Defining Your Brand as a UX Researcher
Tell me about yourself.
😱🤔🥴
This summarizes how I have emotionally reacted to the request, “Tell me about yourself.” Panic. Scramble for ideas. Awkward response. Oh, and as we all know, this request sneakily shows up in a variety of ways:
Job interview: Tell me about yourself.
Networking event: Hi! What do you do?
Ice breakers at work: Let’s all go around the room and say our names and what we do.
Linkedin: About: [empty text box]
Cover letter: [empty page]
For most of my career, my go-to response has been a short version of my resume: what my job title is, where I work, what degrees I earned, where I went to school, etc. In other words, I had focused primarily on what I've accomplished, usually in chronological order.
While nothing is wrong with this approach, there are two reasons why it may not serve you:
The chronological history of what you've done may not support the narrative that you are a UX Researcher. For example, you may be transitioning from academia or a seemingly unrelated profession. When you lead with your chronological experience, you may be inadvertently convincing the person you don't yet have the required skills to be a UX Researcher.
Frankly, it's a little boring. You're summarizing a story that can be easily understood from your Linkedin profile or resume. By focusing on what you've done, you're cutting out the details that make you human - perhaps even an intriguing human. As a hiring manager, by saying that you work at [tech company], studied [discipline] at [university], or specialize in [qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods] research, you're telling me a similar story that I've heard from the 100s of other researchers I've met.
Trust me when I say this: You're way more interesting than the distillation of what you've accomplished - or what you haven't yet accomplished.
How might we?
How might we tell others a story of what we stand for - not just a list of accomplishments? When I have a tough nut to crack, I tend to look for frameworks from an outside domain or discipline. Today, I'm borrowing from the world of brand strategy. I first learned about this framework from a 2014 episode of Design Matters, where Debbie Milman interviewed Scott Lerman. Scott is a brand consultant and author of Building Better Brands: A Comprehensive Guide to Brand Strategy and Identity Development. In Building Better Brands, Lerman offers a step-by-step plan to explore and build your company's brand strategy and identity.
I have prototyped a condensed version of this workshop with our UXR team at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. I have also used it to frame and explore my brand as a coach and people manager. Now, I’m ready to share this process with you.
Elements of Your Brand
Scott Lerman described five elements of a brand: character, arena, positioning, experience, and identity. To identify your brand as a UX Researcher, let’s focus on the first four elements. The last element, defining your brand identity (i.e., look & feel, name, logo), may require additional skills and, frankly, isn’t needed - but can be fun to work on!
Character: The values that guide your career and/or life and drive the decisions you make
Arena: A description of what you do as a UX Researcher, using terms consistent with the UX community's language.
Positioning: How you do what you do: what you offer, your approach, and your big WHY.
Experience: How others see, hear, interact with, think about, feel, and do when they experience you and your work.
Let’s dig into each.
Character: What's important to you
Outcome
You have articulated your top three values - representing what’s most important to you as a UX Researcher. These are likely the same values that represent what’s important to you as a human.
Brainstorm
Use these prompts - and others - to explore what’s important to you as a UX Researcher. Strive to answer these questions using individual words and phrases - the same as what might fit on a sticky note. Strive for quantity over “rightness.”
What’s important to you about being a UX Researcher? What words or phrases best describe this?
What words describe where you came from, where you are now, and who you aspire to be as a UX Researcher?
What are your characteristics and traits as a UX Researcher?
Use your affinity diagramming skills to create groups of words/phrases that fit together. Pick a title that best describes each group. This title will represent a value of yours.
Ruthlessly rank your values from being closest to your identity to farthest away. The top three values may best describe what’s most important to you as a UX Researcher.
Arena: What you do
Outcome
You have clearly articulated what you do as a UX Researcher in terms consistent with the UX community's language. You have defined and put boundaries around the "arena" you play in.
Brainstorm
It’s time to write some user stories about yourself as a UX Researcher using this slightly altered pattern:
As a [role], I [take this action] which enables [this outcome].
Let's assume that our four core competencies as as UX Researchers are: research process, collaboration, communication, and product thinking. Generate as many "UXR stories" as you can using these "roles":
As a Researcher, I _________ which enables _________.
As a Collaborator, I _________ which enables _________.
As a Communicator, I _________ which enables _________.
As a Product Thinker, I _________ which enables _________.
As a __________, I _________ which enables _________.
Which UXR stories best describe what you personally do as a UX Researcher? Prioritize three to five of these UXR stories.
Inspiration
Need some inspiration? Here are links to articles that might give you some ideas for what you do as a UX Researcher, collaborator, communicator, and product thinker.
Research Process
Look at job descriptions for UX Researchers. See what language is used to describe what UXRs do across different organizations.
Research Skills Framework: A project by the ResearchOps Community
The researcher’s journey: leveling up as a user researcher (Hora, 2017)
Collaboration
How to Collaborate with Stakeholders in UX Research (Nielsen Norman Group, 2017)
User research is a team sport (Myddelton, 2018)
Communication
What do UX Research and cupcakes have in common? (Warr, 2020)
Facebook Researcher Methods: talking about findings with your team (O’Neill, 2018)
Torch the user research reports (Anderson, 2020)
Writing a Memorable TL;DR (Wei, 2019)
How to write a user testing report that people will actually read (Isherwood, 2018)
Product Thinking
Why Product Thinking is the next big thing in UX Design (Blaase, 2015)
Positioning: How you do what you do - and why
Outcome
You have clearly and concisely articulated how you approach your work as a UX Researcher and why.
Brainstorm
Use these prompts to explore how you do what you do as a UX Researcher. Again, strive for quantity over “rightness.”
Approach: What adverbs or metaphors describe how you approach research, collaboration, communication, and product thinking? What are you committed to?
Skills: What skills have you learned that enable you to be an effective UX Researcher?
Your WHY: Why do you exist as a UX Researcher? What’s your calling, purpose, or mission? What better world are you striving for?
Which answers best describe how you approach being a UX Researcher? Prioritize three to five ideas.
Experience
Outcome
You have articulated the experience you create or want to create for your collaborators and stakeholders - i.e., what they see, hear, think about, interact with, feel, and do when working with you?
Brainstorm
What do your collaborators and stakeholders _____ when working with you?
See: What do others see, read, or watch? How do you visually communicate? Thinks about the reports you write, the presentations you give, the video clips you edit, the photos you take, the frameworks you borrow, and research trips you invite others on. What does this say about you as a UX Researcher?
Hear: What do others hear? How do you audibly communicate? Think about the stories you tell, the voices you elevate, and the tone of voice you use. What does this say about you as a UX Researcher?
Interact with: What do others interact with or touch? Think about the workshops you facilitate, the materials you provide team members on research trips, and the immersive/tactile ways you communicate insights. What does this say about you as a UX Researcher?
Think about: What do others think about? Think about how you've caused others to be inquisitive or consider the needs of people who interact with your product. What does this say about you as a UX Researcher?
Feel: How do others feel? Think about the ways you've made others feel inspired, enabled, connected, and empathetic. What other feelings come to mind? What does this say about you as a UX Researcher?
Do: What action do others take? Think about how you inform decisions, encourage participation, and generate demand for more research. What does this say about you as a UX Researcher?
Prioritize
Which ideas best capture the experience of what's it's like for your collaborators and stakeholders to work with you? Prioritize three to five ideas.
Bringing it Together
Outcome
You have written 1-2 clear, concise paragraphs that describe what you stand for as a UX Researcher.
Brainstorm
Make connections among your values, what you do, your approach, and the experience you create. Experiment with these sentence starters:
I am a UX researcher who values _________.
As a UX Researcher, is has been important to me to (be) _________.
I am a UX Researcher because _________.
By _________, I enable my team to _________.
I support my teams by _________.
I commit to being _________.
My unique approach is _________.
As a result, I _________.
