Business acumen for the UX researcher
This blog series is a continuation of the UX Research Checklist series by Brian Utesch and Theresa Nguyen. An analysis was done to understand the role of a UX Researcher looking across a sampling of 100 publicly available job postings. The intent was to take a snapshot in time of different characteristics across a mix of companies to develop an aggregate profile of a successful job candidate. The insights from this analysis can be reused by a variety of audiences to shape job descriptions or create professional development plans to be most competitive in the job market.
Previous Posts:
☑️ UX Researcher Characteristics: An Analysis of 100 UX Researcher Open Job Postings
🔬 The UX Researcher’s Main Responsibility…Research, of course!
📈 All the Research Data Has Been Gathered…Now What?
🖇 Business Acumen For the UX Researcher
👩🏻💻 … stay tuned for our finale
In the previous 2 Blog Posts, we have discussed UX Researcher responsibilities that (hopefully) you would have learned in the classroom. Now, we will tackle the responsibilities that are related to the business, things that may be a bit more difficult to learn in the classroom, but are vastly important to being a UX Researcher. Businesses are no longer expecting UX Researchers to just run the studies, but also scope out research projects themselves (found on 21/100 job postings) by identifying business needs and translating them into research (24/100). Businesses also need the UX Researcher’s help in identifying the user needs of their clientele, through generating empathy for the user, championing those users and advocating for UX in general (32/100). As a result of their compelling research, they will be able to influence the design (36/100) and/or product strategy (27/100) of their teams.
#1 Scoping out Research Projects
This first responsibility seemed unintuitive to me when I first started as an intern at GE Appliances.
I just got hired to do a job…why I am looking for work in my job?
But when I got into scoping out research, I realized I was being handed a very large responsibility. No longer were the days where I would be conducting research for other researchers, a PI, or the like; I was now given the responsibility to seek out the projects that would benefit our organization the most.
The ability to identify research questions is a sought-after skill as it then enables you to form research projects. One of the first things I learned while I was at IBM was how to identify research questions. Many times, stakeholders would come to me with very specific requests: Can I get a usability test on X product? Can we do a complexity analysis on Y feature?
Although stakeholders may have an understanding of how to conduct research, it is up to the UX Researcher to work with the stakeholder to breakdown and understand their specific needs and questions. As researchers, we are taught to have empathy for our users; the same goes with our stakeholders. By empathizing with our stakeholders, we will be able to pinpoint their underlying research needs. After those research needs are identified, you will be able to translate questions into a research roadmap, recommend an approach through identifying the right research methodologies, and then execute against it.
Once you’ve mastered the art of scoping out research projects, there could be a multitude of research questions that may be asked of you. As it was up to you to seek out projects that would benefit your organization the most, you must now be able to prioritize those research needs by taking into account factors like organizational priorities, company goals and risks.
#2 Translating Business Needs into Research
In order to effectively scope out research projects, it is necessary to consider the needs of the business at all stages of the process. The UX Researcher’s role is to “compliment business strategy, inform direction, and help deliver best-in-class creative user experiences” (from a UX Researcher job posting at Playstation). As we are focused on translating these business needs into research, many times, research will stem from the need to increase business revenue, financial key performance indicators, and adhering to complex technical and business requirements.
As a result from stemming our research from the company’s business needs, we will then be well-suited to influence the business strategy for product development. User research will yield actionable insights that not only affect the current product strategy for your offerings, but also identifies areas of innovation to be capitalized on.
Identify key opportunity and whitespace areas in the context of corporate strategic direction. (Target)
Generate insights that shape how product teams think, ranging from short-term to long-term product strategy. (DoorDash)
#3 Influence Design and Product Strategy
When all is said and done, what happens after the project ends? Do the insights you deliver get a round of applause but never get acted on? It is important that the insights presented have made a difference whether that be by influencing the design or product strategy. On the design side, recommendations should be clear enough that teams see the value that a design recommendation will bring to the product. UX Researchers are traditionally known for evaluative research that “influence[s] the design of products by synthesizing and communicating research findings through [research] artifacts (Honeywell). Many researchers, like those at IBM Cloud, Data and AI, are embedded within design teams, and are able to make a meaningful influence on design. It is important that beyond design, UX Researchers have a hand in influencing product strategy as well, leading to truly user-centered products. Organizations like Warner Media, as previously mentioned in Blog 2: Breaking down the UX researcher’s main responsibility…Research, of course!, and Plangrid, a construction productivity software, have UX Researchers that are embedded within a product team in order to aid in identifying and leading projects that inform product and UX strategy.
#4 Being a UX Advocate
Lastly, as a UX Researcher in your organization, you will be responsible for advocating for the user. At times, your team will not keep the user at the forefront of their product; factors like technical requirements, sales, business strategy, and incorrect assumptions may get in the way. First and foremost, your concern in the user, and you will act to develop a deep understanding of customer needs, pain points, behaviors and motivations. This will be done by (1) being empathic to the users needs, (2) championing the target user and also (3) evangelizing UX research throughout your organization.
Empathy invokes having an empathic ear, listening to users, perceiving their needs and delivering an unbiased view of the user. This involves creating a deep understanding of your target users for your entire product team of designers, product managers and engineers. There will be times you have to push back on your stakeholders in prioritizing the user experience, but it is important to keep in mind their priorities and requirements as well. Ultimately, having empathy will allow you to translate user insights into actionable insights for your team.
Secondly, by being empathic and identifying user needs, UX Researchers will be able to “create a holistic view of the user in all their complexities for exciting, new … products” (Bose). However, it is not enough to just create this holistic view; UX Researchers will also be responsible for championing the end user at all stages of iterative design. This may be an easier task at a company with a mature UX research and design organization, however, Researchers may struggle at companies where UX is more of a novelty.
Lastly, especially if you are in the latter category of being in a company where UX is new, you will be tasked with evangelizing UX throughout your organization. This can include evangelizing the following:
- User-design practices (Snap Inc.)
- Design thinking (Honey)
- The importance of usability (Snap Inc.)
- The importance and effectiveness of user research in all phases of concept creation (LG electronics)
- User experience KPIs throughout the company (NerdWallet)
- Customer and product needs (Qualtrics)
- Human-centric thinking (New Relic)
- Voice of the customer (New Relic)
As a new hire, this can seem daunting, but you will have a hand in developing a culture of UX in your organization and this, in time, will lead to more user-centric products.
Conclusion
There are many skills and responsibilities that are just hard to learn in the classroom. Scoping out research projects, translating business needs into research and advocating for the user and/or UX as a whole are a few of the business-oriented skills that will aid you as a UX Researcher in your organization and in collaborating with stakeholders. In our last blog post, we will discuss “miscellaneous” job responsibilities. These are the job responsibilities that kept coming up in our analysis, but did not fit neatly into the other 3 groupings: Research, Analyzing and Presenting Insights and Business Acumen. These responsibilities include: developing research operations, collaborating and mentoring, contributing to a work culture and keeping up to date with UX methodology and market trends. Stay tuned!
