UX Researcher (Growth)

About the company

Tailscale provides an identity-first, zero-trust networking service that uses WireGuard to create peer-to-peer encrypted meshes, integrating with identity providers to simplify NAT traversal and access control.

About this role

<div class="content-intro"><p><strong>About Tailscale&nbsp;</strong></p> <p>Tailscale is making safe connection effortless by delivering software that makes it easy to securely interconnect people and their devices, no matter where they are. From hobbyists to multinational corporations, teams of every size use Tailscale each day to protect their networks, share access to internal tools, and more. We're building a future for the Internet that's easy, sensible, and safe, like it used to be. Founded in 2019 and fully distributed, we're backed by Accel, CRV, Insight, Heavybit, and Uncork Capital.</p></div><h3><span style="font-size: 12pt;">About the Role</span></h3> <p>This is a dedicated growth research role. You'll run studies — usability testing, survey research, experimental studies — and collaborate on findings with the Product Growth team. The role is specifically focused on growth-related product surfaces, onboarding flows, acquisition and activation funnels, and the questions that emerge from the growth team's experiment pipeline. It is not focused on generative research for new product development; you will be helping tune and refine delivery of value, though you will partner with other researchers to identify and address fundamental product issues that limit product-led growth.</p> <p>You'll report to the design manager and work most closely with the Growth PM and Growth Designers on a day-to-day basis. The staff UX researcher will be your primary resource for methods and bigger-picture research context. The role is designed to grow from running studies from the team's pipeline and building domain expertise, towards owning the research agenda for growth-related areas with increasing independence.</p> <h3><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Key Responsibilities</span></h3> <h4>Research</h4> <p><strong>Run growth research studies.</strong> Your core responsibility is conducting research that supports the growth team's experiment pipeline and tactical questions.</p> <ul> <li>Own the full study lifecycle for growth research: scoping, recruiting, conducting, analyzing, and communicating results.</li> <li>Design studies and instruments to conduct evaluation and diagnostic discovery for adoption experiences. This includes:</li> <ul> <li>Behavioural research: moderated and unmoderated usability tests for both formative and evaluative goals. You should be comfortable with experimental methods and able to navigate quantitative statistics for user research.&nbsp;</li> <li>Interviews, mixed methods, and longitudinal studies (eg diary studies) with users and representative populations.</li> <li>Standalone surveys and feedback forms (triggered at different parts of the adoption lifecycle)</li> </ul> <li>Analyse behavioural data available from logs and use that to inform research thinking, validate hypotheses, and triangulate with experimental/unmoderated test data.</li> <li>Look through other data (community forums, feedback forms, etc.) to proactively identify research opportunities</li> <li>Identify user needs during trial, proof of concept, and adoption phases</li> <li>Model and map adoption behaviours, and define personas accordingly</li> <li>Over time, work towards surfacing research opportunities independently and managing a research program for the growth team.</li> </ul> <p><strong>Partner with the growth team.</strong> You'll work directly with the Growth PM and Growth Designers to translate hypotheses into study designs and bring findings back in actionable formats.</p> <ul> <li>Help the growth team test and validate designs.</li> <li>Identify frictions and problems with product adoption.</li> <li>Based on research insights, suggest experiment and design ideas.</li> <li>Work in tandem with the growth team's experiment and A/B testing cadence.&nbsp;</li> <li>Communicate often and quickly about ongoing work, and involve them deeply in the research process as appropriate</li> </ul> <h4>Domain expertise</h4> <p><strong>Build growth domain expertise.</strong> The first six months are primarily about learning the product, the growth model, and what the team has already tested and learned.</p> <ul> <li>Develop expertise and deep knowledge in how users find, try, and adopt Tailscale</li> <li>Over time, extend into adjacent revenue-facing areas: pricing and packaging research, billing and SKU questions.</li> <li>Collaborate with other researchers to find and address research questions related to the above.</li> </ul> <h3><span style="font-size: 12pt;">What We Are Looking For</span></h3> <ul> <li>5+ years of experience in UX research or related applied research field</li> <li>Strong quantitative research skills: survey design, experimental methods, statistical analysis</li> <li>Solid usability testing skills across both moderated and unmoderated methods, and expertise using one or more testing platforms</li> <li>Fluency with quantitative data analysis: experimental design, survey methodology, and inferential statistics</li> <li>Experience independently managing study logistics: recruiting, scheduling, compensation</li> <li>Clear, effective communicator who can tailor findings for product and engineering audiences</li> <li>Experience working in a SaaS or B2B product environment</li> </ul> <h3>You Might Be a Good Fit If</h3> <ul> <li>You've worked in SaaS, B2B, or enterprise product environments and have worked on research that supports product-led growth.</li> <li>You have a background in human factors, behavioural psychology, HCI.</li> <li>You like running studies end-to-end to solve a UX problem, and find satisfaction in the craft of well-designed research series focused on small details of the experience.</li> <li>You're interested in how users find, try, and adopt products: acquisition and activation questions energize you.</li> <li>You are comfortable running scrappy, quick research projects but know when to seek greater rigor.</li> <li>You're early-mid-career looking for room to grow, and not lo