Category: UX Research
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the distance from researcher to insight
I’m a people researcher. Call it user research, customer research, or product research. The work involves building rich qualitative or quantitative datasets, digging into that data, analyzing patterns, surfacing insights, and translating all of it into something stakeholders can use to make better design, product, engineering, and business decisions. What…
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timeliness, not speed
Researchers often get measured on speed. How quickly can you turn around a study? Can you deliver insights in two weeks instead of four? The pressure is increasing, especially with the advent of AI research tools that center speed-to-insight as a key value proposition. The message is clear: faster is…
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kayfabe research
Kayfabe is a term for scripted conflict and wrestling storylines that fans know are not real but engage with anyway. It’s performance masquerading as reality, and it works partly because the emotional response, which is real for the audience, matters more than truth. It doesn’t matter that the wrestlers aren’t…
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research rigor
UX researchers—like other applied researchers—face many constraints in their work: tight timelines, pressure to move faster, and limited resources. These constraints can lead to methodological shortcuts that compromise the quality of the insights delivered. That’s not good, because the quality of the insights affects the quality of the decisions they…
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prioritizing research
Research teams talk about prioritization frameworks, impact versus effort scores, Eisenhower matrices, and ROI calculations. These tools are important but they miss something fundamental: prioritization isn’t just about deciding what to work on. It’s about having the right information to make that decision in the first place. And getting that…
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impactful xfn relationships
Researchers talk a lot about impact. We want insights to be actionable and to influence product strategy, shape design direction, and inform engineering priorities. In short, we want our work to matter. But impact doesn’t start with better methods or more rigorous analysis. It starts with relationships. Researchers who consistently…
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lessons from triathlon
Two years ago I signed up for a half-iron distance triathlon. I’d never done a triathlon before. I wasn’t living an active lifestyle, but the date was on the calendar and I was committed. I trained for eight months to cover 70.3 miles by swimming, biking, and running. Training required…
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give customers faster horses
Innovation is driven by a desire to solve problems and meet customer needs. But how can we develop groundbreaking solutions if we don’t listen to what customers say they want? If I got a nickel every time someone said “Don’t listen to what customers say. Watch what they do…” I’d…
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crucial ux research skill: influence
As a UX researcher, it’s a given that your subject matter expertise–be it in qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods research–plays an important role in your work. A skilled researcher is an effective researcher. But, doing effective research may not be enough to drive business or customer outcomes. Enter another critical…
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second rule of usability: listen to users
I’ve noticed a recent uptick in interest in two provocative articles about user research: (1) First Rule of Usability? Don’t Listen to Users and (2) Walmart’s $1.85 Billion Dollar Mistake. In my view, both of these are being used to advocate for exactly the wrong things. User research involves studying…
jordan beck, phd 