UX Research Management

UX Research Management Roles at GitLab

Managers in the UX Research department at GitLab see the team as their product. While they are credible as researchers and know the details of what UX Researchers work on, their time is spent hiring a world-class team and putting them in the best position to succeed. They own the delivery of UX Research commitments and are always looking to improve productivity. They must also coordinate across departments to accomplish collaborative goals.

Manager, UX Research

The User Experience (UX) Research Manager reports to the Senior Manager or Director of UX Research, and UX Researchers report to the Manager, UX Research.

Job Grade

The Manager, UX Research is a grade 8.

Responsibilities

• Build and manage a high performing UX Research team.
• Create an open and collaborative culture based on trust in the UX Research team.
• Set clear expectations and goals for UX Researchers while holding them accountable for success.
• Provide clear, actionable feedback and support to develop and grow UX Researchers.
• Support your team's career development by ensuring: 1) they each have a Individual Growth Plan in place, 2) there are frequent check-ins on the plan, and 3) when applicable, special projects are being matched to support each team member's Individual Growth Plan.
• Maintain an accurate and current understanding of the active UX Research projects being worked on by the team.
• Build and develop your research toolkit to extend across all levels of complexity.
• Demonstrate, explain, and teach others how to apply a range of research methods, understanding the balance and trade-offs between scrappy research and rigor.
• Personally initiate and conduct research projects to build stronger foundational knowledge of our GitLab users. Research should consist of a mix of problem validation, foundational research, and strategic research projects.
• Communicate, advocate for, and socialize actionable insights in a clear and compelling way.
• Regularly sync with Product Management Directors to understand strategy, discover blockers, manage quality, and help ensure UX Research prioritization.
• Develop and utilize reusable research project prioritization approaches for UX Researchers to leverage within their own teams. Work with UX Researchers and Product in applying these approaches to ensure UX Researchers have a clear set of prioritized research projects.
• Manage the UX Research peer-review process to ensure test plans and final deliverables have been reviewed by at least one other UX Researcher.
• Build relationships with other managers across disciplines, and act as a liaison with teams throughout the wider organization that have ongoing research needs.
• Actively seek out difficult impediments to our efficiency as a team (process, tooling, etc), and propose and implement solutions that will enable the entire team to work more efficiently.
• Exert significant influence on the overall objectives and long-range goals of the UX Research team.
• Actively contribute to the UX Research team culture, processes, and documentation.

Requirements

• Expert-level knowledge in the field of UX Research with at least 5 years of experience in hands-on research.
• A minimum of 3 years of experience managing UX Researchers or large research teams.
• Outstanding communicator both verbally and in writing.
• Strong collaboration skills.
• A proven record of driving change through UX Research.
• Passion for the field of UX Research.
• Evangelize research. Share user insights within the broader organization and externally in creative ways to increase empathy.
• Able to use GitLab to plan/manage work and update the company handbook.
• You share our values, and work in accordance with those values.
• Leadership at GitLab

NOTE: In the compensation calculator below, fill in "Manager" in the Level field for this role.

Senior Manager, UX Research

The Senior Manager, UX Research reports to the Director of UX, and Manager, UX Research report to the Senior Manager, UX Research.

Job Grade

The Senior Manager, UX Research is a grade 9.

Responsibilities

• Create an open and collaborative culture based on trust in the UX Research team.
• Develop an overarching UX research strategy for GitLab, and work with the UX Research team and cross-functional partners to execute that strategy.
• Facilitate the creation and execution of UX Research OKRs in collabration with the UX Research team and UX Leadership.
• Define and manage performance indicators for the UX Research team by actively contributing to the UX Research KPIs on the UX KPIs page in the handbook.
• Coach UX Research Managers on how to conduct 1:1s, growth, and feedback conversations with their direct reports.
• Help drive cross-product research by having an awareness of what's happening across all sections through active participation in UX Research peer reviews, UX Showcases, and Group Conversations.
• Actively advocate for UX Research throughout the company, so that the company is aware of what UX Research does, how they do it, and what insights they have delivered.
• Support UX Research Managers' career development by ensuring: 1) they each have a Career Development Plan in place, 2) there are frequent check-ins on the plan, and 3) when applicable, special projects are being matched to support one's Career Development Plan.
• Align the way that UX Researchers work with how their cross-functional partners in Product Managment, Product Design, and Engineering prioritize, track, and manage work.
• Stay informed of industry best practices, and help the team to evolve our research practice accordingly.

Requirements

• Expert-level knowledge in the field of UX Research with at least 8 years of experience in hands-on research.
• A minimum of 2 years of experience managing UX Research Managers.
• Outstanding communicator both verbally and in writing.
• Strong collaboration skills.
• A proven record of leading a team that drives change through UX Research.
• Experience advocating for UX Research and broadly communicating about research insights to stakeholders and partners.
• Passion for the field of UX Research.
• Able to use GitLab to plan/manage work and update the company handbook.
• Ideally, has experience leading a remote UX research team that conducts research fully remote, too.
• You share our values, and work in accordance with those values.
• Leadership at GitLab

NOTE: In the compensation calculator below, fill in "Senior Manager" in the Level field for this role.

Interview Process

• Screening call with a recruiter. In this call we will discuss your experience, understand what you are looking for in a UX Research leadership role, talk about your work and approach to user research, discuss your compensation expectations and reasons why you want to join GitLab, and answer any questions you have.
• Interview with a UX Researcher. In this interview, the interviewer will spend a lot of time trying to understand the experiences and challenges you've had as a manager, specific details of any initiatives you've led, the problems you were trying to solve, and the outcomes of these initiatives. Do be prepared to talk about your work and research experience, too.
• Interview with a UX Manager. In this interview, we want to get to know how you think about the place of user research within an organization, understand how you define strategy and vision, and understand the size and scope of teams you've managed throughout your career.
• Interview with a UX Director. In this interview, the interviewer will spend a lot of time trying to understand the experience you have as a manager, your ways of ensuring the team is well-positioned to produce research studies that have a strong impact on product strategy, what types of teams you have led, and your management style. The interviewer will also want to understand how you work with cross-functional partners, how you've handled conflict, and how you've dealt with difficult situations in the past.
• Interview with Executive VP of Engineering. In this interview, the interviewer will look to understand how you drive strategy, approach difficult conversations, and how you see the role of user research in a cross-functional research and development organization.

Director, UX Research

The Director of UX Research reports to the Director of UX, and UX Research Managers report to the Director of UX Research.

Job Grade

The Director, UX Research is a grade 10.

Responsibilities

• Create an open and collaborative culture based on trust in the UX Research team.
• Set an ambitious vision for UX Research that other companies use as a benchmark for their own research initiatives.
• Align UX Research to business goals and company revenue and clearly communicate the resulting impact.
• Develop an overarching UX research strategy for GitLab, and work with the UX Research team and cross-functional partners to execute that strategy.
• Mentor UX Research Managers in their career growth, including making sure they each have an Individual Growth Plan.
• Help scale UX Research by defining a plan to provide research training for Product Managers and Product Designers, and coordinate the UX Research team to create and maintain training materials.
• Actively advocate for UX Research throughout the company, so that the company is aware of what UX Research does, how they do it, and what insights they have delivered.
• Stay informed of industry best practices, and help the team to evolve our research practice accordingly.
• Identify ways to more efficiently and effectively conduct remote user research, and share those learnings with the wider community.
• Work with Product Operations to ensure UXR consideration in the Product Development Flow.
• Define and manage Performance Indicators for the UX Research team.
• Independently create and manage OKRs for the UX Research team.
• Align the way that UX Researchers work with how their cross-functional partners in Product Managment, Product Design, and Engineering prioritize, track, and manage work.
• Conduct regular 1:1 meetings with their direct reports and quarterly skip-level meetings with the reports of their direct reports.
• Provide clear and direct feedback to the people they manage, their own manager, and cross-functional partners when needed.
• Hire and retain a world-class team of UX Researchers.
• Manage the UX Research budget with oversight from UX leadership.

Requirements

• Expert-level knowledge in the field of UX Research with at least 10 years of experience in hands-on research.
• A minimum of 4 years of experience managing UX Research Managers.
• Outstanding communicator both verbally and in writing.
• Strong collaboration skills.
• A proven record of leading a team that drives change through UX Research.
• Experience advocating for UX Research and broadly communicating about research insights to stakeholders and partners.
• Passion for the field of UX Research.
• Able to use GitLab to plan/manage work and update the company handbook.
• Ideally, has experience leading a remote UX research team that conducts research fully remote, too.
• You share our values, and work in accordance with those values.
• Leadership at GitLab

NOTE: In the compensation calculator below, fill in "Director" in the Level field for this role.

Career Ladder

For more details on the engineering career ladders, please review the engineering career development handbook page.

Performance indicators

• Hiring Actual vs Plan
• Diversity
• Handbook Update Frequency
• Team Member Retention

Interview Process

• Screening call with a recruiter. In this call we will discuss your experience, understand what you are looking for in a UX Research leadership role, talk about your work and approach to user research, discuss your compensation expectations and reasons why you want to join GitLab, and answer any questions you have.
• Interview with a UX Researcher. In this interview, the interviewer will spend a lot of time trying to understand the experiences and challenges you've had as a manager, specific details of any initiatives you've led, the problems you were trying to solve, and the outcomes of these initiatives. Do be prepared to talk about your work and research experience, too.
• Interview with a UX Manager. In this interview, we want to get to know how you think about the place of user research within an organization, understand how you define strategy and vision, and understand the size and scope of teams you've managed throughout your career.
• Interview with a UX Director. In this interview, the interviewer will spend a lot of time trying to understand the experience you have as a manager, your ways of ensuring the team is well-positioned to produce research studies that have a strong impact on product strategy, what types of teams you have led, and your management style. The interviewer will also want to understand how you work with cross-functional partners, how you've handled conflict, and how you've dealt with difficult situations in the past.
• Interview with Executive VP of Engineering. In this interview, the interviewer will look to understand how you drive strategy, approach difficult conversations, and how you see the role of user research in a cross-functional research and development organization.

Compensation Calculator

About GitLab

GitLab Inc. is a company based on the GitLab open-source project. GitLab is a community project to which over 2,200 people worldwide have contributed. We are an active participant in this community, trying to serve its needs and lead by example. We have one vision: everyone can contribute to all digital content, and our mission is to change all creative work from read-only to read-write so that everyone can contribute.

We value results, transparency, sharing, freedom, efficiency, self-learning, frugality, collaboration, directness, kindness, diversity, inclusion and belonging, boring solutions, and quirkiness. If these values match your personality, work ethic, and personal goals, we encourage you to visit our primer to learn more. Open source is our culture, our way of life, our story, and what makes us truly unique.

Top 10 reasons to work for GitLab:

1. Work with helpful, kind, motivated, and talented people.
2. Work remote so you have no commute and are free to travel and move.
3. Have flexible work hours so you are there for other people and free to plan the day how you like.
4. Everyone works remote, but you don't feel remote. We don't have a head office, so you're not in a satellite office.
5. Work on open source software so you can interact with a large community and can show your work.
6. Work on a product you use every day: we drink our own wine.
7. Work on a product used by lots of people that care about what you do.
8. As a company we contribute more than we take, most of our work is released as the open source GitLab CE.
9. Focused on results, not on long hours, so that you can have a life and don't burn out.
10. Open internal processes: know what you're getting in to and be assured we're thoughtful and effective.

See our culture page for more!