Possible is a venture-backed consumer fintech company that radically reinvented small-dollar loans to make them more affordable and sustainable to help everyone improve their financial health. Building on that success, Possible is adding two additional product categories in our pursuit of making financial services more fair and affordable.

As our Director of User Research, you will be responsible for building out a team of User Research specialists, who along with yourself, will partner with marketing, product, and engineering leadership to build a comprehensive user research program, focusing on both generative (opportunity and needs finding), and evaluative (comprehension and usability).

In regards to the User Research team, in addition to hiring and developing the team members, you will be responsible for establishing practices and processes for producing concrete insights that advise, shape, and guide our products ensuring they reflect the needs and abilities of our customers.

The other two main areas of focus for this role will be:

1. To establish an ongoing, voice of the customer program that ensures there is a shared understanding and empathy for our customer, making this accessible to the whole organization. (We are extremely customer-focused and are seeking an individual who can effectively enable everyone's continual learning in regards to our customers and their evolving needs.)

2. Plan and prioritize product-level research for our mobile app, products, services, and website, from needs finding and prioritization through usability and customer acceptance. The User Research team will work side-by-side with our product managers and designers to craft end-to-end experiences that enable our customers to discover, understand, and achieve financial health and credit stability.

You must be able to work and adapt in a fluid, fast-paced environment. And, you must have deep domain knowledge of human perception, cognition, and problem solving, as well as outstanding communication, collaboration, and leadership skills.

Responsibilities:

• Work with partners to translate the broader product strategy into a concrete, tactical research plan
• Influence the product roadmap and strategy
• Provide guidance to junior User Experience Researchers
• Advocate for the customer in key product/design decisions
• Know how to use a breadth of research tools to address a wide range of challenging product issues
• Own evaluative and/or generative research projects independently
• Effective at looking back over previous research from multiple sources (whether internal or external) and arrive at a point of view that informs the subject of discussion
• Make research results interactive

Requirements:

• Masters or Ph.D. in related field (Psychology, Human-Computer Interaction, Anthropology, Human Factors, etc.
• 8+ years of combined relevant user research and usability experience in B2C UX design, including 3+ years leading a team of 2 or more user researchers Fintech is a plus
• Experience in both evaluative and generative research methods, workshop facilitation, quantitative research, and ethnographic/in situ observatio
• Guide user researchers in designing and implementing research projects, and communicating research results, to produce impactful customer insights
• Strong ability to take research results and convert them into prioritized, practical recommendations
• Develop relationships with development and product management leaders
• Elevate customer insights to influence product strategy
• Successfully applied specialized knowledge of Human Factors/UCD research concepts and techniques to a broad range of consumer products and services
• Excellent time management skills, juggling multiple projects at once.
• Ability to collaborate actively & effectively on multidisciplinary teams
• Uses available internal/external resources to assist with various phases of research
• Recognized by others as an authority/professional resource in his/her area of expertise
• Knowledge of user experience standard methodologies

About Possible:

We are a fast-growing, fully distributed, FinTech startup that believes financial health is something everyone deserves, not just the affluent. We're committed to empowering the underserved with tools to better their economic situation. We promise to be transparent, serve with kindness, be responsible, and hold ourselves accountable for crafting positive change. Possible is backed by leading investors such as Union Square Ventures, Canvas Ventures, and FJ Labs.

Work hours:

Possible is fully distributed and has team members across the US and in Asia and Latin America. Our primary coordination hours are 9a to 3p Pacific Time.

Benefits (for US-based employees):

Joining an early-stage, venture-backed company does not mean you will sacrifice benefits. We offer excellent medical, dental, and vision coverage and pay 85% of employee premiums and 50% of eligible dependent premiums. We also offer childcare and healthcare FSAs; life and disability (short- and long-term) insurance; an Employee Assistant Program; and a 401(k) plan.

Diverse, Equitable, & Inclusive Work Environment:

Possible Finance values inclusion and believes diversity at all levels is the best way for us to accomplish our mission. We aspire to be among the industry’s most inclusive work environments and are a proud equal opportunity employer. All aspects of employment including the decision to hire, promote, discipline, or discharge, will be based on merit, competence, performance, and business needs. We do not discriminate on the basis of any status protected under federal, state, or local law.