Senior Customer Strategist - Freelance

Job Description

11:FS is on a mission to change the fabric of financial services. Our Consulting & Research practice builds challenger propositions globally, like we did for Natwest with Mettle. Our Pulse team creates a benchmarking tool used by the likes of Monzo, Starling, Natwest and Tesco Bank. Our Foundry team are delivering a Financial Services Operating System to help businesses quickly add financial services to their offering. On top of all of that, we’re a media company, generating content that supports our brand and changes the conversation - not necessarily in that order.

To do this we need an amazing team so we have pulled together the best in financial services and beyond.

We truly live our values at 11:FS, and they are critical to your entire journey here. ‘Cultural Add’ is as, if not more, important as pure technical fit, and as part of your interview process we’ll deep dive in our values and your beliefs. Everyone at 11:FS fits our 4 core values: Team, Attitude, Communication and Impact, and this remains at the core of our growth.

Purpose of Role: In this role you’ll be working in the heart of the dynamic and constantly evolving Fintech space. You’ll play a central role in defining, developing and launching services all around the world which fundamentally change the way that finance works. The research you lead will identify opportunities for us to design and build new financial services that serve currently unmet customer needs. Our ambition is to create new businesses which have the customer at their centre. You’ll be working directly alongside designers, developers and product managers to get new products and experiences into the market and into the hands of customers as quickly as possible.

In this role you will:

• Help financial services businesses identify new opportunities to build new digital financial services. This includes identifying the strategic market opportunity, designing new value propositions and working with designers and product people to create new products and brands.
• Draw on the latest thinking and techniques in user centred design and design thinking, using a variety of different research methodologies.
• Apply Jobs to be Done thinking to identify underserved opportunities in the market to create differentiated digitally native propositions.
• Conduct end-to-end qualitative research including: recruitment, writing discussion guides and analysis. This will include using and training others on a range of techniques such as ethnographic research, depth interviews and co-creation through early adopter community building.
• Create inspiring ways to tell real human stories from the research.
• Conduct quantitative research to validate the qualitative insights. This includes; writing questionnaires, creating sample plans and analysing data.
• Work with designers and product managers to run design sprints based on all the discovery work around the customer, the market and competitors.
• Work closely with the brand and design team to create the foundations of a Minimum Lovable Brand (MLB) and ensure the product and brand are tightly woven around the customer.
• Play a big role in shaping the research and strategy propositions 11:FS offers to its clients.
• Support the growth of 11:FS by owning internal initiatives, actively helping to win new business and getting involved in marketing campaigns around your area of specialism.

Your experience and mindset:

• Have 7+ years experience in research, product or a design related role.
• Have an academic background in psychology, sociology, anthropology, business, design or a related subject.
• Must have experience managing and delivering qualitative research in early stage design projects, either for a startup or a consultancy.
• Experience in running quantitative research is a huge advantage. If not, you must at least be comfortable working with data and eager to learn.
• Be comfortable working in an agile environment with a multidisciplinary team including people with backgrounds in: product, design, operations, engineering, and subject matter experts.
• Have the appetite to run projects, workshops and training (both internally and externally). 
• Have the ability to think in an integrated way. That is to hold multiple concepts and tensions in your head and find a path forward.
• Be a good coach to other members of the team; everyone should have something they can teach others.
• Have excellent client management skills with the ability to build strong trusted relationships.
• Have a strong commercial awareness, be able to write winning proposals and advance the consulting team’s business development efforts.
• Knowledge of how banking, payments, investments and insurance work is a huge bonus.