Rapid User Researcher

Role overview

The Rapid User Researcher (Rolling UXR) will deliver fast, high-signal insights to improve Notion’s product experiences across Product, Design, and Engineering (EPD), including AI-powered workflows like custom agents and chat.

This is a tactical, high-velocity role focused on running many small studies on a steady cadence, translating feedback into concrete product changes, and building a repeatable research pipeline.

What you’ll do

• End-to-end tactical research: Scope, design, and execute quick-turn research across the product lifecycle.
• Rolling usability testing: Plan and moderate rapid usability tests on prototypes and in-product flows; identify friction, comprehension gaps, and failure points; recommend practical fixes and prototype them with AI.
• Concept testing: Evaluate early ideas (storyboards, low/high-fidelity prototypes, new information architecture) to assess desirability, comprehension, and expected workflows before heavy build investment.
• Research pipeline ownership:
  • Maintain an always-on cadence
  • Manage intake/prioritization and participant recruitment
  • Deliver consistent output formats so teams can act quickly
• Communication: Provide crisp, actionable recommendations (severity, confidence, and next steps) via async write-ups, clips, or working sessions.
• Business-minded impact: Connect findings to outcomes (why it matters, what to change, what to watch) and follow through to ensure improvements land.

Skills / requirements

• Research craft: Independently run usability and/or concept tests end-to-end (scoping → protocol → moderation → synthesis → readout), keeping scope tight while maintaining rigor.
• AI fluency: Use AI thoughtfully to speed up prep/synthesis while maintaining quality and traceability to evidence.
• Pragmatism + speed: Prioritize effectively in fast-moving environments, work with ambiguity, and deliver quality research quickly with clear limitations.
• Systems thinking: Quickly understand complex product contexts.
• AI and behavioral research grounding: Translate concepts like trust, usefulness, tone, safety, and clarity into observable behaviors and research questions.

Location / work model

• Can be based in San Francisco or New York City.
• In-office Anchor Days: Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays (in-person collaboration expected on those days).

Nice-to-haves

• Not explicitly stated, but the posting emphasizes comfort with moderated testing, context-switching across many teams, and thriving in a “many small studies” model.