A proposal for modern UX Researchers
A glimpse of my take regarding the standing of UXR and strategy on how to stay relevant with the workforce demand.
“The UX researcher fallacy: ‘My job is to learn about users.’
Truth: ‘My job is to help my team learn about users.’”
- Caroline Jarrett
As 2024 starts, layoffs are still everywhere, specifically in the technology sector. This reignites doubts among professionals regarding the future of UX research, not to mention that there are often fewer researchers than there are product managers and designers, and far fewer than there are engineers in a company.
Based on that, I would like to share my take on the articles from Nick Stiles (2024), Dave Hora (2024), and Meltem Nas Kaso Coskun (2023) regarding the standing of UX Research and how one might improve its value to stay relevant with the workforce demand. It will consist of:
A. Research & the Larger System
B. Strategies for Staying Relevant in the System
A. Research & the Larger System
Referencing Dave Hora regarding the organizational context, there are 3 common areas to be aware of: organization, product, and customer context.
Between product and customer context, there is a link between 2 slices that are expected to fit and co-evolve. This is where UX researchers are trained to focus their attention as functional research practitioners. However, the acts of reframing and synthesizing alone don’t necessarily close the loop, — unless they are carried out with the full involvement of the relevant team of the product.
Based on this take and my previous experiences as a researcher, I have come to believe that to increase UX research value, one has to find ways to integrate the research work into the organization level as well so that eventually, a collective orientation regarding the importance of research can be established.
B. Strategies for Staying Relevant in the System
If one looks carefully at the UX Research role, one can see the hardships with showcasing impact and Return on Investment (ROI). Then, as Meltem Naz Kaso Coskun wrote in her article on what the recent layoff means for a career in UX Research, these questions tend to stay among researchers:
- “What else can researchers do that can create impact more directly?
- Is there anything we can do that’s not obviously under our scope?
- Can we formulate our work in a way that can argue for its place in a lean structure?”
This is where I think Nick Stiles’ proposal regarding how modern UX researchers should act in his article titled “Immersion and influence — the work of the modern UX researcher” can help other researchers improve their value. These are the actions recommended by him:
- Strive to immerse oneself in the product domain and user’s world until it’s second nature.
- Influence the minds & behavior of stakeholders in the service of business and user.
- Ready to broaden the scope of “UX Research”.
Since I agree with the points written in Nick Stile’s proposal, I will share my interpretations of his recommended actions one by one:
→ B.1. Strive to Immerse
“A good researcher is like the repository of insights you need to grow.”
A researcher must realize that presenting study findings can only take so far. It’s often the little nudges ( ie: chiming in during workshops, sharing insights in a Slack thread) that can keep the user-centered practices on track among the stakeholders. Therefore, I believe that learning to immerse oneself in the user’s world and product space can allow researchers to contribute deeper within an organization and with a broader perspective.
- Immersion here refers to deeply understanding the internal dynamics of personalities, teams, stakeholders, and the organization.
- Immersion can help us avoid conducting unnecessary studies and helps show how research can speed things up instead of becoming a blocker. Ie: We should know the history of the product or service in question, or at least the company’s history with it. We have to speak with folks outside of the product bubble like consulting, marketing, sales, and client success to advocate the value of research and user insights within the company.
→ B.2. Influence the Minds & Behaviors of Stakeholders.
A researcher should want to know if the stakeholders are wrong about what they think they should build, as knowing which routes lead to dead-ends will save time and money. Thus, I believe that a researcher needs to work on growing trust among key stakeholders in a company instead of only focusing on the day-to-day job of conducting research.
- Realizing when to be quiet and letting others have a voice is just as important as being able to give the TL;DR of a study. If we do good work, a snowball effect may happen, and insights can be spread faster.
- There is no need to influence every single colleague and stakeholder. Focus on influence enough to get buy-in from key individuals in the team or organization. Once several buy-ins are obtained, they become UXR advocates, whom we can push through for us to hold sway. Thus, more doors can be opened for research.
- UX researchers shouldn’t leave research impact to chance. Never assume stakeholders will feel the same level of empathy for the user or have the same depth of knowledge about the domain.
→ B.3. Ready to broaden the scope of “UX Research”.
In my opinion, this is probably the most crucial thing that a researcher needs to work on to stay relevant to the workforce demand.
- Focus not only on the product but also on business. To do more for the user, we must do more for the business. This is where researchers need to dive into company focus and learn the product and business and technical matters to speak the same language with the stakeholders. It’s worth studying stakeholders’ points of view, ranging from business, strategy, and product with close attention to figuring out what blocks them so that we can find an opening for advocating the research.
- Learn about various kinds of insights that are needed by the organization. Ie: Market trends, customer complaints, media sentiment, etc. In the days when resources are limited, researchers will be much preferred by others if they can offer the type of insights that they need by conducting varying types of study. So, get ready to learn more and prepare to conduct a diverse set of studies if you must. Just remember: as long as we work in ways that maximize our capabilities as researchers, we can always add new skills and experiences under our belt.
Given the current situation, I believe that there are many opinions regarding the future of UX Researchers. In this article, I have voiced my agreement with the points and ideas raised by the three awesome writers that I previously mentioned and tried to connect them all, as I think it can give a more concrete indication of how UX Research practices can stay relevant in the upcoming times. Therefore, if you have any thoughts regarding how UX Researchers need to strategize to stay relevant, I’m very keen on discussing the matter.
P.S.: If you have feedback about this article, please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts below.
P.p.s: Last but not least, feel free to visit my LinkedIn profile if you have something to discuss or simply want to connect with me :)
