At 8x8 Inc. [Nasdaq:EGHT] we put communications at the heart of our business and build technology that allows people to connect anytime, anywhere they are in the world, and on any device. XCaaS - the 8x8 Experience Communications Platform - brings together Employee and Customer Experience, enabling hybrid workforces across the globe to connect, collaborate, and delight customers, while providing businesses with real-time communications analytics, intelligence and unique insights.

Learn more on our company website at www.8x8.com follow our pages on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Research Program Manager Job Description

The Research Program Manager works in partnership with cross-organizational teams – including Product Design & User Experience, Marketing, Sales, and Engineering – to manage and facilitate our beta and early adopter testing programs. The Research Program Manager also supports end-to-end research operations.

The role is responsible for growing our research practice and operations, supporting participant recruitment and engagement, and knowledge and insights management. 

This role works with UX team leadership to support effective team operations, increasing the consistency, efficiency, and efficacy of our research team. The role also collaborates cross-functionally to lead our beta testing programs, including end-to-end participant management, scheduling, internal alignment, insights gathering, and documentation.

Responsibilities

Research Operations Responsibilities

• Standardize research process and supporting documentation to save time and enable consistent application across projects.

• Support end-to-end user engagement and recruitment process with 8x8 customers. 

• Develop and implement strategic plans to grow our research participant base. 

• Manage end-to-end participant sourcing practices, including incentive handover and consent forms.

• Manage GDPR and data protection processes to ensure compliance with local and global regulations.

• Manage participant sourcing digital marketplaces and vendors to secure fast access to representative users.

• Manage third party UXR vendors and UXR tools, seats, and licenses.

• Ensuring research ethics are understood and upheld by individual researchers across studies.

Alpha/Beta Program Management

• Organize, structure, and connect all research activities in the Alpha, Beta, and Early adopter programs.

• Define, plan, and execute processes, procedures, and workflows focused on streamlining and improving efficiency for beta programs and early adopter programs. 

• Build and maintain program templates and documentation.

• Coordinate, organize, and facilitate meetings with customers.

• Collect, analyse, and present customer feedback.

• Establish beta testing program KPIs.

• Support project teams for optimal collaboration by providing project management-based project plan templates and tools (Jira, Smartsheet, and internal documentation).

• Create alignment with Marketing teams to share user feedback and insights.

• Participate in and influence GTM decision making processes.

• Evangelize beta testing program structure and benefits across the organization.

Qualifications

• Experience with research operations, program management, project management, or similar.

• Experience in coordinating quantitative and qualitative user experience research, in both generative and evaluative research phases.

• Experience in gathering user feedback through surveys and interviews, and the ability to analyze, summarize, and share the insights.

• Experience conducting participant screening, recruitment, and management. Strong Understanding of GDPR and data protection requirements / documentation.

• Outstanding interpersonal skills with demonstrated ability to act as the voice of the user.

• Strong organizational skills with attention to detail.

• Fluency in user-centered design best practices, as well as knowledge of usability principles and techniques.

• Excellent communication, presentation, and persuasion skills with cross-functional teams and stakeholders; experience working in a collaborative environment.

• Track record of program and project results impacting product strategy and development.

• A self-starter, able to work pragmatically in an extremely fast-paced environment.

• Nice to have: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in the area of Cognitive, Behavioral, Experimental or Industrial Psychology, Human Factors, or Human-Computer Interaction, Program Management, Project Management and/or comparable certifications and experience.

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