PepsiCo
Job Title: Design Research Director
Department: Design Innovation
Location: New York, NY
Reports to: Vice President, Design Innovation
PepsiCo Design Innovation is a creatively driven team that leverages the power of Design Thinking to solve brand and business problems that drive meaningful value and growth. Our team’s mission is to lead the Breakthrough Innovation agenda in order to accelerate and transform PepsiCo’s Global brands and businesses beyond its core, unlocking the future of CPG. We innovate with intent; to solve real problems, for real people, in the real world. We innovate to incite positive change – for people, brands, business and the world around us.
Consumer centricity and a deep understanding of people and cultures are critical to how we do our best work. Our Design Innovation team partners with cross-functional teams at to discover, interpret, and communicate insights and opportunities in an inspiring way, while contributing to all phases of the design process.
The Role
In this role you’ll report into the VP of Design Innovation and work in collaboration with the design Innovation leaders, in conjunction with the Insights function, to deliver Design Research outputs that inspire design strategies and compelling design experiences (i.e. brand, product, packaging, retail, merchandising, digital) that drive strategic business value.
You will work alongside partners from Marketing, R&D, Commercialization, Finance and other core teams to ensure the research plan is optimized to develop key insights to drive great experiences. You will co-design, plan, conduct, and socialize user research across a spectrum of methodologies, aligned with the Insights function. You will also be on projects as an innovation lead with a focus in design research.
The primary functions of this role will be to build and establish Design Research best practices and methodologies for the team, as well as drive and execute design research programs.
• Devise and curate a method-based practice of gathering both generative insights into customer problems and needs, and evaluative insights on potential solutions.
• Apply expertise with a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods, including a mix of the following: in-depth user interviews, in-lab and field studies, usability testing, moderated and unmoderated remote testing, online surveys, participatory design, customer journey mapping, personas, benchmarking, heuristic evaluations and stakeholder interviews, leveraging breakthrough digital technologies as per project needs.
• Co-lead with our Insights function research projects including: managing stakeholders, prioritizing research requests, planning and executing research, analyzing and synthesizing data, and translating findings into insights to inform strategic decisions, catalyze design direction, and influence new offerings pipeline, inspire the project teams, thereby putting design in motion.
• Manage internal relationships with peers across the Design Organization and partners in other functions.
• Establish and maintain an efficient strategy for scoping research, execution, and readout to ensure velocity and visibility across internal partners, adapting agilely when business priorities shift.
• Contribute to monitor the impact of insights generated and take part in evolving the growing Design Research practice at PepsiCo.
Ideal Candidate
You are both empathic and focused – with an ability to take problems and transform them into opportunities for creative solutions.
You are radically inspired by people and excels at leading the charge of gathering and communicating insights that put our users at the center of our future offering thinking.
You will be a strong influencer and promoter within and outside the Design organization.
You possess a deep knowledge of design research approaches and methodologies across multiple design disciplines, brand strategy and naming, product and packaging design, retail, merchandising and communications
You should be comfortable managing the ambiguity inherent in design processes, methodologies, tools, techniques, and design proposals (visions, scenarios) in order to plan creative engagements and visualize the desired creative output.
You will elevate design thinking, which underpins all our engagements, pollinate design thinking through practical design methodologies, solving complex branding problems and uncovering transformation opportunities to help brands get the most out of their design investments.
You are able to build concise organizing frameworks to communicate complex information in a simple, compelling, human ways
Qualifications/Requirements
• 12+ years of experience, with a minimum of 8+ years (recent) in Design Research
• Degree(s) in Industrial/Product Design, Design Strategy, Human Factors, Human-Computer Interaction, Cognitive or Experimental Psychology.
• Proven track record of strong leadership, cross-functional team partnership and a strategic acumen
• Superior project management and design management skills; attention to detail
• Proven ability to multi-task, work in ambiguous and dynamic work environment; is comfortable with taking risks
• Able to customize approach and scope based upon project goals, resources, and deadlines
• Practical experience in deploying qualitative and quantitative research methods throughout the product development lifecycle, from conceptualization to launch
• Experience drawing from a variety of research methods-interviews, observation, diary studies, prototyping, surveys, user testing, and experiments-at different stages of the design process: to encourage early design work, inform the initial opportunity, collect formative feedback to support iteration, and validate a go-to-market solution
• Ability to uncover deep customer insights, apply creative approaches to complex design/research problems and engage design and product partners in participatory processes to synthesize and evangelize insights
• Relationship builder, able to collaborate and build ideas with people within design and outside of design
• Strong communication and storytelling skills, experienced influencer, and advocate for user research
• Prior experience inspiring Design teams
• Prior experience with eCommerce and/or global research, with a focus on digital testing
• Demonstrated success influencing leadership-level stakeholders
• MBA or Master's degree not required but preferred