Becoming a ResearchH.E.R (Highly Enterprise Ready)
Summary
Key Insights
-
•
Career paths in UX can be nonlinear and enriched by diverse professional experiences across different fields.
-
•
Economic hardships and layoffs can lead to pivotal career transformations when approached with hope and resilience.
-
•
Running towards a career goal rather than just away from dissatisfaction or setbacks is crucial for intentional growth.
-
•
Internal hires with deep domain knowledge bring invaluable context and relationships to UX teams, often overlooked.
-
•
Combining skills from project management, sales, and customer success creates a powerful foundation for user research.
-
•
Formal credentials like degrees or PhDs are not always prerequisites to successfully transition into UX careers.
-
•
User journey mapping can bridge gaps between customer success and UX, fostering better organizational understanding.
-
•
People with enterprise experience bring unique advantages in navigating executive conversations and stakeholder relationships.
-
•
Organizations often miss opportunities to promote internal talent into UX roles, which could strengthen their teams and reduce onboarding time.
-
•
Personal storytelling and vulnerability in sharing career journeys can inspire others to embrace nontraditional paths in UX.
Notable Quotes
"Let me just take you along this journey, where it began."
"Don’t just run away from something. Make sure you are running towards something."
"If you make a pretty page, that’s great. But if the users can’t actually use the page or they’re frustrated, you just have a pretty page."
"I was kind of wandering around aimlessly trying to find the next job."
"I was going to use everything that I had experienced, all the skills, all the successes, and become my own superpower."
"You’re not one of them. And that is your strength, Renee. That is your power."
"I was able to connect the dots a lot for the UX team because I had those relationships from customer success."
"Only one internal hire on the UX team was a huge misopportunity for us."
"Having those tough conversations with C-Suite execs, delivering findings with unwavering voice because you know the customer."
"I want people to question why I’m not in the room if I’m not there."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Share your story vulnerably and in a neutral setting to open connection."
Tutti TaygerlyVideconference: How to Work with Difficult People with Tutti Taygerly
June 25, 2020
"We're learning from each other in the community, which is much healthier than going to Google because anything can be on Google."
Dave Malouf Meredith Black Farid SabitovThe Past, Present, and Future of DesignOps: a 2-part DesignOps Community Call (Part 1)
February 17, 2022
"Research’s role may shift to orchestrators of AI-synthesized insights and gap analyses rather than just primary data collectors."
Kate Towsey Basel Fakhoury Oren Friedman Graham GardnerParticipant Recruitment and Management Tools
March 12, 2026
"What if design ops’ job was to condition the environment and remove friction?"
Jacqui FreyFlow and Superfluidity for Design Orgs
November 7, 2018
"Design ops has an opportunity to inject human-centeredness into product development to balance business and customer value."
Bria Alexander Meredith Black Tim GilliganState of DesignOps Panel
October 1, 2021
"A true design system must have a single source of truth in code."
Dawn ResselFull-Stack User Experiences: A Marriage of Design and Technology
June 9, 2016
"Clear and consistent communication really keeps design leadership accountable and promotes transparency via knowledge sharing."
Kim Holt Emma Wylds Pearl Koppenhaver Maisee XiongA Salesforce Panel Discussion on Values-Driven DesignOps
September 8, 2022
"If your team sees a clear path of mastery in your organization, they’re much more likely to stay."
Liam ThurstonWhy Your Design Team Is Quitting, And How To Fix It
June 10, 2022
"We have a lot of work to do before we’re ready to put things open source at Best Buy."
Bob Baxley Sara Asche Anderson Sharon Bautista Frank Duran Jamie Kaspszak Abbey Smalley Sylas SouzaTheme 4: Discussion
January 8, 2024
