User Research Manager

The User Research Manager leads Illinois Legal Aid Online’s (ILAO’s) user research and facilitates stakeholder meetings and co-design workshops. This role is pivotal in ensuring that ILAO’s products and services meet its users' and stakeholders' needs and expectations. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in user

research, stakeholder engagement, and facilitation of collaborative design processes. This position requires a strategic thinker who can work across teams to gather insights, identify opportunities for improvement, and drive innovation through inclusive and participatory methods.

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Illinois Legal Aid Online (ILAO) is committed to attracting and retaining a diverse staff. Working with great people with a wide variety of lived experiences brings us closer to meeting our vision of a society where all people can get justice. Because our services and products - like the law - are for everyone, we believe in including everyone.  We strongly and enthusiastically encourage people of color, individuals who identify within and beyond the LGBTQIA+ spectrum, women, and people with disabilities to apply.

ILAO is fully remote, with periodic in-person meetings. While this position can be based anywhere in or near Illinois, it requires Illinois travel and in-person meetings with stakeholders.

Primary Responsibilities

Stakeholder groups and co-design (40%)

• Identify appropriate consumer stakeholder groups to inform ILAO’s products and services.
• Provide screening forms, flyers, and other collateral to aid the Community Engagement Team in recruiting stakeholder members.
• Plan, organize, and facilitate co-design workshops and stakeholder meetings. 
• Use creative and engaging techniques to encourage participation, ideation, and collaboration among diverse groups.
• Analyze stakeholder input and needs, and collaborate with staff to ensure these are incorporated into products and services.
• Communicate available usability testing opportunities to stakeholder groups.

User interviews, observation, and research (30%)

• Recruit and schedule consumers of ILAO’s products and services to participate in one-on-one user interviews on a regular basis.
• Facilitate user interviews and observations.
• Document observations and findings and create recommendations for improvements.
• Review Google Analytics, survey data, and other metrics on a regular basis to inform user research.
• Periodically participate as an observer/facilitator in observation and usability studies led by our UX/UI Quality Assurance Manager 

Feedback and User Support 20%

• Be an expert on how ILAO’s products work from an end-user perspective.
• Design and implement appropriate systems for managing user feedback and support.
• Review and respond to website support requests.
• Prepare monthly reports and make recommendations based on trends.

Other activities 10%

• Participate in staff meetings and other organizational meetings
• Present on ILAO’s products and services, user testing, and UX activities as appropriate
• Participate in organizational ARDEI activities
• Participate in fundraising activities, such as making thank-you calls, signing cards, working in-person events, reviewing grant proposals, and contributing to grant reports as required
• Other activities as assigned 

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree (or equivalent experience) required
• 2-4 years of demonstrated experience applying design thinking, co-design, or other user experience methodologies
• 2-4 years of demonstrated experience facilitating groups or other qualitative research initiatives
• Excellent interpersonal skills, including the ability to empathize with digital audiences and community members, curiosity about peoples’ challenges, decision points, and journeys
• Superior organizational skills, attention to detail, and the ability to work independently
• Excellent oral presentation and written communication skills
• Excellent computer skills, including fluency in using the Internet, and proficiency in using Excel, and Google Apps for Office
• Enthusiasm for the use of technology in the delivery of legal services and interest in ILAO’s mission and goals
• Valid driver's license
• Willingness to travel around the state as needed to meet with stakeholder groups and our target audiences
• Team player who is enthusiastic about helping colleagues accomplish the goals of the organization

Preference is given to candidates with:

• Proficiency or fluency in Spanish 
• General knowledge of the legal system 
• Located in the Chicago metropolitan area

About ILAO

At ILAO, we believe in justice. We believe the law is for everyone. We know, however, that not everyone is equal in the eyes of the legal system. Race and culture, language, education, location, time, disability, and income are enormous barriers to using the law to get justice.

For more than 20 years, Illinois Legal Aid Online (ILAO) has simplified the law so that people can seek justice and resolve their problems, especially those from historically oppressed communities and groups. Through innovation, we make the law understandable and accessible. 

We believe that people can be their best advocates with the right knowledge and guidance. We mobilize people with plain-language, 24/7 tools - in three languages - so families can understand and assert their legal rights. ILAO helps people who are unable to find or afford attorneys overcome the barriers that keep them from getting justice.

Illinois Legal Aid Online (ILAO) is open to all. Working with and helping people with a wide variety of lived experiences brings us closer to meeting our ideal of a society where all people can get justice. Because our services and products—like the law—are for everyone, we believe in including everyone. We know that justice is most scarce for those who need it most. People with intersectionalities of historically oppressed identities face the greatest barriers to justice. ILAO seeks to break these barriers. ILAO believes that, equipped with the right tools, opportunities, and connections, people can shift the power differentials and use the law to get justice.

Inclusion, equity, and diversity are key in our work to champion opportunities, equality, and justice for those who need it most. As a community and individuals, we honor and respect differences; practice equity; and support the professional development and wellness of our colleagues.

ILAO's free programs provide essential legal services and support 24/7/365 to the people of Illinois, focused on individuals and families from historically oppressed populations and communities who face the greatest barriers to justice. 

ILAO offers a comprehensive benefits package, including health and dental insurance, life insurance, long-term and short-term disability insurance, health and dependent care flex spending account; 15 paid days off and 15 holidays in the first calendar year of employment; and 403(b) retirement plan, to which ILAO contributes a required 1% of salary monthly. ILAO has a flexible workplace policy that supports remote work, wellness, and work-life balance.