Crown Equipment Corporation is one of the world’s largest material handling companies, with a reputation for award-winning product design, advanced engineering and technology, and superior after-sale service. Crown produces a broad range of forklifts, batteries, chargers, automation and fleet management technologies that are revolutionizing the material-handling industry. More than 85 percent of Fortune 500 companies use Crown forklifts. With over 19,000 employees, 24 manufacturing facilities, and 500 retail locations across 84 countries, Crown has a vast global presence. Crown’s global headquarters is in New Bremen, Ohio USA, with regional headquarters in Australia, China, Germany and Singapore.

Location:

This position is based in our New Bremen, Ohio USA global headquarters.

Job Responsibilities:

Crown is looking for a Senior Design Researcher with a broad range of capabilities in ethnography, product research, market analysis, and strategy to contribute to our growing Design Research team.

What you’ll do…

Plan and execute large design research projects.
Use qualitative and quantitative methods to gather and develop a rich understanding of the tactical and strategic opportunities for Crown physical and technological products and services.
Engage with executive stakeholders to share the research insights through compelling storytelling.

What’s a day-in-the-life as a Senior Design Researcher?

Travel to customer sites – both domestic and international and typically with overnight stay – to observe operators, and talk directly with operators, supervisors and managers about their experiences and identify opportunities.
Use current design research and UX methods and tools to collect and analyze findings from field research.
Engage stakeholders and product teams with insights and collaboratively work to uncover unmet needs and translate those needs into new product and service opportunities.

You’re a good fit if…

You love asking questions and digging-in to find answers. You know there is always more than one way to look at things. You are a motivated, self-guided strategist who can easily grasp complex business issues, explore a broad range of information, identify meaningful patterns, and communicate insights through compelling stories and visuals. You can share examples of problems you’re passionate about and what you’ve done to explore them.

We’re a diverse and growing team of Design Researchers with backgrounds in anthropology, design, user experience, human factors, and psychology. We constantly challenge ourselves to explore and approach our work in a highly collaborative way with a focus on human-centered design. You’ll be tightly integrated into research and innovation work across the entire company, informing real strategic decisions.

Related Terms:Business Design, Design Strategist, Marketing Opportunity Strategist, Product Strategist, Research and Insights, Senior Marketing Strategist, Service Design, Strategic Marketing, User Experience Research, Design Research

Onsite Work:A reasonable commute is necessary since mostly onsite work is required.

Minimum Qualifications:

Bachelor’s degree in Design Research, Human Factors, Anthropology, Psychology, Behavioral Science, Human Computer Interaction, or related field.
5 years of experience in Design Research, Service Design or Strategy in-house or with a consulting firm.
Experience in design research fundamentals: Ability to execute on qualitative research planning, research brief development, methodology and tool development, and data collection and analysis with minimal direction. Sophisticated and mature perspective on qualitative research and its application.
Experience leading observational and contextual inquiry research sessions.
Skilled in research tool development and execution: experience developing participatory design tools, projective techniques, and discussion guides to elicit customer, user and stakeholder insights.
Analysis and sense-making: Ability to make sense of volumes of data and drive to meaningful insights.
Quick study: Able to quickly understand a problem space.
Strong oral and written communication, computer, analytical, and organizational skills.
Ability to travel frequently with overnight stays (6-20%)
Valid driver’s license and reliable transportation to travel locally between company locations during scheduled workday.

Preferred Qualifications:

Master’s degree in Design, Business Administration, Psychology, Anthropology or related field strongly preferred.
Professional polish: Able to build rapport with customers and internal stakeholders. Experience working in a business environment.
Collaboration: Experience working in teams, respecting the views of all stakeholders, sharing wins and successes. Comfortable with ambiguity and shared responsibility.
Experience with business strategy: Experience with exploring market and competitive questions, as well as defining and validating customer value propositions.
Facilitation/Moderation: Experience facilitating co-creation and innovation workshops with executive level stakeholders.
Commercial mindset: Interesting in developing products and product ecosystems that balance user needs with commercial business viability.
Global mindset: Experience living or working outside of the U.S. or on international projects.
Visualization: Demonstrated experience visually representing research findings and concepts.
Design thinking: Non-linear, systems thinking skills and an aptitude to explore, iterate, and pivot.
Computer Skills: Proficiency using Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Cloud, and qualitative analysis software. Quantitative software knowledge and statistical analysis.

Work Authorization:

Indefinite U.S. work authorized individuals only. Individuals with temporary visas are ineligible. Sponsorship for work authorization, now or in the future, is unavailable.

No agency calls please.

Compensation and Benefits:

Crown offers an excellent wage and benefits package for full-time employees including Health/Dental/Vision/Prescription Drug Plan, Flexible Benefits Plan, 401K Retirement Savings Plan, Life and Disability Benefits, Paid Parental Leave, Paid Holidays, Paid Vacation, Tuition Reimbursement, and much more.

EOE Veterans/Disabilibities

Crown Equipment Corporation

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Senior Design Researcher