Description

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