We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again — Research Operations (ReOps) can be an invaluable way to democratize research across your organization.
In fact, a single ReOps Specialist supports the work of 10 to 25 people on average (and that number increases with company size), according to our 2024 State of User Research. This goes beyond quantitative impact alone – the percentage of PWDRs who felt positively about the amount of research support they received was nearly twice as high among those with ReOps vs. those without.
As Amazon ReOps pro Hannah Barbosa noted in our recent article, A Blueprint for Scaling UX Research:
“We started asking, 'What are the things that only Ops can do?' What aspects of the research process really can’t happen without ReOps’ perspective? As I’ve grown in this role, I’ve gotten more comfortable asking those questions to evaluate potential projects.”
However, long before your ReOps professional or team can demonstrate their value, you need to identify and hire the best candidate. We understand this can be difficult. In fact, as we discussed ReOps sentiments at our recent State of User Research webinar, we received this simple, yet loaded question:
“Does anyone have a list (or JD) of functions they expect of their ReOps person?”
The short answer is that there’s a lot that goes into identifying and hiring a great ReOps professional. That’s why we put this guide together — we’ll walk you through the process from start to finish.
In this article, we’ll help you:
- Determine when it’s the right time to consider ReOps
- List the qualifications you should look for in a ReOps professional
- Write a job description that gets you the best candidates
- With a handy template you can use to make the process easier, from writing the job description to structuring a 30/60/90 day plan
💚 Love research templates? Head to our library and download all of them for free
When should you consider hiring a ReOps professional?
While we have a lot of love for ReOps folks, we’re also aware that not every company or research team needs a Research Ops hire right now. Here’s two factors you should take into account when considering this hire:
- The size of your Research team. Our State of User Research data has shown that the majority of teams begin to hire ReOps roles when they reach 12 or more full-time UX researchers.
- The amount of research you’re doing (and how it’s currently being done). ReOps can play a significant role in enabling democratized user research across teams, albeit with the right tools.
📚 Further Reading: Research Ops: What It Is and Why It's So Important
What qualifications should I look for in a ReOps professional?
The powers that be have deemed ReOps a worthy investment in your Research team—congrats! This leads to the next important question: what specific qualifications should you actually be looking for in a ReOps hire?
First, determine the level of seniority you’re seeking, which often, but not exclusively, can encompass the titles of "Senior Research Operations Manager" or "Research Operations Manager." While many of the qualifications transcend both senior and individual contributor Research Operations roles, there are a few differences in experience that we’ll outline here.
(p.s. - There’s also a possibility that your next best ReOps hire might already be at your organization — make sure you take the temperature of Researchers, Product Managers, or Operations folks within your organization to complement your outside search)
1. Senior Research Operations Manager job qualifications
A Senior Research Operations Manager, by definition, is closer to the finished ReOps product. They tend to have a deeper understanding of all aspects of user research, equal levels of comfort with quantitative and qualitative methods, and can play the critical lead and support roles on projects with multiple stakeholders and teams.
A Senior Research Operations Manager tends to meet the following qualifications:
- 4-5 years of experience in a Research Operations, UX Research, or Design/Product Operations role
- Experience in research enablement — creating documentation, templates, and leading internal workshops around best practices
- Established experience across the research lifecycle, which includes recruiting participants, managing a customer panel, and coaching individuals on how to match participants to studies
- Experience and comfort with data and tracking impact, whether through models you’ve already established or are willing to work on with data teams at your organization
2. Research Operations Manager job qualifications
A Research Operations Manager, meanwhile, tends to play a support role within the team. Knowledge of user research methods, supporting data collection, and stakeholder management fall under the job description, but with the understanding there’s room to grow into a strategic leadership role over time.
A Research Operation Manager’s resume tends to include the following:
- 2-3 years of experience in a UX Research, Design, or Research Operations role
- Proficiency in stakeholder management, especially user centered design processes, iterative design
- Experience with different research methodologies, especially qualitative
- Knowledge of core Research processes, such as when and how to recruit participants to match the needs of research studies
- Experience supporting data collection and analysis: taking notes on qualitative studies, preparing data for analysis
🎙Listen Now: Building a UX Research Team from Scratch with Julian Della Mattia of the180
How to write a ReOps job description
Regardless of ReOps experience, you’re on the hunt for talent, and therefore will be up against competition for the best candidates. A job description is the first thing that a candidate will see, making it your first and best chance to make a positive impression.
Here’s what a ReOps job description should include:
1. An overview of the company
At the risk of stating the obvious, it’s important to make sure it’s clear what your company does right away. This will help your candidates determine whether they are a good company fit and as important, aligned with your mission.
This can also include a “Why join us” section that clearly outlines the benefits of your company over others.
2. What Research currently looks like at your organization
Give candidates a lay of the land at your company so they know what they’re getting into. This section should lay out where ReOps fits into your company’s greater Research structure and how the candidate can have an impact. Some questions candidates may have that you can answer in this section include:
- Where does Research currently fit into your company?
- Is Research its own team?
- Does it report into another department such as Operations, Product, or Design?
- Do non-research roles design and launch studies?
- What are the goals of this team in terms of impact it can have on the company?
Bonus points if you’re able to disclose more details on headcount or have People Operations-type content at the ready that gives candidates a sneak peek of Research life at your company.
3. Research Operations roles and responsibilities
Now for the important part – an overview of the actual day-to-day work this individual will be responsible for at your organization. This should include:
- Whether this is considered a strategic or support (or some combination of both) role, with percentages of time allocated to each
- Expectations around responsibilities they will assume or inherit from others
- The types of decisions will they be making in this role
- The types of research they will support (and for whom when it comes to stakeholder management)
- The amount of time devoted to colleague coaching and enablement
- Whether this has any external-facing expectations with community visibility and involvement, such as participation in webinars or other types of marketing
- Whether they will be asked to manage vendor relationships
4. What are the minimum qualifications of ReOps at your company?
We recommend that you refer to the section above for a more granular overview of the minimum qualifications of both senior and individual contributor roles, but on the whole this section should include:
- Required years of experience
- Your expectations! This could include anything from the bar you want to set for holistic understanding of research to basic methodologies and philosophical points of view on the purpose of research and the ways it can drive impact
- Experience in stakeholder management — how does cross-functional communication factor into the equation for the role?
A friendly reminder: this is a critical section of your job description — the requirements you set here can mean the difference between candidates who are able to hit the ground running or may need more initial support to level up in the role.
5. Detail benefits, intangibles about the company and team they’ll join
Here’s where you can arguably make the biggest impact on a ReOps candidate. According to our 2024 UX Salary Report, ReOps salaries ranged from approximately $100,000 to $130,000 in 2023-24, based on seniority.
This part of the job description tends to be standard across companies, and can include:
- Competitive base salary
- Any performance based bonus compensation
- Stock options
- Medical & dental coverage
- Employer retirement plan contribution
- PTO, company holidays, and any wellness days your company provides
- Parental leave policies
- Any office setup budget or learning & development stipend
That said, it’s not just about the money (really, we mean it). There’s more qualitative, quality-of-life components to whether someone will accept a job or not. It’s best to connect with your People Operations or Human Resources teams to make sure you’re outlining all of the great benefits your organization has to offer.
We’ve put together a ReOps job description template you can download for free that also includes interview tips and 30/60/90 day criteria you can use as you embark on the hiring process. We’ll also outline those steps in more detail below.
The ReOps interview process
Here, we’ve compiled tips on interviewing for ReOps roles, sourced from Research professionals and our own experience. However, we do not want to be overly prescriptive – we understand that hiring processes vary by organization, can be unnecessarily drawn out and that there’s steps and rounds that could be combined or deemed inconsequential based on your needs.
Round 1: Get to know the candidate and their portfolio
The goal of this first step is to make sure the resume matches the candidate (or is it the other way around?).
Qualifications to confirm:
- Communication skills (an integral part of the ReOps role)
- An ability to discuss their previous experience, touching on their portfolio and real-life examples
Sample questions:
- What are your strengths when it comes to ReOps?
- Tell me about a time when you had to collaborate with stakeholders on a research project
Round 2: Hiring manager discussion
In this step, it’s your job as the hiring manager to make sure the person being interviewed isn’t just qualified, but a good culture fit and goal-oriented. That’s a lot to cover in a typical 30 minutes, which is why we’ve outlined a few criteria to prioritize below.
Qualifications to confirm:
- A deep understanding of the candidate’s background/experience (which might include Library Sciences, Information Architecture, and Customer Experience or Success professionals)
- Career goals, regardless of whether they’re interviewing for a senior or junior position
- What you’ve learned about the candidate from the questions they’re asking
Sample questions:
- Walk me through a recent ReOps project you worked on, your collaborators, its impact, and how you measured success.
- Tell me about a time when you had to get buy-in for a project or an idea
Round 3: Case study
In this round, hiring managers should be able to evaluate skills such as collaboration style, adaptability, and self reflection/measurements of success.
The questions for the candidate will be dependent on the case study, but hiring managers should get a better sense of a candidate’s approach to research, as well as their approach to collaboration and ability to communicate clearly.
Round 4: Collaborator panel
This step is about the individual’s ability to work well with others already embedded in or adjacent to the research process. Ultimately, it’s part science (experience) and art (culture fit).
Here, you want to ensure that this person would be a helpful partner, clear communicator, and has the capacity to offer guidance to non-researchers who are working on projects independently.
Round 5: Take it or leave it
Whether or not there’s a last round of the process is organization-dependent.
Smaller companies may want candidates to have a last chat with the founder or co-founder. Or, in the unlikely event the candidate’s interest in the role is in doubt, a “clearing the air” conversation about whether the company or culture is the best fit for them may be necessary.
After the ReOps hire: A 30/60/90 day plan
The expectations that we referenced cannot be solely on the candidate, but rather the company, or more specifically, their manager. Make sure that you’ve put together a 30/60/90 day plan for your ReOps hire to set them up for success.
These onboarding plans can include:
30 days: Getting the lay of the (research) land
- Get to know your collaborators
- Gain access to your UXR tools
- Understand history of research at your new organization
- Shadow a research session
60 days: Start to make an impact with small wins
- Implement improvements to streamline how the company conducts research internally
- Go deeper into insights management
- Begin surfacing impact reports to measure success of ReOps practices
90 days and beyond: Continue to improve and iterate on Research processes
- Continued iteration of workflows and processes
- Expanding impact into mentorship & coaching of people who do research at your company
Further ReOps Resources
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