Paid subscribers get the power tools: the UXR Tools Bundle with a full year of four top platforms free, plus all my Substack content, and a bangin’ Slack community where you can ask questions 24/7. Subscribe if you want your work to create change people can feel.

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Scroll through ten random UX researcher LinkedIn profiles or portfolios. Now read their first sentence.

“I turn insights into impact.”

“I help teams make data-informed decisions.”

“I bridge the gap between users and business goals.”

“I’m passionate about understanding people.”

“I create human-centered products.”

They all sound identical. You could swap the names and nobody would notice.

That’s not because these people lack skill or originality, most of them are damn good at what they do. It’s because somewhere along the way, our field decided there was one “right” way to sound credible.

And that “right” way?

It’s safe, forgettable, and painfully generic.

How We Got Here

Research is one of the few jobs where humility is baked into the culture. We’re trained to center others, not ourselves. So when it comes time to talk about us, our work, our value, our strengths, we default to method.

We say things like:

• “I ran a diary study with 12 participants.”

• “I conducted a thematic analysis.”

• “I helped prioritize roadmap decisions.”

Unfortunately, that’s not a story. That’s a report.

Hiring managers aren’t looking for a walking method manual. They’re looking for someone who solves real problems in ways that matter to the business.

They want to know what happens when they drop you into chaos. What you notice first, what you fix first, what you never let slide.

That’s what makes you different, not how many frameworks you know.

Why You Sound Like Everyone Else

You’ve spent years trying to prove research is valuable so, naturally, you’ve learned to speak the company’s language: value, impact, ROI, decision-making.

The problem is, everyone else learned it too and now every resume sounds like a press release written by ChatGPT.

Here’s a quick test.

Pull up your LinkedIn headline or the intro on your portfolio and ask yourself:

1. Could another researcher copy and paste this, and it would still make sense for them?

2. Would a PM instantly know what kind of researcher you are, not just that you “do research”?

3. Would a hiring manager reading it think, “I’ve never met someone like this before” or “Ah yes, another empathy-builder”?

If you’re hitting yes on 1 and no on 2 and 3, congratulations, you’ve officially joined the Sea of Sameness.

But don’t panic. This is fixable.

How to Spot Your Generic Patterns

Before you can sound unique, you have to know what’s making you blend in. Here’s a quick, 15-minute exercise you can do right now:

Step 1: Copy the intro section from your resume, portfolio, and LinkedIn About.

Throw them into one document. Don’t edit yet.

Step 2: Highlight every phrase that could apply to almost anyone.

These usually sound like:

• “I’m passionate about understanding users.”

• “I help teams make user-centered decisions.”

• “I collaborate cross-functionally.”

• “I use mixed methods to uncover insights.”

• “I translate data into actionable outcomes.”

If you can find those phrases on ten other researchers’ pages, they’re not helping you.

Step 3: Circle every phrase that sounds like you.

These are rare, the lines that make someone pause and think, Oh, that’s interesting.

Maybe it’s:

• “I’m the researcher teams call when they’re completely stuck.”

• “I turn vague ideas into testable experiments.”

• “I specialize in getting stubborn stakeholders on board.”

Those are the lines worth keeping.

You’ll probably end up with a page covered in yellow (generic) and three sentences circled in green (specific). That’s a good sign because you’ve just found the starting point for your unique story.

The UXR Sameness Checklist

If you’re not sure how “blendy” your self-presentation is, run through this list.

Every “yes” answer means you’re still too safe:

• I describe my work using frameworks instead of outcomes.

• I talk about empathy more than decisions.

• I summarize projects like case studies, not stories.

• My portfolio could belong to a dozen other researchers.

• My headline sounds professional but says nothing new.

If you nodded along to at least three, you’re probably underselling yourself.

Why This Matters

Being a great researcher doesn’t automatically make you memorable. When a hiring manager screens 50 candidates, they’ll all have similar skills. What makes someone stand out isn’t what they do, it’s how they think and what problems they instinctively solve first.

That’s what you need to uncover and then communicate. And no, you don’t need to “personal brand” yourself into some loud influencer. You just need to show your research fingerprint, the unique way you bring order to chaos.

Below, I walk you through the full framework to stop sounding like every other UXR and start sounding like the person teams remember:

• The 3-layer “uniqueness” model (so you can name what you do that actually changes outcomes)

• The Career Audit Sprint (your evidence-first method to uncover repeatable patterns)

• The Researcher’s Value Equation (a simple way to translate your work into business value without corporate robot language)

• The 3-sentence core message formula (the version you can paste into LinkedIn, your portfolio, and interview intros)

• The Uniqueness Map (a one-page artifact that becomes your resume/portfolio/interview cheat sheet)

Paid subscribers get the full walkthrough, fill-in-the-blank templates, and the exact rewrites that turn “generic” into unmistakable.

Exclusively for paid subscribers

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I’m SO excited to announce the User Research Tools Bundle!!! 🎉

After two years of brainstorming, research, and lots of thinking, I am so excited to finally launch the User Research Tools Bundle — my main goal being to bring more accessibility, inspiration, and efficiency to our wonderful community.

This is the first time these tools have come together in one place. Each tool has been selected for a clear purpose in the research workflow, from recruitment to testing, in-product feedback to analysis, and more.

When you join The User Research Strategist, as an annual paid member, you’ll get free access to all tools listed below. Each tool has been hand-picked and stands on its own, and each offer is exclusive to this bundle.

Included in the UXR Tools Bundle

Each of these tools is strong across multiple parts of the research process. They were chosen because they lead the pack in helping teams do better work.

Each of these tools solves more than one problem. We’ve spotlighted one key use case for each, but they’re built to support much more. This bundle gives you a strong starting point and room to grow.

Whether you’re dealing with recruitment chaos, insight overwhelm, or the pressure to ship faster, this bundle gives you real support, from tools that already have your back.

Participant Recruitment — User Interviews

Find participants without spreadsheets or chaos

User Interviews gives you access to over 6 million participants. It handles screening, scheduling, incentives, and communication, all in one place. You can use their panel or bring your own. Works well for sourcing consumer audiences or niche professional segments, for any type of study.

Continuous insights, at scale — Askable Insight Streams

Always-on user research, without the project overhead

Get continuous generative insights from hundreds of interviews weekly—without the operational headache. Access everything instantly through AI chat, a real-time dashboard, and weekly insight reports curated by expert researchers. All interviews, transcripts, and highlight reels included. Research globally with 15+ language support. Influence roadmap with real user evidence and make decisions with confidence.

Unmoderated Testing — Lyssna

Test designs, concepts, copy, and flows with confidence

Lyssna makes it easy to run card sorting, prototype testing, and first-click tasks and more. You can launch something fast, target the right audience, and get results you can share with stakeholders in as little as 30 minutes.

Repository & Synthesis — Condens

All your customer insights in one place. Easy to organize, analyze, and share.

Condens is the central hub for all your customer knowledge. It brings together everything—from interviews and usability tests to product feedback and surveys—so you can analyze, organize, and share findings in one place. With AI-powered features and a dedicated space for stakeholders, Condens makes it easy to go from raw data to insights that actually get used. Whether you're scaling research or streamlining your workflow, Condens helps you move faster and make a bigger impact.

In-Product Research — Sprig

Ask the right questions in the moment, inside your product.

Sprig lets you target users with short surveys during real interactions. It’s a smart way to gather feedback without interrupting the experience. No engineers needed.

This bundle is in addition to the existing benefits of being a paid subscriber: full access to every new newsletter post, along with three years’ worth of previous posts and an invite to a thriving members-only community.

A yearly subscription is an absolute no-brainer. Click here to grab this deal 👇

Subscribe now

Important deal details:

1. You must be a new paying customer of the products to take advantage of the bundle. If you’ve already paid for one of the products in the bundle before, you won’t be able to get free access.

2. You must have an annual subscription to The User Research Strategist to be eligible for this bundle. Monthly subscribers do not have access to the deal.

3. Both existing subscribers and new subscribers are eligible.

4. Your free access to the product begins when you activate the product with your unique code, not when you purchase this newsletter subscription.

5. To secure your codes, you must claim them using the link below. We may run out of codes for certain products over time, and this deal may end.

6. If you request an early refund or chargeback for your subscription, your bundle codes may be deactivated (whether they’re active or unused).

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How to redeem the deal:

1. Once you become a paid yearly subscriber, you will receive an email with your codes.

2. If you’re on a monthly plan, upgrade to yearly, you will receive an email with your codes.

3. If you’re already a paid annual subscriber, you will receive an email with your codes.

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If you have any trouble or questions, please reach out to: nikki@userresearchacademy.com

Stay curious,

Nikki

In this video, I walk through

• Why this case study is terrible

• How I would improve it

I want to share my mistakes because that’s how I learned best and it’s also not easy to find this kind of information shared just anywhere on the internet.

If you want more of this, I sell a UXR case study kit. With this kit, you get my brains when it comes to case studies, including:

• Five video walkthroughs of both bad and good case studies, as well as how I'd improve them (over an hour worth of videos)

• Different types of case study examples (ex: project or process-based)

• Four examples of reaalllll case studies

• A case study template

• Questions to prep for during an interview

Grab the Case Study Kit →

Buy it now!

If you want to see everything I post, subscribe below!

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Resources:

• In-depth case study article

• Submit a topic

Join my membership!

If you’re looking for even more content, a space to call home (a private community), and live sessions with me to answer all your deepest questions, check out my membership (you get all this content for free within the membership), as it might be a good fit for you!

If you want to see everything I post, subscribe below!

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If I went back to full-time in-house user research, I would be an individual contributor (IC) instead of a manager, which was one of my last in-house roles before going to consultancy.

I truly don’t believe I would be a manager ever again in that capacity.

That might sound weird considering I spend a large amount of my time and business mentoring user researchers. However, there is a pretty significant difference between management and mentoring, at least in my eyes and in my previous experiences.

When I reflect on my past roles, especially the transition from management to consultancy, it becomes clear that while both management and mentorship involve guiding others, they operate in fundamentally different ways.

Management is often about oversight and accountability—ensuring that tasks are completed, objectives are met, and team members are aligned with the broader goals of the organization. As a manager, my responsibilities included not only the day-to-day performance of my team but also their career progression within the structured framework of the company.

On the other hand, mentorship is far more focused on personal and professional development without the direct accountability that comes with management. Mentoring allows for a more personalized, flexible approach, where the goal is to help individuals grow, explore their potential, and navigate their career paths on their own terms. It’s less about driving specific outcomes and more about empowering the mentee to make informed decisions and develop confidence in their abilities.

In my experience, the mentor-mentee relationship is often more informal and can be tailored to the mentee’s specific needs, whether that’s learning a new skill, navigating a career transition, or gaining insights into industry practices.

Unlike management, where I had to ensure that all team members were performing according to organizational standards, mentoring lets me focus on the unique journey of each individual, offering guidance, sharing experiences, and providing a safe space for exploration and growth.

Additionally, the dynamic between mentor and mentee is typically more collaborative and less hierarchical than in a manager-subordinate relationship. As a mentor, I see myself as a guide or advisor rather than someone who is directly responsible for the mentee’s output. This allows for a more open exchange of ideas and can lead to deeper learning experiences for both parties involved — the amount I’ve learned from my mentees is astounding.

The great part is that you don't have to be a manager to be a mentor. You can have a significant impact on someone’s career as an individual contributor or someone in a leadership position. In fact, some of the most amazing mentors I’ve had weren’t my manager.

Prefer to listen to an overview? Listen on YouTube or below.

This audio is created with NotebookLM

Why Mentorship Matters

As a Mentee

Mentorship is a cornerstone of growth in user research, and I deeply value it because I wouldn’t be where I am today without the guidance of those who mentored me.

When I started my journey as a user researcher, I had the slightest clue about anything. While reading and learning theory was amazing, I didn’t really have people to bounce ideas off or to help me apply the theory to practical experience. On top of that, I hugely struggled with getting effective feedback to make myself a better researcher. I would write a survey and wonder how effective it was, or create a research plan and wonder what I was missing.

That feedback loop was something I was sorely missing, and a lot of the time, I didn’t have a manager who was a user researcher. So, often, I was the expert. It’s terrifying to simultaneously have impostor syndrome and to feel like you have to be the expert and know everything about an industry you haven’t been in for a long time.

I sat there for a very long time, scared to ask for feedback because I didn’t want my manager or colleagues to think I didn’t know what I was doing.

Finally, I was able to find my first mentor outside of my organization. This person helped me by giving detailed feedback and talking me through many of the struggles I faced day-to-day. Just having someone to bounce ideas off made a huge difference because I no longer felt stuck.

Over the years, these mentors pushed me beyond my perceived limits and capabilities. I truly wouldn’t be where I am now had I not engaged with these mentors.

As a Mentor

Navigating problems with someone else is an incredible experience, especially as a mentor. I’ve had to explain things I’d never tried to put into words, things that felt so simple and obvious — what is a usability testing task, how to actually do affinity diagramming, picking tags, what is an executive summary — but they were terms or concepts I took for granted and never really defined for myself.

Being a mentor has made me significantly more articulate in explaining concepts and ideas to others and has made me a better user researcher. Teaching someone else how to approach a problem, articulate findings, or navigate complex research scenarios forces you to clarify your thoughts and refine your methodologies.

Without the back-and-forth and the constant questions coming from mentees, I wouldn’t have had to think about things in the same way — I wouldn’t have questioned my own approaches or how I conducted certain types of research. Without mentorship, I wouldn’t have completely unraveled how I think about and do usability tests.

By experiencing challenges with someone else and hearing other perspectives, you have the opportunity to really rethink your own work. Not only does this make you more effective and efficient as a user researcher, but it also helps you with skills like stakeholder management and giving feedback to others.

Impact

I’ve found that mentorship allows you to demonstrate your impact across the organization in ways that go beyond your immediate project outcomes. By mentoring junior researchers or others, you’re not only helping them grow but also fostering a culture of learning and collaboration within your team or organization. 

As a mentor, you’re not just guiding a single researcher; you’re contributing to the overall capability and success of your team or organization. The knowledge and skills you impart to a mentee can lead to improved research outcomes across multiple projects, creating a ripple effect that enhances the quality of work throughout the organization. Mentoring demonstrates your ability to influence and develop talent, showcasing your leadership potential and your commitment to the long-term success of your team. 

Whenever I felt like my impact on products wasn’t directly applicable, I was always able to show the impact my mentorship on others had — from making research more accessible to increasing the effectiveness of research across the organization. I could demonstrate impact outside of the normal confines that come with research.

The Role of a Mentor

Mentorship in user research is deeply personal and transformative, both for the mentor and the mentee. It’s not just about imparting knowledge—it’s about guiding, supporting, and empowering the next generation of researchers to find their own path. When I think back to my own career, the mentors who had the most significant impact on me were those who didn’t just give me the answers. Instead, they taught me how to think critically and approach problems from different angles.

Early in my career, I was working on a complex usability study, and I felt overwhelmed by the sheer amount of data I had collected. My mentor at the time didn’t step in and tell me how to analyze it directly. Instead, they asked probing questions that helped me structure my thoughts and approach the data in a way that made it manageable. This guidance not only helped me complete the project successfully but also built my confidence in handling large datasets on my own in the future.

That experience taught me the value of mentoring through empowerment — helping mentees develop the skills and confidence to tackle challenges independently.

As a mentor now, I try to embody that same approach. I encourage my mentees to take ownership of their work, explore different methodologies, and make decisions based on their analysis. By doing so, they gain a deeper understanding of user research and become more confident in their abilities.

This empowerment is crucial because it helps them grow into independent researchers who can contribute meaningfully to their teams and organizations.

Setting Clear Expectations

Setting clear expectations is a critical component of any successful mentorship relationship. I’ve learned this the hard way in my own mentoring experiences. Early on, I had a mentorship relationship that wasn’t as effective as it could have been because we didn’t establish clear guidelines from the start.

Meetings were sporadic, communication was inconsistent, and we didn’t have a clear focus on what we were trying to achieve. Eventually, we had a candid conversation about what we both wanted out of the mentorship, and things improved dramatically from there.

Gaining Focus

Now, when I start a new mentorship, I make it a point to have an open discussion about our goals and expectations from the very beginning. For instance, I ask a specific set of questions to help gain focus:

• What are your three main challenges when it comes to user research, in general?

• What are the three main challenges you face at work on a regular basis?

• What are the main areas you would like to improve in?

• What about user research do you feel most confident about?

• What about user research do you feel least confident about?

• What is the number one thing you could change today that would make your job better?

• What are your aspirations in the field of user research (think 2-5 years down the road)?

• What are your main goals in the next 6-12 months?

• What do you hope to accomplish through this mentorship?

I know, there are so many “what” questions, but sometimes, they are necessary! These questions help us both understand the purpose of our mentorship and how we can best use our time together. With this, I build a roadmap for our time together based on the answers to these questions so that each of our meetings has a distinct focus.

Even better if you can set success metrics within the mentorship. Here are some examples I’ve used in the past:

• If a mentee wants to improve their interview moderation skills, a success metric could be the completion of a certain number of mock interviews, followed by real user interviews. Progress could be measured by the mentee’s increasing ability to ask open-ended questions, manage interview flow, and probe deeper into user responses.

• Set a goal for the mentee to lead a research project from start to finish, such as conducting a usability study or creating a research plan for a new product feature. Success metrics could include meeting project deadlines, improving the quality of research deliverables, and generating actionable insights.

• A mentee might aim to apply a new research method, such as diary studies or ethnographic research, in their work. The success metric could be successfully incorporating this method into at least one project and demonstrating its value to the team.

• A key goal might be for the mentee to become more confident in presenting their research findings to stakeholders. Metrics could include the number of presentations given, the quality of stakeholder engagement, and the mentee’s ability to answer questions about insights.

• Encourage the mentee to expand their professional network by attending user research events, joining relevant communities, or publishing a piece of work. Success metrics could include the number of new connections made, participation in events, or the publication of an article or blog post.

• If the mentee’s goal is to transition into a more senior role, metrics might include completing specific leadership/research initiatives or securing a promotion or new job within a certain time frame.

Logistics

We also discuss practicalities, like how often we’ll meet and the best ways to communicate. I had one mentee who was juggling multiple projects and preferred asynchronous communication because it fit better with their schedule. So, we set up a system where they would send me their questions or updates via email, and I would respond with detailed feedback within a day or two. This flexibility made our mentorship much more effective.

However, with mentorship, I typically recommend touching base live (remote is fine!) during 1x1 calls once every two weeks or, at the least, once a month. So much can be said in a one-hour call that could take a long time to get through asynchronously.

Feedback Types

Every person is unique, and their needs can vary widely depending on their personality, experience level, and current challenges. Not everyone takes feedback in the same way — a lesson I learned the hard way.

When I first start mentoring someone, one of the most important things I do is have an open conversation about their past experiences with feedback. I ask them questions like:

• Can you tell me about a time when you received feedback that really helped you improve? What made that feedback effective for you?

• When you’re working on a project, what kind of guidance do you find most helpful? Do you like detailed suggestions, or do you prefer general guidance that allows you to find your own way?

• What kind of feedback hasn’t been helpful in the past? Why?

I also have found the timing of feedback to be extremely important and, at times, have completely missed the mark, so I also make it a point to ask about when the most appropriate time I can give feedback may be:

• Do you find it helpful to receive feedback during a project to make adjustments along the way, or do you prefer to receive it after the project is completed?

• How do you typically like to receive feedback? Do you prefer to receive it immediately after completing a task, or do you like to reflect on your work first?

• How do you feel about receiving feedback on-the-spot during meetings or presentations? Would you prefer to discuss it privately afterward?

These answers help me understand their preferences—whether they appreciate direct, straightforward feedback or if they respond better to a more gentle, encouraging approach.

I once mentored a junior researcher who initially seemed quite nervous about receiving criticism. Through our conversations, I learned that she had previously worked in an environment where feedback was often harsh and unconstructive, which made her wary of criticism. In this case, I adopted a more supportive tone, focusing on what she was doing well before gently guiding her toward areas of improvement. Over time, as she grew more confident, I was able to be more direct with my feedback, which she came to appreciate as her skills and self-assurance developed.

On the other hand, I’ve also worked with mentees who prefer blunt, to-the-point feedback because it helps them quickly identify areas they need to improve. For these individuals, I don’t sugarcoat my critiques but instead provide clear, actionable suggestions on how to improve. I found that this approach worked well with a senior researcher I mentored who valued efficiency and wanted to get straight to the improvements.

It’s also important to pay attention to how your mentee reacts to different types of feedback during your sessions. If they seem to shut down or become defensive, it might be a sign that your approach needs adjusting. In these cases, I usually check in with them directly, asking questions like:

• How did that feedback land with you?

• How did the feedback we discussed last time resonate with you? Was there anything that particularly stood out or anything you’d like to revisit?

• Did the feedback I gave you help with the challenges you were facing? Is there anything you would have preferred to be different in how it was delivered?

• Is there a different way you’d prefer we discuss areas for improvement?

• After having some time to reflect, do you feel the feedback was helpful in improving your work? Are there any other areas where you’d like more guidance?

This ongoing dialogue helps to fine-tune the feedback process, ensuring that it’s as effective and supportive as possible.

Ultimately, the goal is to create a feedback loop that not only addresses areas of growth but also reinforces the mentee’s strengths, helping them build confidence and skills in a way that resonates with them personally. By being adaptable and empathetic in your approach, you can ensure that your feedback is both constructive and empowering.

Confidentiality

Confidentiality is another aspect we cover early on. In user research, we often deal with sensitive information—be it user feedback, internal processes, or even career concerns. I always assure my mentees that our conversations are private, which creates a safe space for them to share openly and honestly. This trust is the foundation of a strong mentorship relationship.

Building a Trusting Relationship

Asking for feedback is terrifying. Almost every single time I’ve started with a new mentee, I’ve been nervous — even to this day. Being able to trust someone enough to share your goals, dreams, failures, and anxieties can be tough. It isn’t easy to bear your soul to another human, especially if you’ve had bad experiences with feedback or mentorship in the past.

Whenever I have taken on new mentees, I have found it crucial to build trust as quickly as possible so we can get to the meaningful feedback that helps to solidify the relationship even more.

But building trust isn’t simple and straightforward, especially within this context. Here are some ways I’ve learned to build trust with my mentees over time.

Start with Personal Connection

Building a strong, trusting relationship begins with establishing a personal connection. As a mentor, it’s important to take the time to get to know your mentee beyond their professional role. This doesn’t mean prying into their personal life, but rather showing genuine interest in who they are as a person—their interests, aspirations, and even their challenges outside of work.

When I start mentoring someone new, I always begin with a casual conversation about hobbies, favorite books, or what they enjoy outside of work. This initial connection helps break the ice and lays the foundation for a relationship built on mutual respect and understanding.

I once had a mentee who was also passionate about tennis. By simply asking about their interests and showing genuine curiosity in their passion, we found common ground that went beyond user research and now we take a few minutes at times to chat about tennis matches.

This personal connection made it easier for them to open up about their professional challenges, knowing that I saw them as more than just researchers but as whole people with varied interests and aspirations.

Begin your first mentorship meeting with a getting-to-know-you conversation — it doesn’t have to be the whole session, just five or ten minutes. Ask open-ended questions about your mentee’s interests, hobbies, or goals outside of work.

Share a little about your own interests to establish common ground. I tend to ask:

• What do you enjoy doing when you’re not working?

• What’s something you’re passionate about outside of user research?

This helps create a more relaxed atmosphere and sets the tone for a relationship built on mutual respect and understanding.

Be Open and Honest

Transparency and honesty are key to fostering trust in any mentoring relationship. As mentors, we’re often looked up to for our experience and wisdom, but it’s important to remember that sharing our struggles and mistakes can be just as valuable as sharing our successes. Being open about our own journey, including the challenges and missteps, helps create a safe environment where the mentee feels comfortable being vulnerable and asking for help.

I make it a point to share stories from my own career where things didn’t go as planned. For example, early in my career, I led a meticulously planned research project that ultimately fell short because I didn’t account for a key stakeholder’s needs. Instead of brushing this under the rug, I shared this story with a mentee who was feeling insecure about a project that wasn’t going smoothly.

I walked them through the mistakes I made and, more importantly, what I learned from the experience. This not only helped them feel less alone in their struggles but also reinforced the idea that mistakes are an integral part of learning and growth.

In an upcoming mentoring session, share a personal story where you faced a challenge or made a mistake in your career. Explain what went wrong, how you felt at the time, and what you learned from the experience. Follow this by asking your mentee if they’ve ever had a similar experience, creating a dialogue that encourages openness.

Emphasize Vulnerability

Vulnerability is an incredibly powerful tool in mentorship. By being vulnerable, you show your mentee that it’s okay not to have all the answers and that learning is a continuous process, even for those with years of experience.

I always make it a point to share instances where I didn’t have all the answers or where I felt uncertain. This might include times when I struggled to communicate research findings effectively or when a project didn’t yield the expected results.

I was overwhelmed by a particularly complex research problem at one point. I shared with my mentee how I felt stuck and how I reached out to my peers for advice, showing them that even experienced researchers need help sometimes. This kind of honesty not only demystifies the research process but also encourages the mentee to be open about their own challenges, fostering a deeper, more trusting relationship.

By starting with a personal connection, being open and honest, and embracing vulnerability, you create a mentorship environment where trust can flourish. This trust is the bedrock upon which meaningful growth and learning are built, allowing both mentor and mentee to navigate the ups and downs of their careers with confidence and support.

Actively demonstrate vulnerability by admitting when you don’t have all the answers. The next time your mentee asks for advice on a complex issue, if you’re unsure, be honest about it. I tell my mentees when I am unsure of exactly how to answer their questions, and either I try to do some research and come back to them later, or we bounce ideas back and forth. This shows that it’s okay not to have all the answers and reinforces the idea that learning is a continuous process.

Get Started with Mentorship

The first meeting is crucial in setting the tone for the entire mentorship. It’s your opportunity to establish a strong foundation and ensure that both you and your mentee are aligned on your goals and expectations. Here is how I set up the first meeting:

Introduction and personal connection:

Start with a brief introduction of yourself, highlighting your background, your experience in user research, and why you’re passionate about mentoring. Then, invite your mentee to share a bit about themselves. For example, I often start by saying, “I’ve been in user research for over a decade, and I’ve found that mentoring is one of the most rewarding aspects of my career. I’m excited to learn more about you and how I can support your growth.”

Ask a light-hearted question to ease into the conversation, such as:

• What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

• What’s a fun fact about you that most people don’t know?

I also take a few minutes to ask about hobbies and interests and share some about myself, too.

Discuss the onboarding questions:

Ideally, you could send your mentee an onboarding document with the questions from above ahead of time so you have some time to review their answers and spend some of the session probing into their goals rather than defining them for the first time. I learned this approach helps with having an effective first meeting where everyone feels like something has been accomplished.

During the first meeting, use the onboarding document as your guide. Start by acknowledging the effort they put into completing it and thanking them for their thoughtful responses. Then, move deeper into probing the answers they’ve provided. For instance, if they mentioned wanting to improve their usability testing skills, ask them to elaborate on what specific aspects they struggle with or what success looks like for them in that area.

By getting a bit more context into what they want to accomplish, you can create really clear goals and a plan that can help them achieve their goals effectively.

Set goals for the mentorship:

Work together to set clear, achievable goals for the mentorship. These should be specific and aligned with the mentee’s aspirations they brought up in the onboarding document. For instance, if the mentee wants to improve their usability testing skills, a goal might be:

• Conduct three usability tests independently and analyze the results by the end of the next quarter.

To ensure that goals are clear and achievable, it’s helpful to use the SMART criteria—Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. This framework ensures that each goal is well-defined and that both you and your mentee can track progress effectively.

• Specific: Make the goal as clear and specific as possible. For example, instead of setting a vague goal like “Improve research skills,” you might say, “Conduct three usability tests independently and analyze the results by the end of the quarter.”

• Measurable: Ensure there’s a way to measure progress. For instance, “Complete a portfolio with three case studies demonstrating different research methodologies” allows both of you to see tangible progress.

• Achievable: The goal should be challenging but realistic. Set a goal that pushes the mentee but is within reach, given their current skill level and resources.

• Relevant: The goal should relate to the mentee’s broader aspirations. For instance, if they want to move into a strategic role, a goal could be to “Present research findings to senior stakeholders and contribute to strategic decision-making.”

• Time-bound: Set a clear timeline for when the goal should be achieved. This adds urgency and helps maintain focus. For example, “Complete this goal within the next three months.”

A SMART goal could be, “By the end of the next quarter, complete three in-depth user interviews, synthesize the findings into actionable insights, and present them to the product team.”

It’s common for mentees to have multiple areas they want to improve, but trying to tackle too many at once can be overwhelming. Help your mentee prioritize their goals by focusing on the ones that will have the most significant impact on their development or current role.

If your mentee expresses interest in both improving their survey design skills and learning a new data analysis tool but is currently working on a project where survey design is crucial, prioritize the goal related to survey design. This ensures that the mentorship is immediately relevant and impactful.

Goals should not be static. As the mentorship progresses, regularly revisit the goals to assess how well they are being met and to make adjustments as needed. This is particularly important if the mentee’s circumstances change, such as taking on a new role or encountering unexpected challenges.

Outline the future:

Establish how often you’ll meet, how you’ll communicate, and what each session will focus on — I highly recommend a roadmap for future sessions.

Encourage your mentee to prepare an agenda or list of topics they’d like to discuss before each meeting. Prior to each meeting, I typically check in with these four questions:

1. What happened in your work since our last chat?

2. What's the #1 challenge or question in your head right now?

3. How are you feeling about how things are going?

4. What do you want to get out of our next chat?

This ensures that each session is focused and effective.

Create a Mentorship Plan

A mentorship plan is a simple but effective tool that helps keep the relationship focused and on track. It provides a roadmap for both the mentor and mentee, ensuring that the goals set during your initial meeting are actively pursued. Here’s how you can create one:

Define Clear Goals:

After discussing your mentee’s aspirations, translate them into specific goals. For example, if your mentee wants to enhance their user interview techniques, a goal might be, “Complete a series of mock interviews with feedback, followed by leading two real user interviews by the end of the quarter.”

Set Timelines:

Assign realistic timelines to each goal to ensure steady progress. For instance, “By the end of the first month, have one mock interview completed with a feedback session.”

Identify Milestones:

Break down each goal into smaller, manageable milestones. For example, for improving interview skills:

• Week 1: Review and refine interview questions.

• Week 2: Conduct a mock interview with the mentor.

• Week 3: Receive feedback and refine techniques.

• Week 4: Conduct a real user interview with observation.

Schedule Regular Check-ins:

Schedule regular check-ins to review progress. During these check-ins, discuss what’s working and what’s challenging and make any necessary adjustments to the plan.

Document the Plan:

Create a simple document or template to track the goals, timelines, milestones, and meeting notes. Share this with your mentee and encourage them to update it regularly. You can use tools like Google Docs, Notion, or even a shared Excel sheet for this purpose.

Reviewing the Fundamentals

I really struggled with helping to assess the fundamentals for a while, but then I created a user research skills matrix to help my mentees understand where they are currently and what gaps they might have in some of the fundamental skills.

In this matrix, I listed out all the technical and soft skills I could think of for a user researcher and mapped them to (approximately) a level, as well as more general levels in careers. These levels include:

• Follower: This is typically associated with your first job or internship. As a follower, you are action-oriented and task-focused as you do what others tell you.

• Collaborator: You begin to work closely with others. You’re still operating from your technical skill set, but you will develop valuable people skills through collaboration with stakeholders.

• Instructor: You continue to hone your skills and help others through education or democratization. You start to teach others how to do small jobs so you can focus on more strategic impact.

• Expert/Manager: You can go in two directions at this stage:

  • Individual contributor: You hone and expand your skillsets, becoming an expert in 1-2 areas 

  • Manager: You will need to motivate direct reports and learn how to manage them by giving objectives and goals, as well
    as the means to pursue and achieve them. 

• Influencer: You directly influence people in other departments at your level or even a level above you. 

• Leader: You spend much of your time strategically empowering and inspiring others, such as creating a team vision. Instead of telling them what to do, you tell them what to think about. Your biggest priority is motivating teams and the organization. 

These align with different levels within user research and help you define what your mentee can do to strengthen your current role or advance to the next level.

Have your mentee fill out this matrix then look at the checks and the corresponding role. Which level does your mentee have the most checks in at or above the thriving stage? That is your mentee’s current level as per this particular matrix. 

What’s great about this skill list is it can highlight the gaps your mentee didn’t even know existed, which can lead to the most effective mentorship because you are focused on the key skills that really matter. This matrix will help you and your mentee first fortify the skills at their current level before rushing into the next level.

Developing Key Skills Through Practice

As I mentioned before, learning theory was one thing but actually practicing skills, even if not exactly in the direct UXR experience, was super important. Sometimes it is difficult for mentees to practice skills directly in the workplace, so I also like to have practical ways for them to practice with me.

Active listening exercises

Active listening is one of the most critical skills a user researcher can develop, as it allows us to truly understand users’ needs and concerns. However, active listening isn’t just about hearing the words being spoken—it’s about fully engaging with the speaker, understanding their message, and responding thoughtfully.

One of the most effective ways I’ve found to develop this skill is through reflective listening exercises. For example, during a mentoring session, I might have my mentee conduct a mock interview with me playing the role of the user. After each question, I encourage them to repeat back what they heard, but in their own words.

This exercise forces them to focus not just on the words but on the underlying meaning and emotions behind them. I remember working with a mentee who initially struggled with this exercise because they were so focused on their next question that they weren’t fully absorbing what I was saying.

By practicing reflective listening, they gradually became more attuned to the nuances of the conversation, which greatly improved their ability to gather deeper insights in real interviews.

Another exercise involves asking open-ended questions and then listening without interruption. For instance, I once asked a mentee to interview me about a hypothetical user experience issue. Their task was to ask questions like, “Can you tell me more about how that made you feel?” and then let me speak without jumping in too quickly. This helps the mentee practice patience and allows the user to express their thoughts fully, which often leads to richer, more detailed responses.

Set up a practice session in which your mentee conducts a user interview focused on reflective listening. After the session, discuss what they heard and how effectively they captured the user’s true message.

Effective communication practices

Effective communication is at the heart of user research—whether you’re delivering findings to stakeholders, giving feedback to team members, or conducting interviews with users. Over the years, I’ve learned that clear and constructive communication can make all the difference in how your message is received and acted upon.

One tip I always share with my mentees is to deliver feedback that is specific, actionable, and encouraging. I recall a time early in my career when I received feedback that was vague and left me unsure of how to improve. Since then, I’ve made it a point to ensure my feedback is clear and directly tied to actions the person can take.

Instead of saying, “Your report needs work,” I would say, “Your report has some strong points, but to make it more effective, try focusing more on the user insights rather than just the data. You could add a section that ties the findings back to the original research questions.”

Another important practice is to avoid information overload. I teach my mentees to prioritize the most critical points they need to communicate, especially when presenting research findings to stakeholders. I encourage them to create a concise summary of key findings at the beginning of their presentation, followed by more detailed information. This approach ensures that even if the audience only has time to hear the summary, they still walk away with the most important insights.

Have your mentee deliver a research finding or feedback to you as if you were a stakeholder or colleague. Afterward, provide them with feedback on how clear and actionable their communication was and discuss ways to improve.

Role-playing scenarios

Role-playing is an incredibly powerful tool for practicing and refining research skills in a safe, controlled environment. It allows mentees to simulate real-world scenarios, receive feedback, and make adjustments before they’re in a high-stakes situation.

One of my favorite role-playing exercises is to simulate a user interview. I’ll take on the role of a user with a specific problem or perspective, and the mentee will practice interviewing me. This helps them learn how to handle different types of users—those who are talkative, those who are reticent, and those who might be frustrated.

I remember one particular session where my mentee struggled with a “difficult” user (played by me), who kept giving short, uninformative answers. Through role-play, we worked on techniques to gently probe for more information, such as asking follow-up questions like, “Can you walk me through what happened next?” or “How did that impact your experience?”

Another effective role-playing scenario is conducting a usability test. I set up a mock product or prototype and acted as a participant. The mentee guides me through tasks, observing how I interact with the product and taking notes. This exercise helps them practice not just the mechanics of usability testing but also how to observe without influencing the user’s behavior—a critical skill in gathering unbiased data.

Finally, I also use role-play to practice presenting research findings. The mentee presents to me as if I were a key stakeholder, and I ask challenging questions to simulate a real presentation environment. This not only helps them refine their presentation skills but also prepares them for the kinds of questions and pushbacks they might encounter in actual meetings.

Schedule a role-playing session where your mentee can practice a specific research task, such as interviewing, usability testing, or presenting findings. Provide real-time feedback during the exercise and discuss improvements afterward.

Guiding Through Research Projects

One of the most impactful ways I received feedback from mentors was to help me by guiding me through complex projects. With this approach, I was able to get continuous feedback on my process and iterate and improve as I went. It not only taught me how to approach projects on my own but opened my eyes to how many ways I could set up a project.

Project scoping

One of the first and most crucial steps in any research project is defining clear objectives and setting realistic boundaries. As a mentor, guiding your mentees through this process not only helps them focus their efforts but also sets the stage for a successful project.

When I work with a mentee on project scoping, I start by helping them clearly define the research goals. I often ask them to articulate what they want to learn from the study and how these insights will be used. For example, a mentee once came to me with a broad goal of “improving user satisfaction.” We spent time narrowing this down to more specific objectives, such as “identifying the key pain points in the onboarding process for new users.” By focusing on a specific area, we were able to create a more targeted and manageable research plan.

After defining the objectives, it’s important to set realistic project boundaries. Mentees sometimes want to explore too many questions at once, which can dilute the impact of their research. I guided a mentee who wanted to investigate multiple aspects of user behavior in a single study. I advised them to prioritize the most critical questions and leave the rest for future research.

This not only made the project more feasible but also ensured that the findings would be more actionable. We scoped the project to focus specifically on user interactions with a particular feature, setting clear boundaries on what was and wasn’t included in the study.

Have your mentee draft a project scope document that includes the research goals, key questions, and boundaries. Review this document together, providing feedback and helping them refine it until it’s clear, focused, and achievable.

Design the study

Once the project scope is defined, the next step is designing the research study through a research plan. This is where the choice of methodologies, participant selection, and study logistics come into play. I always emphasize to my mentees the importance of aligning the research design with the goals we’ve set.

We begin by choosing the right methodologies. For instance, if the goal is to understand user motivations, I might suggest qualitative methods like in-depth interviews or contextual inquiries. I remember working with a mentee who was planning to use a survey to gather insights on user motivations. After discussing the objectives, we realized that interviews would provide richer, more nuanced data. We switched the approach, and the depth of insight we gained was far beyond what a survey could have provided.

Next, we discuss participant selection. It’s crucial to ensure that the participants accurately represent the target user group. I once guided a mentee through this process by helping them develop a screener survey to recruit participants. We focused on identifying key characteristics that aligned with the research goals—such as users who had recently completed the onboarding process. This careful selection process helped us gather relevant and insightful data.

Finally, we map out the logistics of the study—timelines, tools, and resources needed. For example, if we’re planning usability tests, we discuss the tools for recording sessions, the locations (remote or in-person), and the timing. I recall a situation where a mentee underestimated the time required for recruiting participants and scheduling sessions. We reworked the timeline together, building in buffer time for recruitment and any unexpected delays.

Work with your mentee to create a detailed research plan. This plan should outline the chosen methodologies, participant criteria, and a step-by-step plan for conducting the study. Regularly review this plan as the project progresses, making adjustments as needed.

Data collection and analysis

The data collection phase is where the research starts to come to life, and it’s essential to ensure that it’s conducted meticulously. As a mentor, your role is to oversee this process and help your mentee adhere to best practices.

During data collection, I often shadow my mentees, especially if they’re new to a particular method. For example, I once had a mentee who was conducting usability tests for the first time. I sat in on a few sessions—not to take over, but to observe and provide feedback afterward.

This allowed me to guide them on how to ask follow-up questions and manage the flow of the session without leading the participants. After each session, we would debrief, discussing what went well and what could be improved. This hands-on guidance helped the mentee gain confidence and skill in moderating usability tests.

When it comes to data analysis, it’s important to teach your mentee how to synthesize and interpret the data effectively. I encourage them to start with a thorough review of the data, identifying patterns and key insights. For instance, after completing a round of user interviews, I worked with a mentee to create an affinity diagram—a visual tool that groups data based on common themes. This exercise helped them see connections between different user responses and identify overarching trends.

I also stress the importance of maintaining objectivity during analysis. I once noticed a mentee eager to confirm a hypothesis they had, and this was influencing how they interpreted the data. We discussed confirmation bias and the importance of letting the data speak for itself. We revisited the data together, focusing on analyzing it without preconceived notions. This experience was a valuable lesson in maintaining research integrity.

Schedule regular check-ins during the data collection phase to observe and provide feedback. For the analysis phase, work with your mentee to create visual aids (such as affinity diagrams or charts) that help in identifying patterns. Review their findings together, ensuring that the conclusions drawn are well-supported by the data.

By guiding your mentee through project scoping, research design, and data collection and analysis, you’re equipping them with the skills and confidence needed to lead their own successful research projects. This hands-on, supportive approach not only helps them develop technically but also builds their ability to think critically and independently as a researcher.

Feedback frameworks

Providing constructive feedback is one of the most impactful aspects of mentorship. It’s an opportunity to guide your mentee toward growth while building their confidence and skills. However, delivering feedback in a way that is clear, actionable, and supportive can be challenging. This is where feedback frameworks like the SBI (Situation-Behavior-Impact) model come into play.

The SBI model is a straightforward and effective way to structure feedback. It helps you focus on specific behaviors and their impacts rather than making generalized comments. Here’s how it works:

• Situation: Describe the situation where the behavior occurred. Be specific about the context.

• Behavior: Focus on the behavior that you observed rather than making judgments about the person.

• Impact: Explain the impact of the behavior—how it affected the project, the team, or the outcome.

I remember mentoring a researcher who was leading a user interview for the first time. During the session, they were so eager to gather data that they frequently interrupted the participant. Afterward, I used the SBI model to provide feedback.

I said, “During the interview yesterday (Situation), I noticed that you interrupted the participant several times while they were sharing their thoughts (Behavior). This made it difficult for them to fully express their experiences, and we might have missed out on some valuable insights (Impact).”

By framing the feedback this way, I was able to address the issue directly without making the mentee feel defensive. We then discussed strategies for improving, such as practicing active listening and allowing pauses after a participant speaks to encourage them to continue.

Using the SBI model not only clarifies feedback but also ensures that it’s constructive and focused on improvement. It shifts the conversation from blame to growth, which is essential in a mentorship relationship.

Another effective feedback framework is the “GROW” model, which stands for Goal, Reality, Options, and Will. This framework is particularly useful for guiding mentees toward self-reflection and problem-solving, making it more interactive than simply delivering feedback.

Goal: Start by discussing what the mentee wants to achieve. This could be related to a specific skill, project outcome, or long-term career aspiration.

• “What is the specific outcome you’re aiming for with this user research project?”

Reality: Explore the current situation. What is happening now? What challenges are they facing? This step helps both you and the mentee understand the context and identify any gaps between where they are and where they want to be.

• “What challenges are you encountering with the project? How are things progressing so far?”

Options: Encourage the mentee to brainstorm possible ways to overcome the challenges or improve their approach. Discuss various strategies or solutions they could implement.

• “What are some ways you think you could address the challenges you’re facing? Are there alternative methods or approaches you haven’t considered yet?”

Will: Finally, focus on the next steps. What actions will the mentee take, and what support do they need from you? This step ensures that the feedback is actionable and that there is a clear plan moving forward.

• “What specific steps will you take to move forward? How can I support you in this?”

Using either of these frameworks is a fantastic way for you to structure feedback in a non-threatening and effective way that highlights growth and feedback in a way that is constructive.

Evaluating the Mentorship

Self-assessment

A key part of any successful mentorship is evaluating how the relationship is progressing. This isn’t just about checking off goals; it’s about understanding how effective the mentorship has been in supporting both the mentee’s and the mentor’s growth. One of the most effective ways to do this is by using self-assessment tools.

I like to provide my mentees with a simple questionnaire or reflection tool that prompts them to think about their own progress and the value they’re getting from the mentorship, including questions like:

• How confident do you feel in the skills we’ve focused on?

• What aspects of our sessions have been most helpful to you?

These kinds of questions help the mentee reflect on their journey and identify areas where they’ve grown, as well as areas where they might need more support.

For the mentors, including myself, self-assessment is equally important. I use a similar tool to reflect on my effectiveness as a mentor, using questions like

• Have I been providing the right level of support and challenge?

• What could I improve in my approach?

Answers to these questions help me evaluate whether I’m meeting the mentee’s needs and contributing positively to their development.

Collecting feedback

In addition to self-assessment, it’s crucial to gather direct feedback from your mentee about the mentorship process. This feedback helps you understand how your mentee perceives the relationship and provides valuable insights into areas that might need adjustment.

I make it a point to ask my mentees for feedback regularly, not just at the end of the mentorship. During a regular check-in, you could ask, “How are you finding our sessions? Is there anything you’d like to change or focus on more?”

I recall a situation where a mentee expressed that they felt overwhelmed by the amount of information we were covering in each session. Based on this feedback, I adjusted our meetings to focus more on in-depth exploration of fewer topics rather than trying to cover too much at once. This made our sessions more manageable and allowed the mentee to absorb and apply the information more effectively.

Sometimes, mentees might be hesitant to give constructive feedback directly, especially if they’re concerned about offending the mentor. To address this, I’ve found that using an anonymous feedback form can be incredibly useful. It gives the mentee a safe space to share their thoughts openly.

When I first introduced this in my mentoring practice, I received valuable insights that I might not have gotten otherwise—such as a suggestion to include more practical, hands-on exercises in our sessions, which greatly enhanced the learning experience.

By incorporating self-assessment tools and consistently collecting feedback, you can ensure that your mentorship remains dynamic, responsive, and effective. This approach not only enhances the mentee's experience but also allows you to grow as a mentor, continuously refining your approach to better support others' development.

Practice!

Engaging in mentorship is not just about guiding others—it’s a powerful way to deepen your own skills and understanding as well. Each mentoring experience offers new insights, challenges, and opportunities for growth, both for the mentor and the mentee. By practicing mentorship, you continuously refine your ability to communicate, teach, and problem-solve, all while gaining fresh perspectives from those you mentor.

It’s a reciprocal relationship that not only strengthens your expertise but also enriches your professional journey. So, as you help others grow, remember that you’re also growing—becoming a more effective researcher, a better communicator, and a more empathetic leader.

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One of the cringiest things in the world is listening back to my old 1x1 research interviews. Not only can I not stand the sound of my own voice but, wow, I made a lot of mistakes over and over and over (and over….you get it) again.

For a large part of my career, I was a solo user researcher and didn’t have a user research manager. I was typically managed by designers, product managers, data analytics, or marketing. With this situation, I really struggled to find ways to improve my craft. Yes, I could ask my peers and manager, but I was meant to be “the expert” and there was no one at my organizations with more expertise than me.

(Sometimes that in and of itself was a very scary and overwhelming thought).

So, when I would look around, trying to figure out how I could improve the actual concrete craft, I was left feeling alone and confused. How was I supposed to improve my interviews when no one felt like they could give me feedback (or had time to, for that matter)?

I’ve heard this same point reiterated by many user researchers on their journeys to improvement — how to improve when no one is there to give you advice?

Why Self-Assessment is Important

Being aware of your skillsets and what you need to do to improve is honestly one of the cornerstones of personal and professional development. Have you ever tried to give feedback to someone who didn’t think they had to improve? Or have you ever continued to try the same approach repeatedly with crappy results?

If you’re nodding, I’ve been there too.

By being open to self-assessment, and taking the time to hone your skills, you are able to stay ahead of the (competitive) curve. I found it hugely beneficial when I could clearly articulate my strengths and weaknesses within job interviews or performance reviews — highlighting what I needed to improve didn’t mean I wasn’t a good researcher, but showed others that I had a plan for continuously progressing in my career.

Self-assessment is not just a practice; it’s a mindset that fosters continuous learning and improvement. It helps you stay competitive, gather higher quality insights, grow professionally, and enjoy benefits that make your work more efficient and satisfying. Embracing self-assessment equips you to be a better user researcher.

DIY Assessment

I quickly learned that, if I was going to get better, I had to find a way to DIY my feedback. As much as I just wanted to sit and hope someone would give me the magic bullet of feedback, I had to face the reality: as someone who enjoyed being a solo and first UXR, I wasn’t always going to have the luxury of a user research manager or peers to give me feedback.

Luckily, at one point in my career, I had a fantastic manager who turned to me after I had finished some of my first generative research projects and said:

“It’s time for you to listen back to your interviews.”

I laughed because, well, I could barely even listen to my ten second voicemail message (back when that was a thing and I spent like three hours crafting a funny yet cool voicemail), so how was I meant to listen to hours of my own voice? Bleh.

But, because my manager was awesome, I did it (still begrudgingly, of course) and, I must admit, I learned a lot. However, I got out of the practice when I had to juggle more and more work across teams and the organization.

When I started thinking about DIY-ing my feedback, my old manager’s voice echoed in my head and I realized I had to go back to assessing my own interviews through listening to them.

And I did. But, while that had been helpful in the past to understand a bit more of how I could improve, just listening to my sessions wasn’t cutting it. I needed structure and something to provide more actionable feedback.

I went back to the drawing board and did some research, finding. Steinar Kvale's criteria of a good interviewer. I used this as a springboard to create a structure for assessing my interviews more effectively and in a way that I could gather actionable feedback.

Psst — you don’t have to do everything alone! Check out my:

• 1x1 call packages

• Continuous feedback program

The Interview Assessment Structure

To give myself more structure, and using Kvale’s resource as well as my previous experience assessing myself and others, I created an interview assessment sheet with overall aspects to focus on, as well as examples for each aspect:

Familiarity with the Topic

You have researched the domain you are about to enter, including industry trends and jargon, and awareness of potential competitors. If applicable, and you are conducting usability tests, you have a functional knowledge of the prototype or product you will be testing. Being well-prepared ensures you can engage deeply and knowledgeably with your participants.

Being familiar with the topic also means understanding the context in which your users operate. This allows you to ask more relevant questions and understand the nuances of their responses. It’s about seeing beyond the surface-level interactions and diving into the underlying needs and motivations of your users.

Example 1: While preparing for an interview about a new financial planning app, you delve into current financial planning trends, familiarize yourself with common jargon, and study competitor apps. This way, when participants mention specific financial strategies, you can follow along and ask insightful follow-up questions.

Example 2: If you are testing a new e-commerce website, you spend time exploring the site, understanding its features, and identifying potential issues. When a participant struggles with the checkout process, you can quickly identify if it’s a known issue or something new that needs addressing.

The Interview Was Structured

You start the conversation by explaining what the participant can expect and lay out the purpose of the discussion. The beginning of a research session can make or break the entire interview. If the participant feels you are robotic and reading from a script, they may have a hard time opening up to you. Conversely, if you don’t adequately explain what the research session is about, you leave the participant in the dark, which can feel very unnerving.

A well-structured interview ensures that all necessary topics are covered without making the participant feel rushed or ignored. It also helps in keeping the conversation focused and on track, which is particularly important when you have limited time with each participant.

Example 1: Before diving into questions, you explain, “Today, we’ll talk about your experiences with online shopping. There are no right or wrong answers, and your feedback will help us improve our service.”

Example 2: You structure the interview with clear sections, starting with warm-up questions to make the participant comfortable, then moving to more specific questions about their experiences, and ending with a wrap-up that allows for any additional thoughts or questions.

Everything Was Clear

The questions you asked were short and straightforward, which is especially crucial in usability testing. We want our questions to be as open-ended as possible. I use the TEDW method:

• Tell me about…

• Explain…

• Describe…

• Walk me through.

These open questions lead to stories and conversations, which can give us much needed context and right insights, versus asking a continuous stream of yes/no questions.

Clear questions prevent confusion and ensure that the participant understands what is being asked. This clarity is vital for gathering accurate and useful data. It also helps in maintaining a natural flow of conversation, which can lead to more genuine and insightful responses.

Example 1: Instead of asking, “Do you like using our app?” you ask, “Can you walk me through how you use our app on a typical day?”

Example 2: In a usability test for a new feature, instead of saying, “Does this feature work for you?” you say, “Describe how you would use this feature to complete a task.”

With usability testing, tasks need to be clear and directive. Creating small scenarios behind each task helps participants relate better and provide more natural responses.

Example: IKEA’s usability test improved significantly when they changed “find a bookcase” to “You have over 100 books strewn around your apartment. Find a way to organize them.” This shift led participants to use the site more naturally, providing more valuable insights.

Few or No Interruptions

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One of the most difficult moments (there were quite a few, but we’d be here forever if I listed them — future podcast episode maybe? 😅) in my user research career was walking into my first performance review. I was nervous.

No, terrified.

I’d had performance reviews in the past in different roles, but never in my life as a user researcher.

I had started working at this company about six months prior, my first user research role. I’d come in as an intern making a $25,000 stipend. This was peanuts in Manhattan, so I supplemented it with other jobs where I taught English online, picked up some waitressing shifts, and did some freelance editing and writing.

But my hope was to come on as more than just an intern and as a — gasp — junior user researcher, with a, hopefully, considerable pay rise. I’d hoped that they would have seen the value I brought to the organization, even if I didn’t necessarily always see it myself.

I didn’t do much to prepare for the performance review because I wasn’t entirely sure how to prepare. I knew what I wanted the outcome to be and had that in my mind as I walked through the door and sat down.

What happened next was a tough pill for me to swallow. I didn’t end up getting the promotion or pay rise I wanted. In fact, they wanted me to take on a hybrid role of a user researcher, designer, and product manager. I was absolutely gutted to say the least, and too shocked to really say anything or make any sort of case up on the spot. When my manager asked for goals I’d made and achieved or evidence to support my value, I stuttered and sputtered.

I immediately started searching for another job and, luckily, within a few months, I started my journey as a junior user researcher elsewhere.

However, I had learned my lesson. Performance reviews were extremely important and, by not prepping for mine, I’d let myself down. Having a case wouldn’t have necessarily changed the outcome of that particular meeting, but it sure would’ve helped. Since then, I’ve made sure to properly prepare for each and every performance review I’ve had.

If performance reviews stress you out, you’ve come to the right place. There are plenty of things you can do to help get better results in your reviews — let’s dive in.

Prefer to listen to an overview? Play below or view on YouTube:

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Understand the Set Up

Every single company is different in how they set up and run performance reviews — some have very little structure while others are extremely rigid. And, every single company rewards different types of work — some look for independence and autonomy, while some look for more collaboration.

When you go into your performance review, it is critical to understand what your organization values and how the review will be run. It is also crucial to know the cadence of reviews, and which reviews include a promotion or pay rise, so you have time to prepare.

What’s Important to Your Organization?

The first bit of information I always try to understand is what is important to the organization, because that will funnel down to what is important to teams, your colleagues, and your manager. This nugget of information is helpful both within and outside of performance reviews because it can help you set appropriate goals, prioritize particular research studies, and present the most impactful data to your teams.

By understanding what is important to your organization, you can make sure the work you do supports the business directly, and helps your company hit their goals. How do you identify this?

Ask Your Manager

Ideally, your manager should have an idea of what your organization values and the types of goals the company cares about. Typically, also, your manager’s goals will align with your organization’s goals (because everyone wants to be valued), so knowing your manager’s goals will help you be more valuable within your team and the broader company. If your manager is unsure, you could spearhead this initiative together.

For example, you ask your manager about the key priorities for the next quarter, and they mention improving the onboarding experience for new users. With this knowledge, you can focus your user research on understanding pain points in the current onboarding process and providing actionable insights to improve it.

Conduct Stakeholder Interviews

Your team’s goals should be directly related to what the organization is trying to accomplish. If the organization wants to increase revenue through retention, product teams should be focused on smaller metrics that move that needle. Talk to your stakeholders and colleagues about their goals. If you can directly help out with their goals, you’ll also be helping the company achieve what they need.

Lets say that during a stakeholder interview, the head of product mentions that they are focusing on reducing the churn rate. You then prioritize research studies that explore why users are leaving and suggest features or improvements that could enhance user retention.

Actually Listen to the All-Hands

I know all-hands meetings can feel like the bane of your existence. I’ve sat through so many with barely a sliver of attention because, damn, they can be boring. However, there are nuggets of information within these presentations that highlight what the organization is looking to accomplish in the next quarter, half-year, year, or beyond. This information can help you determine what the company deems as important.

For example, in an all-hands meeting, the CEO emphasizes the importance of expanding into new international markets. You can then tailor your research to include user studies from these regions to provide insights on local user behaviors and preferences.

See What Others are Rewarded for

If possible, talk to people who have received a promotion or pay rise recently and ask them about how what type of work they did to get that promotion/pay rise. Try to understand what others are being rewarded for.

If a colleague mentions that they received a promotion after leading a research project that significantly improved the mobile app’s usability, you can then look for similar impactful projects to take ownership of and showcase your ability to drive meaningful change.

Talk to Business Leaders/Executives

Speak with people who are decision-makers, or are at least close to decision-markers. Understanding what the decisions are that people are trying to make, or the aspects they find valuable can be really helpful in aligning your work with their decisions.

For example, during a conversation with the CMO, you learn that there is a strong focus on enhancing the user experience to differentiate from competitors. You then prioritize research that identifies key areas where the user experience can be improved to support this strategic goal.

Review Important Dashboards/Metrics.

Most companies have a dashboard or metrics they are trying to move. Understanding those high-level metrics will help you with doing work that helps to impact the most important goals of your organization.

Let’s say you notice that the company’s dashboard highlights a decline in user engagement on the website. You conduct research to understand the reasons behind this drop and provide recommendations to increase user engagement, thereby directly contributing to a key company metric.

What if it Keeps Changing?

A lot of companies change all the time. Since I’ve primarily worked in start-ups, I had to deal with a lot of shifting priorities and goals. It can be frustrating to feel like you never have a good grasp on what your company needs from you. However, one thing I learned is to let go of that need for control — we can’t control what is outside of us.

Instead, I tried my best to be flexible and adaptive. If things changed, I did my best to shift what I could. Here' are some ways you can keep up with shifting priorities and navigate this particular challenge:

1. Regular Communication with Stakeholders:

   1. Frequent Check-ins: Schedule regular meetings with key stakeholders, such as product managers, designers, or other relevant stakeholders. These check-ins can help you stay updated on any changes in priorities and ensure your research efforts align with current needs.

   2. Listening Sessions: Conduct periodic listening sessions with stakeholders to understand their evolving challenges and goals. This proactive approach allows you to anticipate changes and adjust your research focus accordingly.

2. Stay Informed on Company Goals:

   1. Attend Key Meetings: Make it a priority to attend all-hands meetings, quarterly reviews, and other important gatherings where company goals and priorities are discussed. Pay close attention to leadership messages and strategic updates.

   2. Review Internal Communications: Regularly review internal communications such as newsletters, emails, and dashboards. These often contain valuable information about shifting priorities and emerging areas of focus.

3. Flexibility in Research Planning:

   1. Adaptive Research Plans: Develop research plans that are flexible and can be adjusted as priorities change. Be prepared to pivot your focus based on new information or shifting business needs.

   2. Short-term and Long-term Goals: Balance your research efforts between short-term needs and long-term goals. This approach allows you to deliver immediate value while also working on strategic projects that align with the company’s broader objectives.

4. Building Strong Relationships:

   1. Collaborate Across Teams: Foster strong relationships with cross-functional teams. Being well-connected within the organization makes it easier to stay informed about changes and ensures your research is integrated into decision-making processes.

   2. Advocate for User Research: Continuously demonstrate the value of user research by sharing insights and showing how your work supports the company’s goals. This helps maintain the relevance of your research, even as priorities shift.

Keep in mind that you won’t always be able to be ahead of things and you might have to completely shift direction in the middle of a study — I’ve had to frustratingly do this a number of times. No one, including you, can predict the future and know all the information. Use all the data you can to make the best decision in that moment, breathe, and go from there.

Understand the Performance Review Process

Knowing is half the battle. When you understand how a process works, you are better equipped to handle and prepare for that process, and performance reviews are no different. I’ve walked into a review fully read to discuss a promotion, only to realize that wasn’t part of that particular cycle, so I had to wait another six months for promotion time. Frustration didn’t even begin to describe my feelings.

There is a lot of variety in how performance reviews work, and your organization might change over time. Check in with HR to understand the cycles and process at your company. Some of the most common are:

1. Unstructured/Ad Hoc: Managers conduct performance reviews without a real structure or set cadence. Feedback is given sporadically, often when pay raises are announced.

   1. Common in: Smaller companies where performance reviews are less formal.

   2. Upside: Minimal time consumption and less stress. Flexibility in focusing on immediate research needs without rigid guidelines.

   3. Downside: Your rating heavily depends on your manager’s personal opinion of you, which may lead to inconsistency. Important contributions may go unnoticed if not documented properly.

   4. Example: As a user researcher, you might receive feedback only when a major project wraps up or when budgeting decisions are made, rather than regular check-ins.

2. Manager-Only Input and Feedback: This setup is more structured, often involving a lightweight expectations document for your role. The review consists of your manager providing feedback.

   1. Key Factor: It’s crucial that your manager is well-informed about your work. Building a strong relationship with them can significantly impact your review outcome.

   2. Upside: Clearer expectations and more regular feedback can help guide your work.

   3. Downside: Limited perspective since feedback is only from your manager. You may miss out on valuable insights from peers.

   4. Example: You might have a bi-annual review where your manager evaluates your contributions to key research projects, usability studies, and how well your findings have been integrated into product development.

3. Peer Feedback-Based Performance Review: A regular process where team members provide feedback on their peers, which the manager reviews and delivers with a rating.

   1. Key Factor: Your relationship with your peers is influential in determining your review outcome. Positive peer relationships can lead to better reviews.

   2. Upside: Diverse perspectives can provide a well-rounded view of your performance.

   3. Downside: Peer reviews can sometimes be biased based on interpersonal relationships rather than objective performance.

   4. Example: You may receive feedback from designers, developers, and product managers on how your research insights have influenced their work, your collaboration effectiveness, and the clarity of your communication.

4. Formal, Heavyweight Process: Common in Big Tech and later-stage startups, this process is designed to counter biases. It typically involves writing feedback for peers, producing a self-review, and your manager compiling a written review based on these inputs.

   1. Upside: You usually receive specific, detailed feedback, which can be very actionable.

   2. Downside: The process can be time-consuming and require significant effort. It may also create stress around the documentation and review periods.

   3. Example: In a formal review, you might be required to submit detailed reports on your research methodologies, findings, and impacts. You’ll also write peer reviews and a self-assessment highlighting your major contributions, such as improving user satisfaction scores or reducing user friction points.

Understanding the specific performance review process in your organization can help you better prepare and align your efforts with company expectations For user researchers, it’s especially important to document your impact meticulously, as the value of your work might not always be immediately visible but significantly influences product decisions and user satisfaction in the long run.

Once you understand the general structure, it’s important to understand a few more of the finer details:

1. Seek Advice for a Fair Review: Talk with experienced peers within your team and other departments. They likely have tips on what can help or hinder a fair review. Experienced user researchers might suggest documenting how your research has directly impacted product decisions, showcasing your contributions in team meetings, and collecting positive feedback from stakeholders throughout the year.

2. Identify the Final Decision-Maker: While it will almost certainly be your manager, it’s crucial to clarify this. In some organizations, senior leaders or a review committee may have the final say, especially for promotions or significant raises. Understanding if your manager consults with the head of product or UX lead before finalizing reviews can give you insight into whose opinions might influence your evaluation.

3. Understand the Evaluation Criteria: Clarify what specific criteria are used to evaluate your performance. This may include research quality, impact on product decisions, stakeholder satisfaction, and how well you align with company values. Ensure you know whether you are being evaluated on the number of studies conducted, the quality of insights generated, or the actionable changes your research has led to in the product.

4. Understand Calibration and Comparison: Learn how the calibration process works, where your performance is compared with peers. This helps ensure consistency and fairness in ratings. Understand if your research contributions will be calibrated against other researchers, designers, or a broader team. This knowledge can help you better position your work and contributions.

5. Determine Who Provides Major Input: Determine whether peers, cross-functional stakeholders, or direct reports have meaningful input. Knowing this can help you understand whose feedback will be considered. If your performance review involves feedback from product managers, designers, and developers, make sure to cultivate strong working relationships with these stakeholders and regularly communicate your research impact.

6. Confirm Documentation Requirements: Confirm what documents or reports you need to submit as part of the review process. This could include a self-assessment, project summaries, and impact reports. Prepare a comprehensive portfolio that includes case studies of major research projects, summaries of key findings, evidence of stakeholder feedback, and metrics showing the impact of your research on the product.

7. Know the Review Timeline: Identify the key dates and deadlines in the review process. This includes when peer reviews and self-reviews are due, when calibrations occur, and when outcomes are communicated. Mark your calendar with these dates and set reminders to gather and prepare all necessary documentation, ensuring you have enough time to reflect on and highlight your significant research contributions.

8. Grasp the Review Process Details: Understand how feedback is gathered and used in the review. Is there a formal feedback submission system? Are there any mid-year reviews or checkpoints? Familiarize yourself with any tools or platforms used for submitting feedback, and take advantage of mid-year reviews to get preliminary feedback and adjust your goals if necessary.

Understanding these key details make a world of difference when you get to your performance review — not only will you fully understand the context, making it easier for you to prepare exactly what you need, but it will also up your confidence considerably. When I gathered all this context prior to my performance review, the entire experienced changed, for the better.

The best thing you can do is set yourself up for success.

Set Your Goals

I usually use OKRs to create goals. When I first set off to create OKRs, it was hilariously painful. My goals consisted of extremely vague and non-measurable ideas. Uninspiring and not an easy promotion case for my manager to make. I realized that I didn’t really understand how OKRs worked, so I researched (of course) to come up with some steps to help me with breaking down the different components.

I often get overwhelmed with bigger concepts so being able to make OKRs smaller and more manageable was key for me in using them consistently and effectively. For this, I followed a plan that I still follow today:

Step 1: Reflect on Your Career Aspirations

First things first, take a moment to think about where you want to go in your career. What excites you? What kind of impact do you want to make? Maybe you dream of becoming a thought leader in user research, or perhaps you want to develop a new set of skills. Write down your big-picture aspirations.

If you are having a difficult time with this, take some time to answer these questions:

1. What part of your current role do you enjoy the most? Why? 

2. What part of your current role are you struggling with? Why? 

3. How would you describe success in your current role? 

4. What are 3-5 of your strengths? 

5. What are 2-3 of your weaknesses? 

By understanding a mix of what you are feeling good about and where you want to improve, you can find some different areas you want to move forward in.

For example, some of my more recent career aspirations (when I was in-house) included:

1. Becoming more fluent in mixed methods research

2. Being more effective at stakeholder management

3. Sharing research more effectively across the organization

Step 2: Turn Aspirations into Objectives

After you identify the things you want to improve, those aspirations, its time to turn them into objectives. An Objective is a statement of what you want to achieve—it’s your North Star. Make sure it’s inspiring and a bit of a stretch. For example, if you aspire to become a recognized expert in user research, your Objective might be: “Become a thought leader in user research within the next two years.”

This is something I actually thought about and worked on myself. It was about 2018 when I decided I wanted to become a thought leader in user research and to help others advance/gain confidence in their careers. I started out with that larger objective and broke it down into more tangible key results. I won’t lie, at the time it felt nearly impossible, but with understanding the specific steps I wanted to take, I actually got to a place I feel good about.

This is the same with more in-house skills as well, such as incorporating more mixed methods research into your process, becoming a better workshop facilitator, or mastering generative research.

Think about what really drives you because those will become the most motivating and inspiring objectives.

Step 3: Break Down Objectives into Key Results

Next, you’ll break down your Objective into specific, measurable Key Results. These are the steps you need to take to reach your goal. Think of them as the milestones on your journey. For each Key Result, ask yourself, “What does success look like?”

Here’s how my thought leader objective looked and how I broke it down into key results.

Objective: Become a thought leader in user research within the next two years.

• Key Result 1: Publish weekly articles on Medium and through UX Collective (they picked up my publications at the time) and get recognized for the writing by being shared across connections

• Key Result 2: Speak at two major user research conferences

• Key Result 3: Grow my professional network by 500 LinkedIn connections

• Key Result 4: Start an introduction to user research course to help others grow in the field and to share expertise more broadly

Each of these key results was not only measurable, but they were also attainable, as scary as some of them were (particularly the course). However, I was super passionate about becoming more of a thought leader in the field. As I achieved those key results, I continued to intensify and iterate on them, such as:

• Key Result 1: Write a book on setting a research foundation at an organization based on your experience (Heyyyya, Impact)

• Key Result 2: Host and be a keynote speaker at three conferences in 2024

• Key Result 3: Start and maintain a successful user research membership to help others advance in their career and spread positive knowledge on the field

• Key Result 4: Become an expert user researcher in Jersey through continued consultancy in the local government, finance, and education departments

As you can see, this path continued after I had achieved a certain level of that goal of becoming a thought leader, which is one of the amazing qualities of OKRs. You can continue to update your key results as you reach them or as your career aspirations change.

*Want to learn even more about setting goals? Check out this detailed article!*

Align Your Goals

I’ve made the huge mistake several times by forging ahead on goals before checking in with my manager. What happened was a bit of a train wreck — I’d accomplished things, but they weren’t as aligned with my manager’s expectations as they could have been. This led to huge amounts of disappointment for myself and my manager.

Here are some great ways to align your goals.

Share with Your Manager

Share your draft goals with your manager early in the process and ask for their feedback. This not only ensures alignment but also shows your proactive approach to your professional development. For example, you might say, “I’ve outlined a few goals that align with our team’s focus on enhancing the onboarding experience. Can we discuss how these align with our broader objectives?” Additionally, if you have a mentor within the organization, seek their input as well. Mentors can provide valuable insights and help you refine your goals based on their experience. They might point out areas you hadn’t considered or suggest ways to make your goals more impactful.

After gathering feedback, iterate on your goals. Modify them to better align with the feedback received, ensuring they are realistic yet challenging. A well-aligned goal might be, “Complete three usability studies on the new feature by the end of Q3 and provide actionable insights to the product team.” This goal is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART), making it easier to track progress and demonstrate success.

Once your goals are refined, it’s crucial to secure your manager’s endorsement. An endorsed goal ensures that your manager is on board with your plan, which can be beneficial during the performance review.

Document your goals clearly and make sure they are officially recorded in whatever performance management system your organization uses. This documentation serves as a reference point throughout the review period.

Have Regular Check-Ins

Achieving your goals is a significant milestone, but it’s equally important to have regular check-ins with your manager to discuss your progress. These check-ins are opportunities to adjust your goals if priorities shift and to get real-time feedback. You might say, “Based on our initial goals, I’ve completed the first round of user testing. Here are the insights I’ve gathered. Do you think we should pivot our focus based on these findings?”

It’s also wise to have a discussion about your performance in relation to these goals. While a responsible manager cannot guarantee an above-average performance review based solely on meeting set goals due to the comparative nature of reviews, they can provide guidance on whether your goals are setting you up to meet or exceed expectations. Ask questions like, “Do these goals help me meet expectations, or do they stretch me to exceed expectations for my role?” This conversation can offer valuable pointers on how to approach your work.

Ultimately, setting and aligning goals as a user researcher involves a continuous dialogue with your manager and stakeholders, regular adjustments based on feedback, and a strategic approach to aligning your personal growth with the company’s objectives. By following these steps, you ensure that your contributions are recognized and valued, positioning you for a successful performance review.

Be More Prepared

One of the worst things I’d done when it comes to performance reviews was wait until the last minute and scramble to set up a case for how awesome and valuable I’d been the past six months.

Talk about stressful.

I’d be begging people for feedback or trying to remember all the amazing things I’d done the past few months. Spoiler alert: when you are trying to think about all your successes, it’s very easy to forget all of them. I literally sat back wondering what I had done with my time the past six months.

Not the best vibe for a walking into a performance review. Or for my confidence in general.

I tried to pull together the best stuff I could, but, as always, hindsight is 20/20 and there were a ton of things I missed that were super impactful to bring up.

Between this and getting laid off suddenly and seemingly not having any recollection of my past work for my resume or case studies, I decided to never again leave measuring and tracking my work until the last minute.

I finally decided to be proactive. And it paid off big time. Here’s are some ways I recommend getting into the habit of being more prepared.

Counteract Bias

To counteract recency bias, which can often affect performance reviews, it’s essential to consistently record your wins and significant contributions throughout the year. As a user researcher, this means documenting every impactful study, insightful finding, and positive stakeholder feedback as it happens. For example, after completing a user testing session that uncovers a major usability issue, immediately note down the details of the session, the problem identified, and the recommended changes. Additionally, take screenshots of any praise or positive feedback you receive in emails or chats from colleagues and stakeholders. This regular documentation ensures that none of your important work gets overlooked during the review process.

Continuously Track Your Work

Keeping a comprehensive work log is another critical step. This living document should include detailed records of all notable projects, links to relevant research reports, and the impact of your findings. For instance, if your research led to a significant improvement in the user onboarding process, document the specific changes made and the resulting metrics, such as increased user retention or reduced drop-off rates. By maintaining this log, you create a clear, organized record of your contributions that you can easily refer to during performance reviews.

This type of tracking can also ensure you are doing the most impactful work, rather than just “busywork.” I’ve got stuck in an endless cycle of trying to improve a part of a process that wasn’t super critical, or spending hours trying to create a graph that didn’t translate findings well. Focus on the most effective stuff. Balance quality and speed appropriately for your environment; at startups, you might need to deliver quick, iterative research, while at larger companies, more thorough, well-documented studies might be valued. Again, understanding your context is key.

Share Your Work

Regularly sharing your progress with your manager is vital. Schedule bi-weekly or monthly one-on-one meetings to discuss the work you’ve been doing, the successes you’ve achieved, and any challenges you’re facing. For example, you might present the findings from a recent user survey that highlighted critical areas for product improvement and discuss the next steps. This regular communication helps ensure your manager is fully aware of your efforts and achievements.

As a manager, I was often surprised by the amount of work my team did that I wasn’t aware of, not because I didn’t care, but because they hadn’t shared it. Err on the side of oversharing to ensure your manager has a complete picture of your contributions.

*If you are having trouble with 1x1s with your manager, check out this article!*

Balance Your Work with Helping Others

Helping others is equally important. Balance your individual work with contributions that support your team and the broader organization. This could involve collaborating with designers to refine prototypes based on user feedback, offering to conduct additional usability tests to support a developer’s new feature, or mentoring junior researchers. However, ensure that your contributions are recognized by documenting these collaborative efforts in your work log and mentioning them during your regular check-ins with your manager.

To avoid being perceived as unfocused or having your contributions go unnoticed, make sure to capture all the work you do to help others. For instance, if you spend significant time mentoring a new researcher or assisting a team with user testing, note these activities in your work log and discuss them with your manager. This documentation helps highlight your teamwork and the value you bring to the organization beyond your individual tasks.

Ask For Feedback

Asking for specific feedback periodically is crucial for continuous improvement and avoiding surprises during performance reviews. Seek feedback from your manager and peers well ahead of the review period. For example, after completing a significant research project, ask for feedback on both the process and the outcomes. Questions like, “How did my research findings help inform the latest product decisions?” or “What could I improve in my next user study?” can provide valuable insights.

Make feedback a regular part of your routine. After facilitating a team meeting, ask a senior colleague for their thoughts on how it went and what could be improved. When you resolve an issue, such as a problem discovered through user testing, ask your manager for feedback on how you handled it and what could be done better next time. After presenting research findings, ask stakeholders for their feedback on the clarity and impact of your presentation.

Here are some additional examples of questions to get feedback:

Stakeholder Questions

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Take feedback seriously but remember that it’s subjective. Listen carefully, evaluate its validity, and decide which points to act on. For example, if multiple colleagues suggest that your reports could be more concise, consider adopting a more streamlined reporting format.

I know feedback can be difficult to ask for and receive. I avoided feedback to the best of my ability for quite some time, but, when I finally was able to separate myself from the feedback — it isn’t personal — my work changed considerably and I improved my craft so much. Start small and work up to large pieces of feedback if you need to.

The Performance Review

Now it is time for the big review. You’ve done your homework in preparing for it and now it is time for a few final preparations, and then some advice for during and after the review process.

Before the Review

There are a few more things you can do right before the review to ensure everything goes as smoothly as possible and you walk into your performance review with confidence.

Identify Important Deadlines

Timely preparation is essential for a smooth performance review process. Identify key dates such as the deadlines for submitting documents, the calibration meeting date, and when your manager is likely to finalize their preparation. Knowing these dates helps you manage your time effectively and ensure that all necessary documentation is ready in advance.

Make sure to provide your manager with all necessary context and documentation well before these dates, including filling in any knowledge gaps about your contributions. Offering your manager a summary of your work can be incredibly helpful. For instance, use your work log mentioned above to highlight your key projects, their impacts, and any recognition you received. This proactive approach ensures that your manager has all the information they need to advocate for you effectively during the review.

Gather Feedback from Peers

Peer feedback provides a well-rounded view of your performance. If your organization has a formal process for peer feedback, ensure you select colleagues who have sufficient context of your work and are willing to provide constructive feedback. If there’s no formal process, you’ll need to gather feedback informally.

Privately seek feedback from peers by asking what you’re doing well and areas for growth. For example, you might say, “I would appreciate your feedback on the usability study I conducted last month. What did you find most useful, and how can I improve?” Write down the feedback you receive and, depending on your relationship with your manager, consider sharing this feedback with them to provide a fuller picture of your performance.

Assess Your Relationship with Your Manager

Your manager plays a pivotal role in your performance review, so it’s important to understand your standing with them. Start by gauging your standing by asking your manager for feedback to understand how they view your performance. Inquire whether they think you are meeting, exceeding, or falling short of their expectations. For example, you might ask, “Can you provide feedback on my performance over the past six months? Do you think I am meeting the expectations set for my role?”

This will provide you with a clear idea of where you stand. Reflect on the level of trust and communication with your manager. Consider how many review cycles you have completed together and whether there were any surprises in the past. Additionally, assess your manager’s influence within the organization. A more influential manager can better advocate for you during calibrations. Understanding these dynamics can help you strategize better for your review.

My Relationship with My Manager Sucks

I’ve been there and it can be really difficult if your relationship with your manager is not strong, especially during stressful times like performance reviews. Here are several strategies you can use to ensure a fair performance review:

1. Seek Clarity: Request a meeting with your manager to clarify their expectations and the specific criteria they use for performance evaluations. This can help ensure you are aligned with their priorities and understand what is expected of you.

   1. Example: “I’d like to better understand your expectations for my role and how you will be assessing my performance. Could we discuss this in our next one-on-one meeting?”

2. Document Your Work: Maintain detailed records of your projects, achievements, and any feedback you receive. This documentation can serve as evidence of your contributions and help counteract any potential biases.

   1. Example: Keep a work log that includes descriptions of key projects, metrics showing the impact of your work, and screenshots of positive feedback from colleagues and stakeholders. Even better if these align directly with what your manager told you was important

3. Build a Support Network. Seek feedback from your peers and stakeholders who can provide a balanced view of your performance. This feedback can be included in your self-review to offer additional perspectives.

4. Anticipate Questions: Think about potential questions or concerns your manager might raise and prepare thoughtful responses. This can help you feel more confident and articulate during the review.

   1. Example: If your manager has previously questioned the impact of your work, prepare metrics and case studies that clearly demonstrate the value of your research.

5. Professional Development: Engage in continuous professional development to enhance your skills and knowledge. This demonstrates your commitment to growth and can positively influence your performance review.

   1. Example: “Completed a certification course on advanced user research methodologies, which has already improved the quality of our usability studies.”

6. Stay Professional: Even if the relationship is strained, maintain a professional demeanor. Focus on your work and contributions rather than personal differences.

7. Address Issues Constructively: If there are specific issues affecting your relationship with your manager, address them constructively and seek to find common ground.

   1. Example: “I’ve noticed that we have different approaches to project management. Can we discuss how we can align our methods to improve collaboration?”

These strategies won’t fix a broken relationship but they can help you with ensuring you get a just performance review, and can get ahead any personal issues.

Write a Self Review Document

Creating a thorough self-review document is a critical step in preparing for your performance review. This document should highlight your accomplishments, address challenges, and reflect on your progress towards your goals.

Step 1: Compile Key Achievements

Start by listing your major accomplishments over the review period. Focus on specific projects, their impacts, and any recognition you received. Be as detailed as possible to provide a clear picture of your contributions.

Example:

• Project: Led a comprehensive usability study for the new feature X.

• Impact: Identified critical user issues that led to a 20% increase in task completion rates post-implementation.

• Recognition: Received praise from the product team for the actionable insights provided, which significantly influenced the feature redesign.

• Include both quantitative and qualitative achievements:

• Quantitative Achievements: Metrics such as “increased user satisfaction by 25%,” “reduced user error rate by 15%,” or “improved completion time by 10 minutes.”

• Qualitative Achievements: Insights like “enhanced user engagement through improved interface design,” or “streamlined user onboarding process based on research findings.”

Step 2: Address Challenges and Solutions

Discuss any challenges you faced during the review period and how you addressed them. This shows your problem-solving skills and resilience.

Example:

• Challenge: Faced difficulties in recruiting participants for user interviews.

• Solution: Developed a new outreach strategy that included leveraging social media platforms and partnerships with community organizations, which increased participation by 30%.

• Outcome: Successfully conducted a series of in-depth interviews that provided critical insights for the project.

Be honest about what didn’t go as planned, and emphasize what you learned and how you adapted:

• Challenge: Limited budget for usability testing.

• Solution: Utilized remote testing tools and recruited participants through low-cost channels, maintaining the quality of insights while staying within budget.

• Outcome: Completed the usability testing on time and within budget, providing valuable feedback for the product team.

Step 3: Summarize Feedback Received

Summarize the key feedback you received from peers, stakeholders, and your manager throughout the year. Reflect on this feedback and how you have acted on it.

Example:

• Feedback: Peers appreciated the clarity and depth of my usability reports but suggested more frequent updates.

• Action Taken: Implemented bi-weekly update meetings to keep the team informed of progress and interim findings.

• Outcome: Improved team collaboration and ensured timely feedback integration into the product development cycle.

Include examples of both positive feedback and constructive criticism:

• Constructive Feedback: A team member suggested I improve the visualization of data in reports to enhance understanding.

• Action Taken: Started using more visual aids like charts and infographics in my reports, which received positive feedback from the team.

Step 4: Reflect on Goals Achieved

Reflect on the goals set at the beginning of the review period and assess your progress towards achieving them. Be specific about what was accomplished and any deviations from the plan.

Example:

• Goal: Conduct three major usability studies by Q3.

• Achievement: Successfully completed four usability studies, providing critical insights that led to a 15% increase in user retention.

• Reflection: The extra study conducted allowed us to explore an unexpected user pain point, which was pivotal in refining our approach.

Discuss any goals that were not fully met and provide context:

• Goal: Increase user survey response rates by 25%.

• Achievement: Achieved a 20% increase, slightly below the target.

• Reflection: Despite falling short, implemented several new strategies that showed promise, and will continue refining these approaches.

Step 5: Demonstrate Competencies

Show how you have demonstrated key competencies required for your role. Use concrete examples to illustrate your skills and contributions.

Example:

• Competency: Data Analysis and Interpretation

• Example: “Conducted in-depth data analysis of user interaction patterns, leading to actionable insights that reduced user error rates by 15%.”

Reflect on how you have grown in your role and any new skills you have developed:

• Competency: Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Example: “Successfully facilitated workshops with design and development teams to integrate user feedback into the product development process, enhancing team alignment and project outcomes.”

Step 6: Include Praise and Positive Feedback

Collect and document written or verbal praise and positive feedback you’ve received throughout the year. This can come from emails, meetings, or informal conversations.

Example:

• Email from Product Manager: “Your insights from the recent usability test were instrumental in guiding our redesign efforts. Thank you for your thorough and thoughtful work.”

• Verbal Feedback from Stakeholder: “I really appreciate the clear and actionable recommendations in your report. They made a significant difference in our decision-making process.”

Compile these instances to showcase the recognition you’ve received for your hard work and contributions:

• Praise: Received commendation from the head of product for my innovative approach to solving user engagement issues.

• Feedback: Acknowledged by the team for my effective communication and presentation skills during the all-hands meeting.

Step 7: Rate Yourself

Decide whether to include a self-assessment rating in your review document. This can be a helpful way to demonstrate self-awareness and set the tone for your manager’s evaluation.

Example:

• Self-Rating: “Based on my achievements, feedback, and goal progress, I believe I am exceeding expectations in my role. I have consistently delivered high-quality insights that have significantly impacted product decisions.”

Provide justification for your rating with specific examples and outcomes:

• Justification: “In addition to meeting all my set goals, I took the initiative to lead an extra usability study that identified critical issues, resulting in a 20% increase in task completion rates. My efforts have been recognized by both peers and stakeholders, highlighting my contribution to the team’s success.”

During the Review

Performance reviews can be a nerve-wracking time, especially if you’re aiming for a top rating or a bonus. I know that I’ve lost nights of sleep over this process, and I’ve walked into reviews with a churning stomach. It’s not really a fun conversation, especially if you experience impostor syndrome.

Here’s how to make the most out of this period and navigate the review process smoothly.

Keep Things in Perspective

Performance reviews are just a snapshot of your performance at a specific time. While they might seem incredibly important, remember that a single review doesn’t define your entire career. Some people get poor reviews and then thrive in new roles, while others with consistent high reviews might feel stuck.

If you get unexpected negative feedback, use it as a growth opportunity. Think about how this feedback fits into your overall career path and let it guide your professional development. Try not to take it too personally, but instead as motivation to grow. This can be difficult but spend some time away from the feedback before diving into solutionizing.

Know the Review Metrics

Typically, about 20% of people get above-average reviews, 60-70% get average ones, and 10-15% score below average. This distribution helps set realistic expectations.

Look at your team and recognize that while everyone aims for a great review, not everyone will get it. Set realistic expectations for yourself. If most are expected to get average or better reviews, aim for solid performance but see anything above average as a bonus.

Don’t Bank on the Outcome

As hard as it is, especially for those of you who have a vivid imagination (here, here), try hard to not have one specific outcome in mind. Avoid making big plans based on the expected outcome of your performance review. Since reviews can be unpredictable and bonuses are not guaranteed, it’s smart to keep your expectations flexible.

Be Aware of Biases

Unconscious biases can influence performance reviews. Common ones include recency bias (favoring recent work) and horns bias (letting one positive or negative event overshadow everything).

Be ready to discuss your contributions throughout the entire review period, not just recent projects. If you notice a bias in the feedback, address it by providing evidence of consistent performance over time, for example, “I understand the recent project didn’t go as planned, but here are examples of my consistent performance on previous projects that significantly contributed to our team goals.”

Here are some additional biases to look out for and how to overcome them:

• Leniency Bias: Overly lenient managers give higher ratings than deserved.

  • Example: Manager avoids giving negative feedback and rates most team members as above average.

  • Tip: Request honest and constructive feedback to get a realistic understanding of your performance.

• Similarity Bias: Favoring employees who are similar in background, interests, or working style.

  • Example: Better ratings given to employees who share the manager’s hobbies or point of view.

  • Tip: Demonstrate how your unique skills and perspectives contribute to the team’s success.

• Halo Bias: A single positive event or attribute influences the overall evaluation.

  • Example: A high-profile project success overshadows other areas needing improvement.

  • Tip: Highlight both your successes and areas where you are working to improve.

• Strictness Bias: Excessively strict managers set unusually high standards.

  • Example: Manager rarely gives high ratings and is critical even of minor issues.

  • Tip: Seek specific examples and actionable feedback to understand expectations.

• Central Tendency Bias: Rating all team members similarly to avoid distinguishing between high and low performers.

  • Example: Everyone receives similar ratings regardless of actual performance.

  • Tip: Provide specific examples and evidence of your performance to illustrate your contributions.

• Contrast Bias: Comparing team members against each other rather than the role’s expectations.

  • Example: Performance is assessed relative to a high-performing colleague instead of job criteria.

  • Tip: Ensure your performance is evaluated against clear, predefined criteria.

• Confirmation Bias: Seeking evidence to confirm preconceived notions about an employee.

  • Example: Manager focuses on mistakes to confirm a belief that you are not detail-oriented.

  • Tip: Provide balanced evidence of your work and be prepared to discuss how you’ve addressed and improved in perceived weak areas.

• Attribution Bias: Attributing successes to external factors and failures to the employee’s abilities or effort.

  • Example: Successes seen as luck while failures are attributed to incompetence.

  • Tip: Highlight your direct contributions to successes and explain how your efforts led to positive outcomes.

• Gender and Racial Bias: Evaluations influenced by the employee’s gender or race, leading to unfair assessments.

  • Example: Women or minority employees receive lower ratings despite similar performance levels as peers.

  • Tip: Advocate for objective criteria and standardized processes in performance reviews. Seek feedback from diverse peers.

Gauge Your Manager’s Feedback Skills

Managers vary widely in their ability to give effective feedback. Some are experienced and skilled, while others may struggle with providing constructive and fair evaluations.

Reflect on past interactions with your manager to gauge their feedback style. If your manager has been inconsistent or unclear, prepare to ask clarifying questions during the review, such as, “Can you provide more details on the specific areas where you think I can improve? This will help me focus my efforts more effectively.”

Engage in the Review Conversation

Treat your performance review as a two-way conversation, not just a one-sided evaluation. Be ready to discuss your achievements, challenges, and feedback constructively. Bring a copy of your self-review document to the meeting. Use it to guide the discussion and ensure you cover all your key points.

Clarify Feedback

When you receive feedback, especially if it’s negative or unexpected, seek clarification and actionable advice on how to improve. Ask specific questions to understand the context and details of the feedback. This will help you grasp the areas needing improvement and plan your next steps effectively.

Something I’ve asked in the past is, “Could you provide more context on the feedback about my communication skills during team meetings? What specific instances stood out, and how can I improve?”

After the Review

The steps you take after your performance review are crucial for your future success. Whether the feedback is glowing or a bit tough to swallow, how you respond and act on it can make all the difference. Here are some things I recommend doing (after failing to do so in the past):

Remember, You’re on the Same Team

Your manager wants to build a high-performing team, which means they want you to succeed. They give tough feedback because they believe in your potential and want to help you grow. So, take their feedback in the spirit it’s given, knowing that you’re working towards the same goal.

If your manager points out that your recent user research study lacked depth, understand they’re aiming to help you deliver more impactful insights in the future. Respond positively: “What specific areas did you feel needed more depth, and how can I improve my next study?”

Follow Up After the Review

After the performance review, it’s important to follow up on the points discussed. This shows your commitment to improvement and keeps the dialogue going with your manager. Send a thank-you email to your manager summarizing the key points from your review and outlining your action plan based on the feedback.

Here is something I have sent my manager in the past: “Thank you for the insightful review. I’ve noted the areas for improvement and have already started working on enhancing my presentation skills and getting concrete feedback from stakeholders. I look forward to discussing my progress in our next one-on-one meeting.”

Take Negative Feedback in Stride

No one likes hearing they didn’t perform as well as they thought, but negative feedback can be a goldmine if it’s specific and actionable. Instead of brushing off vague criticism, ask for details. Push your manager to provide concrete examples of where you can improve.

For instance, if your manager says your communication needs work, ask for specifics: “Can you tell me where my communication fell short? Was it during team meetings, in my reports, or when presenting findings to stakeholders?” Once you have the details, reflect on them. Figure out if the feedback aligns with your self-assessment and decide on actionable steps. For example, if you agree your presentations need polish, consider taking a communication course or seeking advice from a colleague who excels in that area.

Think Long-Term

Your career is a marathon, not a sprint. A single performance review won’t make or break you. Whether you get a “meets expectations” or “exceeds expectations” rating, it’s just one chapter in your career story. Focus on long-term goals: the projects you tackle, the relationships you build, the skills you acquire, and the challenges you overcome.

For example, if you get a “meets expectations” rating despite putting in a lot of effort, use it as motivation. Reflect on the feedback and set new goals for the next review cycle. Maybe aim to lead a high-impact project or hone a particular skill, like advanced data analysis or stakeholder management.

Keep the Big Picture in Mind

Performance reviews matter, but they’re just one piece of your career puzzle. Keeping a long-term perspective helps you avoid putting too much weight on any single review. Focus on continuous improvement and development.

Even if you don’t get the top rating this time, consistently improving your skills, delivering valuable research, and building strong professional relationships will pay off over time. For instance, I didn’t get a top rating once, but by steadily building my expertise in new methodologies and consistently providing actionable insights, I eventually gained recognition and advanced in my career.

Practical Tips for Moving Forward

1. Set New Goals: Based on the feedback, set specific, measurable goals for the next review period. If you need to improve your report writing, set a goal to complete a technical writing course or workshop within the next six months.

2. Seek Continuous Feedback: Don’t wait until the next performance review to get feedback. Regularly ask your manager and peers for input on your work. This helps you make incremental improvements and avoid surprises during formal reviews.

3. Document Your Progress: Keep a detailed work log of your achievements, challenges, and feedback received. This helps you track your progress and provide concrete examples during your next review.

4. Invest in Professional Development: Use the feedback to identify growth areas and seek out professional development opportunities. This could be in the form of workshops, courses, or conferences.

5. Build Strong Relationships: Engage with colleagues and stakeholders regularly. Building a strong network provides support, opportunities for collaboration, and a broader perspective on your work.

6. Reflect and Adjust: Take time to reflect on the feedback and your performance. Adjust your strategies and approaches as needed to better align with your goals and the expectations of your role.

For example, after receiving feedback that my presentations lacked engagement, I joined a local improv group to improve my public speaking skills. Over time, not only did my presentation skills improve, but I also gained confidence and received positive feedback in subsequent reviews for my clear and engaging presentations.

Build Your Confidence

Performance reviews can feel like a rollercoaster. But trust me, with the right prep and mindset, they can be a total game-changer for your career.

I’ve been there, walking into my first review with sweaty palms and a racing heart, only to leave feeling like I missed the mark. But every review since has taught me something new. The key is to be proactive and stay flexible.

Keep a record of your wins as they happen – don’t wait until the last minute. Ask for feedback regularly, not just when review time rolls around. And always keep the big picture in mind. Your career is a marathon, not a sprint.

Take the feedback you get, both the good and the not-so-good, and use it to grow. Don’t let one review define you; let it guide you. Build strong relationships, stay curious, and focus on making a real impact with your work.

In the end, performance reviews are just one part of your career journey. With the right approach, you can turn them into opportunities to shine. So take a deep breath, prepare like a pro, and use each review to get closer to your goals. 

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Typically, when discussing goals, I reserve them for research projects or presentations. With good study and presentation goals, you set yourself up for success within projects and with your audience.

Goals are wayfinders — they allow us to understand and set a course that is more likely to move toward success. You know where you are going and can structure your project or report to get you to that satisfactory end.

With this in mind, why wouldn’t we set career goals? If you know where you are and where you want to go, goals are a great way to set us on that path toward what we’re looking for, whether a promotion, pay rise, or learning new skills and getting recognition for our work.

*PS. If you aren’t sure where you are in your research career, check out this article on how to assess and advance in your user research career.

However, even with this in mind, I struggled to set career goals as a user researcher. I didn’t have a research manager to look up to or anyone to emulate, so I had no idea how to apply this concept.

I knew I wanted to be better, sure. I knew I wanted to get a promotion. I wanted a pay rise, of course. I wanted the things everyone tends to want from advancing in their careers, but I just wasn’t exactly sure how to set effective and efficient goals to not only help me get to that place but also to demonstrate the value I brought over time. Because, to me, goals aren’t only about getting somewhere, but about showing how you got there, how you succeeded.

My goals always felt generic and vague, including ideas like “do better.”

Kidding…kind of. My goals weren’t quite that but but still too vague, such as, “getting better at generative research” or “taking on more responsibility.”

They weren’t measurable, or specific, and, to be honest, they weren’t very inspiring or motivating. I couldn’t go to my manager, excited to show that person how I “did better” at generative research because there wasn’t really anything to show. I always had a difficult time when it came to performance reviews and I has to show the value I’d brought to the table, especially with goals like those.

After a particularly frustrating performance review and another belly flopping within the goal-setting process, I decided I was over it. I wanted to figure out how to write effective goals that felt good to me, allowed me to show and track progress, and had a solid end point.

I had watched teams implement and (sometimes successfully) execute on OKRs as goal tracking, so I thought, “why not try this?” It was a hilarious failure (I’ll give examples later) at first, but, over time, I learned and honed my OKR and goal-setting techniques and now teach them to my mentees.

In this article, I will provide structure and examples of how you can start setting effective and efficient goals for your user research career.

So, What are OKRs?

Imagine you’re about to embark on a road trip. You have a destination in mind, but without Google Maps, you might take a few wrong turns or get lost along the way. Now, imagine having an app that not only shows you the final destination but also highlights the best route to get there, complete with rest stops and points of interest. This is what OKRs do for your career—they provide a clear, structured path to achieving your goals.

OKRs, which stands for Objectives and Key Results, is a simple yet powerful framework for setting and tracking goals. It was popularized by companies like Intel and Google, but its principles are universally applicable, making it a valuable tool for anyone looking to achieve personal or professional growth. At its core, the OKR system helps you define what you want to achieve (your Objective) and the specific steps you need to take to get there (your Key Results).

Objectives are the big, inspiring goals that give you a clear direction. They should be ambitious yet attainable, pushing you to stretch your capabilities. Think of an Objective as the final destination on your journey. For instance, if you’re a user researcher aiming to make a significant impact in your field, your Objective might be something like, “Become a recognized expert in user research.”

To reach this ambitious Objective, you need a set of Key Results. These are the measurable, concrete actions that will lead you to your goal. Key Results break down your Objective into smaller, actionable steps that are easy to track and measure. Continuing with our example, your Key Results for becoming a recognized expert might include publishing three articles in top UX journals, speaking at two industry conferences, and increasing your professional network by 500 LinkedIn connections. Each of these Key Results is specific and measurable, providing clear progress indicators.

The beauty of OKRs lies in their simplicity and effectiveness. By defining clear Objectives and aligning them with measurable Key Results, you create a roadmap that not only shows you where you want to go but also how to get there. This clarity is particularly beneficial for user researchers since we often juggle multiple projects/teams and must prioritize our efforts strategically.

Why Use OKRs?

One significant advantage of using OKRs is that they provide a sense of focus. As a solo user researcher, especially, I was very easily sidetracked and overwhelmed by everything I had to do to support the eight teams I worked with. Without any structure, I said yes to things I shouldn’t have and didn’t have time to focus on things that could have moved my career forward.

For example, I took on so many usability tests and surveys without really thinking about the broader goals of the organization and teams, and also without thinking about my own professional development. I quickly became an expert at usability testing, which was great, but it wasn't where I needed to go with my career — I had to expand my methodology toolkit rather than going back to the same approach repeatedly.

OKRs constantly remind you of what’s important, allowing you to allocate your time and resources more effectively. They help to remind you what you need to focus on, which is extremely helpful for prioritizing projects and work.

Moreover, OKRs bring measurability to your career development. Unlike vague resolutions or broad aspirations, like “getting better at usability testing” or “making recruitment easier,” OKRs require setting specific, quantifiable targets. This makes it easier to monitor your progress and adjust your strategies as needed. For instance, if one of your Key Results is to conduct five user research studies in the next six months, you can easily track how many studies you’ve completed and whether you’re on pace to meet your goal.

In addition to providing clarity and focus, OKRs also foster alignment. Aligning your personal OKRs with the broader company goals not only helps you with getting teams on board but can also help you prove the value user research can bring to your organization. This exact process makes user research more impactful at a company.

Setting Effective OKRs

When I first set off to create OKRs, it was hilariously painful. As mentioned, my goals consisted of extremely vague and non-measurable ideas. Uninspiring and not an easy promotion case for my manager to make. I realized that I didn’t really understand how OKRs worked, so I researched (of course) to come up with some steps to help me with breaking down the different components.

I often get overwhelmed with bigger concepts so being able to make OKRs smaller and more manageable was key for me in using them consistently and effectively. For this, I followed a plan that I still follow today:

Step 1: Reflect on Your Career Aspirations

First things first, take a moment to think about where you want to go in your career. What excites you? What kind of impact do you want to make? Maybe you dream of becoming a thought leader in user research, or perhaps you want to develop a new set of skills. Write down your big-picture aspirations.

If you are having a difficult time with this, take some time to answer these questions:

1. What part of your current role do you enjoy the most? Why? 

2. What part of your current role are you struggling with? Why? 

3. How would you describe success in your current role? 

4. What are 3-5 of your strengths? 

5. What are 2-3 of your weaknesses? 

By understanding a mix of what you are feeling good about and where you want to improve, you can find some different areas you want to move forward in.

For example, some of my more recent career aspirations (when I was in-house) included:

1. Becoming more fluent in mixed methods research

2. Being more effective at stakeholder management

3. Sharing research more effectively across the organization

Step 2: Turn Aspirations into Objectives

After you identify the things you want to improve, those aspirations, its time to turn them into objectives. An Objective is a statement of what you want to achieve—it’s your North Star. Make sure it’s inspiring and a bit of a stretch. For example, if you aspire to become a recognized expert in user research, your Objective might be: “Become a thought leader in user research within the next two years.”

This is something I actually thought about and worked on myself. It was about 2018 when I decided I wanted to become a thought leader in user research and to help others advance/gain confidence in their careers. I started out with that larger objective and broke it down into more tangible key results. I won’t lie, at the time it felt nearly impossible, but with understanding the specific steps I wanted to take, I actually got to a place I feel good about.

This is the same with more in-house skills as well, such as incorporating more mixed methods research into your process, becoming a better workshop facilitator, or mastering generative research.

Think about what really drives you because those will become the most motivating and inspiring objectives.

Step 3: Break Down Objectives into Key Results

Next, you’ll break down your Objective into specific, measurable Key Results. These are the steps you need to take to reach your goal. Think of them as the milestones on your journey. For each Key Result, ask yourself, “What does success look like?”

Here’s how my thought leader objective looked and how I broke it down into key results.

Objective: Become a thought leader in user research within the next two years.

• Key Result 1: Publish weekly articles on Medium and through UX Collective (they picked up my publications at the time) and get recognized for the writing by being shared across connections

• Key Result 2: Speak at two major user research conferences

• Key Result 3: Grow my professional network by 500 LinkedIn connections

• Key Result 4: Start an introduction to user research course to help others grow in the field and to share expertise more broadly

Each of these key results was not only measurable, but they were also attainable, as scary as some of them were (particularly the course). However, I was super passionate about becoming more of a thought leader in the field. As I achieved those key results, I continued to intensify and iterate on them, such as:

• Key Result 1: Write a book on setting a research foundation at an organization based on your experience (Heyyyya, Impact)

• Key Result 2: Host and be a keynote speaker at three conferences in 2024

• Key Result 3: Start and maintain a successful user research membership to help others advance in their career and spread positive knowledge on the field

• Key Result 4: Become an expert user researcher in Jersey through continued consultancy in the local government, finance, and education departments

As you can see, this path continued after I had achieved a certain level of that goal of becoming a thought leader, which is one of the amazing qualities of OKRs. You can continue to update your key results as you reach them or as your career aspirations change.

Having a Hard Time Defining Key Results?

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👋 Hey, Nikki here! Welcome to this month’s ✨ free article ✨ of User Research Academy. Three times a month, I share an article with super concrete tips and examples on user research methods, approaches, careers, or situations.

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Have you ever sat down to write something and stared at a blank page with that super annoyingly (and sometimes, I think mocking) blinking cursor staring back at you? Then you write a few sentences, thinking, “this is stupid,” and delete them?

Yeah. Same.

That was my vibe with cover letters for a really long time. (And also still sometimes my vibe when I sit down to write fiction).

I felt like cover letters were the stupidest thing invented. What was I supposed to say that was:

1. Interesting

2. Modest (while showing my accomplishments)

3. Unique

4. Concise

Blah, blah, and blah. Everything felt like a dried up formula.

I’m a qualitative user researcher with X years of experience and super interested about Y position at Z organization!

Me and everyone else applying (well, that might be a lie because sometimes we apply to things we aren’t super interested in). And then I got too creative (desperate, as well) with subsequent cover letters, one of which you can see below:

Idk. I don’t think it’s terrible, but…I didn’t get an interview. 😂

Saying I don’t run usability tests to find problems and bugs might have been a mistake.

Anyways, what I’m trying to say is cover letters are difficult to write. They can feel cumbersome and awkward, especially during a time when you are already stressed applying for jobs, getting resumes and case studies sorted, and prepping for interviews. Attaching a cover letter can feel like yet another hurdle to overcome.

So, do you need a cover letter? And, if so, how do you write one that:

1. Feels good and authentic

2. Actually helps to support your job application

3. Doesn’t bore the socks off someone

Do I Even Need a (Good) Cover Letter?

Lets start with the most used and generic answer of all time: it depends.

The reason I answer in this way is because it really does depend on a few different factors and can be very individually based on the job you are applying for. Here are some ways to help you figured out whether a cover letter is necessary:

1. Do they ask for one?

   1. If no, then you’re off the hook!

   2. If yes, proceed to step two.

2. Do you care about the job you’re applying to?

   1. If no (and they don’t require one), then don’t bother with a cover letter

   2. If they do require one and you don’t care about the job, then I would not put a lot of time into creating a cover letter

   3. If you do care, then the cover letter becomes more important and time-consuming

3. Do you want to make a stand-out impression?

   1. If you don’t really care about the job and are bulk applying, then you can get away with a more generic cover letter

   2. If you really want to make an impression, you will have to put more time and effort into a cover letter

Cover letters, when done poorly, can actually hurt your chances of getting to the next step in the job application process. As a hiring manager, I’ve read some pretty grim cover letters (to be fair, I’ve written some bad ones too), that include a lot of mistakes such as:

• The wrong role

• The incorrect company name

• Highlighting the wrong types of tasks/responsibilities

• Addressing it to the wrong person (such as a hiring manager’s name — I’ve been called a lot of different names before)

And although I do mention, if you don’t really care about the job but are forced to upload a cover letter, writing a generic cover letter, I don’t mean one that sucks. You can write a generic cover letter that is still good, and then you can go the extra level of writing a fantastic cover letter that gets positive attention — it’s all about the amount of time and effort you want to put into it.

In this article, we will focus on writing two types of cover letters:

1. The “Generic” Cover Letter

2. The “Knock-My-Socks-Off” Cover Letter

Components of a Cover Letter

Before we go off into the land of putting together the two types of cover letters together, lets talk through the purpose of a cover letter and the different components you can include.

What’s the Point of a Cover Letter?

As I always say in research projects, start with the goal and all else will follow. That’s pretty much the same with, well, everything.

If you don’t know the goal of the thing you are trying to do then it automatically becomes next to impossible to move forward. The same is with cover letters. For a really long time, I didn’t really consider the point of a cover letter so, when it came to writing them, I struggled. I didn’t know what to include or why I was writing one.

Once I dug a little deeper and understand the purpose, it automatically became easier for me to write because I knew the point. When the goal is clear, the necessary information to include and the structure become more obvious.

The goal of cover letters became more clear to me when I started my journey as a hiring manager. Suddenly, I was trying to judge all these people for a position based on their resumes. A single piece of paper. Sometimes one page. I had to use THAT to determine whether or not someone might be a good fit for our organization and to move to next steps.

I massively struggled when trying to hire people off such a small amount of information so, when someone included a cover letter (especially a “Knock-My-Socks-Off” one, I was super greatly appreciative.

And that’s when it really clicked for me. Cover letters give hiring managers an extra layer to consider when determining whether to move forward with a candidate. Your cover letter can be the determining factor in whether you hear nothing from an employer or whether you get called for an interview. That's because you are more than just your work experience, and cover letters give hiring managers a peek into your sparkling personality.

Cover letters are additional insight hiring managers simply wouldn’t get from your resume and can give data that helps make a more informed decision.

The goal of a cover letter is to provide hiring managers with unique insights and detailed examples that go beyond the bullet points of your resume, offering them a richer context and a personalized understanding of how you might fit into their organization.

Some Dos and Don’ts

Now that the goal of a cover letter is clear, it will hopefully make the necessary content a bit more straightforward and obvious. If you need to provide hiring managers with more detailed examples of work and how you might fit into the organization, those are two major topics you can now focus on.

Before we get directly to those topics, let me go through some Dos and Don’ts I’ve encountered both in my cover letter writing and as a hiring manager.

Don’t: Summarizing Your Resume

Your cover letter is an opportunity to say something different about yourself. You get a small chance to grab attention in your application, and you should use every opportunity! If you repeat the content of your resume, you're doing yourself an enormous disservice. That doesn’t mean you can’t include anything from your resume, but rather than summarizing the same content (like in my examples below), say something different, more in-depth, or unique.

Don’t: Tell

Try to avoid just copying and pasting the job requirements and that you have those skills. Instead, show you have those skills. For example: "I have exceptional attention to detail and communication skills. I can prioritize and break down complex projects." These sentences don't tell me anything and do not convince me that you are detail-oriented, a good communicator, and skilled at prioritization.

Instead, try, "I am fantastic when it comes to details, especially when it comes to running workshops. In a recent workshop, I coordinated between 15 schedules, created an aligned agenda, formatted the resources needed, followed-up with detailed next steps, and planned the workshop down to the minute (with a spreadsheet!). The result? A successful workshop that allowed all parties to understand the purpose and expected outcome. Also, we created three successful innovative products to test. I believe in applying this same attention to detail to tasks as big as cross-functional presentations to making sure my calendar and capacity spreadsheets are up-to-date."

Big difference! This demonstration convinces me this person is, in fact, detail-oriented.

Do: Include Unique Information

Your cover letter should talk about things outside work experience that make you especially well-suited for the job. For example, if you're applying for a job that requires organization skills, talk about how you track your finances in a detailed, color-coded spreadsheet. We want to know how you embody traits outside of work because it says something about what you'd bring to the job. Or maybe your last boss told you that you were the best workshop facilitator she'd ever seen or relied on you as her usability testing go-to person. Maybe your co-workers called you "generative research expert" because of your skill in being able to interview anyone about anything. These stories illustrate what you bring to the job differently from your resume.

Do: Address Any Question Marks

Your cover letter is your chance to provide context for any question marks that might come up for hiring managers. You can answer any questions about if you're overqualified, under-qualified, all your experience being from a different field, a considerable gap in work experience, or if you were let go from a role. Use the cover letter to talk about why something occurred and how your experience will translate.

Do: Customize the Letter

Avoid sending the same cover letter to each job you're applying for (that's why we only send cover letters to jobs we care about). You don't have to write a new letter each time, but you should do your research and write about this particular position's specifics. The hiring manager should not doubt that you wrote to them because you're excited about this company and role, not wonder if they've received the same cover letter you sent to other jobs. The extent to which you customize will be covered below when we talk through the two types of cover letters you can write.

Do: Aim for One Page

Unfortunately, as hiring managers, we have limited time to look over your application. If your cover letter is over one page, you are writing too much and running the hiring manager's risk of not finishing the letter. However, if you are only writing a paragraph, you likely aren't making a compelling case for yourself. Give it about a page!

Do: Include Small Details, When Possible

If you can find the hiring manager's name, include it. If not, don't worry. Some small things you can do are renaming the file to have the company's name and your full name, making sure you customize the letter, and always thanking the person reading for their time.

What to Include

Now the goal is clear, as well as some best practices when it comes to cover letters, so lets look at those two major topics and other additional information to include.

A Hello

When it comes to writing a letter, we typically start with “dear…” and go on to that person’s name. We might not know the person’s name we are addressing, but we can’t just leave this blank and start off the cover letter — I’ve seen this and it felt really unpersonalized.

If you don’t know the person you are addressing, I recommend to include “Dear Hiring Manager.” This is generic enough but still has some personalization beyond “To Whom it May Concern” or “Dear M’am/Sir.”

Introduction and Context

You wouldn’t skip introducing yourself to someone in-person, so why would you do that in a cover letter? I’ve seen a lot of people go straight into why they would be amazing for the job before stating the role they are interested in, or even the company.

In this section, include the role you are applying for and the organization’s name. Briefly describe why you are interested in that role in particular. If you can include something that resonates with you, such as the company mission or values, this is the perfect place to briefly include that.

The Content

Now comes the hardest part, which I used to refer to as: “WTF do I write?”

Take the goal and the two main topics from above:

1. More detailed story-based examples of your work

2. How you might be a positive fit for the organization

Using this, you can more easily craft information that gives more insight into who you are and how you operate.

Detailed Examples of Your Work

This is where show, don’t tell really shines. I can easily tell a hiring manager I am a hardworking and passionate user researchers in a cover letter by saying just that. But should that person take my word for it? Would you take the word of a complete stranger?

I hate when I get cover letters telling me things like:

“I’m really hardworking.”

“I have great attention to detail.”

“I am great at translating user research to actionable insights and business metrics.”

Because, the thing is, as a hiring manager, I want to believe you. I want you to come and work at my organization and succeed. But, after seeing and experiencing horror stories myself, and those of colleagues, it’s hard to just trust someone telling you they are one thing (I mean, even looking at my personal life, it’s hard to do that).

So, when you have the opportunity in your cover letter to take those concise bullet points of your resume and expand on them with concrete, story-based examples take it!

For example, let’s say your resume included bullet points on stakeholder management, creating actionable insights, and facilitating workshops. You could turn those into stories, like:

"Stakeholder management is one of my superpowers. I recognize that my research is a user experience for my colleagues. Once I started asking what learning style my stakeholders have and how they like to digest user research, my research deliverables changed immensely. I started creating outputs tailored to my stakeholders, which led to a huge uptick in research insights being put directly on to the roadmap."

"Creating actionable insights from research is where I truly shine. I see my role as not just gathering data, but turning it into a story that drives action. In one project, I led a series of user interviews and usability tests to tackle a persistent issue with our product’s navigation. After meticulously analyzing the data, I identified recurring themes and pinpointed the root causes of user frustration. I didn't stop there—understanding that different stakeholders absorb information differently, I crafted a variety of deliverables: from concise executive summaries for leadership to interactive usability reports for the design team. I even organized a ‘gallery walk’ where teams could visually explore the insights. This comprehensive approach ensured that the insights were not only understood but acted upon, leading to significant improvements in our product’s user experience and a 20% increase in user satisfaction."

“I love organizing and facilitating workshops, but not just in the work setting! I also coordinate and run the Berlin ResearchOps Group, from picking speakers to hosting networking events.”

How You Fit Into that Organization

This is where the personalization comes into play. The organization you are applying for is looking for someone with a very particular set of skills.

Okay, I had to put Liam Neeson in there.

Jokes aside, they are looking for someone specific and if you give them a completely generic response, likelihood is, you won’t be hitting upon what they are actually looking for. When things aren’t personalized, people skim and become disinterested. As a hiring manager, I was frustrated when I read something super generic because I felt like the person had just wasted my time.

To combat this, look at the job description and pick a few points that resonate with you that you have stories for, and include those examples in your cover letter. For instance, if a company is looking for a mixed-methods researcher, point out those skills:

"One of my favorite elements of my previous jobs has been pulling together qualitative and quantitative data to create a holistic view of what is happening and why it is happening. Recently, I embarked on an extensive generative research project where I combined in-depth user interviews, ethnographic studies, and survey data. Over several weeks, I immersed myself in the users' environments, observing their interactions and capturing their stories. I remember one particular user who, despite being tech-savvy, faced significant challenges with our app’s navigation. This qualitative insight, coupled with quantitative data showing high drop-off rates at specific points, painted a clear picture of the usability issues at hand.

I then synthesized these findings into a comprehensive report, highlighting not just what users were doing, but why they were doing it. This holistic view allowed my team to empathize deeply with our users and understand their pain points on a granular level. The insights from this generative research were transformative, guiding our design decisions and sparking innovative solutions that truly resonated with our user base."

Or looking for a cross-collaborator:

"Working cross-departmentally as a user researcher has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my career. Recently, I led a project to understand our customers' journey from initial awareness to post-purchase engagement. Collaborating with sales and marketing, I gathered valuable data on customer behaviors and conducted user interviews to uncover deeper insights. It became evident that there was a disconnect between marketing promises and user experience, leading to early product abandonment. I facilitated a workshop with sales, marketing, product development, and customer support to address these issues. By aligning our strategies and making targeted improvements, we saw a 25% increase in customer retention and established a culture of continuous improvement. This project underscored the power of cross-functional collaboration in enhancing user experience and achieving business goals."

What I highly recommend doing is taking bullet points out of the job description that are really relevant for you and writing a few stories about those particular bullet points. Then, you can condense the information into a more concise paragraph. This ensures that the content you are putting into your cover letter is aligned with what the organization is looking for.

Also, please don’t make up stories. I’m saying it because I’ve seen it and done it myself. It never works out.

Addressing Question Marks

Because sometimes we have awkward stuff we need to talk about, like a lay off, a lot of time off between work, or a transition, I have found it is easier (and better) to just address it head on (despite HATING confrontation). Here are some examples:

• "While my recent experience is in academia, my background includes bringing together qualitative and quantitative research and reporting to all levels of management, as well as a variety of internal and external stakeholders."

• "Between 2020-2021, I took a step back from work to rest and explore my interests. I spent time with family and friends and reevaluated what it meant to be a great user researcher. I am excited to be back in the field and reinvigorated to take on [role.]

• "From 2018-2019, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to live in Copenhagen for a year. During this time, I explored my passions through reading and writing. Returning from this trip, I feel refreshed and reenergized to take on [role].

Please remember you don’t have to explain anything you don’t want to. However, if you want to address something, a cover letter is a great place to do it.

Closing

Closing out the cover letter is important because, just like in a presentation, it’s good to reiterate your passion for the role at that particular organization. Also, thank the person for their time and remind them you are excited to hear about next steps.

Also, please include your contact information, such as your email — it’s likely we have it but sh*t can happen and things can get lost.

Signature

Signatures are actually so difficult. Should you go with a standard “Best,” a more formal “Sincerely,” a confident “Speak to you soon,” or a lighthearted “Cheers?”

To be honest, go with what feels the best for you. I typically either sign off my cover letters with “Best” or “Cheers” because that resonates with my personality and the content of my cover letters, including my tone and language.

Pick whichever feels the most comfortable and is consistent with how you are speaking in the cover letter.

And please include your name at the end 😁

First Off: The “Generic” Cover Letter

Whenever I’ve been in more desperate situations, I’ve bulk applied to jobs. It happens. We’ve (likely) all been there, or will be there at some point. Which means, I’ve applied to jobs I don’t care as much about and haven’t had the time (or energy) to write the most amazing cover letter of my life.

So, what happens when you are in this situation? You can still write a good (enough) generic cover letter. Just don’t make it too generic. What does that mean? Don’t do this:

Literally, I wrote the SAME exact thing repeatedly and just replaced the position and the company. There was absolutely nothing in this cover letter personalized or targeted to New York Public Radio. You’ll see the same exact thing below:

And again:

Literally, copy and paste, and then replace the position and company name. When I say generic, I do NOT mean this generic. I didn’t get interviews for any of the positions in which I included this cover letter. And, while I can’t attribute that outcome directly to my cover letter, I know that it certainly didn’t help my case. In fact, it might have hurt it.

User research is about storytelling and personalizing actionable information for your teams. If I can’t demonstrate at least some of those skills in a cover letter, that’s not a good sign for any hiring manager.

So, then, how do we toe the line between investing 100 hours into our resume and applying to lots of different jobs? If you are bulk applying, you certainly don’t want to heavily personalize each and every cover letter because, well, then applying for jobs becomes it’s own full-time job (although it already usually is).

The Middle Ground

When it comes to the more “generic” cover letter, I usually have a template that I follow that includes most of the components covered above.

• Hello

• Introduction and Context

• Two detailed stories based on resume bullet points

• Closing

• Signature

With this, I am not really digging into the details of exactly how I fit into an organization and giving super specific examples in that case. Of course, I always use the role I’m applying to as a helpful guide — if they are looking for a qualitative researcher, I will use more of those examples versus a mixed-methods researcher, where I will use mixed methods examples.

Typically, however, I pick two detailed stories that are more on the “generic” side that can be used repeatedly regardless of the role and organization, such as skills that are highly regarded in the field. These are typically soft skills like:

• Workshop facilitation

• Stakeholder management

• Business and strategy focus

• Collaboration

• Time management or organization

• Teaching, mentoring, or educating others

By choosing two of these skills and detailing really nice stories with them, you will be able to craft a more generic cover letter that you can spend less time on but still highlights stories beyond your resume.

“Generic” Template

So let’s now see what that could look like as a template:

Dear Hiring Manager

I’d love to be considered for [role].

I was particularly excited to see [role/position] open at [company name], as I [admire/am a fan of] your work.

I am a user research with [years of experience], doing everything from recruitment to activation workshops. One of my superpowers is [your “generic” detail.] In my past role, I [concrete example of why that is your superpower].

I am also a [your “generic” detail]. About two months ago, I [concrete example of how you embody detail].

I believe my [skills from above] and experience are an excellent match with [company name], and I am excited about the chance to work with you.

Thank you for your time reviewing my cover letter, and I hope to hear from you soon.

[Signature]

[Name & Contact Info]

“Generic” Example

And now an example using that same template, but not going to far into the weeds to look up specific bullet points from the job description:

Dear Hiring Manager,

I am excited to apply for the Senior User Researcher role at [Organization]. My background includes extensive user research experiences, from the end-to-end research process, reporting to all levels of stakeholders, and working with a large variety of departments. I love to dive into my role to empathize with users and understand how I can support and enable product teams to make better decisions.

One of my favorite elements of my previous jobs has been pulling together the correct type and amount of qualitative and quantitative data to create a snapshot that's easy for my audience to understand. I make everything from a monthly user research newsletter to highlight significant high-level themes to very in-depth reports that focus on a particular product or team's goals. To ensure the teams are getting the insights to answer their questions, I meet with stakeholders to define the process and clarify the information they need.

To ensure we are doing the proper research for the user and the organization, I love the opportunity to flex my prioritization and strategic muscles. In my current role, part of this manifests setting the strategy for the research team. I have a $$ budget allocated per year, where I plan out the type of research we will do and how it aligns with the company's strategic direction. Also, I am part of the quarterly roadmap planning with teams. I engage with them to make sure they are dedicated 20% of the roadmap to discovery research and dedicate 20% of each sprint to fixing the most critical usability issues found in our research.

I worked through the entire end-to-end process of user research both with and without external tools for help in my previous roles. I have worked closely with account managers and customer support to recruit hard-to-reach participants. Working closely with product teams, I intake their requests and engage them throughout the process with daily research summaries, gifs of pain points, updates through our messenger software, and fun share outs that include role-playing. I love collaborating with others and have even managed to help a sales team refine their pitch to speak to customer needs and pain points.

I look forward to speaking with you to learn more about your organization, the career opportunities it offers me, and how my skills can help [Organization] succeed. Thank you for your consideration.

Best,

[Name & Contact Info]

The above still highlights details and examples, but they are a bit more “generic” in terms of skills. It is a lot easier to copy and paste something like this, making sure to tweak the organization and you can also tweak the introduction slightly to talk through admiring the organization (with a sentence on why if you feel compelled).

However, as you might be able to tell, while this is a good cover letter that gives deeper and richer context into strengths and personality, it still lacks personalization to the actual organization. Again, this is great if you are bulk applying to a bunch of jobs and still want to be considered, but not as great if you are looking to pack a punch.

So, now, let’s dive into the other type of cover letter.

The “Knock-My-Socks-Off” Cover Letter

Now it’s time for the cover letter that takes more time. Again, I recommend using this type of cover letter if you really care about the job, want to stand out, and want a higher likelihood of moving to the next phase of the process. With this cover letter, I include everything from above:

• Hello

• Introduction and Context

• Two detailed stories based on the job description

• How I would be a good fit

• Closing

• Signature

Of course, this takes more time. Instead of just picking those more “generic” skills, you have to go through the job description to pick two to three points that resonate that you have examples/stories for, and then highlight why you are a good fit for the organization.

The “generic” one is copy and paste, while this one isn’t. Trust me, I’ve tried.

Generally, it takes me about 30-60 minutes to write a more personalized cover letter these days. And, if I am really obsessed with the job, I will work on it over the course of a few days, tweaking and optimizing it.

It’s a lot more time than the above, however, it is hugely worth it as it can really make you stand out from a crowd of other “generic” cover letters. I do recommend it if you are really looking to get the attention of a hiring manager (just make sure to adhere to the best practices).

Since it sucks starting from a blank page, here is the template and two examples using the template for Etsy and Netflix.

“Knock-My-Socks-Off” Template

I created and use this template as a starting point so that I remember to take the time to personalize each of the pieces of content within the cover letter:

Dear Hiring Manager

I’d love to be considered for [role].

I was particularly excited to see [role/position] open at [company name], as I [admire/am a fan of] your work. I am impressed by [concrete reason & why it's important to you] and would love to be a part of your work.

Reading over the job description for the position, I recognized myself. I have [years of experience] as a [title], doing everything from recruitment to activation workshops. One of my superpowers is [important bullet from the job description.] In my past role, I [concrete example of why that is your superpower].

I am also a [important bullet from the job description]. About two months ago, I [concrete example of why you embody that bullet point].

I believe my [skills from job description] and experience are an excellent match with [company name], and I am excited about the chance to work with you.

Thank you for your time reviewing my cover letter, and I hope to hear from you soon.

[Signature],

[Your Name & Contact Info]

“Knock-My-Socks-Off” Example - Etsy

Here’s an example for a position at Etsy, using the template from above:

Dear [Hiring Manager's Name],

I’d love to be considered for the Qualitative User Researcher role at Etsy. I was particularly excited to see this position open, as I have long admired Etsy's commitment to empowering small businesses and fostering a unique, creative community. Your dedication to supporting independent sellers and promoting sustainable practices is not only impressive but also deeply resonates with my own values, as I am a small business owner.

Reading over the job description for the position, I recognized myself. I have over five years of experience as a User Researcher, doing everything from recruitment to activation workshops. One of my superpowers is conducting in-depth generative research, a skill that aligns closely with your job requirements. In my past role at Creative Innovations, I led a generative research project where I combined ethnographic studies and user interviews. By immersing myself and stakeholders in users' environments, I uncovered critical insights that informed the design of a new product, ultimately increasing user satisfaction by 30%.

I am also highly skilled in creating actionable insights, another key requirement for this role. About two months ago, I led a project that aimed to improve our product’s onboarding process. By synthesizing qualitative data from user interviews and quantitative data from user analytics, I identified the root causes of user drop-offs. I then organized a cross-departmental workshop with teams from sales, marketing, and product development to brainstorm solutions. This collaborative effort led to significant improvements and a 20% boost in user retention.

I believe my skills in user recruitment, data synthesis, and cross-departmental collaboration are an excellent match with Etsy. I am excited about the chance to bring my expertise in qualitative research to help Etsy continue to create meaningful and delightful user experiences.

Thank you for your time reviewing my cover letter, and I hope to hear from you soon.

Cheers,

[Your Name & Contact Info]

“Knock-My-Socks-Off” Example - Netflix

Here’s an example for a position at Netflix, using the template from above:

Dear [Hiring Manager's Name],

I’d love to be considered for the Qualitative User Researcher role at Netflix. I was thrilled to see this position open, as I have long admired Netflix's innovative approach to entertainment and its commitment to delivering personalized, engaging experiences to its global audience. Your dedication to understanding and delighting users through data-driven insights is both impressive and inspiring.

Reading over the job description for the position, I recognized myself. I have over six years of experience as a User Researcher, with mixed methods research expertise including hands-on experience leading end-to-end quantitative and qualitative research studies. One of my most memorable projects involved conducting an exciting mixed methods study for a new feature on our platform. I combined surveys, in-depth interviews, and usability testing to gather comprehensive insights. This approach helped us evaluate our hypotheses and also uncovered unexpected user behaviors that significantly informed our design decisions. The positive feedback we received in the post-study stakeholder satisfaction survey highlighted the value and impact of our research, as well as how comprehensive using both qualitative and quantitative data felt to the stakeholders, reinforcing the importance of a mixed methods approach.

I have demonstrable experience in informing growth and monetization strategies through user research. In my past role at Streaming Solutions, I conducted a series of studies to explore new subscription models and ad-supported features. By analyzing user feedback and behavioral data, I identified key factors that influenced subscription conversions and ad engagement. These insights directly informed our growth strategy, resulting in a 20% increase in subscription rates and higher ad revenue.

Identifying, prioritizing, and leading research roadmaps that generate insights to inform monetization strategies is another area where I excel. Recently, I spearheaded a research initiative aimed at understanding motivations and pain points related to our pricing tiers. I developed a research roadmap that included competitive analysis, user interviews, and A/B testing. The findings from this research were instrumental in reshaping our pricing strategy, leading to increased user satisfaction and revenue growth.

I believe my skills in mixed methods research, product and UX research, and strategic research planning are an excellent match with Netflix. I am excited about the chance to bring my expertise to help Netflix continue to innovate and provide exceptional experiences for its users.

Thank you for your time reviewing my cover letter, and I hope to hear from you soon.

Cheers,

[Your Name & Contact Info]

Final Thoughts

Writing cover letters can feel like pulling teeth, but understanding their purpose and tailoring them to your unique experiences and the job you're going for can make the process less painful and even a bit enjoyable.

So, to wrap up, here's what we talked about:

1. Nailing the goal: Cover letters give hiring managers more than just your resume, offering a fuller picture of who you are and how you'd fit in.

2. Deciding if you need one: It depends on the job and how much you care about it. If they ask for one and you’re into the job, go for it. If not, don’t stress it.

3. Avoiding the pitfalls: Don’t just rehash your resume, don’t list skills without examples, and don’t use the same letter for every job.

4. Using detailed, story-based examples: Show, don’t tell. Use specific stories to highlight your skills and experiences.

5. Addressing question marks: Explain any gaps or transitions in your work history directly and confidently.

6. Personalizing your letter: Make sure your cover letter speaks directly to the job and company you’re applying to. Show them you’re genuinely interested.

Practicing and Getting Feedback

It took me a lot of time to nail down my cover letter process and to feel comfortable/confident when I wrote a cover letter. A lot of that was through practice, experimenting, feedback, failure, and iterating. As you could see, my first cover letters were generic blobs and now they are much more aligned with how I operate, and filled with more personality and stories.

Here are some ways you can get better (also don’t forget to give yourself time!):

1. Practice makes perfect: The more you write, the better you’ll get. Try drafting cover letters for different jobs to get comfortable with the process.

2. Get some feedback: Ask friends, mentors, or colleagues to look over your cover letters. They can spot things you might miss and give you tips to improve.

3. Use online tools: Tools like Grammarly can help with grammar and style, while LinkedIn and other sites offer tons of examples and inspiration.

4. Join writing groups or workshops: These can provide a supportive environment to share your work and get constructive feedback.

5. Revise, revise, revise: Don’t be afraid to tweak your cover letters multiple times. Editing is key to making your letter shine.

By keeping these tips in mind and following the advice we’ve covered, you’ll be able to craft cover letters that not only get noticed but also show off your unique personality and strengths.

I hope these templates and examples help you feel more confident in your cover letters and give you the boost you need to write those “knock-my-socks-off” types of cover letters — and also help you feel good about all your accomplishments! Sending all the good vibes.

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As a solo user researcher — typically the first and only at start-ups — I struggled a lot with understanding where I was in my career and, as always, how to get to that “next level.” The next level felt elusive, like something I couldn’t quite understand, because, unlike other departments, it didn’t feel like a clear trajectory. A clear path forward. I didn’t know which skills to learn or what would help me grow in my career. I often felt dizzied by the sheer number of methods — should I learn card sorting? Or tree testing? Or surveys? Or go deeper into analysis?

The constant questioning was terrible for my impostor syndrome. If I couldn’t even figure out a way forward, should I be a user researcher? If I didn’t know how to grow or what to do next, was this the right field or industry for me? I love structure and certainty, and my future didn’t seem to have any of those. In fact, it looked confusing and overwhelming. 

I didn’t want to admit the fact that I felt lost, like I was floundering and repeating the same two methods over and over and over with no real movement forward. I didn’t want to say anything because then everyone might think I was a fraud, that I was the impostor I felt like I was. If the “expert user researcher” didn’t know how to get better or what to get better at, then who would? And, was I really an expert if I didn’t know?

And then, I finally went to meet up with some friends, and I whispered to one person, “I would love to get promoted finally, but I have no idea what I am doing.” She laughed and said, “Join the club.”

That was when I realized I was certainly not alone. So many user researchers feel stagnant in their roles like they can’t grow or don’t know how to grow. That “next step” just seems so far away, either because there is no clear path or the path was created by someone who had no idea what a user researcher should be doing — I’ve shuddered at some of the job roles and responsibilities I’ve seen at companies. This has left many of us unsure what to do, who to go to, or how to navigate this confusing landscape. 

Then I became a manager. And that’s when I realized I had to do something, if not for my own growth, but for that of the people I was managing. I was meant to be there to guide them, to give them valuable feedback, and to help them grow and succeed as user researchers. I had barely figured out how I got to the place I was. It was a bumpy ride, and let me tell you, I hate turbulence. I didn’t want to put my reports through this same journey. In fact, I didn’t want any user researchers going through what I did, feeling confused and like they didn’t belong as they could never grow and engage further than usability tests and 1x1 interviews.

I wanted my journey of growth as a user researcher to be clear, straightforward, and achievable. Sure, it would be a challenge, but at least it wouldn’t be a hidden challenge. With this inspiration (and my desperation to make sure I wasn’t the worst manager ever), I set forth to create ways that user researchers could assess their careers and actually plan for their growth.

In this article, I discuss the steps I took and the ones I share with my direct reports, mentees and members to help you understand where you are and how you get to where you want to go so that you can finally achieve that level up without the turbulence.

Let’s get unstuck.

Self-Assessment of Your Current Career Position

Before you can run into an action plan of where to go next, it is essential to understand where you currently are in your career. Moving forward is all about bridging gaps — gaps between the now and the future, between the current state and the ideal future state — so if you don’t know where you are starting, it is impossible to know where you are going and the delta between the two.

For a long time, I didn’t really think about where I was currently because I so desperately wanted to be somewhere else. This is still something I have to deal with in my daily life. I’m always trying to skip ahead and frequently not honoring the progress I’ve made to the current point. When I do this, I get wrapped up in impostor syndrome because I am never where I want to be, even if I was where I wanted to be a year ago.

That said, looking at your current state helps you not only identify the progress you’ve made so far but also understand the gaps you will need to fill to reach that beautiful next stage.

Identify Your Current Level and Role

The first step I recommend is identifying your current level and role at your organization. And I don’t mean just making a list of your responsibilities or the things you do; I want you to go further than that. 

So, first things first, start by writing a list of what you do, but go deeper by breaking down the frequency of each activity and, if possible, any impact that activity has had on your organization. For example:

• 40% of time on 1x1 user research interviews (between 60-90 minutes each), which has led to 3 new products in our product suite and 2 personas, which are used to prioritize the product roadmap.

• 20% of time spent on creating research reports, 50% of which have been shared with executive leadership and led to a change in company priorities

• 30% of time spent on synthesis and analysis, of which 10% of that time has been dedicated to creating synthesis templates which have sped up time to synthesis by 5% and increased collaboration with teams.

If you can try to follow this kind of model: [Amount of time spent} on {method/initiative/phase of process], which has led to [concrete impact].

As you can see, these almost read like resume bullet points, and there is a reason for that. By more deeply understanding how you are working and the impact you have, you can more clearly see the gaps. For instance, maybe you are spending a lot of time on synthesis, which can then indicate to you that you could use work to speed it up. Or maybe you are spending 50% of your time on usability testing or surveys, meaning you might need to look into doing or learning more generative-based user research methods to help you round out as a researcher.

I know this might feel time-consuming, and, to be honest, it is, but it is hugely worth it. Not only is it a great exercise for understanding where you are, but these points can also be used in conversations with your manager for promotion or pay rises. You can swap the amount of time with an impact word and put these on your resume. Three annoying to-dos in one exercise—what could be better?

Once you do this, it is time to identify your current level. You can look generally at the chart below, or you might have been given a fitting title at your current organization. However, if you aren’t sure about your title, the next step will be great for you.

Now, it’s time to put your researcher hat on and do additional research. Sure, you have written down your level and responsibilities, but now it is time to compare that to similar roles at different organizations. The reason it is important to compare your responsibilities with those of similar ones is to identify if there are any discrepancies — these discrepancies can go either way: are you doing too much, or are there things you aren’t yet doing in your role?

To do this, I recommend an affinity diagram because, well, we are usually very good at it, and affinity diagrams help us understand the trends and patterns. In the past, I have split the affinity diagram into:

• Common activities for [x level]. These are the activities that are present in most of the job postings and seem the most consistent across them. I always start with this one and then move to the next two.

• Activities I am not yet doing. These are activities that have cropped up that you are not doing in your current role and that aren’t in your current job description, but they seem pretty consistent outside of your organization. These are likely your gaps.

• Activities I am doing not listed. These are activities you are doing that aren’t listed in job postings. They might be unique to your organization or mean you are doing things outside your current level. If there are quite a few in this category, I recommend looking at the level above you to see if you are responsible for things in the next level of your career. These are great talking points for promotions and pay raises and can indicate you’re ready to move to that next step.

• Parking lot. These are activities that don’t really seem to fit anywhere, but you are interested in exploring. Or maybe something else you’ve seen that doesn’t fit into responsibilities but you want to note. This could be average years of experience or auxiliary skills (ex, deep quantitative research) that seem to come up often but aren’t directly related to the role.

Once you have this list, it’s time to take the next step. 

Evaluating Current Skills

The list you’ve put together is a fantastic way to start understanding the gaps, but it is important now to mix this with understanding your current skill set and what motivates you as a user researcher.

I really struggled with this for a while, but then I created a user research skills matrix to help make this practice more straightforward.

In this matrix, I listed out all the technical and soft skills I could think of for a user researcher and mapped them to (approximately) a level, as well as more general levels in careers. These levels include:

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Job changes, even if it is something you initiated, are one of the top three stressful life events. This can be even more stressful if you weren’t the one who decided you wanted to switch jobs — whether that be from a move, a toxic work environment, or a lay-off. Regardless of how many times you’ve done it, job interviews are difficult and anxiety-inducing.

I’ve had many instances in my career where I have chosen to take a job interview because I needed a change. I was secure in my role, but wanted to explore other opportunities. Even in this situation, I found job interviews challenging.

And then there was the time that I interviewed at over 70 companies before I was able to get my first user research job.

And then finally, there was the time when I got laid-off from a role I absolutely cherished and was forced into the job interview process.

That said, I’ve interviewed over 100 times. Some of those interviews I knew I completely failed at before the interview even finished. Some of them I thought I nailed, but then got rejected. And others I thought I sucked at, but I moved on to the next stage. For a while, it honestly felt like a toss up. I had no idea what to expect and how to prepare.

Luckily, I then moved to the other side of job interviews. I interviewed hundreds of user research candidates at various companies and started to learn the most valuable lesson I could — what my audience wanted.

Becoming a hiring manager gave me so much empathy and deep understanding of what employers are looking for during the job interview process. With those experiences, I have learned a few tricks along the way to help me feel more confident and increase my chances of getting to the next step. And I want to share those with you today.

What are the General Stages of UXR Interviews?

Way back when, an interview was an interview, but now, there are many stages in the user research job process. Although not every company operates the same way, this is the general and typical journey I’ve found within the UXR job process:

• HR/recruitment call (30-45 minutes). The standard get-to-know-you call. In this call, recruiters are looking to understand your general level, skills, and competence for the role

• 1-on-1 deep-dive interview (60-90 minutes). During the deep-dive interview, you will be presenting one to three case studies to either one person or multiple people.

• Panel interview (60 minutes). You are presenting (usually the same) case studies to a broader audience. Sometimes the team members may be from different teams, such as product managers, designers, or developers.

• Whiteboard challenge (45-60 minutes). Companies use the whiteboard challenge to assess how you respond to a problem - either having to do with that company or completely random. This challenge can be live or take-home.

• 1-on-1 interview with another team member or manager (30-60 minutes). This call is mostly about culture fit to ensure you would work well in the company environment

• Final HR/recruitment call (30 minutes). This step can come in a few different ways, such as a general wrap-up to see how everything went, an offer, or a rejection call.

HR/Recruitment Call - What to Talk About

During this call, explain the different projects you have been working on at a high level. You can mention you do both generative and evaluative research, work collaboratively, and your role in most of your projects (ex: are you leading them, working with other researchers, in an agency set-up?).

Have specific examples to explain these points. For example, if you mention that you recently did a generative project, talk about the method you used and its impact.

1-on-1 Deep-Dive Interview - What to Talk About

The most important piece of advice I can give for the deep-dive is to explain your process. Go step-by-step through what you did and why you did it that way. In this step, we want to see how you approached a problem and why you approached it in that way so we can project how you might address a problem at our organization.

The people interviewing you want to understand if your process aligns with the strategy they are currently using and if you think through all the different steps in a project thoughtfully. I highly recommend presenting at least two case studies: one for generative research and another for evaluative research.

Panel Interview - What to Talk About

Again, it is essential to explain your process and why you approached the problem in that way. This step is also great for talking through how you've collaborated with other teams, such as product managers, designers, developers, or any cross-organizational collaboration with other departments.

You can ask ahead who you will be speaking to and their roles to be best prepared. Again, the most important concept to convey is how you think through a problem and communicating that process effectively.

Whiteboard Challenge - What to Talk About

Again, the people interviewing you are assessing how you approach a problem but, this time, one that you haven't had much time to think about. Like the deep-dive presentations, they want to understand your process, especially when you don't have a lot of information.

It is okay to ask questions or to mention that you don't have enough knowledge and make assumptions. For example, you can make an assumption about which people to recruit for the study, but make sure you can justify why you made that assumption.

Curious about learning the ins-and-outs of the whiteboard challenge? Get my course here!

1-on-1 Interview with Another Team Member or Manager - What to Talk About

My best piece of advice for this call is to be yourself and to answer truthfully. If you end up not being a fit for the company, that doesn't mean anything is wrong with you, but it could save you and that company a lot of time and stress. Be honest when answering the questions.

This call is also the perfect time to ask questions you haven't had time to ask, especially specialized questions if you're speaking to your manager. Have a list of questions ready to assess if this opportunity is good for you (I cover some example questions later)!

Final HR/Recruitment Call - What to Talk About

During this call, you can negotiate your salary, vacation days, start date, and all those other technical details if you haven't already.

If you get a rejection call/email, always ask for feedback and then move past it.

Again, these are the general steps that I’ve found to be most common when interviewing at a company for a user research role. You may end up skipping some, having more calls, or doing an at-home exercise rather than a whiteboard challenge. However, prepping for these most common stages is ideal.

Now, let’s dive into the nitty-gritty of the user research job interview.

What’s the Point of an Interview?

The first big mindset shift I made when it came to job interviews was actually understanding the point of a job interview. For a really long time, I just thought of them as a step in the process, a mean’s to an end. I frequently thought about job interviews (and the whole process) from my perspective, rather than from what my audience needed from me.

After some terribly failed interviews, I was feeling particularly down. This was after the mass layoffs. I couldn’t seem to make anything stick, no matter how I spun it. One day, I decided, instead of trying to force yet another job interview in, to put my user research hat on and look at the process objectively. I crowd-sourced, reaching out to a few hiring managers asking them what they were looking for in the UXR job interview process. I coupled this with quite a lot of desk research.

Maybe this was the procrastination talking, but viewing interviews from this perspective and doing this research felt refreshing and revitalized my job search. Once I synthesized all the information, I had a much better idea of what my audience was looking for during the interview stage of a user research job process:

• Tangible and concrete examples of your work that answer their questions

• An understanding of how you have approached problems and projects in the past

• To see how your work has impacted an organization in the past

• To understand how you collaborate and work with others during your research process

• The information necessary to understand how you would work in their environment/organization

People who are assessing you during an interview need to know if your experience aligns with the organization’s current ways of working. At the end of an interview, they want to understand if you joined the company, you would be able to onboard and make an impact. They want to ensure that you would fit in well with the current structure and be well-supported. They want to make sure your skills are what the company needs and set you up for success at the organization.

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The first time I created a user research case study was back in 2014. I had no user research experience and, quite frankly, had no idea what I was doing. The only thing I did know was that I wanted to be a user researcher (thank goodness I got that right).

Before that moment, I had a few jobs as a tennis instructor, a bartender, a retail sales worker, an academic research assistant, and a personal assistant to a successful businesswoman.

Never in my life had I ever needed a case study. I didn’t even know what a case study was until I started applying to user research jobs. Back in that day, you didn’t always need to send in a case study or portfolio when you applied, but I quickly found that you needed to present a case study.

In fact, I learned I needed to present a case study about two days before my interview. Yipee. That was a fun-filled frenzy of caffeine, pizza, and, I’m not going to lie, some wine. What I created is something that now makes me cringe:

This case study was rife with issues, mostly about my actual skills (look at those beautiful graphs for qualitative interview answers, lol), but also because it lacked the fundamental information I needed to convey in a case study.

And I had to save this slide for last:

My synthesis wrapped into a few sentences that “proved” we had to build an app. 😂 That’s exactly what you want to hear from a “generative research study.”

After many rejections (yet eventually one acceptance, woohoo!), I was so sick of case studies. I never wanted to look at or think about a case study again. Unfortunately, case studies only became more popular as part of the UXR hiring process. And after some time, I realized I had to dust off my case studies and dive back into more applications.

However, I still hated case studies and found them horrible. They were shrouded in mystery. I didn’t understand case studies and why I had to go through such a horrendous process of creating them.

Fast forward about seven years, and my sentiment toward case studies is completely different.

They don’t have to be horrible.

Case studies are a representation of your most impactful work. Of the work you are most proud of. The kind you want to shout from the rooftops about.

To combat my bad feelings about case studies, I did quite a lot of research on them, as well as experiencing firsthand what it was like to be a hiring manager reviewing case studies. I’ve brought together as much knowledge as possible on this topic to unveil the mystery and make it possible for everyone to create an impactful case study they feel good about.

Let’s get it right — what is a UXR case study?

Case studies are a very special part of the user research interview process. I’ve seen them get slightly confused with UXR portfolios, so I want to share my quick definition and how I will be using the words in the rest of this article.

A case study is a walk-through of a project you completed. In the case study, you talk through the end-to-end process of the project (or initiative) to showcase what decisions you made, how you made them, why you made them, who you worked with, and the impact of the project.

A portfolio is a collection of these case studies. Whenever I get asked how many case studies one should have in their portfolio, I recommend three:

1. A generative-based case study

2. An evaluative-based case study (or mixed methods)

3. A bonus case study on anything you would like

The three case studies that I have most recently used include:

1. A Jobs to be Done case study that was highly generative

2. A mixed methods case study on how GenZ get inspired for fashion

3. A case study on how I increased the user research maturity at an organization by setting up a user research practice

When choosing your case studies, I recommend choosing work you are proud of and passionate about. Work in which you can thoroughly share your process and your decisions. And, work that you want to do in your future role.

For example, I usually don’t share much usability testing work anymore because I don’t want to be doing usability testing. Instead, my sweet spot is coming in as a first and solo user researcher to set up a research practice at an organization and move the research maturity forward.

What’s the point of a case study?

I believe case studies are a great way for hiring managers to assess how a person approached a problem, made decisions, and thought through a project. Not everyone agrees with that, and that’s fine. As a hiring manager, I have found them extremely helpful in assessing candidates.

Now, regarding the more “selfish” reasons for a case study, I would also say they are great. Case studies give you the opportunity to reflect on your projects, see what you accomplished, and pinpoint areas you would improve upon next time (or if you had fewer constraints).

They are a way for you to review your process and understand what steps you went through and the decisions you made. By reviewing your projects and mapping out your steps, you can get more comfortable with your unique research process. Although they can be a slog, I have found creating case studies to be incredibly rewarding internal work on navigating problems as a user researcher and how I’d like to improve.

Now when it comes to what a case study is, I will start first with what it isn’t:

• A vague overview of your general user research process. I’ve seen a lot of case studies that just state someone’s process they go through. This usually looks like a process taken off a website and is typically idealized. Unfortunately, this gives none of the nuances of how you approach a problem and do research in the face of constraints. General frameworks aren’t always applicable.

• A bunch of different projects strung together that aren’t in-depth. I’ve also seen a case study comprised of about ten pages and, within those ten pages, are about three different projects, each with two or three slides. Within this case, it is impossible for an interviewer to get a sense of your actual thought process throughout a project.

• Wireframes, designs, and prototyping, unless you want to be a designer and researcher! You don’t have to include these things in your case studies unless you want to. As a research hiring manager, I seek research-related information, not designs and prototypes.

So, when it comes down to it, what is a case study?

• A detailed deep-dive into a project that highlights your decision-making, thought process, and collaboration with others.

• A project that is impactful to the organization, product, or your research process. This doesn’t mean the project had to have some profound impact on metrics or a change to your product, as, often, those things are out of our control. However, there are many ways to demonstrate impact outside of the product, including how the project impacted your own research process. Get creative here!

• A project that you care about and are proud of that demonstrates your capabilities. Many people have more than three projects to choose from regarding case studies. Think about the projects you were most passionate about and the ones you were most proud of that demonstrate your skills. Passion comes through the screen and infuses itself into the interview. When you want to tell the story of a project, it shows.

• A project that showcases the type of work you want to be doing in your future role. The type of work you share is ideally the type of work you will be doing in your next role. As I said, I rarely (if ever) will share work that I don’t want to be doing. So, I don’t share much usability testing or democratization because neither particularly appeals to me. Share the type of work you are passionate about and want to bring into your next role. If they don’t want that work, you don't want to be working there!

When it comes down to it, case studies are a detailed recount of your project that shows (doesn’t tell) your skills as a user researcher.

What are hiring managers looking for in a UXR case study?

For a long time, I had no idea who my audience was and what they were looking for in my case study presentations. As you can imagine, this led to a lot of problems. I presented the wrong information and depth of projects while leaving out essential parts of my process.

Because I lacked confidence in what a case study was and what my audience wanted from them, I rushed through my case studies. I would try to generalize and use idealized examples. I didn’t go much into specifics or my thought process. With that, I got turned down a lot at this stage.

If you think about it, your audience is usually a hiring manager or a group of people you will work with.

Those people are trying to make a decision on whether your process and approaches work and are a good fit for the organization (big note: this is not about YOU as a person necessarily, but how you’ve approached projects in the past).

They are assessing your fit. They are trying to make a difficult decision. They might be using a scorecard to rate different areas of your work.

When I realized this, I stepped into the shoes of my audience as best I could. What were they trying to understand? What were they assessing? What decisions were they trying to make?

How might I make the job decision process as effective, efficient and satisfactory for them as possible?

How could I make my side of the process as usability-friendly as possible?

Looking at my case studies from this vantage point not only granted me to take an objective step back (which can be supremely helpful when writing them), but it also gave me a different perspective to understand they type of information they needed from me.

Interviewers are looking to assess:

• Your step-by-step approach when dealing with a problem and a potential user research project

• How your work has impacted an organization in the past

• How you collaborate and work with others during your projects

Why is this information important?

They aren’t gathering this information to judge you as a person or to say your process is wrong or bad — at least hiring managers should not be doing this. A good hiring manager is gathering this information to understand how you might operate in their organization and to determine if that would be a good fit or not.

You know how, as researchers, when we go into a generative research session, we want the user to tell us all the things? We want a snapshot of their thought process, a documentary of their decisions and why. As a hiring manager*, I want something similar from my candidates when they go through their case study.

I want to end a case study interview with as much information as possible to make the best decision for the candidate and the organization.

*Just as a huge PS: I am talking about my experience as a hiring manager and the experiences I’ve gauged from other hiring managers. This isn’t all-encompassing of the hiring managers you will meet. Some differ hugely. The best thing you can do during this process is try to understand their expectations to best give them the information they need.

Biggest mistakes I see (and have done)

I’m the first to admit I have made many mistakes as a user researcher, especially with my case studies. And, as a hiring manager, I have also seen these mistakes repeated many times.

Mistakes aren’t inherently a bad thing. In fact, they are the place where we learn and improve. I always refer to the Pippi Longstocking quote:

“I have never tried that before, so I think I should definitely be able to do that.”

Mistakes give us opportunities to learn, both from ourselves and from others, which is why I find it so important to share my mistakes with others. It might help someone avoid them in the future.

That said, here are the biggest mistakes I’ve made and have seen when it comes to creating and sharing a case study:

• Using a report as a case study. Guilty 😆 Way back when I assumed I could just use a report I had presented to stakeholders as a case study. Nope. Not quite. The problem was that a huge chunk of my report was insights. Insights that had no relevance to my interviewers. I was telling them information they couldn’t understand and didn’t care about. Insights aren’t important to hiring managers - now, how you get to them is interesting.

• A bunch of photos with no explanatory text. There are three places where your case studies will appear: on your website (I’ll talk about this later), in your application (if you were asked for one), and in a presentation setting. If you leave a case study on your website with only a few photos with limited text, how is anyone supposed to judge that? If you apply with your photo-heavy case study, and I’m using that to understand if I should invite you to an interview, it makes my job harder. And, complete honesty here: if I get a portfolio with several case studies with minimal text and just photos with generic information, I will likely pass.

• No explanation of your detailed process. I used to do this all the time. Something weird happens with these project walk-throughs because, suddenly, you went from interviews to insights! There was some magic thing in the background that took raw data and turned it into insights and impact. A lot of people skip over important parts of their process — I want to know how you analyze and synthesize information, so if you don’t share that with me, I can’t know it.

• No reflections on the project. I love it when people reflect. It demonstrates to me that they care about improving their craft. So, this might be a particular thing for me, but I really enjoy hearing about how people might have done something differently or changed a project. To me, this is especially important if you are dealing with really intense constraints or things that did not go as well as planned.

• Missing some sort of impact. As I mentioned, your impact as a user researcher doesn’t have to be tied to a product or the product team. We aren’t the chef, but an ingredient in the pie — if someone decides to leave something out, we have no control over the outcome. Talk through different types of impact, such as teaching the team, experimenting with a new intake document, running a different type of workshop, increasing the speed of your recruitment, or finding a new tool — there’s a world of impact out there!

Here is an example of a case study I’ve used that wasn’t great:

Bad Uxr Case Study Example User Research Academy

14.1MB ∙ PDF file

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In this case study, I made quite a few errors, including:

• Didn’t talk through the research problem or goals

• Went straight into “insights” (which weren’t insightful)

• Focused a lot on designs

• Didn’t talk about important parts of the process (skipped all the good stuff and rushed to what the thing looked like)

See if you can spot more mistakes 😆

If you’ve made these mistakes, I am here for you!! If you are currently in the process of making these mistakes, it’s okay!! We all make them. Use these moments to learn, improve, and remind yourself that this process is iterative!

What to include in a case study

Let’s get down to the nuts and bolts of it all and explore what to include in a case study, with some examples of good and bad.

1. Background on yourself. During this moment, you can give a small introduction about yourself and something maybe not work-related or something outside your resume. Some of what I like to share are things like what has changed about me in the past five years, my favorite book, my favorite hobby, or a favorite memory.

2. Context on the organization and project. This is where you can give a short introduction to the organization you will be talking about. This doesn’t mean you have to tell people the name of the company, you can just give an overview of the industry and business model (e.g. b2b social media management platform). Finally, briefly introduce the project topic you will be talking about. Remember not to use any jargon from the industry that others may not understand. This grounds hiring managers in what will be coming.

3. Where the project came from. This portion is often skipped, but super relevant. When you started the project, where did it come from? Was it someone’s idea in the shower? A past research project insight? A pain point someone heard from customer support? And then, how did you decide this was a project worth working on? This helps hiring managers understand the context behind the project and how you prioritize projects.

4. Your role & others you worked with. Here you can talk about your particular role in the project — did you lead it, work with a team, or work as a support? Who else did you involve in the research project, and how did you involve them? You don’t need to give every detail of collaboration here because it might not be relevant (e.g. you can share about an ideation workshop collaboration later on), but this gives hiring managers context about who you include in your research.

5. The timeline. In this section, you can give an overview of the timeline of the project. I also recommend breaking the timeline down into different phases (e.g. planning, recruitment, conducting, etc.). Not only does this give hiring managers a holistic view of everything you did (and what you will talk about), but it also lets us understand how you think through different parts of the process.

6. Research statement/problem & goals. Now we get into the nitty-gritty of the research part - exciting! In this section, you dive into the research problem/question you were trying to answer and the goals you decided on for the research project. This shows the planning portion of the research project and how you think through structuring a request/project.

7. Success criteria. Success criteria can sometimes be difficult to create but is incredibly important. It helps us answer, “How will we define this project as a success?” This success criteria can be anything from moving product metrics (e.g. how often someone uses a feature), team metrics (e.g. acquisition rate or pirate metrics), or more internal research impact (e.g. identifying top five pain points). This section gives us an idea of how you think through the potential outcomes of a project.

8. Chosen methodology. Based on your goals, what method(s) did you choose and why? What led you to choose whatever method(s) you did, and did you consider others? Who else was involved in the method-choosing process? This section gives us an idea of how you stitch goals to a given method to ensure you get the best information you need.

9. The recruitment criteria and process. Who did you choose to talk to to get the information you need to fulfill your research goals, and how did you get them? I recommend sharing screener criteria here (if you can) and your sample size and any thoughts about sample size. By talking through recruitment, which is always a tough part of the process, you show hiring managers how you get the right people for your projects.

10. Sample questions asked or usability tasks. Whenever you can, it’s great to share concrete examples. If you are able to, I recommend sharing some questions from a discussion guide or survey, usability testing tasks, or any other example of a handful of questions you asked. Since this part is usually something hiring managers struggle to “grade,” it would be fantastic to share how you create these questions. It gives insight into your technical skills as a moderator.

11. Analysis and synthesis process. This is the part that most people skip and is shrouded in mystery. Somehow we go into a methodology, et voilà, we have insights! Since this is such an integral part of the research process, it is critical to talk through how you analyze and synthesize raw data into something useful and valuable to your team. What types of techniques and processes did you use? Did you debrief after each of the sessions? Why/why not? Who else was a part of the synthesis process? Include examples and screenshots, even if that means you have to blur out sensitive information!

12. Outputs & deliverables. During this part, you can talk about what actually came out of the research and, if possible, share screen shots. Was it a report or something else (or both)? And how did you choose the outputs and deliverables? Why were those your choice? This section shows hiring managers how you bring the research together into something you can share with others.

13. Sharing and activation. During this part, you can discuss how you shared and socialized the research to the larger audience. How did you turn the insights into something the team could act on? What types of workshops did you run? This area shows hiring managers how, as a researcher, you help empower stakeholders to use your research.

14. Impact. What was the impact your research had on the product, team, organization, internal research processes, and/or on you? Remember to get creative in this section - it doesn’t have to be about the product! Who used the insights, and how did they use them? What changed because of your research? Speaking about this allows hiring managers to understand how you bring impact with your research.

15. Next steps/recommendations. This part touches on anything that will come or came after this particular research project. What are the next steps after the research? What is the follow-up? What recommendations did you make to the team and organization? This section helps demonstrate that you try to make research a continuous part of the process.

16. Your reflections and learnings. As I mentioned, I love this part because, to me, it shows that you are willing to reflect on what happened and look to improve. In this section, talk through what you would have changed, what you learned, and always end on a positive note with what you accomplished/what went particularly well.

Please remember that these are suggestions from my experience and what I’ve used in the past — you might have different things to include, choose not to include certain aspects, or vary the order. This is in no way formulaic! Pick and choose what works best for you 😊

You can find a small example of how I might outline this based on one of my case studies below:

Example Outline Case Study User Research Academy

1.23MB ∙ PDF file

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Steps to creating your next case study

Now that we have all the components, how do you create your case study?

The steps I went through that I recommend include:

1. Look at some job descriptions you like and the types of skills they are looking for, or the responsibilities you will have

2. Think about your next role and what you want to do in that next role

3. Pick 2-3 projects that you are proud of that both demonstrate the skills in the job descriptions and are relevant to what you want to do in your next role

4. Focus on one project at a time

5. BRAIN DUMP INTO A GOOGLE DRIVE

I cannot stress this enough. I highly recommend not trying to create the perfect document or case study. As Ernest Hemingway says:

“I rewrote the first part of A Farewell to Arms at least fifty times. You’ve got to work it over. The first draft of anything is shit.”

So let’s channel Ernest Hemingway. The best thing you can do is brain-dump absolutely everything you remember from that project. Like, everything. Write all the nitty-gritty details. Trust me. It is so much easier to cut than add.

Typically this takes me about four to six hours to get everything down — not in one sitting — and make sure I’ve thrown everything into that Google Doc. Only after that is done do I start to clean it up and section things out.

Once that initial information is out, I typically section out the information into the above components. If you’re feeling lost with this, you can use my template that lists out all the components as well as probing questions that go along with them.

Only when I have a thorough outline do I put it into my two different formats (which I talk about below):

1. Slides, which include more screenshots and less text

2. On my website, which includes a lot of text and screenshots

Here are some screenshots from a case study I’ve used successfully:

What’s great about this process is that, since you have so much information in the document, you can use that as a bit of a script for your interview.

If you want more of this, I sell a UXR case study kit. With this kit, you get my brains when it comes to case studies, including:

• Five video walkthroughs of both bad and good case studies, as well as how I'd improve them (over an hour worth of videos)

• Different types of case study examples (ex: project or process-based)

• Four examples of reaalllll case studies

• A case study template

• Questions to prep for during an interview

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Presenting your case study

There are a few things that you can do both before and during your case study presentation to make it as successful as possible:

• Read the job description. It is crucial to be familiar with the job role and the expectations before choosing your best case study. In this way, your case study is a little like a cover letter. The projects and skills you choose to highlight during the presentation should be aligned with what would be expected from you in the role you're applying for.

• Research the company. Keep in mind the goals and context of the company. For instance, if you are interviewing for a B2B position, choose to present B2B case studies or case studies that showcase the most relevant skills. Knowing the company's purpose and vision can help you talk about how you have strategically tackled similar concepts in the past.

• Research the team. Try to find out information about the team you will be joining. They may have a page where you can see what type of research they do or their vision as a team. If not, this is a great question to ask after your presentation!

• Leave time for their questions AND your questions. This ensures that your interviewer can ask the necessary questions to make the best decision about your next step. For example, a 1-hour case study presentation = 35-40 mins of you presenting, 10 mins for their questions, and 10 mins for yours.

How to speak impactfully

I’ve mentioned a few times how important it is to make impactful statements to demonstrate how valuable the research you did was and also to highlight why you did something and collaboration points.

Not only is this a lot to remember at once, but you are already in a fairly high-stress situation — unless you love interviews which some people do! — so I created a formula to help you remember. You can jot these formulas down directly into that Google Doc you used for outlining:

[What you did/choice you made] + [explanation for why you did that/made that choice] + [who else was involved].

Using this formula helps ensure that when you are talking through your process, you give all the juicy details that hiring managers want to hear.

See below for a few examples of how I’ve taken a less-than-ideal statement that doesn’t give much context and added more to it so that it is fully formed:

Not ideal: We recruited 25 people for interviews

Better: We sent a screener survey to 250 people through our marketing email to get at least 25 interview participants for this generative research study. Inside that screener survey, we assessed the following criteria:

• People who have moved to a new apartment in the past three to six months (to get their recent experience)

• People who have visited at least three apartment viewings in the past three months (to get current experience)

  ---

Not ideal: After the interviews, I created two personas

Better: After each interview, I held a 30-minute debrief with stakeholders to help us synthesize during the project. We used an affinity diagram highlighting the needs, goals, and pain points from that particular interview. I decided on these tags as they were the most relevant information for the persona deliverable and the information stakeholders needed by the end of the project

I then tagged the transcript using those global tags to ensure we didn't miss anything in the debrief.

After every five interviews, we had a larger synthesis session to gather the past five participants to see trends and patterns across interviews. We did this, as well, through affinity diagramming.

After we completed all the interviews and synthesis, I held an activation workshop where we pulled the information from all 20 participants and started to sort through similarities and differences - we sorted this through spectrums of their needs, goals, and pain points. Ultimately this resulted in two distinct personas.

You don’t need to make everything you say into a hugely impactful and detailed statement because you do need to think about your time limit. I recommend trying some of these out and, as always, practicing presenting your case study. My go-to, as cringe as it is, is recording myself presenting something and listening back to see where I can improve.

After your presentation

Once your presentation is over, there are a few key things you can do that I’ve found help with the success of my current presentation and also others:

• Have a list of questions ready to ask your interviewer, both that you brainstormed before and also maybe some that you thought of when you got more context. Some great questions include topics like:

  • Struggles the hiring manager has had

  • The best part of working at the company

  • The hardest part of working at the company

  • What the team is like (team culture)

  • What the team does to bond outside of work

  • Who the hiring manager works with on a daily/weekly basis

  • How the organization/team deals with mistakes

• Send a thank you email to the person that you spoke to, either directly or to your contact, who can forward it to them. This doesn’t have to be a lengthy note, but something simple like, “Thank you so much for your time talking to me. I appreciated the X or Y question you asked and the Z moment. Looking forward to hearing from you.”

• Reflect on how it went, including what went well during the presentation and any wins you had, as well as any opportunities for improvement. Use that time to tweak anything for the next round!

Formatting, hosting, and NDAs

Some of the more nitty-gritty questions I get asked are about formatting, where to host case studies and NDAs. All of these are a bit intertwined and depend on each other. I will talk through my experience, but I recommend talking to others to see what’s worked for them.

I’ve always hosted my case studies on a Squarespace website. I put them on a webpage and as a downloadable PDF. Regarding the presentation, I turned the PDF and information into a slide deck (usually on Google Slides).

The reason I put my case studies on a website is because I find that some job applications ask for a website, and others ask for an attachment. I was also a freelancer for some time, so having a place for people to view my work and see what I was all about was critical. I recommend having a website with your work and a bit about yourself.

In terms of NDAs and sharing work. Some of my case studies are available online because either:

1. It’s been so incredibly long

2. The company no longer exists

3. I got permission to share this information

There are some case studies I don’t have or that are password protected. For these case studies, I only share them during the presentations I have. This is because I didn’t get permission to share them publicly.

When it comes down to this, I recommend checking your contract and with your legal team to see what works best for you. If you can’t openly share your work, that’s okay. I still recommend having a website available that’s about you and letting people know they can contact you if they want you to share work with them.

And, during the presentation, if you are concerned about information, please don’t share it. Remember, your case study isn’t about the particular organization and the insights you found, it’s about you and your thought process. Wipe any sensitive data. You can also not name the company — hiring managers have usually been there themselves, we get it!

You can always check out my case studies (some better than others!) here.

A note on rejection

I used to get so upset when a job rejected me. It played against my insecurities, and I immediately felt worthless and like I would never be good enough. And, yes, this happened every time I got rejected for a while. And I got rejected an awful lot.

However, I once took a job in which I should have been rejected (and I should have also rejected them). I wasn’t a good fit for the job, and the organization wasn’t a good fit. I had to quit almost immediately.

After that, I realized I didn’t need to take rejection personally. Of course, if there were ways for me to improve my craft and my interviewing, I would take those into consideration. But, sometimes, you just aren’t the right fit, and that can be a really good thing.

Whenever you get rejected, I recommend asking for feedback (you rarely get it, but it is worth asking), and then carving out some time to reflect on the interview process and if there was anything you felt you could do better. If so, practice those skills. If not, you spent all the energy you needed thinking about it!

To this day, I get rejected from conferences, company workshops, and freelance opportunities. It’s about understanding you won’t be a perfect fit for everything/everyone, and that is okay.

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Being a manager was one of the highlights of my career, which is probably why it makes so much sense that I went into full-time coaching and mentorship.

Watching someone grow and develop as a user researcher is hugely gratifying. To be with that person through the ups and downs, to work together on solving problems, to understand their hopes and dreams, and to help them unlock achievements they didn’t think possible is one of the most rewarding jobs I’ve ever had.

However, as an individual contributor and a manager, I struggled with creating development plans and having development conversations. Many of these processes and structures weren't in place, especially as the first UXR, solo UXR, or small UXR team. Without the structure of what to discuss in development conversations and how to create a plan, I had difficulty understanding how to operate in my career.

Instead, development conversations and creating plans were stressful events culminating in a few points I ignored until the next feedback round. And in those times, I tended to feel stuck and stagnant in my career.

Where was I going in my career? How was I getting to the next level or moving forward? What did I have to learn or do next to get a promotion? What did it mean to be a manager versus an individual contributor, and would I be good at it?

I often felt demotivated and lost whenever unsure of what was next or how to improve. It was like my brain was too scattered to focus on what I needed to do. It was unsettling, making me feel like I was endlessly repeating the same days and not really getting where I wanted to go.

When I started out as a manager, the last thing I wanted was for anyone I was managing to feel this way. It was one thing for me to feel uncertain, but for others to rely on me for direction and guidance and not get any of that would be my worst nightmare.

I wanted to change the way I approached development, both for myself and for my reports. I wanted the future of people’s careers and what was next to be exciting, a conversation to look forward to, and a thoughtful and followed plan. I set off to do just that: make development conversations and feedback as relevant and significant as possible.

What development means to me

Throughout the years, my definition of development has changed fairly drastically. I am a recovering perfectionist who is also impatient.

When my perfectionism and impatience mixed, it led to a perfect storm. I expected to be good at everything the first time I tried it. It was like I should be able to read how to do something and then do it 100% right.

For a while, that mechanism worked okay for me, especially in school. I was good at school. I could study and get all the right answers. I could write great papers. I could argue a point. But that came to a screeching halt when I entered my professional life as a user researcher.

Although I came from a boot camp and thought that I learned everything I needed to in that boot camp and through the subsequent books I read, I hit up against the cold hard reality:

I wasn’t automatically good at user research because I had read how to conduct a usability test.

I didn’t know how to create a persona.

I didn’t know how to write proper research questions.

I didn’t know how to build a customer journey map.

I lived by the Pippi Longstocking quote:

“I have never tried that before, so I think I should definitely be able to do that.”

Development meant that I would be the greatest user researcher tomorrow. I didn’t think through what I wanted to accomplish, what I enjoyed/disliked doing, or where I saw myself in the future. I just wanted to be the best (the very best, like no one ever was).

This blind drive for achievement meant that when I actually thought about the big questions, like where I wanted to work, if I wanted to be a manager, or what I wanted my career to look like, I had no idea.

Talk about unsettling.

Luckily, over the years, I had people who asked me those important questions, which forced me to look at what development really meant to me:

Taking small steps to work toward certain accomplishments in your career through improving skills, making meaningful professional impact, and excitement in learning, while balancing mental and physical wellbeing.

It wasn’t about charging ahead to be the best. It was about cultivating a career that made me feel like I had an impact where I was working and that I was excited about. Is it true that I loved every part of user research? Nope. I still hate recruitment.

But, generally speaking, I am excited to learn new things about user research and to understand different perspectives. Every day I am excited to develop my skills in new and different ways, and I am okay with that taking time.

Remember, small steps lead to big, sustainable changes.

Creating meaningful development at your org

Every organization is different when it comes to structuring feedback and career development. I’ve been at organizations with no real set structure and those with a very strict process.

Generally, I’ve seen that companies have two feedback cycles/development conversations per year, otherwise known as performance reviews (I will use all these terms interchangeably). One is bigger than the two and holds the space for promotions and pay raises, while the other is less intense and more just to ensure everyone is on the right track.

This might not be the case for your company — you may have these performance reviews happen quarterly or once a year. I recommend taking your organization’s cadence and applying these conversations to that cadence before trying to change timing (if you feel you need to change it). For instance, when I worked at a company that only did annual reviews, I still worked with my direct reports on having these conversations every six months because an entire year without feedback felt wrong.

Regardless of how loose or structured your organization is, I’ve always found defining what development means to me incredibly helpful and sharing that with my reports so we are all aligned and on the same page.

Defining development at your org

The first step I recommend is sitting down and defining what development means to you and the type of space you want to create within your workplace — either for your team if you are a manager, or for yourself if you are an individual contributor.

Defining development can be challenging because it is one of those buzzwords that we don’t think about. This can mean we adopt a definition of development that might not work for us, such as striving to get to the top of some pyramid, becoming a manager, or getting promoted.

Many people don’t necessarily want to be a manager. Some people don’t want to get to the top of a particular pyramid because that means dealing with politics. Others might want to move horizontally across an organization to try out different roles.

There are certain goals that we can bake into our development just because they feel like the right thing to do or the things we “should” be driving for. But development should mean doing things we enjoy, discovering new things about ourselves, and, ultimately, working toward a fulfilling and impactful future.

That’s why I find it so valuable to sit down and define what development means to you, and also, if you have a team, define what that means to your team. It can help others get into the mindset that they don’t have to be in a certain role or do specific things to be successful in their careers.

When I did this, I defined development as incremental steps toward a greater goal and future self that I want to achieve personally and professionally that aligns with my values and needs.

Some questions you can ask yourself and your team if you’re looking to define development include:

• What does growth look like for me?

• Are there things I should be doing that I don’t want to be? What are those? Why do I feel pressured into them?

• Are there areas I am interested in that are “wrong?” What are those? Why do they feel wrong?

• How do I want my professional and personal development to intertwine?

• How would I define development without any “shoulds?”

With this, you (and your team, if applicable) can create a shared understanding of what development means to each person. This makes development conversations much more relevant, personalized, and fruitful for each person because you have a much deeper understanding of what they need and where they are headed.

Setting up the necessary frameworks

Once you’ve defined development, it’s important to set up the necessary frameworks for these assessments and conversations to happen at your company.

There were many times I went into performance reviews unclear about what I was being assessed against. Had I done my job well? What criteria was my manager using to judge my performance? How would I know whether or not I was able to be promoted?

A lot of organizations can lack this type of structure, which makes performance reviews and development conversations confusing, stressful, and frustrating. If someone believes they did a good job, and did a whole lot of work, it can be incredibly frustrating to hear the work they did wouldn’t be taken into consideration for a promotion because it wasn’t 100% aligned with some hidden job criteria.

I remember, in one of my first roles at a start-up, I wore quite a few (around 50, it felt) different hats: I did some wireframing, user research, market research, product management, and customer support. It was fun experiencing all these different roles, but I was busy. And, when it came to my performance review, in which I was expecting a promotion, I got a hard kick to the rear end.

No, I wasn’t getting promoted. I didn’t do enough user research-related activities. There were some boxes I had never seen that hadn’t been ticked off.

I was certainly ticked off after that conversation.

That experience, early on in my career, made me realize how important transparency is in development and performance conversations, and I vowed never to let myself or my reports fall into a similar fate or situation. I recommend having some pieces in place to make the whole process more transparent, like:

• A skills inventory that colleagues can use to understand what skills they have, the level of that skill, and where the gaps are

• A career framework that clearly states what is necessary for each role (what good looks like) and what work is necessary to get to the next level

• Questions people can use to get useful feedback from peers and colleagues

This documentation helps colleagues understand where they are, what they are being assessed on, and demonstrates what they need to reach the next level. In my development conversations, I include exercises with the skills inventory and the career framework because it helps spread transparency and ensure everyone is aligned on the assessment criteria.

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Past behavior is the biggest indicator of future behavior. What we have done in the past, we are more likely to repeat in the future — that includes the good and the bad.

It took me a while to understand how applicable this concept was to my research process. Instead of stepping back and understanding what I was doing and where I could improve, I kept hitting my head against the same walls. I kept making the same mistakes.

I would take on too many projects, say yes to projects that didn’t make sense (which I would then later try to backtrack), use the same methods repeatedly, create reports that weren’t helpful, and constantly react to projects instead of recommending them. I would recruit people incorrectly, write tasks too quickly, and try to lean out synthesis to the point where it negatively impacted the quality of my insights.

Because of all of this, I felt completely stuck and stagnant in my career. I was doing things without really thinking about what I was doing and why I was approaching it in that way.

It was a hugely frustrating time in my role as a user researcher. I felt like I should be better, but I was flailing. I was going through the motions, I was doing what I was “supposed” to be doing, but I didn’t feel good about it.

Now, one thing to know about me is that I am impatient 😁. I wanted to be better. I wanted to get a promotion, a pay rise, to speak at meet-ups and conferences, and to contribute to the field in a meaningful way. Instead, I was spinning my wheels and not getting any closer to my goals.

After about six months of this daily feeling of stagnancy, I was venting to a friend who also happened to be a product manager, and he said to me, “Why don’t you do a retrospective then?”

At first, I dismissed it. A retrospective was for product teams. It wouldn’t do me any good to look back. I needed to look forward. To get better. Despite my reluctance, the idea stuck with me. And, finally, I did my first retrospective.

V1 research retrospective

Retrospectives are a common occurrence in the world of agile product organizations. This ritual allows teams to reflect on their work during a project, and comment on how it went.

Generally, this activity includes everyone who was part of the project and aims to understand what went well and what could be improved. However, I have found these retrospectives focus on the actual "doing" of the project—development time, development blockers, and communication errors. Retrospectives usually do not encompass the "before" of the project, where user research often lies.

I found the standard product retrospective didn’t provide me with what I needed to improve either because it wasn’t the focus of the retrospectives or because colleagues didn’t have feedback to provide me.

Enter: the solo user research project retrospective.

Defining the research retrospective

I did this version of my research retrospective on my own. I didn’t include stakeholders because I found it difficult to get their time and feedback, and I was a solo user researcher at the time. However, if you have a team that you think would benefit from doing this together, you can absolutely adapt it. You’ll also see, in my next iteration, that I do include stakeholders.

First, when creating something like this, it is always important to start with the goals and expected outcomes. It’s easy to get into the habit of just doing things to do them, which is what got me into this problem in the first place.

For this first iteration, I thought about what I wanted to accomplish with this retrospective:

• To understand where things were going wrong in my process/research

• To improve my research process

• To feel less stagnant and like there was a way forward

While the goals felt lofty, I knew I had to start somewhere. Since I wanted to get going right away, I thought that the standard retrospective framework would work for me. So I started doing a retrospective after each research project, focusing on:

1. What to start doing better

2. What to stop doing

3. What to continue doing

I took 5-10 minutes, depending on my schedule, to jot down ideas for each section of the board.

While this felt nice, and I felt more proactive, it still didn’t feel like enough. I knew I had to start doing certain things, and I knew I had to improve particular areas based on these retrospectives. However, I was so busy that this became more of a check-box exercise rather than an impactful and actionable practice.

I would end a project, conduct a retrospective, and then move on to another project or initiative. Instead of making changes, I was just raking up many things I needed to change, which then felt overwhelming. I would look over everything I needed to start doing and not know where to start.

After a few months of using this format, I realized it wasn’t working for me. I wasn’t putting enough time toward this, and, because I did it on a project basis, it felt disjointed from the rest of my process. I didn’t know how to make meaningful changes.

Instead of running away screaming and never reflecting again (although I considered that an option 😅), I decided to change the structure to try and get back to what I originally wanted to accomplish with this exercise.

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I used to hate updating and sending my resume. I would do it with that cringe-y look on my face, one eye scrunched closed, my teeth clenched, and hoping for the best.

I was never confident about my resume, no matter how often I tinkered with it. I always felt like it was below average, but while I could make that diagnosis, I didn’t know how to fix it. It was one of those things where I could say, “It’s not the vibe,” but couldn’t figure out how to improve it.

It sucked.

Then I tried to get creative. Just so you don’t have to cringe so hard, knowing what I used to send out, let’s go through the several versions of my resume, and then I will talk about the top three things to do on your resume to optimize it.

Iteration one

Yes, I sent this to people. I sent this with job applications. Hiring managers received this resume from me.

I was trying (desperately) to be creative by making my resume into a persona. However, I shot myself in the foot by showing that I had no idea how to create a persona (this is not a great persona, that’s for sure) and made my resume relatively useless for hiring managers.

There are a plethora of obvious reasons this is not a great resume, but let’s go through them here just in case we missed any:

1. There is absolutely no description of what I achieved in my career so far

2. I make no mention of the impact I had on any organization

3. The things under “top tasks” are what I would hope researchers would be able to do - they are obvious tasks that take up space

4. Apparently, I was an expert on everything 😂 as is clearly shown by my making my resume into a persona

I commend myself for finding an interesting photo of pixelated Zelda. And also, I CLEARLY TRIED SO HARD. I wanted to stand out and be creative, I wanted to be the cool colleague. However, in doing so, I significantly hurt my chances of getting a role because of the lack of information in my resume.

What do hiring managers want in a resume?

Before I go on to the following iterations of my resume, I want to talk through a bit of what I am looking for as a hiring manager when I view your user research resume. I will be fully transparent with how I operated as a hiring manager for about four years, but please keep in mind this is just my experience as a hiring manager and not necessarily generalizable to other hiring managers’ processes.

Whenever I answer the question of what hiring managers want from a resume, it looks like:

• Tangible examples of the impact your work has had on an organization

• Unique examples of work you have done as a user researcher

• Understanding if you've collaborated with others and what the impact was

• A concise overview of what you have accomplished in your career so far

As someone who has been on both sides, I know these points are valid but can be so vague. What does impact really mean? What does unique mean? How do you demonstrate impact concisely?

There’s no need for this to be a secretive or mysterious process, so let’s break it down.

Want even more in-depth information that gets you prepped for your next UXR job? Grab the recording & slides from my super awesome four-part job prep series.

What does it mean to be unique?

I struggled with this so much when I was applying for user research jobs. I knew that there were certain things I had to put on my resume, but I also wanted to show my uniqueness. But…was I actually unique? As a user researcher, I didn’t feel like I had anything new or interesting to say. I put what I saw in every other resume that I scoured on the internet.

So, what does it mean to be unique through the eyes of a hiring manager?

• Include information that isn’t “obvious.” Do you know the top tasks I put on interation one of my resume? I said I could conduct qualitative research and usability tests, that I could synthesize and deliver insights, and that I could conduct competitive analysis. These are obvious tasks that I believe any researcher should be able to do if they are applying for a job. Save the space for things that don’t tell me you can do the “end-to-end research process.” (more on this later)

• What are some interesting or weird approaches you tried? Did you do something that had a surprising or unexpected outcome? In addition to including the run-of-the-mill methods, what is something different you tried?

• Tell me something you are particularly proud of trying or doing, even if it is a “standard” approach. Was there something different you tried? Did you do an interesting spin on an ideation workshop? Create a FOMO room? Try something completely new that your stakeholders responded to?

Unique means something that you found interesting and different about your work. Is there a time you maybe went out on a limb and experimented (doesn’t matter if you failed, as long as your learned)? How did that go? Is there something you do differently than other people?

Once I read on a resume that a user researcher had perfected the process of demoing, comparing, and presenting different tools to ensure that their team picked the best one for whatever problem they were trying to solve. The templates and process this person created were then adopted by other teams. Super interesting and unique.

And before you get concerned about the fact that you have never done anything unique in your career, I will stop you there. You have absolutely done something different.

You have a different lens through which you view user research because of your past experiences. I promise you have a unique way of thinking through or approaching different problems and scenarios — sometimes we just need to be okay with some bragging 🙂

What exactly does impact mean?

And now, on to the dreaded topic of impact. WTF is impact? What does it mean to be impactful? I hated impact for the longest time and believed that user researchers shouldn’t have to report on impact because our work is qualitative. LOL - jokes no me, no one cared what I thought!

Impact is critical to show to hiring managers because past behavior/accomplishments are the best predictors of future behavior. If you could positively impact your previous employers in ways hiring managers are looking for, you can likely repeat that same behavior and positively impact that organization. Hiring managers are looking for this evidence because it’s the best information for making decisions.

So, how do you show impact in these tiny little resume sentences?

• Use numbers literally wherever you can. How many people did you interview? How many stakeholders did you work with? How many teams? How many insights? Surveys? Usability tests? How much time did you reduce recruitment processes? Quantify every single thing you can.

• Use specific and concrete examples of your work. No more “we did research to improve the product,” but instead, tell me exactly what you were trying to achieve. What were the success criteria? What part of the product were you improving and why?

• Add in the consequence. I read a lot of resume bullet points and think, “so what?” What was the consequence of the action that person took? What was the end impact? If you tell me you sped up recruitment by 50%, that’s great, but what did it mean? What did that lead to as an impact? More research projects? Higher stakeholder satisfaction? Higher budget for research?

• Show, don’t tell. This saying still pisses me off as a writer, but I get it. Don’t tell me you are a great researcher, show me that you are a great researcher by demonstrating your skills through your resume. Don’t tell me your insights were impact, demonstrate HOW they were impactful. How did stakeholders use them? What was the “so what?”

If you’re struggling with how to tie research back to impact outside of product metrics, check out my podcast episode all about this to get tips!

Back to being a researcher: what is a hiring manager’s goal?

So now we have an idea of what hiring managers want from resumes, let’s go back to the basics a bit and put our researcher’s hat on. This is a super important part of the process that not enough people think about:

What are hiring managers trying to achieve when they receive your resume? And what is that experience like for them?

Don’t worry, we don’t need to set up a research project and interview a bunch of hiring managers - although it’s great if you want to because it will surely help you better understand them - because I’ve done that research and experienced it firsthand.

When I got laid off a few years ago, I had quite a lot of time on my hands and not a lot of success getting hired, so I decided to interview hiring managers. I connected first with friends and had them recommend others. I took a lot of people out to coffee and paid out quite a few Amazon gift cards as compensation.

I compiled a bunch of great information on what hiring managers were looking for and what they were trying to achieve with my resume. Without that information, I floundered a lot, but once I started to know their goal, I could really streamline my resume to meet their needs.

The sad truth of time

As a hiring manager, I sometimes go through many resumes (upwards of hundreds at times), which typically means I am scanning for seconds or minutes before making a yes/no judgment call. Is this something to be proud of? Nope. I wish I could spend more time considering people’s resumes, but it’s impossible.

So, in those moments, I am trying to achieve the following goal:

To find information that helps me understand if you are fit for the role/organization I am hiring for and what level of experience you have.

Using just your resume, I need to assess if you should go on to the next step by understanding if you have the right experience to do a good job in the particular situation called for by the role and organization.

With this in mind, how can you make that decision a no-brainer for the hiring manager? How can you give them the exact information they need?

Let’s see what I did to change and improve my resume, and we will go through some concrete examples!

Iteration two

I must say, although this resume is still not good, it was miles beyond the other one, if not just for finally adhering to a “standard'“ format.

However, as I said, it’s still not great. There are many reasons why:

1. Well, first, I have a huge glaring mistake…see if you can spot it…I use the same “I am the user research for both the hotel and residential products…” for two roles. LOL. Whoops. ALWAYS check your spelling and grammar, and that everything is in the right place. I see so many small mistakes on resumes, and, as a hiring manager, it makes me cringe.

2. I still list obvious tasks that I have done with no demonstrable impact on the organization. These are tasks that a researcher should be able to do without question. Additionally, because there is no impact, I am not helping the hiring manager assess if I am a good fit and can positively impact their organization.

3. There is NO quantifying - I created “personas” and “journey maps.” Cool! How many? How many workshops did I facilitate? How many stakeholders did I work with? How many research sessions did I run? Nothing in here is quantified. Instead, it all is squished into these tiny, fluffy statements that mean nothing.

4. My bio was really clunky. You totally don’t need one, by the way. It’s up to you. If you will include a bio, make sure it is relevant to your work (I show a better bio in iteration four). My current resume doesn’t have a bio.

5. My expertise and skills sections aren’t really helpful. Like, under skills, research methods? HA. I’m too lazy to list out which ones? Also, I wasn’t an expert in user-centric design. I can’t design worth sh*t. So, if you are going to include a skills area, put specific skills that are interesting and relevant to your work, such as ideation workshop facilitation.

Overall, I didn’t actually improve much upon this resume outside of the format. I’m honestly feeling pretty lucky I advanced in my career at all.

Iteration three

Okay, great, I didn’t go too far off the beaten path again with the format, so at least that’s a plus.

I also cleaned up my bio a bit to be more geared toward the relevant aspect of my work, around listening to both users and stakeholders to make relevant recommendations. However, I didn’t include any sort of impact I had or anything specific to the work I’ve done or specialized in, which is an ideal thing to have in your bio.

One thing I did really poorly in this resume included my freelancing as the first bit of experience I shared, while my full-time work was relegated to the next page. The reason this was a problem was because I wasn’t applying to freelance positions, I was looking for a full-time role. So, when we go back to the 30-second rule of someone scanning my resume and the decision they are trying to make, I am not providing the best information for them.

I also make another mistake of repeating information in two separate bullets 🙄

Additionally, the points under my freelance experience are so incredibly vague and obvious.

• “Managing and executing on end-to-end research projects, including research plan development, participant recruitment, interview guide creation, synthesis of results and presenting of actionable insights”

• “Evangelizing the user's perspective to help clients and companies develop empathy for customers”

• “Visualizing research findings by creating personas, mental models and journey maps through facilitating cross-departmental workshops”

• “Establishing an overall research strategy and framework, which includes: best practices and aligning research with overarching business strategy”

Honestly, this was a whole lot of fluff. It sounds like I just copied and pasted this information from a job description (maybe I did). In this, there is absolutely NO personalization in these bullet points, no uniqueness, no impact, no demonstration of skills. Nothing, nada, zilch. These may even be worse than my first resume because at least those didn’t look like I straight-up copied and pasted them.

On the second page, I see TWO NUMBERs 🎉 that I led over 150 research sessions and that my research findings led to three new product offerings! Huzzah. I had it in me somewhere, but just not enough to put it anywhere else. Most of everything else is extremely dry and fluffy. In fact, a lot of it really does look copied and pasted:

Such as “conducted competitive analysis and market research to identify growth
opportunities.” ????? I don’t even know what that means. This was likely me inserting filler words I’d seen elsewhere in the hopes that’s what people were looking for.

I got a little more specific with my skills, adding in actual methods rather than just “research methodologies.” But this resume was not my best.

A note on authenticity and transparency

Before we hop to the next interation and some concrete examples for improving bullet points, I want to quickly note how important authenticity and transparency is.

By including that last bullet point, “conducted competitive analysis and market research to identify growth opportunities,” in my resume, I was actually setting myself up for failure. I didn’t know how to conduct market research to identify growth opportunities. But it sounded good, and I saw it on many other resumes.

I highly recommend only including your experience and what you would feel comfortable doing at a new organization.

I once got called out in an interview when they asked me about a certain technique I had put on my resume, and it was so incredibly embarrassing to try to backtrack from that. I lost their trust and the job opportunity - rightly so.

Iteration four

This iteration finally started to get a bit better. Unfortunately, I still kept my freelance work on the first page, AND it was still hugely generic, so no points for that.

However, if you ignore that entire first page (the most important part of a resume, mind you 😂), you will see that I started to improve my quantifying a bit under my Olapic role.

For instance, I included the number of personas and journey maps — BUT, big note, including a number below 10? Write it out (ex: nine). 10 and above, use the numerical. So, this line should read: “co-created seven personas and two customer journey maps.”

I tried to get a bit more specific, but I was still, again, hugely lacking in quantifying, consequence, and specificity.

Let’s fix it

Instead of just telling you all the things I did wrong on my resume, let’s look at six of these less-than-ideal bullet points so that we can improve them together:

Fix one

Bad: Assisted product managers in prioritizing new features/improvements on product roadmaps

Better: Created and leveraged three personas to prioritize the feature roadmap, and empowered product managers and developers to write customer-centric user stories

Why: In the bad version, I just say I assisted prioritization, not how or what that actually means. In this better version, I give a concrete example of the work (the three personas) and the consequence of the work (writing customer-centric user stories)

Fix two

Bad: Collaborated with designers to drive major product iterations through usability testing

Better: Conducted over 75 usability tests, which resulted in actionable insights, increasing customer satisfaction scores (SUS) from 46 (below average) to 71 (above average), and increased overall task completion by 23%

Why: I up-leveled this by giving a concrete example of the work I did through usability testing, gave it a number, and also brought through the concrete impact (with even more numbers). This gets really specific

Fix three

Bad: Evangelized the user's perspective through the creation of user personas, empathy maps, journey maps, and user scenarios

Better: Used our service blueprint to inform sales strategy, and reduce client implementation timeline of our product by 50%, from six months to two to three months

Why: I tried to squeeze everything into the bad version, and with that, I diluted my work. Instead, I focused specifically on how the service blueprint informed sales strategy (showing I can work cross-departmentally) and implementation time. Narrowing the scope of your bullet points is really important.

Fix four

Bad: Created and shared insights in creative ways throughout the product team

Better: Used creative sharing methodologies, such as usability bingo and opening night, which aided in executive buy-in and led to a 20% increase in the annual research budget

Why: Again, I got specific and honed into two sharing methodologies to properly demonstrate my skills and I also follow-up with a super important impact of increasing budget

Fix five

Bad: Educated stakeholders on the value of research and democratized usability testing through training

Better: Developed over 20 user research templates and curriculum to teach 10+ colleagues how to conduct usability sessions, leading to a 30/70 split in evaluative and generative research

Why: By quantifying what democratization meant more clearly (20 templates) and how many people I taught, this statement becomes a lot more valuable. I also end with the impact of enabling more generative research

Fix six

Bad: Built a research framework and practice for end-to-end research projects

Better: Created a user research structure and framework, which placed user research within an agile environment and reduced wasted development time by 45%

Why: Creating a framework is great and something I always see on resumes, but what does that framework enable? Here, I make a quick fix of adding a quantifier and the consequence to help drive that impact.

There are SO many ways to improve each of these bullet points, depending on the experience you have and what you are trying to convey to the hiring manager. Definitely take the time to think about how to add these components to yours (formula below in case you get stuck)!

The current version

The current version of my resume considers everything I mentioned above about giving hiring managers the necessary information upfront to make the best decisions they can, including concrete examples and impact.

Of course, there are always things to improve, but I am grateful for the lessons I learned through these iterations!

Use these techniques

Did you have a nice laugh looking at my resumes, but now, faced with yours, you just want to shred it into a million digital pieces? No fear. I have some techniques for you to use to make it easier on you!

The job description

The job description should be your best friend! Use the job description to understand the types of skills you should be demonstrating on your resume. I usually have a “standard” resume, and I determined what should go on it by looking at A LOT of job descriptions, finding patterns and trends across them, and synthesizing the most important job responsibilities. I recommend doing the same for the job you are looking for — it definitely helps ensure you have the right information on your resume!

Use my formula + words

To help you out, you can use this formula when transforming your bullet points:

[Power verb] + [what you did] + [quantifier] + [consequence transition] + [consequence/what happened because]

Conducted over 75 usability tests, which resulted in actionable insights, increasing customer satisfaction scores (SUS) from 46 (below average) to 71 (above average), and increased overall task completion by 23%

Word vomit, then perfect

Trying to get the perfect sentence the first time is torture. Don’t do it. I’ve done it 84392547 times enough to tell you it doesn’t work. Instead, word vomit. Put everything you did (sans formula) down into a Word document. I mean all of it.

Then, go through the bullets and see if you can create a formula from them. If you can’t, then move that bullet point down the list. Once you have five to seven formulas for a role, start to rank them in the level of importance. Pick the top three to five for each role that is most relevant to the job you are applying to.

Have a backlog

Ideally, your resume reflects the job you are applying for. These days, there are qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods user researchers. There are also UXRs that specialize in start-ups or a particular industry. There are those who rock at processes and frameworks.

What I always recommend doing is having a backlog that has all of your work (you can use your Word vomit doc) so that if a job calls for a different skill set than your “standard” resume, you can just grab it from this list.

For instance, I am more of a qualitative researcher, but I have extensive experience in surveys. If I applied for a job that asked for more quantitative-based skills, I would go to my backlog and pull out more of those bullet points to show relevant experience.

Etsy is great

Not a designer? Hey, same! I hate designing resumes (or anything, really). Literally, my husband makes fun of anything I design. When in doubt, I go to Etsy and check out resume templates! I love supporting a small shop and not having to design anything!

Don’t have experience?

I highly recommend doing some personal projects or volunteering. I talk about this in-depth in this video!

Don’t wait!

Your dream job (or at least a better one than you’re in now) could come along at any point. I’ve been SOL several times when an awesome job came my way because I wasn't ready with my resume. I told myself, “oh, I’ll throw this together in two hours after work.” HA! Nope. My resume (clearly, as you saw) wasn’t at that point, and I let a lot of opportunities slip by because of that.

I recommend updating your resume every one to three months so that it is in the most tip-top shape, just in case!

Stop applying. Start getting interviews.

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Researchers who use it report 3x more interviews and stronger offers.

Don’t just polish your resume. Change your outcome.

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Stay curious,

Nikki

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The biggest question I have struggled with as a user researcher is: “when is it time to quit my job?” It’s inevitable that it comes up - sometimes as a fleeting thought when I am having a bad week and sometimes as a thought that gets stuck on repeat in my brain.

I would ruminate:

Is it time to leave?

When should I go?

Should I start interviewing somewhere else?

Do I really want to go through the process of starting allllll over again?

I’ve encountered some horrifying situations in which I promptly packed my desk up and left. But it’s the more subtle stories and feelings that make this decision harder. Something will happen and I will be mad or frustrated - again, someone ignored my insights, or I spent hours on a research project that just changed mid-way through. Irritated, I throw my hands up and grumble about wanting to find a new job. Then the doubt seeps in:

Is it really that bad? Should I really leave over this? Shouldn’t I be able to do a better job and fix this?

I’m not alone in struggling with this. This combination of frustration and doubt can ping pong in your mind for a long time, making the whole situation worse. I’ve had many people approach me, asking if this is the way things should be:

• Should people be ignoring me? Should I have to beg for them to listen to me?

• Should colleagues be telling me how to do my job?

• Should I just “go with it” when people don’t take my advice and continue with their coveted ideas despite research?

• Should I get pushback or get questioned on everything I present?

The thing is, no, you really shouldn’t, at least not for a prolonged amount of time. If you are joining a company with a low user research maturity or are new to user research, you might have to go through these battles for a while. But, after 3-6 months, they should start to fade into the background. That’s my benchmark - and still is!

Let’s say you are at the five-month mark and nothing is changing, or maybe you are only one month in and miserable (I’ve quit within a month!), or maybe you’ve been there for years and struggled with these challenges non-stop. Regardless of where you are right now if you are thinking about whether or not you should move on, let me tell you my secret. These are the series of questions I ask myself every time this thought pops into my head and they have never steered me wrong:

1. “Am I currently learning/growing/developing at this company?”

2. “Will I be able to learn/grow/develop in the next 3-6 months?”

3. “What helpful and relevant skills am I or could I continue to learn if I stayed?”

   • “Are these skills something that could help me in future positions?”

Now let’s break this down:

“Am I currently learning/growing/developing at this company?”

This is the first and most important question. Are you learning, growing, and developing at this current company? If the answer is no, then that is your first red flag. You don’t want to stay at a place where the environment doesn’t enable you to learn. Trust me, I have done this and wasted months of my career spinning my wheels. That time could have been better spent trying to find a new job that would help me get to the next level in my career.

However, since we don’t want to rush into such a big decision, we go on to the next question.

“Will I be able to learn/grow/develop in the next 3-6 months?”

If you aren’t learning now, will something magically happen that will grant you the ability to learn in the next 3-6 months? For instance, can you move to a new manager? Or can you get learning budget that you can use for outside mentorship? If you can’t answer this for sure, then think of the answer as a “no.” Which is your second red flag. Because, then, you are saying you likely won’t learn anything in the next 3-6 months.

But, alas, we want to make sure this is the right decision, so on to the next question.

“What helpful and relevant skills am I or could I continue to learn if I stayed?”

This is the last one if you have gone through a series of “no’s.” Or even “yes’s.”

If you answered yes to questions 1 & 2, ask yourself what type of skills are you (or could you) learn if you stayed? Because, learning how to beg better, or learning how to overcome an asshole colleague can be helpful BUT there are better things for you to learn, like how to improve your interviewing skills or how to become a research manager. Really think about if these skills are useful or not to you. Yes, there will always be jerks and difficult colleagues you will work with, but it isn’t your job to fix these people or win them over. Your job is to be a kick-ass user researcher. Make sure the skills you would stay for are actually relevant to helping you in your career.

Helpful skills would include:

• Improving technical research skills, such as writing research plans, interviewing, creating reports, recruiting tough audiences

• Improving soft skills such as workshop facilitation, stakeholder management (but not begging), and storytelling

• Organizational skills such as managing others, getting involved in large-scale strategic research

Unhelpful skills include:

• Begging people to listen to you over and over

• Dealing with people who don’t care about research (after you have tried to educate them for 3-6 months)

• Convincing people you are an expert and know how to do your job

If you answered no to questions 1 & 2, it is likely time for you to leave. And that is okay, in fact, it is great. You can be free of that and find a supportive environment for you to grow!

It’s about thriving, not surviving.

But what if you answered yes and are still unsure?

If you are growing and learning, and you believe you will do so in the next 3-6 months, relevant and helpful skills for your future. I would consider staying. Staying doesn’t mean you don’t interview to see if there is a better fit for you. Look at other companies, network, and interview. It’s always good to practice and see what is out there.

And, if you just want a change, I am giving you permission right now! I have left jobs where I am still learning for opportunities where I would learn more. For instance, I was a senior individual contributor and still learning at one of my jobs, but I left it because I found another role that would offer me the chance at being a research manager. It was a new skill I wouldn’t have the chance to explore in my current role. So, if you want to try new things or learn new skills, or even explore new industries - go for it!

A huge caveat

This article, of course, doesn’t cover things like harassment, toxic work environments, discrimination - if any of those things are happening, even if you answered yes, consider leaving. Unfortunately, work takes up a large part of our life, and life is short. You will and can find something better - you deserve it.

If you answered no, don’t be sad. This is a great learning opportunity! Go forth and interview! Find yourself something better!

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I’ve had a lot of managers. Some were user researchers, some had misconceptions of user research - some were good, and others were not. Others were absolutely terrible.

During different parts of my career, and with specific managers, I dreaded our 1x1s. There were times I had a whole myriad of questions or issues I was facing, but I didn’t want to go to the meeting. Sometimes I lied and told my manager that I didn’t have any topics so we could skip the week. Luckily (but also, unfortunately), the bad managers were more than willing to skip the week. This meant that I got to avoid the tear-my-hair-out thirty minutes, but also meant my head sunk further beneath the water. I had no guidance and no helpful feedback. I flailed and typically failed.

Then there were the okay managers. We had fine conversations, but our 1x1s and discussions felt like status updates. I was doing this and that project, all was good, I had a question about a request, oh and could I have a few days off next month? There was nothing about my career development. I received little guidance about my trajectory, path, or what I should focus on next to improve my general skills as a user researcher. It wasn’t a terrible relationship, but also wasn’t particularly helpful.

And then the few and far between, the great managers of the world. I’ve had only a few that fit into this category. During our 1x1s, every few weeks, we’d focus on career development. These managers would help guide me on areas to improve upon, they would help un-block me, brainstorm with me on how to overcome obstacles, and not just care about my career at the current organization, but after. These managers set me up for success and I attribute a great deal of my success to these wonderful people (and tell them so regularly).

Now, I’m going to put these managers into three buckets:

1. The heroes - those managers who help you beyond the day-to-day

2. The average manager - those who you can talk to and share with, but don’t go much into career development or general skill improvement

3. The meh-to-horrible manager - not helpful at all and makes you want to avoid them at all costs. Can have serious misunderstandings of what you do and why, but still have opinions on how you should do it.

I’m going to put the heroes aside because, to be honest, they are great at setting up 1x1s and helping with career development. So, let’s focus on how to improve 1x1s with the average and meh-to-horrible manager.

Ten steps to improve your 1x1s

Both of these managers might be average to horrible for a few different reasons:

1. They might not want to be a manager

2. They might be a new manager or not really know how to manage because no one taught them

3. They might not understand your role or responsibilities (very common with user researchers reporting to non-user research managers)

It is wonderful if you can get this information out of them because it can give you further clarity on how to work together. For instance, if they don’t want to be a manager or aren’t sure about how to be a manager, you know you will have to drive the relationship more. If they don’t understand your role, you will have to do more education. Unveiling this is the first step I take when I get an average manager.

Now, how do you improve your 1x1s with this manager?

The first piece of advice (which might not be what you want to hear) is that you need to own these meetings. This means you need to put in the effort to make these meetings meaningful - your growth and development is your responsibility and, for these managers, you need to be the one bringing it up. Here is how I take control and improve my 1x1s with this manager:

1. Create a space. I make a space for us to document our 1x1s. Whether that is a Miro board (you can check out this template), excel sheet, or google doc; it doesn’t matter. Whatever is easiest for you to fill out and make a habit out of.

2. Own the agenda. I ask my managers for a 50-minute weekly meeting. Sometimes I don’t get what I want so I squeeze the agenda to fit 30-minutes. But, either way, every week you should have an agenda you can fill out (via the space) so you don’t waste time thinking about what you want to discuss. My 50-minute agendas typically look like:

   • Progress & learnings (10 minutes): What progress have I made over the past week and what are some things I’ve learned?

   • Decisions (10 minutes): What decisions do I need to make in the next week or two?

   • Blockers (15 minutes): What blockers have come up for me and what do I need help with?

   • Upcoming work (2-5 minutes): What upcoming work or situations do I need my manager to be a part of to give me feedback?

   • Manager feedback - optional (2-5 minutes): What feedback do I have for my manager?

   • Admin - optional (2-5 minutes): Discussing or asking about things like vacation days, conferences, etc.

3. Bring solutions to blockers. I quickly learned that bringing problems to this (or any) kind of manager was useless. I either didn’t have time to talk about the problems or my manager just asked me more questions that left me without a solution. So, instead, I started bringing several ideas of how I’d solve the blockers and asking for feedback on them. This method was much more effective. We got through the blockers and I got the guidance I needed to make a final decision. I also always left time on blockers that I had absolutely no solution to and asked for feedback to get started on a solution.

4. Avoid lengthy feedback. When I want feedback, I don’t ask for it in my 1x1s. Instead, I ask my manager to attend a report presentation or a workshop I’m facilitating and ask for short, direct feedback right after. I ask my manager to take 2-3 minutes after my presentation to give me a few bullet points of what went well and what I need to improve. This way, the lengthy feedback doesn’t come a week (or two!) later and dominate our conversation.

5. Make the distinction between performance reviews & career development. A lot of these managers might want to save your career development talk for your yearly or, if you’re lucky, six month performance reviews. But, there is a clear (and often missed) difference between the two. Performance reviews look at past work. Yes, sometimes you touch upon the future with performance reviews, but usually that future talk is about promotions and raises (or lack thereof). Make sure you save time for career development outside of the performance review loop.

6. Explain your goals. If your manager doesn’t ask you where you want to go or what you want to accomplish in the next few years, then share this with them. Tell them what you want to grow into and what your long-term aspirations are (not the next three weeks, the next three years). Once you set this up, you can ask your manager how to begin working on these goals - can your manager put you in certain meetings or situations? Can you tackle a particular topic to improve those skills?

7. Give feedback to your manager. Your 1x1 is also about you giving feedback to your manager. In this feedback, I will tell them what I am lacking and what I need from them to fix that (remember, solutions). Additionally, if my manager has no idea what questions to ask me, I will tell them:

   • How productive and motivated I am feeling

   • How happy I am with my role/responsibilities and career development

8. Educate them. When a manager doesn’t understand what you do, and what you should be doing, you need to take the time to educate them. Tell them what user researchers do and what your role entails. Explain what your responsibilities are (and aren’t - don’t do wireframes unless you actually want to) and why these are your responsibilities. Talk through the ROI and value of user research.

9. Ask for a new manager. If you try this and nothing is working, ask for a new manager. Sometimes you would be surprised at this seemingly simple switch. Once, I was reporting to a UX person but it really wasn’t working. I asked to report to the VP of Product or the Head of Analytics. The switch happened and I reported to the Head of Analytics. Not only was this a great relationship but we paved the way for a amazing alliance between qualitative and quantitative data.

10. Ask for a mentor. If your manager doesn’t want to be a manager or simply doesn’t care, and you have no way to make a manager switch, ask them for a budget for a mentor. I’ve had many mentees stuck in this position, and my personalized mentorship program really helped their career development. If there is no budget, go out into the community to find people who you can talk to (ex: UXCoffeeHours).

These steps can help you get the most out of a less-than-ideal experience. It might even help your manager into the hero category (with time). However, these techniques may not work. There might be horrible managers out there that really do not care about your growth and career. If this is the case, and it is making your job unbearable - ask yourself this question:

“Am I still able to learn here?”

If the answer is “no,” it’s time to start interviewing!

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I have freelanced as a UX researcher alongside full-time jobs for almost my entire career, but I recently am coming out of a long stint where I was strictly a freelance UX research consultant. During this past year or so, freelancing was my only job, I had no other full-time gigs, besides a (very) part-time job as a UX Research instructor at Pratt.

I have had many people comment on freelancing as a UX researcher, and have had many people ask me, “should I do it?” I won’t lie, it sounds idyllic to most people, but before I answer that specific question, I want to delve deeper into my experience as a freelance user research consultant. Note, this is just my experience, so it very well will be different from other people’s experiences. It is best to ask a few different people in order to get a holistic view (heyo, user research on user research freelancing).

I’ll go backwards because I like ending on a positive note.

The Ugly

• This is (potentially) your only source of income. This is bolded, and number one, for a very good reason — it is very difficult to rely on income that is not guaranteed, at least not in the same way a salary from a full-time job steadily flows into your bank account. This part can be very scary, and can often make or break your career. I know people who do side jobs (dog walking, Uber driving, check out at a grocery store, bartender) to help finance their freelance, but keep in mind, this takes away from your freelance business

• Be very aware that you will no longer be given benefits (such things like health insurance). If you have a partner that can cover you, that is great. I did not, so I had to buy health insurance, which was extremely expensive compared to the health insurance you get through being a full-time employee. Keep this in mind as an added expense!

• Being a freelancer can be difficult for those who are introverted. I am an introverted person, which means it is difficult for me to constantly be networking and selling my brand. I wrote an article on networking as an introvert in order to help those similar to me. It is something you can improve at (I definitely have), but it can be very exhausting at times, especially when you just want to do work and get paid

• People may reach out to you, seemingly very excited for an upcoming project that (typically) has to start soon. You decide to take the project. You might turn down other opportunities because of said project. Suddenly, you are experiencing the work equivalent of getting ghosted. The original project is no longer happening and you are scrambling to control+Z (undo) all the projects you turned down for this one. This is an ongoing cycle

• Companies have a hard time distinguishing the difference between UX research and UX design, especially in the freelance world. You will often get pinged for projects that are very UX design heavy. Freelance user research is still a fairly new concept to companies, so it takes a lot of patience and education

The Bad

• You have to learn how to market yourself as a service, essentially. This means coming up with a brand. I have a brand called “The Product Therapist” that I have been using (and working on) for many years. When I decided to pursue freelance as my career, I had to work a lot on establishing my brand — this was through Facebook, a website, twitter, Medium, network, etc. I had to prove that I was a valuable candidate for jobs, and could offer something revolutionary, something that people needed right that second

• As a freelancer, you are constantly on the look-out for work — whether that be for an immediate project, or something you can schedule into the future. Job websites and LinkedIn will become your two most frequently visited pages. You will troll the internet for work, especially work that is “contract-based” or freelance. It isn’t easy to find freelance work, in general, especially in user research, so you will always be searching and crossing your fingers that one of your connections has a connection to another connection with a project

• Not a lot of people understand how user researchers can freelance, and I don’t necessarily blame them. It makes more sense for engineers or designers to hop into a project, complete their work and then leave. User researchers should be an internal part of a team, as they need to deeply understand the product, users and team dynamics. You need to make sure you have questions to how you would effectively bring actionable user research insights to a team in such a short amount of time

• Although you don’t have a 9–5 job and office desk, you may also not have a weekend. Sometimes project timelines will get moved up and, suddenly, on a Friday morning, you get an email that a project deadline is now Monday. Since you weren’t there, it is hard to always keep track of changing deadlines or needs

• When you are primarily working from home, it can become quite isolating. As someone who is naturally introverted, there would be days where I wouldn’t speak to another human or go outside. Of course there are ways to combat this, I went to the gym, ran errands, walked my dog, but certain days, it would have been nice to be working in an office, with a team

The Good

• Setting your own schedule is really freeing (but you also have to set boundaries for yourself). I could, and honestly did, turn on the TV and watch a show for 30 minutes (or an hour) as a break. Or I went shopping and ran errands. I (used to) go to Trader Joe’s to get groceries at 10:30am. I could go to the gym during off-hours. My hours were my own, and I molded them around my priorities (which were, at times, not well thought-out). Freelancing is a very flexible job, and come sometimes work better than a full-time job, depending on your life circumstances

• A very cool part of freelancing is the ability to be on so many different projects, which can lend to a high variety of industries, products and team dynamics. It is really neat to see how differently people think about and want to implement user research. Seeing these differences is a really wonderful learning experiences — you build more diverse experiences in a shorter amount of time, which can give you more tools for your research toolkit or help you work through problems with different perspectives

• Working from home is wonderful. I can’t tell you how much I loved hanging out with my cats and my dog. I can take my dog out for a midday walk, after I make myself lunch, which gets me out of my home office and into the fresh air. I could also choose to pop into a cafe or library if I needed a change of pace. Also, having no commute was super cool — I could wake up and start my day without worrying about train delays, weather or traffic

• You can make a lot of money. You aren’t working for anyone, so the money goes straight to you, and you are able to charge a good amount, since you have to take into consideration the fact that you aren’t getting any of the securities you would from a full-time job. When I got my first freelance job, I timidly stated my hourly rate (you can do hourly or project rate), which felt way too much. If you are successful in managing projects and time, you can really rake in a lot of dough

Should you do it?

My boyfriend (a product manager), would be thrilled to hear me use his favorite product manager phrase, “it depends.”

Are you at the beginning of your UX Research career? I would highly recommend not going into freelance as a full-time job. Most companies who are looking for a freelance UX researcher want someone who has had a decent amount of experience, can lead projects and think about research strategy. A good way to get into freelance is to do some on the side during a full-time or part-time job. I would highly recommend you gain some experience before you jump into a freelance project.

Do you like structure? Unless you can create (and stick to) your own structure and have a sense of self-discipline, freelancing might not be the best idea for you. Oftentimes, you have to set your own schedule and it is 100% on you whether or not you get your work done on time. You will usually be working from home (many temptations reside there), and won’t be in constant communication with teams, so you really have to push yourself to stick to your work hours.

Where do you live? This can go both ways — there is often a lot of opportunities in bigger cities, but that also lends to a more expensive lifestyle. I freelanced when I was living in Brooklyn, New York. There were months where I was terrified I wouldn’t be able to pay rent. I was able to charge more, but it didn’t always mean I was constantly making enough. I remember when I had a vet emergency close to the holidays, the combination between the vet bill and how quiet it gets over the holidays was extremely stressful.

Have you worked in the field in a more structured environment and are looking to try something new? Maybe it is time! Freelance is a great way to get a plethora of varied experiences in a short amount of time, and it can be super fun!

So, how do you do it?

• Start by asking yourself why you want to go into freelance — is it because it seems easy or looks cool? Probably not the best reasons, as it looks more glamorous from the outside

• Look around at the “competition” out there — what are other freelancers saying or doing? How does this compare with what you want to do? I recommend doing a small SWOT analysis on what else is out there. It can give you an understanding of what you are getting into and what you need to convey

• Begin by branding your freelance service. This includes a number of things, such as a clear website that states your services, being active on social media (twitter is a big UX place), having case studies/portfolio pieces to showcase your skillsets and decide if you want to be an LLC (helps when working with bigger companies). I would recommend completing some brand exercises to help you define your brand. These can focus on tone, language, color schemes, logo, font, as well as things like vision, values, etc. It may seem “flooffy,” but this is important step in creating cohesive stories on your website. I used this guide (it was awesome).

• Generate a pitch for yourself. How would you pitch your services? What makes you special or valuable? What do you offer that people can’t do/find on their own? Have a small pitch ready in your mind for when you go out networking.

• Make sure your LinkedIn profile is super professional, up-to-date and includes important keywords (qualitative research, usability testing, etc). A controversial idea is to say you are available for projects in your title — some people say this is a bad look, since you seem “undesirable,” but it can also let recruiters know you are looking for work

• Create business cards! This is more fun :) It is important to have them for networking!

• Set an hourly rate for your work. What should you charge on an hourly basis? It does depend on your skillset, where you live, general expenses, etc. I used this calculator, which is really robust, to help me determine my hourly rate. There are others out there, so it may be worth trying a few to see what the average is. Also, consider thinking about project rates. I switched over from hourly to project rates once I understood, in general, the number of hours certain tasks take me. I now prefer project rates, as it is more straightforward for clients and I don’t need to set a number of hours. Start with hourly until you have a good understanding of how long tasks take you and then go from there

• Network all the time. Every chance you have to go to a social event (in your industry, not cocktail hour), go and bring your business cards. I can’t begin to count the number of meetups I went to or the number of conferences I attended. This is the best way to meet people in your field who may want to hire you for a project. This also means you don’t only go to UX research meetups, but also product or tech ones, which may give you a wider range of people looking for help. Even though you are looking for work, make sure you approach people in a genuine way — they are not just there to get you a job, they are people too

Overall, before you dive into the world of freelancing, make sure you think about it from both sides: what will you gain and what will you be giving up? Carefully weigh the pros and cons, as there are pros and cons to both sides. Talk to all the people you can who have gone into freelancing, they don’t have to be in your particular field, but it helps. Also, make sure you think about anyone else in your life that may be affected by this decision (including pets!), as the instability can greatly impact others!

Either way, freelancing is definitely an experience I recommend people to have, when they are ready. You can always jump ship and go back to a full-time job (which I’m doing)! The only thing I urge you to do is really think about and consider all sides! Happy freelancing!