The User Research Strategist
Imagine you just wrapped up your latest research project.
You asked the right questions. You surfaced smart insights. You finally got clarity on what the team should actually be building.
And then…
The roadmap didn’t change.
Your findings got a polite thumbs-up.
And someone still launched the thing you warned them about because “leadership liked it.”
Welcome to user research.
This Substack exists so you can stop living in that loop.
What you get when you’re here:
Research advice that doesn’t sound like it was written by a chatbot with a LinkedIn addiction
Actual strategies to influence product decisions (instead of shouting into the void)
Tools, templates, and real-talk examples from someone who’s done the job, screwed it up, fixed it, and made it work
A community that knows what it’s doing and isn’t just here to drop “it depends” into the chat
Written by Nikki Anderson, the user researcher, blogger, podcaster, and founder of the User Research Strategist.
EXPENSE IT 💰
Did you know that many employers will pay for my Substack? So you can expense this entire newsletter from your learning and development budget and enjoy the perks of the paid content without having to give up any coffee/matcha/tea/soda/snack to make up for the spend.
Free Plan = You get a sampler tray
1 article every two months
2 podcast episodes a month
Helpful, smart, and suspiciously good for something that costs nothing.
Paid Plan = The full UXR brain buffet
Full access to every Substack article, podcast, and mildly unhinged hot take I’ve ever published. If it’s behind a paywall, you get it
A searchable vault of 400+ templates, scripts, guides, and tools, aka, your new best friend when someone asks for “just a quick deck” five minutes before the meeting
Bi-weekly UXR roundups full of links that don’t waste your time, with actual commentary you can use (no “thought leadership” required)
Quarterly career calls where we talk shop, recalibrate, and make sure you’re not accidentally building a career you hate.
A private research space + access to me for questions too honest for Slack and too sensitive for LinkedIn. Yes, I reply. Yes, even to that.
20+ plug-and-play templates so you can stop staring at a blank doc and start looking like you planned this all along
If you’re tired of yelling into the void, you’re in the right place.
Subscribe below. Start free. Upgrade when you’re ready to stop being the best-kept secret in the org.
Need help or have questions?
Email me at nikki@userresearchacademy.com so I can help you!
Publishing schedule and holidays
Posting schedule:
Articles go out monthly on Tuesday’s at 9am UK time
Podcasts go out bi-weekly on Thursday’s at 9am UK time
Link round-ups are sent out bi-weekly Thursday’s at 9am UK time
For 2025, you can expect breaks in content:
August 25th - 29th
December 22nd - January 5th
I appreciate your understanding and thank you for your ongoing support.
This schedule can be changed in case of unexpected events. Last updated March 25, 2025.
Gift subscriptions
Changing credit card details
Do you need to change your credit card details?
Log into your account here.
Go to this page to manage your subscription, and hit “Update” next to “Payment details” and enter your new card details.
Changing your email
Want to move your subscription to a different email? Follow the steps here.
Go to your Substack settings page and change your email address there.
Usage guidelines & sharing content
One subscription is intended for one individual, and not for groups. See the ‘Group/company subscriptions’ on details for group subscriptions.
Occasional forwarding of newsletter issues internally is completely fine. If you do this regularly, please consider getting those people a subscription - or gifting them one!
Refunds
My business philosophy is that if you, as a customer, are not happy, then I’m not happy. I have a 30-day, no-questions-asked refund policy. Please email nikki@userresearchacademy.com for a full refund. I appreciate it if you can share the reason you were unhappy with the contents or purchase, but doing so is not necessary for a refund.
Hi there - I’m Nikki 👋🏻
I once googled “how to write an insight that doesn’t suck” at midnight, bottle of wine in hand, and got served a Medium post from 2013 with zero examples. Deffo didn’t help me with the report I had to write in less than ten hours.
I’ve been the team of one, the voice in the void, the person whose research got skipped because it was “too long to read.”
Now? I run a user research consultancy, community, and content hub for 12,000+ UXRs. I’ve written 400+ articles, spoken at more conferences than I’ve actually enjoyed, and built the resources I wish someone had given me years ago.
This Substack is part strategy, part sanity saver.
Come to the dark strategic side.
