(Lead) Senior UX Researcher, Messaging App – Zalo

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Drive end-to-end user research initiatives to uncover user needs, behavioral patterns, and unmet opportunities for Zalo’s messaging ecosystem.

• Partner with product and business stakeholders to shape product vision and strategic roadmaps based on grounded user insights.

• Design and execute research programs to validate key assumptions, de-risk product bets, and inform planning decisions across lifecycle stages.

• Translate complex research findings into business-impacting recommendations through storytelling, frameworks, and strategic synthesis.

• Lead exploratory research to identify white spaces, reframe problem spaces, and inspire innovation in product direction.

BUSINESS & STRATEGIC IMPACT

• Act as a thought partner to PMs and senior leadership in defining product hypotheses, prioritization frameworks, and go-to-market strategies.

• Analyze user trends, behavior shifts, and emerging communication patterns to shape product-market fit and long-term positioning.

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to align research learnings with business metrics, adoption levers, and user value delivery.

• Champion a user-centric and evidence-based culture in strategic planning and product experimentation.

COMPETITIVE & INDUSTRY INTELLIGENCE

• Monitor competitor strategies, messaging models, and ecosystem shifts to identify differentiation opportunities for Zalo.

• Conduct comparative studies (e.g., heuristic audits, feature sentiment analysis, usage benchmarks) across messaging platforms.

• Track adoption trends across consumer apps, leveraging AI tools and secondary research to enrich market understanding.

• Synthesize external and internal data sources to inform forecasting and directional decisions.

CROSS-FUNCTIONAL COLLABORATION & DATA-DRIVEN DECISIONS

• Partner with Data, Product, Design, and other teams to embed research into the decision-making fabric.

• Build and maintain dashboards, research repositories, and frameworks that facilitate fast access to actionable insights.

• Guide teams in formulating the right questions, selecting the right methodologies, and applying insights in iterative cycles.

• Educate and mentor cross-functional teams on customer-centric strategy and lean validation approaches.

👾 What you will need

• 5+ years of experience in UX or product research, ideally with exposure to business planning, strategy, or product marketing.

• Strong strategic thinking with a track record of influencing product direction through evidence and insight.

• Fluent in both qualitative and quantitative methods: user interviews, concept testing, survey design, competitive audits, behavioral analytics.

• Comfortable navigating ambiguity and driving clarity in complex environments.

• Excellent communication and storytelling skills – able to connect user needs to product impact.

• Familiarity with tools such as: SPSS, SurveyMonkey, maze, dovetail or similar.

• Experience in messaging apps, social platforms, or communication ecosystems is a strong plus.

• Fluency in English and Vietnamese is required.