Description We are seeking an intern to work for 12 weeks in the summer in the role of Researcher and Designer in the Consumer-Centric Research division of the Knowledge Discovery Group.
Responsibilities/Key Activities:
This internship is ideal for the person who wants to understand and be involved with all stages of developing a new product or service. You will assist the team with projects at various stages of product development, from early-stage needfinding to late-stage user testing and data analysis. Depending on the timing of the internship, you may participate in: needfinding research (ethnographic, interviews, secondary); the iterative steps of brainstorming and obtaining user feedback; and/or the management of large-scale product testing and feedback. Responsibilities may include: arranging and assisting in discussion groups; brainstorming new concepts or improving on existing ones; coordinating product distribution to test users; and/or analyzing data from user testing. Through it all, you must be an avid observer and note-taker as well as a meticulous and thorough project manager, capable of working with a team to glean insights and customer needs from our research whether qualitative or quantitative in nature. By the end of your internship, you should have assisted in developing a potential new product or service idea (or two).
Qualifications
Skills/Experience :
- Graduate-level student with a concentration in Product Design, Human Factors, Interaction Design, Sociocultural Anthropology, Psychology, or the like.
- Previous work experience.
- Work or academic experience that demonstrates familiarity with ethnographic research or needfinding.
- Work or academic experience that demonstrates familiarity with handling data.
- Meticulous attention to detail in execution of a large project.
- Strong written and oral communication skills.
- Team player but able to work independently with minimum direction
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office (Excel, Word, PowerPoint).
- Ethnographic research and needfinding experience are a plus.
- Must be eligible to work in the U.S. on a full-time basis. Allstate does not sponsor individuals who are not already authorized to work in the United States .
Most important qualities for the candidate are: §
curiosity: a desire to understand the customer and why they make the decisions they do; §
empathy: the ability to relate to the customer and thus uncover their motivations and needs; §
attention to detail: the capability to perform any research systematically and accurately §
creativity: the ability to take a list of needs and insights and come up with 30 new ideas §
strategic focus: the skill to understand the big picture without getting mired in details §
strong work ethic: the innate drive to do work extremely well §
enthusiasm : a passion to understand people and deliver better products and services to them