A User Researcher’s Guide to Career Development

7/11/19 7/11/19

Burnout as a User Researcher

Even blogging can feel like social media.

It’s about 6:50am and I have been staring at this blank Medium page for days. I have merely managed the title and tagline. Recently, it has been a struggle to write articles, both for Medium and my contract writing. This is contrary to how I usually feel about writing. I normally love writing, it energizes me. I know everyone struggles from writers block, and feeling tired, but this feels beyond that. For some reason, something in me has shifted and, suddenly, my word choice feels stupid, my sentences don’t feel as witty and my thoughts feel incredibly scattered.

This has also managed to seep into other areas of my life, such as work. The other day, I sat in a strategy planning meeting for Q3. I’m a senior user researcher, and I have been doing this job now for about seven years, but as I sat in that meeting trying to wrap my head around building business cases, revenue impact and prioritizing backlogs, I felt utterly like an imposter.

Earlier this week, I started a writing assignment, which was to produce an article on generative research. Generative research is my bread and butter, my go-to, my expertise, but I sat there and stared at my blank canvas of a word document for a good two hours before closing it. I felt an immense amount of pressure for it to be perfect, and shame for barely being able to type 350 words out of my 1,500 word minimum.

Also, I’ve been generally irritable, cynical and sensitive. This has been super fun for my friends and boyfriend.

Why am I sharing this?

Sometimes I feel like blogging can be similar to Instagram or Facebook. Usually, I don’t write about how insecure I might feel in a meeting, or how I can feel so lost and overwhelmed at work. When we read articles, it can seem like the author really has their sh*t together. They rarely mess up interviews, or struggle with producing actionable insights. It can feel like everyone else knows everything. And, while I will always agree that reading is a form of learning and sharing knowledge, at times, the vast amount of knowledge can become so overwhelming.

Nobody knows everything. We are all out here trying to do our best, but, at times, it can feel extremely important to convince others that we are smart, talented and always on top of everything.

In addition, user research can be a particularly emotional job. I have spoken to many researchers and a lot of us are empathetic introverts. Being an empathetic introvert can be difficult in a job that requires you to constantly empathize with, talk to and be around others. This is the exact reason I left the world of therapy (and then, consequently joined the world of tech therapy).

When you empathize with someone you, essentially, are sharing their same feelings. For instance, if a person is struggling or upset, you are more likely to feel that way as well. We are often trying to understand problems with products and where people are having a hard time so we often see people feeling frustrated by our product. This is how we, as researchers, are able to relate to and advocate for our users, but it can also leave us feeling drained. Sharing research can be equally as difficult as you are constantly highlighting problem areas and issues for the team. Although I always call these areas for improvement, or opportunities, that doesn’t always fool people.

What are some “symptoms?”

There are some red flags that can help you determine if you are sliding down the slippery slope of burnout. Although everyone is different, and expresses reactions to being stressed in various ways, here are some symptoms I have recognized:

Unable to focus. You have difficulty focusing on one thing at a time, and end up just doing a lot of scattered work, and, ultimately, not completing tasks
Desire to avoid. I am an avid to-do list user, and absolutely love ticking tasks off of my to-do list…sometimes to the point of putting a task I already finished on the list, just in order to complete it. When I feel burnt out, my to-do list just keeps piling up, and I do my best to not even look at it, or add new tasks to it
Isolatation. When these feelings of burnout come, all I want to do is sleep and work from home. I don’t want to be around people, or share my thoughts with others. This can also cause me to withdraw from my personal relationships and social life
Personal life becomes more difficult. I’m like Monica from Friends most days, but when I am burnt-out, I don’t even want to tidy up my apartment. I pick more fights with people I care about, I don’t eat as well or commit to my daily meditations. Everything feels too heavy and arduous
Consistently feeling demotivated. That job you used to care about? It suddenly becomes significantly less important to get anything done, or contribute positively. Even the easy tasks feel insurmountable, and everything feels too difficult
Reduced performance. The feeling of not being able to do anything right that I mentioned in the beginning of this article, that is a huge warning sign for me. This could surface as missing deadlines, feeling “spaced out” (missing phone meetings or being late to meetings) or being less engaged in your day-to-day role. It is a heavy burden to feel like you are unable to perform well
Increased cynicism. Now, my humor is generally full of cynicism, and that is perfectly fine, but I mean an elevated cynicism, which can actually end up in being mean. Suddenly I feel like I am the debbie downer, and the person who is more focused on the negative, or how difficult something is. Nothing is possible, and everything is annoying

What can you do to avoid/help burnout?

I have developed a few ideas on how to help alleviate the feelings of burnout, both before and after the symptoms start.

More research-specific ideas:

Do research with team members! You don’t have to be the only one listening, taking notes, synthesizing…in fact, you shouldn’t be. User research really is a team sport, and sharing the experience with others really helps diffuse the high emotions in the session. You have other perspectives and can talk through what you just experienced with others
Do emotion-neutralizing exercises. I do my best to meditate daily in order for me to stay aware of my emotions, and control how those emotions surface. In addition, I have meditated after particularly difficult research sessions, and have also meditated before sessions if I have been having a tough day beforehand. Another exercise I use is to write out any feelings before and after the research session. Both of these allow me to leave additional emotional baggage outside my sessions
Avoid back-to-back research sessions. Although this is sometimes unavoidable, I find breaking up the session allows me to decompress and “restart” my emotions before the next session. That way, I am ready to handle whatever is coming for the next session, and am not carrying around anything from the previous session. It also gives me a chance to do any neutralizing exercises (or get something to eat)
Listen to the research a few different times. I listen to my research recordings right after a research session, and then, again, a few days (or a week) later. I find relistening right after the session to be much more emotionally charged, as I am still very attuned to how that user is feeling. of course, I think it is very important to listen to a session again right after (I also use this to take notes), but I also think giving yourself some emotional distance by listening later also helps put issues and problems into perspective

Overall ideas:

Reach out to your team members and manager — For me, this has been the most beneficial and important. You aren’t alone in this, and talking with others helps you feel more connected. Not only that, but you can let your manager know how you are feeling and they can help you work through some of these issues. It is always better to share this information rather than others thinking you are “slacking” or that you don’t care
Be nice to yourself — not every single day will be perfect. Some days will be more difficult than others and you won’t always be successful in controlling your emotions. We can’t always be on top of everything at once, so make sure to give yourself a break if something goes wrong
Take care of your body and mind. Go on vacation when you need to, take a mental health day or work from home if you need some space. I always try to eat well, exercise and get enough sleep. Now, this doesn’t always happen (see the point above), but I naturally feel better when I do!

These symptoms might sound dramatic or floofy (one of my favorite made-up words), but they really can be real for some people. Research, as well as many other jobs, can be extremely emotionally draining. When we are feeling unwell, we end up doing more harm to ourselves and others, so it is important to always assess how we are feeling, and be okay accepting however you feel — the best thing you can do is acknowledge and move forward!

12/27/18 12/27/18

UX Research Roundup — 2018

2018 was a long year. Thinking back to January 2018 makes my brain feel like I am trying to remember something from five years ago. However long, 2018 brought a lot of interesting learnings and thoughts in user research. As the years go by, user research evolves and grows in ways I never thought possible when I first entered the field. It is a fascinating and exciting area to work in. I’m very much looking forward to 2019 and what that brings, but wanted to roundup my favorite UX Research (and some non-uxr) moments from 2018.

UX Research Roundup 2018 (and some extras)

14 Random Ways to Be Kind at Work because, our colleagues are also our users
Analyzing Usability Test Data: A step-by-step guide to getting the most from your usability tests
The beginning of Slack for ResearchOps, an incredible community dedicated to understanding and improving Research Operations in companies
A simple Prioritization Matrix (very easy to use) to help inform design decisions
An interesting take on why Personas Are Garbage (not that I agree completely with this message, but it is an interesting perspective), and the other side: How to Create Lean Personas
Moderating Usability Tests with Simultaneous Translation — something I will be using at my new Full-time role!
Quantifying Qualitative Research (Video & Text — amazing)
Join the Cognitive UXD newsletter, a fascinating combination of UX and Psychology
Don’t design for yourself, do research and design for your customers!
UX Curator newsletter is my favorite newsletter, no matter the year. It consists of 4 of the top UX stories of the day delivered in a simple and concise email
Some arguments on Why UX is Dead…or is it?
NPS is a Waste of Time, Use These Metrics Instead — I love when people go against something widely used and then give suggestions on what else to use
Facebook Research: Tips from the First Decade
How Properly Wasting Time at Work Increase Productivity — I love articles like this! I think we all try to do too much at once, make it a goal for 2019!
Design & UX Research Forums were created from the ResearchOps Community. So much invaluable and wonderful information in one place, it is mind-blowing!
How to Build a Usability Testing Lab Anytime, Anywhere
50 Interview Questions for B2B SaaS UX Research and also really great general tips. These questions are wonderful for generative research and creating (non-garbage) personas or customer journey maps
Cognitive Biases & the Questions You Shouldn’t Be Asking
Sharing UX Research Results by Comic
How to Read a Mental Model Diagram and literally everything by Indi Young is amazing (she’s my UX research celebrity crush)

Some shameless self-promotion

Storytelling for a UX Research Portfolio
UX Research Toolkit Roundup
My User Research Course!!
How Might We Be Wrong
An Introverted UX Researcher’s Guide to Solo Networking in Product/Tech
Check out my Skillshare course on how to create a user research plan

Looking ahead to 2019

UXInsight Conference 2019 (I will be going!)
Strive UX Research Conference 2019
User Research London Conference 2019 (I will be attending this too!)
UX Research Australia 2019

What will happen in 2019 for UX Research? I predict more time and value placed in deeply understanding customers, defined user research processes that work alongside agile environments, specialization in research fields/verticals, scaling user research teams will become easier and, finally, I’m hoping for a comprehensive user research tool that gives us everything we could ever wish for and more.

Happy 2019 everyone!

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12/19/18 12/19/18

Freelancing as a UX Researcher

The freelance grass is always greener from the other side.

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!