User Researcher

OnDeck (ONDK) uses data aggregation and electronic payment technology to evaluate the financial health of small and medium sized businesses to efficiently deliver capital to a market underserved by banks. Through the OnDeck platform, millions of small businesses can obtain affordable loans. We are changing the way small businesses borrow money by combining our passion for Main Street with cutting-edge technology.

OnDeck (ONDK) uses data aggregation and electronic payment technology to evaluate the financial health of small and medium sized businesses to efficiently deliver capital to a market underserved by banks. Through the OnDeck platform, millions of small businesses can obtain affordable loans. We are changing the way small businesses borrow money by combining our passion for Main Street with cutting-edge technology. We evaluate businesses based on their actual performance, not personal credit, and that’s enabled us to say “yes” more often and faster than traditional lenders.

* Cultivate a deep understanding user needs, behaviors and motivations and produce relevant models to communicate insights, like personas and experience maps. * Work closely with the product team to identify research topics and design of quantitative and qualitative research studies. * Develop research participant criteria to provide to recruiting service providers. * Proactively involve product managers, designers & engineers in the research process. * Participant in collaborative initiatives with market research, customer support and data analysts. * Bring generative and evaluative research tools and a strong understanding of strengths and shortcomings of different research methods (quantitative and qualitative). * Collect and analyze user behavior through server logs, online experiments, benchmark studies, and surveys. * Plan and organize research initiatives. * Build out user research tools. * Moderate user sessions on premise and off-premise, work with study participant recruiting service providers. * Synthesize insights, communicate results, and illustrate suggestions in compelling and creative ways (including oral, written and visual presentations). * Work cross-functionally with product management, UX design, engineering and marketing teams to fuel ideation and drive new solutions that disrupt the financial industry. * Share best practices & new techniques with others in the organization and help to build a human-centered design culture in everything we do and contribute to our culture of continuous learning. * (Most importantly!) Approach your work with a sense of genuine curiosity, collaboration, and good humor.

* 2+ years experience in product user research * A Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience in human-computer interaction, software design, cognitive psychology or another social science field * Proven track record working well in cross-functional teams, including Product Managers, Engineers and Designers * Proven knowledge and experience with a variety of qualitative and quantitative user research activities, like ethnographic field studies, persona development, experience mapping, concept validation, usability testing, eye-tracking, and card sorting * Experience analyzing logs of user behavior, and applying meaningful statistics to the results * Can synthesize and communicate insights from multiple sources and communicate research findings in a compelling and persuasive way * Experience designing participant recruiting criteria based on learning goals. * Excellent communication, problem solving, and collaboration skills * Passion for OnDeck’s mission **Nice-to-haves (not required):** * Have experience working within a UX research team at an Internet-based software company or interactive agency * Strong understanding of strengths and shortcomings of different research methods, including wen and how to apply them during each product phase. * Strong background in design thinking * Feel comfortable working with data analytics and AB/multivariate testing, and collaborating with data analysts * Demonstrated experience creating new test methods/setups to address the needs of unusual/challenging tests * Financial-industry expertise