Actions and Reflections: Bridging the Skills Gap among Researchers
Summary
We often hire researchers from a wide range of backgrounds. Most of the time, we need to hire fresh grads, interns, or market research experts. For these individuals with little practical experience in product/UX research and a non-research education background, we must bridge a skill gap. Yoel will talk about his experiments with a variety of ways for boosting the skills of his researchers. He'll talk about the framework he's built, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each learning project he's tried.
Key Insights
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Research teams with limited experience often overemphasize scientific rigor, hindering learning compared to design teams.
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Designers use a more flexible notion of rigor based on intuition, feelings, and real-time collaboration.
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Stolterman’s concept of design rigor is better suited to the complexity of design research than strict scientific rigor.
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Schön’s knowing-in-action highlights intuition and reflection as core to developing professional skill and rigor.
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Reflection-in-action is a five-step process helping practitioners improve their intuition through surprise and experimentation.
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Dewey emphasizes learning by doing and demonstrating, not just verbal instruction, as essential for effective skill transfer.
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Yohael’s Three Rs framework (Recount, Relate, Reframe) structures reflection on intuition in research practice.
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Pair research and 1:1 sessions incorporating demonstration and imitation improve learning and confidence in research teams.
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The perceived discrepancy between research and design team performance was due more to learning practices than stakeholder bias.
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Inclusive learning frameworks can reduce impostor syndrome and expand access to design research beyond traditional academic pedigrees.
Notable Quotes
"Researchers were obsessed with scientific rigor while designers used balance, feelings, or intuition as their rigor."
"Design research faces design complexity, which deals with the specific, intentional, and the non-existing."
"Knowing in action is the intuition practiced by competent designers, a core of artistry."
"Reflection in action involves noticing surprise, questioning assumptions, experimenting, and reflecting on the move."
"Students cannot be taught what they need to know; they can only be coached to absorb it through demonstration."
"My research team focused too much on scientific rigor, while design teams improved intuition with reflection and demonstration."
"Designers adhere to standards not scientific ones, but design rigor tailored to dealing with complexity."
"Our learning framework does not prescribe but supports reflection in action and demonstration or action."
"The wrong learning pedagogy might be fueling impostor syndrome among design researchers."
"We should open our profession to fresh graduates and those without traditional design research backgrounds."
Or choose a question:
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