Leader, CX Research & Service Design

Leader, CX Research & Service Design

At Interac, we design and deliver products and solutions that give Canadians control over their money so they can get more out of life. But that’s not all. Whether we’re leading real-time money movement, driving innovative commerce solutions like open payments for transit systems, or making advancements in new areas like verification and open banking, we are playing a key role in shaping the future of the digital economy in Canada.

Want to make a lasting impact amongst a community of creative thinkers, problem solvers, and high-performance application developers? We want to hear from you.

Interac Design is a Centre of Excellence at Interac that brings together the very best people, methods, and tools to create experiences that simplify the lives of Canadians. We are an integral part of our product teams, ensuring they meet the evolving needs of our customers. We evangelize Customer First Thinking across Interac ensuring the experiences we deliver are elegant, relevant, and simple at every customer touch point. And we pride ourselves on creating an environment where design practitioners and professionals can grow.

The Leader, CX Research & Service Design, will report to the Head of Design at Interac and will be responsible for leading a new CX Research & Service Design practice at Interac. This person will work with our Product teams to explore new ideas to achieve top-of-the-house business strategic priorities, and use proven Design Thinking techniques to improve our current product and service offering. They will serve as Interac’s foremost ambassador and thought-leader in Human-Centered Research methodologies and tactics, and support the development of new methods to observe, listen, and engage our target consumer segments.

This critical role will split their time between: Building, managing, and coaching a team of CX Researchers and Service Designers (~25%); Working with Product Leaders on the future direction of the business (~15%), Developing and synthesizing a deep understanding of consumer behaviors, needs, and wants (~35%), and; Exploring forward-looking journeys and solutions that create the optimal customer experience with Interac (~25%).

You'll be responsible for:

• Collaborating with cross-functional Product leadership teams to realize the full potential of individual and cross-product visions through articulating and visualizing forward-looking, end-to-end customer journeys
• Being the ‘source of truth’ for consumer insights through primary and secondary research on target consumer and current customer segments
• Collaborating with internal teams across Interac to ensure all consumer/customer/user insights gathered are synthesized and learnings are shared with and easily accessible by key stakeholders and teams across the organization
• Providing keen insights on macro market trends affecting consumer behaviours, the current and emerging competitive landscape, and emerging trends and factors affecting digital commerce in Canada and other markets
• Championing and being a thought-leader in novel Design Thinking and Human Centred Design Research methods, guiding the organization and leading Interac Design in developing customer-first solutions that cut across products, channels, and touchpoints
• Hiring, managing, developing, and leading a team of CX Researchers and Service Designers, helping them build new skills, learn new techniques, and adopt
• Advising on Interac’s Product Operating Model, ensuring insights and learnings are acted on by product and squad teams in order to better deliver exceptional and relevant customer experiences

You bring:

• A background in sociology, psychology, anthropology, ethnography, or relevant field of consumer and user experience research
• Experience in design research, service design, foresights strategy, and Human Centered Design methodologies and other practices/processes critical in supporting business teams and product development
• Expertise in conducting usability testing, synthesizing insights, and sharing learnings with leaders and peers
• Experience building research and/or design teams and implementing Design Thinking best practices in corporate environments
• Published thought leadership in the field of generative consumer research or related research field
• Eligibility to work for Interac Corp. in Canada in a full-time capacity
• Experience working in an environment with a Product Operating Model where complex products move from idea discovery to scaled growth
• Strong leadership skills – You are a confident, empathetic leader
• Strong storytelling skills – the ability to synthesize large datasets obtained from primary and secondary research for sharing key learnings with product team partners and stakeholders
• Strong communication, analytical, and decision-making skills
• Excellent interpersonal skills and a proven ability to work effectively within a matrixed organization