😌 Humans of User Research w/ Smiti Nathan Staudt

Smiti, tell us a little about yourself.
Hello! I’m Smiti and I started my first official UX Research role in August 2021. Prior to that, I worked in higher education, archaeology, and geospatial consulting. What drives me is making financial services and products more accessible to underbanked communities, as well as co-creating solutions to make our company’s research practice more inclusive.

From your experience, what is one of the biggest challenges user research(ers) face today?
As a fairly new user researcher, I still feel that it is a major challenge to break into the field. While I see more resources to help individuals network, get mentored, prepare job documents, and refine other key skills, there is still a need more more equitable and inclusive hiring pipelines at the organizational level. Building these structures and programs is definitely a big challenge, but I feel it is key to an inclusive recruiting strategy, especially for diverse talent.

How do you separate your work life from your home life?
I keep a consistent time-bounded work schedule. I usually start my work day between 8-8:30am and end my work day at 5pm. Having a toddler helps me stick with this schedule because I start work when he leaves and I stop work when he comes home. He hates when I work instead of playing with him so it’s a good personal motivator to stay on schedule.

How can people find you?
I’m happy to connect with folx on LinkedIn, as well as Twitter (@travellingarch) where I chat a bit more about my life.

Thank you, Smiti!

Spotlight > Articles > Video > Audio

🧐 Thought pieces.

The worst UX Research and Human Factors decisions in 2021
A Year To Remember: 2021 was a year for the books in terms of product development launches that resulted in terrifyingly bad human factors and UX performance decision-making. By Cmauro (Medium 12/31)

UX-Maturity Stage 6: User-Driven
Consistently and systematically, organizations at stage 6 have achieved UX maturity by making the internal changes necessary to be truly user-centered. By Kim Salazar (NN/g 01/02)

How you can use “seeing is believing” to challenge poor requirements
User testing is a powerful tool for challenging arbitrary project constraints. By Christopher Kai Wong (Data & Science 12/30)

🛬 Methods & Approaches.

Incorporating UX Research in agile-based product development
By Victoria Claypoole, Stacey Sanchez, Kay Stanney and Clay Killingsworth (UX Collective 12/28)

The ultimate guide to cohort analysis: How to reduce churn and strengthen your product
Cohort analysis is one of the best ways product analytics can help you both acquire and retain customers. By Daniel Bean (Mixpanel)

How to use surveys at different customer stages
How to survey along the customer engagement funnel. By Jasko Mahmutovic (SurveyLegend 12/30)

Pitfalls to avoid in product research
If you’re a product person just starting to take research into your own hands, the key message of this post is one of reassurance. By
Kelsey Ward (Feedback Loop 01/03)

🚀 Personal Development.

Non-research skills you need to be successful as a UX researcher
It’s a great time to be a UX researcher, or aspiring to be one. After long being misunderstood or undervalued, demand is now high. By Melissa Galland (Medium 12/28)

UX management challenges to solve in 2022 and beyond
The growing field of UX needs strong managers who can help it get to the level and become fully embedded in businesses. By Yaron Cohen (Medium 12/28)

How to be the go-to engineer for product analytics
Engineers are always looking for ways to differentiate themselves. Not only can niche expertise lock down employability, but it can also catapult one’s career in entirely unforeseen ways. By Joseph Pacheco (Mixpanel)

User Experience quiz: 2021 UX year in review
Test your usability knowledge by taking our quiz. All questions and answers are based on articles that we published last year. By Raluca Budiu (NN/g 01/02)

📚 Case Studies.

Hiring and growing a UX team from scratch
Each journey I started in the latest couple of years brought me new challenges and a lot of things to learn. By Andreea Popescu (UX Collective 12/26)

Designing a customer feedback survey and a dashboard based on Net Promoter score
I will explain how I designed an NPS survey form for collecting feedback from customers and a dashboard for presenting the collected data. By
Vikas Sethi (Bootcamp 01/02)

Hotel booking experience — Survey report
My research continues with an online survey to propose to friends and acquaintances who generally use the web to book their trips and the place where they will stay. By Valemar (Bootcamp 12/31)

How generative research about personal finances can help design your bank’s value proposition
By Eva Muck (Bootcamp 01/03)

🔁 Refreshers.

The Best UX Research Content at User Interviews of 2021
A look back at the most popular User Interviews blog articles, podcasts, webinars, and UX research reports in 2021. By Katryna Balboni (User Interviews 12/30)

49 UX Metrics, Methods, and Measurement Articles from 2021
In 2021 MeasuringU posted 49 articles. By Jim Lewis and Jeff Sauro (MeasuringU 12/28)

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🎥 Video of the Week.

Is UX Research going through a radical maturation?
Design in the enterprise is maturing and it seems like UX Research is as well. This isn’t happening without growing pains though, and neither is it happening evenly across all organisations. With Steve Portigal (The Space InBetween 12/30)

Spotlight > Articles > Video > Audio

🔉 Audio of the Week.

War Stories with Steve Portigal
For a number of years Steve Portigal has been collecting user research war stories. The stories describe experiences researchers have had whilst doing fieldwork. Awkward, morally challenging, painful, unsuccessful. UX Podcast with Steve Portigal (Spotify 12/31)

Happy Researching,
Jan