Senior Strategist

Project description At Smashing Ideas, a Luxoft company, our focus is simple: create products that improve people’s lives in a meaningful way. Our rich legacy in creating digital experiences and products that bring joy, along with our background in Motivational UXTM, has allowed us to build a consulting business that helps companies bring new digital products and services to market that... transform their businesses and cultures. Our clients, who are partners and extensions of our teams, are change agents themselves. Some are in the early stages of digital transformation, while others have established practices. Regardless of the stage, we serve as their catalyst for innovation. As a Senior Strategist at Smashing Ideas, you are a critical component of a cross-functional team responsible for guiding the creative, technical, and business decisions that will increase customer engagement and achieve client objectives. The Senior Strategist is part scientist, part snake-charmer. They unearth and expose the core insight – the human truth that becomes our north star – and keeps the vision alive and focused through user research, data, and a strong eye on the market and competition. This position would be a great fit for someone who is adept at working with diverse groups of stakeholders and has at least 3- 5 years of experience informing and inspiring clients or colleagues to tackle ambiguity, make decisions and get to tangible outcomes. • Smashing Ideas is an equal opportunity employer and we value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender presentation, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We are committed to hiring and cultivating a diverse team and inclusive environment. Responsibilities • 1. Problem Definition & Strategic Approach • Collaborate with clients to understand and communicate in-depth knowledge of a business environment, including: o general business processes o target audiences/customer attributes o organizational “pain” o marketing communications strategy o organizational readiness for implementing connected, engaging solutions • Work with clients to define and prioritize their business challenges, goals and opportunities. Outline strategic approach for team to achieve objectives. • Define critical metrics and how they will be measured. Keep team focused on these critical metrics. • Provide team and client with additional marketplace, vertical and competitive insights. • Drive formulation of insights-based hypotheses for ways to approach a given project. 2. Customer, Culture, Technology and Context Insights • Collaborate with client to identify, understand and communicate existing research • Lead gap analysis to understand and recommend additional research (if needed) • Recommend and estimate additional research, workshops, or other “add-on” activities for clients to improve product experience • Conduct qualitative, quantitative, market scan and competitive research • With UX, feed customer behavior insights and design insights into the team • Establish desired behavior change goals for target archetypes 3. Experience Strategy • In partnership with Design, deliver insight-based experience map for target personas and map engagement loops against business objectives. • Establish content cadence for distribution/engagement touch points • With UX architect, plan and lead engagement mapping exercise with clients • Write strategic creative brief – redefine creative brief if necessary • Plan and conduct creative briefing. Provide idea springboards (thought starters) as part of this exercise 4. Measurement Strategy and Insights • Plan data measurement against customer business goals. Expertly analyze data and make recommendations for product improvements/refinements. SKILLS Must have • Proven experience identifying a core insight that delivered a big idea • Experience in a lead, client-facing role for a large customer • Ability to present confidently and persuasively to large and small groups of executive-level clients • Experience leading multiple forms of customer research – survey, contextual, ethnographic, analytics, as examples • Experience crafting insight-based creative briefs driven by an empathetic understanding of user and market needs • Demonstrated understanding of the key technical and creative elements required to build a successful digital experience • Demonstrated ability to lead a room • Passionate about consuming applicable business, consumer, and cultural information • Collaborative work style, with a bias toward action Nice to have • Experience applying human-centered design approaches, methods and tools to solve complex business or organizational problems • Experience working at an agency or consulting firm • Organizational development knowledge and experience a plus