The essential skills your UX researcher application should highlight
Make sure you’ve covered these four basics
You don’t have to list everything you can do in your job application.
Many portfolios are littered with personas, journey maps, pen and paper prototype sketches, Google Analytics, SEO evaluations, or relics from academic projects. In truth, researchers don’t spend a ton of time doing any of these. Some, like personas, are larger efforts that may only be taken on once every few years. Others, like prototypes, fall more squarely under another role’s responsibilities.
At best, hiring managers ignore these. At worst— and perhaps more often — they move on to another candidate. Focus instead on the key skills that hiring managers look for while reviewing UXR resumes, and yours will stand out.
Choosing the right method for the job
Many UX research resumes read like the table of contents in a methods book.
Yet you wouldn’t judge a handyman by the number of tools they carry around. What matters instead is the quality, or proper use of those tools, not the quantity. And the same goes for UX researchers.
Questions to improve your case studies
Do you know how to select and apply an appropriate method for a research goal? If a stakeholder came to you with a vague problem statement about their product, how would you think it through? Can you translate it into clear research questions with a plan for addressing them?
Facilitating usability tests
In your first year as a UX researcher, you’ll likely conduct usability tests at least once or twice a month.
You may be evaluating live products to guide feature development and improvements. You may be working with rough prototypes to make sure the right interaction gets built. In either situation, the goal is to evaluate flows and identify usability issues.
Questions to improve your case studies
Can you present a product to a user and have them simulate a few realistic tasks? Can you create a test script and get good data from 5 participants? There’s a learning curve to doing this with confidence and without contaminating the data.
Facilitating user interviews
You’ll also spend a lot of time conducting research interviews with current or prospective users.
When you’re not evaluating a product, you’re likely trying to understand the problem space. Before anything gets built, design and engineering teams need direction. The goal is to understand current processes, pain points, desires, and opportunities.
Questions to improve your case studies
Can you facilitate an authentic conversation with a participant and collect good data? Can you develop an interview guide that manages the time well and addresses all the project’s research questions? How do you process those findings?
Communicating results to non-research audiences
Conducting the perfect research study means nothing if the results sit unused on a shelf.
Effective researchers need to be compelling storytellers. You must be able to describe what you’ve done and what you learned to someone who knows nothing about research. And you’ll have to tailor that story to different audiences: designers, product teams, working groups, and executive leadership.
Questions to improve your case studies
Can you translate complex concepts and analyses to laypeople? Can you do so briefly, without leaving out critical information? This part of the job is more art than science.
Put it all together
You’ll dramatically improve the case studies in your application materials by highlighting examples of these key skills:
- Choosing the right method: Describe the context and problems your projects were trying to solve. Include research plans that defined the scope of the work.
- Facilitating usability tests: Share test scripts with task scenarios and evaluative metrics.
- Facilitating user interviews: Give example interview guides or video clips that demonstrate your moderating style.
- Communicating results to non-research audiences: Provide snappy case studies that tell a compelling story. Compile them in a common report format, like a slide deck.
Keep in mind, these aren’t the only skills a UX researcher needs. But they are the most fundamental prerequisites for juniors seeking a first role. They form the foundation that you will build upon as you learn everything else.
Show hiring managers that you have this solid foundation, and you’ll make a stronger case for yourself in entry roles.
Looking for more career direction? Some other articles I’ve written:
- Giving the elevator pitch for your UXR case study
- The 6 biggest changes going from grad school to UX research, and how to prepare
- The 5 key elements of a solid UX research plan
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