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What UX research can learn from other research practices [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
Summary
Three of your research colleagues discussed and defended their respective positions (below) on what UX research can learn from other research practices. Participants engaged with them in a discussion and Q&A, facilitated by Brianna Sylver. "UX research is inherently future-oriented. An anthropology of the future can offer more distinguished and nuanced ways to explore the meaning of users' expectations, anticipations, hopes, and speculations." – Nicole Aleong "UX research should learn more from market research, a larger and more mature field in which it has roots. Market research is a multidisciplinary field with an extensive collection of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies that have been used to support product development decisions to deliver business outcomes for decades—no need to reinvent the wheel." – Michaela Mora "UX research is often viewed as cute, charming and 'nice to have.' For that perception to change in the market, we need to learn from those charging millions of dollars for their strategic research skills: management consultants." – Prayag Narula
Key Insights
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Management consultants gain strategic influence and high fees by positioning as problem solvers, not just researchers.
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UX research teams often do impactful work but lack visibility and influence at the executive level.
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Market research offers a century of methods focused on integrating product, price, place, and promotion for business decisions.
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Digital UX research focuses narrowly on product interfaces, missing broader brand and market factors shaping user experience.
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Integrating market research and UX research can produce a holistic understanding of customer experience.
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Futures anthropology breaks down user views of the future into expectation, anticipation, hope, and speculation to avoid oversimplification.
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Recognizing different future orientations allows more intentional research design and richer insight generation.
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Organizational silos limit research impact; cross-disciplinary collaboration and integrated teams are emerging as solutions.
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UX researchers should adopt a strategic mindset, focusing on framing research outcomes to appeal to C-suite priorities.
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Confidence and communication skills are key for UX researchers to assert their unique closeness to users and strategic value.
Notable Quotes
"Why do management consultants get all the time and resources to do basic research while UX teams fight for every resource?"
"Market research is a hundred-year-old multidisciplinary field with many qualitative and quantitative methods supporting business decisions."
"User experience is shaped not just by product interaction but also by pricing, promotion, distribution, and brand communications."
"UX research often becomes tactical and siloed, limiting its strategic influence and risking burnout."
"Futures anthropology teaches us to separate users' expectations, anticipations, hopes, and speculations about the future."
"Management consultants sell solutions to problems, not just research data, which is why they command high fees."
"We need to think of ourselves as strategic leaders who know customer needs better than anyone in the organization."
"Integration is coming: research teams will drop labels and collaborate across disciplines to deliver richer insights."
"There’s a lot of potential in UX research to go beyond product and influence strategy and C-suite decision making."
"Our deepest fear is not that we’re inadequate, but that we’re powerful beyond measure."
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