Front-End Innovation Insights & Design Research Manager / Sr. Manager
- Sandy Springs, GA
- Permanent
- Full-time
- Lead landscaping, foresight, and trend scanning to uncover cultural, category, and behavioral shifts that fuel the broader innovation strategy, inspire opportunity spaces, and create a strong funnel of FEI innovation ideas and programs, while shaping early assumptions for business model development
- Design and run consumer learning plans that use lean, rapid methods (DIY surveys, guerrilla testing, rapid ethnography, AI/data mining, co-creation) in the early stages and transition to robust validation methods as concepts mature
- Apply design research methods (observation, in-context immersion, journey mapping) to translate human needs into insights that inspire and guide product, brand, and business model concepts
- Lead consumer/WHO hypothesis development and target understanding, shaping early assumptions and design targets that guide FEI projects
- Design and facilitate ideation workshops and screening processes that leverage human-centered design techniques to generate and refine early concepts
- Partner with the Business Model lead to shape key consumer-driven assumptions that will be pressure-tested through financial modeling
- Design and lead research that informs early volume estimates and evolves into robust forecast models to support business case development
- Translate insights into compelling narratives that bring the consumer to life for business partners and stakeholders.
- Manager level: 5+ years of experience in Insights with 3+ years in innovation in CPG
- Sr. Manager level: 8+ years of experience in Insights with 3+ years in innovation in CPG
- Experience with a wide range of research and design tools, including qualitative, quantitative, observational, AI and data mining, lean experiments, rapid ethnography, and simulated test markets, with comfort using both structured and unstructured data to uncover insights and test concepts
- Background in design research, design strategy, service design, or human-centered design preferred
- Proven ability to operate at both the strategic foresight level and in the details of lean, scrappy research
- Proven ability to translate insights into business model implications, with forecasting fluency
- Experience designing and executing learning plans that balance lean, rapid methods with robust validation, including in-context, iterative, and test-and-learn approaches
- Proven track record of working successfully cross-functionally across R&D, Marketing, Design, Finance, and Brand
- Experience assessing and selecting suppliers and methodologies and managing research partners through project sprints
- Strong communication skills and comfort advocating for the consumer/shopper, and conveying feeling and meaning to others, including senior leadership and cross-functional stakeholders
- Experience with navigating ambiguity and adapting learning, forecasting, and landscaping as new information emerges
- Experience working in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment, with proven experience with rapid, hypothesis-based iterative learning and testing
- Has a curious, agile, and “whole-brain” mindset