The User Research Strategist: UXR | Impact | Career

Nikki Anderson

Interviews with amazing user researchers to uncover concrete, actionable, and tactical advice to help you maximize your user research impact and excel in your career https://userresearchacademy.substack.com/ www.userresearchstrategist.com

  1. UX Your Career, Not Your Resume | Sarah Doody

    MAR 12

    UX Your Career, Not Your Resume | Sarah Doody

    Listen now on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. — Sarah Doody is a UX Researcher & Product Designer with 22 years of experience. She is also the founder and CEO of Career Strategy Lab, a UX job search and career coaching company where she helps UX and product people get hired or promoted with average 5-figure salary increases. She is also the host of the podcast, Career Strategy Podcast that offers weekly tips and case studies about what’s working in the UX job market and hiring right now. Sarah also speaks at conferences worldwide including UXLX, UX London, AIGA, Productized, Front, Industry, and more. In our conversation, we discuss: * How Sarah used research practices to pivot from product work into career strategy, and what nearly a decade of data has taught her about getting hired and promoted. * Why most job searches fall apart when people skip self-research and jump straight into resumes and portfolios. * A simple career “journey map” exercise that helps surface patterns across roles, managers, projects, and personal energy. * How a career roadmap creates focus, reduces rejection fatigue, and shapes better job decisions over time. * The role of a clear compass statement in shaping resumes, portfolios, interviews, and confidence during a search. Major takeaways from the episode * Sarah frames career growth using the same structure teams use to build products: research, synthesis, direction, and iteration. When people skip this step, job searches turn reactive and exhausting. A roadmap restores clarity and control by anchoring decisions to what actually works for you. * Resumes and portfolios break down when they’re built without context. Sarah explains how a simple highs-and-lows timeline across the past year can surface repeat signals around team fit, management style, project type, and energy. Those signals matter more than any formatting tweak. * Applying to hundreds of roles creates rejection loops that drain momentum and self-trust. Sarah links this pattern to panic behavior and short-term thinking. Fewer, better-aligned applications often lead to stronger interviews and better outcomes. * Career decisions ripple into mental health, relationships, time, and identity. Sarah urges people to layer real-life constraints and goals into their roadmap so work supports the life they want, rather than consuming it. * A strong compass statement acts like a thesis for your career. It guides which roles you pursue, how you frame your experience, and how you talk about your strengths. This clarity shortens resume cycles, sharpens interviews, and restores confidence under pressure. Where to find Sarah: * Website: www.careerstrategylab.com and www.sarahdoody.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/sarahdoody * Youtube: www.youtube.com/sarahdoody * Instagram: www.instagram.com/sarahdoody * Career Strategy Podcast Stop piecing it together. Start leading the work. The Everything UXR Bundle is for researchers who are tired of duct-taping free templates and second-guessing what good looks like. You get my complete set of toolkits, templates, and strategy guides. used by teams across Google, Spotify, , to run credible research, influence decisions, and actually grow in your role. It’s built to save you time, raise your game, and make you the person people turn to—not around. → Save 140+ hours a year with ready-to-use templates and frameworks → Boost productivity by 40% with tools that cut admin and sharpen your focus → Increase research adoption by 50% through clearer, faster, more strategic delivery Interested in sponsoring the podcast? Interested in sponsoring or advertising on this podcast? I’m always looking to partner with brands and businesses that align with my audience. Book a call or email me at nikki@userresearchacademy.com to learn more about sponsorship opportunities! The views and opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views, positions, or policies of the host, the podcast, or any affiliated organizations or sponsors. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.userresearchstrategist.com/subscribe

    31 min
  2. Inside Insight: How I used Qualtrics' Synthetic User Panel

    FEB 19

    Inside Insight: How I used Qualtrics' Synthetic User Panel

    In this episode, I cover: * The fear and skepticism many researchers feel toward synthetic users, especially around job security and research quality. * How a synthetic panel works in Qualtrics, step by step, including setup, question design, and early signals. * The tension between stated advice and lived behavior in synthetic data, and how that tension becomes a clue for deeper human follow-up. * How synthetic results can help shape hypotheses, narrow scope, and surface mental models worth examining with human participants. * The role of experimentation, reality-checking, and ethical use when bringing synthetic insights into a human-centered research practice. Key Takeaways: * Synthetic users aren’t a replacement, they’re a low-stakes way to surface potential thinking paths worth exploring. Fear of being replaced is real for many UXRs, but synthetic panels don’t replicate lived experience. They can spark ideas, highlight tension in responses, and point toward questions worth asking humans, but they don’t carry nuance, emotion, memory, or contradiction. They’re an extra tool, not a takeover.  * Synthetic panels help you see mental models earlier, especially the ones users rarely say out loud. The synthetic example in the video about routines revealed goal-driven thinking mixed with self-doubt, which is a pattern worth validating with real people. This gives researchers a head start when writing interview guides or structuring probes. It doesn’t give you truth, but it does give you direction. * Synthetic data is great for pressure-testing your own questions before running a study. I described how running a synthetic version of a study I’d previously done with humans showed where the survey and interview questions held up and where they needed tightening. This kind of dry-run can save time, catch weak spots, and help teams narrow scope before talking to real people. * Researchers still need to reality-check everything with humans. Synthetic outputs are predictions shaped by large datasets, not lived stories. Human sessions reveal timing, emotion, contradictions, and subtle meaning shifts that synthetic models can’t replicate. You can use synthetic to form hypotheses, but every hypothesis needs human evidence behind it.  * Ethical and intentional use must lead the way. Researchers should be the ones teaching teams how to use synthetic panels responsibly. That means knowing where they fit, where they fail, and how to protect user trust. Synthetic tools aren’t going anywhere, so UXRs benefit from learning how to guide their use with clarity and care. The companion guide to synthetic users: Want to learn even more about synthetic users? Check out the companion guide to this video which goes in-depth about responsible, intentional, and ethical synthetic user usage. Try Qualtrics: Want to try this out on Qualtrics? You can request a demo below: Interested in sponsoring the podcast? Interested in sponsoring or advertising on this podcast? I’m always looking to partner with brands and businesses that align with my audience. Reach out to me at nikki@userresearchacademy.com to learn more about sponsorship opportunities! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.userresearchstrategist.com/subscribe

    1h 8m
  3. Fixing the Mess No One Wants to Talk About | Berkay Peker (Jotform)

    FEB 12

    Fixing the Mess No One Wants to Talk About | Berkay Peker (Jotform)

    Listen now on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. — Berkay is a UX researcher with over eight years of experience, mostly in e-commerce and banking, working across both B2B and B2C. He has a bachelor's and a master's degree in product design and design research. His focus is on turning research into actionable insights, improving research processes and helping teams make user-centered decisions. Basically, reducing uncertainty. He also co-founded UXR Playground, Turkey’s leading UX platform, where he runs trainings, workshops and mentorship programs. In a past role, he built and led a ResearchOps team, creating systems to make research more efficient and scalable. In our conversation, we discuss: * The eight-step framework Berkay uses for smooth, ethical participant recruitment, built from actual interviews and field work. * Why many researchers are flying blind with recruitment and how junior researchers often end up as accidental call center reps. * The most common screw-ups in screener surveys and how to write questions that don’t sabotage your study before it starts. * How Berkay built a participant panel inside a 30-million-user company without a budget, and with legal breathing down his neck. * Why most panels fall apart after setup, and what to actually prioritize if you want yours to last longer than three studies. Some takeaways: * Ethics aren’t optional. If you’re collecting personal data, you’re responsible for what happens to it. Berkay shares how one company got sued after leaking participant emails. It’s not a footnote, it’s a risk. Build ethics and legal compliance into your process from day one, or you’ll learn the hard way. * Most companies are bad at recruitment and fixing it takes more than tools. Berkay got so fed up with watching junior researchers waste hours cold-calling participants that he turned the whole thing into a research study. The findings? A total lack of structure, zero shared frameworks, and a ton of internal guesswork pretending to be process. * Bad screener surveys kill good research. Asking “Do you use this app?” is a great way to recruit liars. Berkay shares simple but smart ways to avoid bias in screeners like using multi-select questions, hiding the research topic, and adding duplicate questions to sniff out lazy responses. * Building a panel sounds smart until you have to maintain it. Setting up a panel is the easy part. The real challenge is keeping the data clean, staying GDPR-compliant, and making participants feel like they’re still part of something. Regular outreach (like quarterly surveys) and strong ties to your data team are non-negotiable. * A good panel is a cross-team operation. Berkay didn’t just build a landing page and hope for the best. He brought in product, customer support, PMs, and data science from the start. If you want a panel that works across research needs and methods, it has to be owned across the company too. Where to find Berkay: * LinkedIn Stop piecing it together. Start leading the work. The Everything UXR Bundle is for researchers who are tired of duct-taping free templates and second-guessing what good looks like. You get my complete set of toolkits, templates, and strategy guides. used by teams across Google, Spotify, , to run credible research, influence decisions, and actually grow in your role. It’s built to save you time, raise your game, and make you the person people turn to—not around. → Save 140+ hours a year with ready-to-use templates and frameworks → Boost productivity by 40% with tools that cut admin and sharpen your focus → Increase research adoption by 50% through clearer, faster, more strategic delivery Interested in sponsoring the podcast? Interested in sponsoring or advertising on this podcast? I’m always looking to partner with brands and businesses that align with my audience. Book a call or email me at nikki@userresearchacademy.com to learn more about sponsorship opportunities! The views and opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views, positions, or policies of the host, the podcast, or any affiliated organizations or sponsors. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.userresearchstrategist.com/subscribe

    21 min
  4. Strategic Research in Startups | Brittany Lang (Chorus Innovations)

    JAN 22

    Strategic Research in Startups | Brittany Lang (Chorus Innovations)

    Listen now on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. — Brittany is a mid-career research leader based out of Portland, Oregon. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Industrial Design from the University of Oregon and a Masters in Information Science from the University of Michigan. She has worked with startups, nonprofits, mid-size and Fortune 100 companies as an independent contributor as well as a manager of research teams. Currently, you can find her building a research practice (and team) at Chorus Innovations, a startup working to provide innovative behavioral healthcare solutions to agencies, counties, and states across the U.S.A. Before Chorus, she managed a large research team in an agency environment supporting topics related to consumer trust and privacy for big tech clients. She firmly believes research and collaborative teams are at the heart of every successful business, and that everyone’s life story would make a great movie. When she isn’t working, she enjoys outdoor adventures and wellness activities, and spending time with loved ones. In our conversation, we discuss: * How strategic research actually plays out in early-stage companies, and why researchers shouldn’t wait for perfect briefs. * Moving from research receiver to research requester and how that shift changes your role entirely. * Coaching ICs to trust their instincts when they’re the only ones seeing a gap. * What makes something “strategic,” and how to avoid wasting time on low-impact requests. * How Brittany and her team adapt when projects get shelved, priorities flip, or research gets ignored. Some takeaways: * No one will ask for what they don’t know exists. Waiting for research requests is a trap. If you’re seeing patterns, pain points, or opportunities, you might need to be the one raising your hand. The best projects often start when researchers pitch work that no one else thought to ask for. * Gut checks are data points too. If a product decision feels off, or you’re thinking “we should probably look into this,” that’s reason enough to pause and dig deeper. The instinct to question is part of the job. Lean into it instead of waiting for someone else to validate it. * Strategic research doesn’t always mean big projects. It can be a one-question survey. A reused screener. A short desk research doc. What matters is that it moves things forward, not that it looks impressive in a deck. * Blocked ≠ Wasted. Brittany’s team logs blocked work in a “vault” and revisits it later. When projects get paused or dropped, they reflect on what caused the stall. Sometimes it’s organizational. Sometimes it’s a signal that previous research wasn’t shared well enough. Either way, it’s fuel for doing better next time. * Every team needs a vision even if it only lasts six months. In startup settings, long-term planning is a luxury. Brittany meets with her team every 3-6 months to reset direction, recheck learning goals, and match priorities to what’s actually happening across product and design. It keeps the team from floating aimlessly when the org shifts. Where to find Brittany: * LinkedIn Stop piecing it together. Start leading the work. The Everything UXR Bundle is for researchers who are tired of duct-taping free templates and second-guessing what good looks like. You get my complete set of toolkits, templates, and strategy guides. used by teams across Google, Spotify, , to run credible research, influence decisions, and actually grow in your role. It’s built to save you time, raise your game, and make you the person people turn to—not around. → Save 140+ hours a year with ready-to-use templates and frameworks → Boost productivity by 40% with tools that cut admin and sharpen your focus → Increase research adoption by 50% through clearer, faster, more strategic delivery Interested in sponsoring the podcast? Interested in sponsoring or advertising on this podcast? I’m always looking to partner with brands and businesses that align with my audience. Book a call or email me at nikki@userresearchacademy.com to learn more about sponsorship opportunities! The views and opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views, positions, or policies of the host, the podcast, or any affiliated organizations or sponsors. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.userresearchstrategist.com/subscribe

    31 min
  5. Jobs to Be Done Without the Dogma | Wolfram Nagel (TeamViewer)

    12/30/2025

    Jobs to Be Done Without the Dogma | Wolfram Nagel (TeamViewer)

    Listen now on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. — Wolfram is a Senior UX Designer and Researcher and has been working at TeamViewer for eight years.He has been driving and advancing UX Research at the company for nearly two years, developing it further together with a young but highly talented and motivated team. He has been deeply involved with Jobs-to-Be-Done for over a decade and considers himself a pragmatic JTBD practitioner. Before joining TeamViewer, he spent almost ten years in the Enterprise Content Management space and have been focusing on Multi-Device Experiences since the mid-2010s. He is the author of “Multiscreen UX Design” and has been passionately engaged in UX and design for around 25 years. His expertise lies in Jobs-to-Be-Done, hands-on and pragmatic UX research, as well as content design and content management. He regularly and enthusiastically participates in webinars, meetups, and conferences. Beyond UX and design, he enjoys photography, particularly nature and bird photography, and loves spending time with his family. In the past, he was an avid groundhopper, traveling across Europe with friends to attend football matches. In our conversation, we discuss: * Why it helps to think of every user action as a “job” with a real outcome, not just a task or step. * The messy overlap between jobs, goals, use cases, and what stakeholders think they want. * Why most teams start in the solution space and how to bring Jobs thinking in without derailing the train. * What an actual “job” sounds like in the wild, and how to spot one inside complaints, workarounds, and feature requests. * Why Wolfram keeps outcome-driven language like “minimize the time it takes to…” as a rule and how it makes your findings way more usable. Some takeaways: * Jobs to Be Done is a lens. Wolfram doesn’t wait for permission to use JTBD thinking. Whether he’s asked for a usability test or feedback on a feature, he still pulls out the job behind it. Why? Because understanding the job gives you reusable insights that don’t die with the feature. * Stop obsessing over the perfect term. Stakeholders just need to get it. Wolfram avoids technical jargon like “JTBD” when introducing the concept. He uses terms they already know, like “use cases” or “problems,” so they’re not thrown off. The focus is clarity, not vocabulary. * Your users are already giving you jobs, you just have to listen for them. Complaints, feature requests, emails, even rants. All of these hold clues about what someone was trying to do. If you dig in with curiosity (and a few “tell me more”s), you can usually find the real goal underneath the noise. * Do it late if you must but do it anyway. Sometimes research doesn’t happen until the build is already underway. That doesn’t mean you skip the problem space. Wolfram brings in JTBD insights midstream, not to stop the train, but to nudge it toward stronger value delivery and set up better decisions next time. * Your feature might flop but your jobs research won’t go to waste. If the solution turns out to be unworkable or doesn’t land, you don’t have to throw away the research. JTBD insights stay valid. They’re reusable, solution-agnostic, and can fuel the next iteration or a totally new idea. Where to find Wolfram: * Multiscreen UX Design (book) * Website * LinkedIn * Twitter/X Stop piecing it together. Start leading the work. The Everything UXR Bundle is for researchers who are tired of duct-taping free templates and second-guessing what good looks like. You get my complete set of toolkits, templates, and strategy guides. used by teams across Google, Spotify, , to run credible research, influence decisions, and actually grow in your role. It’s built to save you time, raise your game, and make you the person people turn to—not around. → Save 140+ hours a year with ready-to-use templates and frameworks → Boost productivity by 40% with tools that cut admin and sharpen your focus → Increase research adoption by 50% through clearer, faster, more strategic delivery Interested in sponsoring the podcast? Interested in sponsoring or advertising on this podcast? I’m always looking to partner with brands and businesses that align with my audience. Book a call or email me at nikki@userresearchacademy.com to learn more about sponsorship opportunities! The views and opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views, positions, or policies of the host, the podcast, or any affiliated organizations or sponsors. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.userresearchstrategist.com/subscribe

    25 min
  6. Pragmatism vs. Rigor: The Researcher’s Balancing Act | Raymond Tiong (Dext)

    12/11/2025

    Pragmatism vs. Rigor: The Researcher’s Balancing Act | Raymond Tiong (Dext)

    Listen now on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. — Ray is a designer-turned-researcher. He grew up in New Zealand but moved to the UK last year. His career started in graphic design and advertising, but he’s also studied art history and worked as a brand strategist and innovation consultant before moving into UX. He was a product designer before officially pivoting to UX research. He is passionate about the craft of UX research, so is naturally drawn towards rigour and detail. But there’s definitely a balance to be mindful of, so lately he’s been enjoying the challenge of taking a more pragmatic approach to cut through the noise at work and maximise impact. In our conversation, we discuss: * How Raymond moved from design to research and why his messy, creative path helps him make peace with constraints. * Why “just enough” research is often the most realistic (and still valuable) kind. * Dealing with stakeholders who want statistical significance and to act on N=1 quotes. * What makes a one-pager actually work (hint: it’s not cramming 14 bullet points into 10pt font). * How to reframe constraints as creative challenges, instead of just reasons to cry in a spreadsheet. Some takeaways: * Rigor isn’t one thing. There’s a difference between medical research and a usability test for a SaaS dashboard. Raymond reminds us to stop chasing perfection and start asking: What’s the risk? What’s the goal? What’s actually good enough here? * You don’t have to be the loudest voice in the room to be the expert. Sometimes the best way to build trust is not to say “trust me, I’m the expert,” but to bring the right method to the table and explain why it fits. Raymond shares how he uses method knowledge to guide teams—without pulling rank. * Constraints aren’t the enemy, they’re the brief. That tight deadline or limited budget? Treat it like a design prompt. What can you strip away? What creative method still works? That shift in mindset changes everything from energy to output. * Scoping is where the real power is. Raymond shares a sharp approach to collaborative scoping: show a strawman plan and let stakeholders rip it apart. It builds alignment faster and helps surface hidden assumptions, risks, and trade-offs without ego wars. * Your research summary isn’t for you. Your one-pager should pass the 40-second CEO elevator ride test. Raymond breaks down his 3-column template and shares why the takeaways column matters more than your favorite quote or clever insight. It’s about what they need to do next. Where to find Raymond: * ADPList mentor profile page * LinkedIn * Medium Stop piecing it together. Start leading the work. The Everything UXR Bundle is for researchers who are tired of duct-taping free templates and second-guessing what good looks like. You get my complete set of toolkits, templates, and strategy guides. used by teams across Google, Spotify, , to run credible research, influence decisions, and actually grow in your role. It’s built to save you time, raise your game, and make you the person people turn to—not around. → Save 140+ hours a year with ready-to-use templates and frameworks → Boost productivity by 40% with tools that cut admin and sharpen your focus → Increase research adoption by 50% through clearer, faster, more strategic delivery Interested in sponsoring the podcast? Interested in sponsoring or advertising on this podcast? I’m always looking to partner with brands and businesses that align with my audience. Book a call or email me at nikki@userresearchacademy.com to learn more about sponsorship opportunities! The views and opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views, positions, or policies of the host, the podcast, or any affiliated organizations or sponsors. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.userresearchstrategist.com/subscribe

    28 min
  7. Beyond the Report | Matt Thomas (Motability Operations)

    11/25/2025

    Beyond the Report | Matt Thomas (Motability Operations)

    Listen now on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. — Matt Thomas is a Design, Research, and Product leader at Motability Operations where he leads the Design and Research efforts for a range of products, from a commerce platform for selling used cars to colleague-facing tools that support that website. His team also designs for a vehicle refurbishment workshop, a completely different challenge with a unique set of users, which keeps things interesting. They work closely with Product and Technology teams to bring these products to life, always focusing on learning from the people who use them. He is super passionate about broadening where the team gathers insights and making research more accessible, so teams can make better product decisions. In our conversation, we discuss: * How Matt defines “broadening research” and why it starts outside of formal studies. * Real-world examples of overlooked insight sources like sales calls, account managers, and field teams. * The internal system Matt’s team uses to collect, tag, and feed sales feedback into their repository every day. * Why traditional research reports don’t always land and what to try instead. * Tactics for building trust and buy-in, even when you’re blocked from direct customer access. Some takeaways: * Matt encourages researchers to stop thinking of research as only formal studies. Some of the richest data comes from support calls, onboarding conversations, and field visits. These sources already exist in most companies but often get ignored because they don’t look like traditional research. When you tap into them, you’re bringing context into the room that would otherwise stay invisible. * It’s tempting to jump straight into tagging or setting up automations, but Matt suggests beginning with a conversation. Ask a customer-facing teammate what they’re hearing. Offer to sit with them for an hour or buy them coffee. Building trust first, then showing how their insights feed into decisions, opens more doors long-term than asking for data access right away. * Matt’s team gets sales feedback emailed to them daily and loads it into their repository in batches. But even without automation, he recommends reviewing 20 feedback items a day which is just enough to build a habit and gather useful patterns. That creates a log of real impact you can use later to justify hiring or tooling decisions. Don’t aim to boil the ocean; aim to show traction. * The goal isn’t to create a polished report. It’s to influence a decision. Matt’s team shares snippets via Slack or email, hosts research gallery walk-throughs, and tests lightweight formats like social-style insight posts. Different stakeholders need different communication and just because a report is well-written doesn’t mean it will be read. * From usability bingo nights to Iron Man-style gallery sessions, Matt embraces experimentation in how research is shared. Some people need a sticky note wall. Some need a voice clip in their inbox. If one format doesn’t land, try another. The most impactful insights often come wrapped in something a little unexpected but perfectly timed. Where to find Matt: * LinkedIn Stop piecing it together. Start leading the work. The Everything UXR Bundle is for researchers who are tired of duct-taping free templates and second-guessing what good looks like. You get my complete set of toolkits, templates, and strategy guides. used by teams across Google, Spotify, , to run credible research, influence decisions, and actually grow in your role. It’s built to save you time, raise your game, and make you the person people turn to—not around. → Save 140+ hours a year with ready-to-use templates and frameworks → Boost productivity by 40% with tools that cut admin and sharpen your focus → Increase research adoption by 50% through clearer, faster, more strategic delivery Interested in sponsoring the podcast? Interested in sponsoring or advertising on this podcast? I’m always looking to partner with brands and businesses that align with my audience. Book a call or email me at nikki@userresearchacademy.com to learn more about sponsorship opportunities! The views and opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views, positions, or policies of the host, the podcast, or any affiliated organizations or sponsors. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.userresearchstrategist.com/subscribe

    27 min
5
out of 5
8 Ratings

About

Interviews with amazing user researchers to uncover concrete, actionable, and tactical advice to help you maximize your user research impact and excel in your career https://userresearchacademy.substack.com/ www.userresearchstrategist.com

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