🤓UX Researcher Role
The user researcher helps explore user and business problems to innovate with user-centered design processes.
Last updated
The user researcher helps explore user and business problems to innovate with user-centered design processes.
Last updated
The UX researcher is the investigator who builds empathy for the user on the team. They explore the current world state, the problems people experience, and the behavior of users to analyze the best way forward for the product team. Each sprint, the research team should deliver iterative research results for the team to digest and move forward.
You like to understand the human condition
You like researching what people need / desire and crafting experiences around it
You like talking to people
You like telling others' stories from their perspective
You like investigative research
You like building and running experiments
You like data analysis
You like validating the work that's being delivered on the team
With the Client - perform research to collect insights from the client; present research results
With the Project Lead - consult about the direction of the project's plans; get support
With the Product Strategy - consult about the priority of research action items in the roadmap; deliver and communicate insights from research for product strategy to implement
With Design - deliver and communicate insights from research for design deliverables
With Development - deliver and communicate insights from research for dev awareness
Explore the product vision with the client to form research goals for the project and lead the efforts to carry them out
Help the client form assumptions about their audience and product
Provide feedback and coaching to apprentices in all activities
Mentor apprentice UX researchers on the project in the following ways:
Picking the correct research methods
Creating research experiments for a variety of methods
Moderating and participating in research sessions
Moderating and facilitating research results workshops
Perform research and analyze the results with the team to determine next steps
Build and run experiments for a variety of methods, including but not limited to:
Interviews
Ethnography
Prototype tests
Market/competitor research
Audience demographics research
Identify and suggest other qualitative methods as you see fit
Participating in research sessions
Participating in research results workshops
Working with the client to refine the vision of the product based on user needs and UX best practices
Collaborate with the UX design team to create UX artifacts based on research results
Lead the strategic direction of user research and identify opportunities for research throughout the project
Build research plans of different varieties based on the research topic
Communicate the results of research in an informative and persuasive way
Help the client and project team build empathy for users through research; ability to make strategic recommendations to the client and project group on the future directions of the project based on research results
Consult the UX design group to incorporate research insights into the prototype and product vision recommendations
Work under the direction of the project lead and UX research lead
Explore the product vision with the client to form research goals for the project and carry them out with the UX research lead
Help the client form assumptions about their audience and product
Work with the UX research lead to build and run experiments for a variety of methods, including but not limited to:
Interviews
Ethnography
Prototype tests
Market/competitor research
Audience demographics research
Identify and suggest other qualitative methods as you see fit
Participating in research sessions
Participating in research results workshops
Perform research and analyze the results with the team to determine the next steps on the project
Working with the client to refine the vision of the product based on user needs and UX best practices
Collaborate with the UX design team to create UX artifacts based on research results
Document research methods, test details, and research results
Help the UX designer create UX artifacts to communicate the current state, user needs, and the vision of the future state
Communicate the results of research in an informative and persuasive way
Consult the UX design group to incorporate research insights into the prototype and product vision recommendations
Ability to create direction in uncertainty and explore business problems without direct guidance
Interest in Lean UX methods and the capability to make suggestions on UX methods
Deep understanding of UX and psychology, with an ability to apply it to project work
Working cross-functionally between all teams
Excellent communication skills
Be the “voice of the customer” and “customer expert” for the group along with all teams, the person who grows their subject matter expertise in the product industry and user groups involved
Take ownership of the UX Research activities within the project group
User personas
User journey maps
Storyboards
Information architecture
Interaction design
Affinity diagrams
Research plans
Presented research results
Surveys
Card sorts
Interview questions
Empathy maps
UX Researcher
Product Designer
UX Strategist