The User Research Round-up: CW25

AI shifts, UXR budget reports, a resignation checklist, SQL of UXRs, and adapting to budgets

Hello curious human!

I finally did it. I had my first real surfing accident and am currently in a cycle of elevating, icing, and wishing my foot would magically heal. I came down pretty hard on my right foot when dismounting my surfboard the other day. I decided to head to A&E when the pain got pretty bad as I was nervous I’d broken or fractured something.

But after a 4.5 hour wait (10:30pm to 3am - I am not built for staying up that late), I gave up and hobbled back home. There was no communication about how long I’d have to wait, what priority I was, or where I stood in the queue. People who arrived after me were seen quickly, and even when I was the only person in the waiting room, I still wasn’t called. Eventually someone came in with appendix pain, and I knew my shot was gone.

This is exactly where feedback in the moment matters.

Not after the fact, not in some generic survey weeks later. Right there, while I was frustrated, uncertain, and in pain, a little clarity could’ve changed everything: my perception of the experience, my patience, even whether I chose to stay.

The same holds true in product and service experiences. Whether someone’s in a hospital, on a retail site, or halfway through onboarding, they’re having real reactions, in real time. And if we can’t catch them right then, we miss the chance to make things better.

That’s what I love about what Sprig enables. It helps teams capture those in-situ reactions, the stuff people won’t remember later, or won’t bother telling you. From hospital patients to someone shopping for jeans, that feedback isn’t just helpful, it’s the difference between fixing a frustrating moment or letting it define the experience.

Now, on to this week’s round-up…

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Link roundup

01.

The AI Shift: Transforming How We Discover, Imagine, and Design (Webinar recording) by dscout

This recording is packed with clear, direct insight into how people are actually managing democratized research on the ground. The guests from Dropbox and Mastercard walk through the practical stuff like training, opt-in models, boundary-setting without sugarcoating the trade-offs. It’s grounded, honest, and refreshingly actionable. If you’re tired of vague advice and want to see how real teams have built systems that hold up, this is worth your time.

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02.