
• Experience researching AI-driven solutions.
• Demonstrated experience with a wide variety of design research methodologies including but not limited to: usability studies, prototype testing, concept value testing, field/remote studies, in-depth interviews, heuristic evaluations, user journey mapping, personas, competitive reviews, and surveys.
• Ability to quickly and effectively analyze research data and present rich findings simply and clearly to influence product design and direction.
• Ability to work independently in a fast-paced environment.
• Excellent collaboration skills across disciplines – PM, Data Science, Engineering, and Product Design.
• Strong leadership skills to deliver projects and customer insights within and across product teams that resulted in strong product impact.
• Passion for learning new technologies and understanding the needs of users across a wide range of technical abilities.
• Excellent communication and project management skills.
• Experience with UI design best practices and agile software development.

Other Requirements

Ability to meet Microsoft, customer, and/or government security screening requirements. These requirements include but are not limited to the Microsoft Cloud Background Check, which will be required to pass upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.

#BAPStudios, #Copilot, #Design, #BAPJobs

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. Consistent with applicable law, all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.