Manager, B2B Customer Insights

Job Description:

Manager, B2B Customer Insights

Collaborate with Innovative 3Mers Around the World

Choosing where to start and grow your career has a major impact on your professional and personal life, so it’s equally important you know that the company that you choose to work at, and its leaders, will support and guide you. With a wide variety of people, global locations, technologies and products, 3M is a place where you can collaborate with other curious, creative 3Mers.

This position provides an opportunity to transition from other private, public, government or military experience to a 3M career.

The Impact You’ll Make in this Role

As a Manager, B2B Customer Insights, you will have the opportunity to tap into your curiosity and collaborate with some of the most innovative people around the world. You will sit within the B2B Customer Insights Center of Excellence, owning and leading research that shapes how 3M understands its business customers - from needs and journeys to brand, pricing, and customer experience. Here, you will make an impact by:

• Designing and owning complex quantitative surveys end-to-end - crafting questionnaires for B2B audiences, overseeing programming QA and field quality, diagnosing failed field or low-incidence challenges, and coaching others on research design.

• Leading qualitative research with B2B buyers, specifiers, and decision-makers - designing interview guides, moderating complex buyer and specifier interviews, and building the qualitative storyline from themes to commercial implications.

• Designing sampling and field strategies that match the business decision - selecting among customer lists, panels, and specialist recruiting approaches; judging bias and feasibility for hard-to-reach B2B audiences; and documenting reachable populations, non-response, and implications for interpretation.

• Translating complex business questions into executive-ready recommendations - building full narratives from surveys, interviews, CX data, and secondary inputs; creating recommendation pages that travel without the author; and presenting to senior stakeholders with clarity and conviction.

• Owning end-to-end project delivery - managing scope, budget, timelines, vendor relationships, and quality gates on studies; holding the study to quality when stakeholders want speed or a pre-set answer; and maintaining reusable documentation in the CoE insight repository.

• Partnering with internal stakeholders across business groups - refining briefs, connecting research outputs to business KPIs, and following insights through to agreed next actions with commercial teams.

• Building the CoE’s research capability - creating reusable kits for surveys, qualitative work, and CX reporting; giving structured feedback and developing analysts against the capability model; and establishing quality standards that the team follows.

• Partnering with Marketing Sciences colleagues - translating research objectives into analysis plans, aligning on weighting, significance testing, segmentation, and driver-analysis choices, and ensuring analytical outputs are interpreted correctly in recommendations.

Your Skills and Expertise

To set you up for success in this role from day one, 3M requires (at a minimum) the following qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in marketing research, business, social science (i.e., anthropology, sociology, psychology) (completed and verified prior to start)

• Seven (7) years of experience in market research, customer insights, voice-of-customer, or customer experience in a private, public, government, or military environment.

• Seven (7) years of demonstrated experience designing complex quantitative surveys for industrial, technical, or other specialized / low-incidence audiences - including instrument design, field diagnosis, and coaching others on questionnaire craft.

• Seven (7) years of proven ability to lead qualitative research with buyers, specifiers, or technical decision-makers - including designing programs, moderating complex interviews, and building qualitative storylines that inform commercial decisions.

Additional qualifications that could help you succeed even further in this role include:

• Master’s degree in marketing research, business, social science (i.e., anthropology, sociology, psychology), or a related field from an accredited institution.

• Working knowledge of CX and feedback platforms (e.g., Qualtrics, Medallia, Sprinklr) and experience with survey programming tools.

• Experience owning domain studies end-to-end in customer segmentation, brand, CX/VoC, pricing research, journey mapping, or innovation research - linking results to a commercial action.
• Experience structuring ambiguous or complex research requests - choosing the appropriate research approach, defining tradeoffs, and turning loosely defined business questions into well-scoped studies.

• Track record of presenting research recommendations to senior stakeholders - including handling constructive feedback and facilitating discussion toward a decision.

• Experience developing junior research professionals - providing structured feedback, coaching on research craft, and building team capability.
• Proven ability to lead qualitative research with B2B buyers, specifiers, or technical decision-makers - including designing programs, moderating complex interviews, and building qualitative storylines that inform commercial decisions.
• Proven ability to lead qualitative research with B2B buyers, specifiers, or technical decision-makers - including designing programs, moderating complex interviews, and building qualitative storylines that inform commercial decisions.

Work location:

Candidates based in Maplewood, MN (USA)

Travel: May include up to 5% domestic/international

Relocation: May be authorized

Must be legally authorized to work in country of employment without sponsorship for employment visa status, as applicable.

Supporting Your Well-being

3M offers many programs to help you live your best life – both physically and financially. To ensure competitive pay and benefits, 3M regularly benchmarks with other companies that are comparable in size and scope.

Chat with Max

For assistance with searching through our current job openings or for more information about all things 3M, visit Max, our virtual recruiting assistant on 3M.com/careers.

Please note: your application may not be considered if you do not provide your education and work history, either by: 1) uploading a resume, or 2) entering the information into the application fields directly.

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