UX Researcher: The Bearer of Bad News

"Kevin, you're like the bearer of bad news," my coworker joked to me as we walked out of the meeting room.

It was my second month on the job at Google, and they had caught on quickly. They are smart people, after all. My master plan to dissect and destroy the product from within had been foiled! Joking aside, this seemingly innocent joke in passing caught me by surprise, and I am sure some researchers must have had some experiences receiving similar feedback from stakeholders.

Is a UX researcher really the bearer of bad news?

I see UX research as identifying opportunities, not faults. The designers are highly talented and they also want the best for the product and team. No one is purposely making crappy designs to annoy users. But when validating concepts and creating designs, it is not always obvious what works best, even if there are best practices. That is why user research is so important. We need to see what goes wrong so we can fix it before shipping out something that does not work. Identifying real pain points and comprehension of users ultimately leads to opportunities for improvement. Without it, designers would be designing in the dark.

So, if teams have been reluctant, or not receptive to user research, it might be time to shift perspectives. Think of user research as finding opportunities for improvements, rather than simply putting the design to burn at the stake. This may ease the team into being more receptive and open-minded, maybe even an eagerness to learning how to improve the designs. Eventually, the improvements will lead to good news (hopefully!).

Did I do something wrong? Do I need to tone it down?

It could be the imposter syndrome, or the fact that I was new to the team. But I knew what I was doing in terms of the research. There is no reason to feel bad - we as researchers have no control over how users feel or think or use something, though I can understand the feeling of having your design at the center of UX Researcher Celebrity Roast Hour (okay, it is not like that at all, and nobody is laughing at the design!).

I want the best for the product and its users as I am sure the whole team does as well. But one should be wary not to start people-pleasing, no matter how much candy they give you.

The takeaway

The main thing teams can take away from this is to:

"shift the mindset from feeling attacked to an eagerness to learn and improve."

There should be nothing personal about critiquing design - it all goes back to what works best for the users and for the company. It is a character-building exercise (and if you know me personally, everything is "character-building"), and we need to be able to be open and receptive to feedback. If you want good feedback, you need research to tell you the bad feedback first.