Hiring and Keeping Amazing UX Researchers
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Do you need to hire User Experience researchers for your team? Need help knowing where to find them, or separating excellent from average candidates? AnswerLab's success depends on hiring the best talent, so we’ve learned what it takes it hire outstanding researchers. In this presentation we share our tips with you!
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Hiring and Keeping Amazing UX Researchers
- 1. CONFIDENTIAL 1 Hiring and Keeping Amazing UX Researchers Pamela Walshe, AnswerLab Director of Research Dan Clifford, Chief Experience Officer and Co-Founder September 20, 2012
- 2. CONFIDENTIAL 2 Our Mission Improving The Digital World
- 3. CONFIDENTIAL 3 AnswerLab is the Market Leader • Founded: 2004, San Francisco • Opened New York Office in 2012 • Trusted by global market leaders • Recommended by • 500+ research projects • Research across 5 continents, in over a dozen languages • #1 research firm 3
- 4. CONFIDENTIAL 4 Today’s Presenters Dan Clifford Chief Experience Officer and Co-Founder Email: dan@answerlab.com AnswerLab 160 Spear Street, Suite 700 San Francisco, CA 94105 Pamela Walshe Director of User Experience Research, AnswerLab Email: pwalshe@answerlab.com AnswerLab 160 Spear Street, Suite 700 San Francisco, CA 94105 • Manager of AnswerLab’s SF Research team • Previously VP, UX Research, Wells Fargo • 10+ years experience in User Experience Research • Masters degree from the iSchool and BA in Anthropology, both from UC Berkeley • 20 years experience in marketing and user experience • Career spent helping technology innovators succeed • MBA and degrees in Psychology and Organizational Behavior
- 5. CONFIDENTIAL 5 Agenda • The biggest challenge in hiring • The importance of core values • Defining a “Rock Star” UX Researcher • Finding and attracting great candidates • Making the right choice – your evaluation process is key! • They’re hired, now what? How to keep great UX researchers on your team • Questions
- 6. CONFIDENTIAL 6 Who Doesn’t Say This? “We hire the best people”
- 7. CONFIDENTIAL 7 Core Values are an Important Recruiting Tool • Build Trust • Provide amazing service • Jump in to help others • Handle change with flexibility • Embrace new technology • Figure it out and get it done
- 8. CONFIDENTIAL 8 Hiring Someone Should Never Feel Like This
- 9. CONFIDENTIAL 9 A Rigorous Interviewing Process is Key to Identifying Rock Star UX Researchers Find great candidates Rigorously evaluate them Hire the Rock Star!
- 10. CONFIDENTIAL 10 Define Your “Rock Star”
- 11. CONFIDENTIAL 11 So, What Makes a Rock Star?
- 12. CONFIDENTIAL 12 YOU are Part of the Formula Great UX Researcher Attributes Your Specific Business Needs Your Rock Star
- 13. CONFIDENTIAL 13 A Trusted Confidant Oprah Winfrey Great UX Researcher Attributes An Expert in the Field Martin Scorsese • Technical Expertise • Proven track record for outstanding work • Passion for the field • Active in the professional community • A great advocate and educator • Non-Judgmental • Easily Builds Rapport • Cares Deeply about Affecting Change
- 14. CONFIDENTIAL 14 7 Important Questions to Ask Yourself What are your core values?1 2 3 4 5 6 7 What is the pace of the work environment? Are you trying to build a practice or execute a project? How much bandwidth do you have for mentorship or training? Will they need to present findings to a project team or senior executives? Both? Is your team more collaborative or do people work independently? What kind of deliverables will the person need to create? What tools are required for the role?
- 15. CONFIDENTIAL 15 Finding and Attracting Great Candidates
- 16. CONFIDENTIAL 16 UX Talent Comes From a Variety of Disciplines • Anthropology • Business School • Cognitive Science • Communications • Economics • Human-computer Interaction (HCI) • Information Science • Psychology • Sociology
- 17. CONFIDENTIAL 17 What Motivates Researchers to Make the Leap to a New Team? • Seeing the impact of their work on the user experience • Opportunities for collaboration with others • Exposure to new tools and techniques • Continued learning and professional development
- 18. CONFIDENTIAL 18 Show Your Stuff to Attract Great Talent • What great people already work in your organization? • What makes your opportunity unique?
- 19. CONFIDENTIAL 19 Making the right choice – your process is key!
- 20. CONFIDENTIAL 20 Remember the Milli Vanilli Lesson… Looking Like a Rock Star Does Not Make Someone a Rock Star!
- 21. CONFIDENTIAL 21 Process is Key, Interviews Aren’t Enough! Find great candidates Rigorously evaluate them Hire the Rock Star!
- 22. CONFIDENTIAL 22 AnswerLab’s Process Interviews 1 Written exercise 2 4 Presentation Social Event 53 Mock Research Session
- 23. CONFIDENTIAL 23 They’re Hired, Now What? Keeping Great UX Researchers
- 24. CONFIDENTIAL 24 Fostering a Career in UX Research • The magical 30-day window • Encouraging innovation • Supporting participation in the larger professional community
- 25. CONFIDENTIAL 25 Quick Guide to Hiring Amazing UX Researchers To help you ensure you’re hiring the best possible UX researchers for your team, we’ve assembled these best practices to share with you. DOWNLOAD NOW >>
- 26. CONFIDENTIAL 26 Thank You. For follow-up questions about AnswerLab user experience research services, contact: info@answerlab.com
Editor's Notes
- Hi, I’m Dan Clifford, co-founder of AnswerLab and today we’re going to talk about an important topic – hiring and motivating amazing user experience researchers.When Amy Buckner and I started AnswerLab, user experience was a priority at only a handful of companies. Seeing the success of these visionary companies, we decided to start a company with the mission of Improving the Digital World. Our primary way of achieving this is by providing trusted, objective insights into what people see, do, think and feel when interacting with digital products and services. We also publish whitepapers and host webinars like this so we can help others in the broader user experience community to grow their knowledge. The digital world is becoming increasingly important in all of our lives. Working together we’ll see a constant improvement in how we interact in the digital world.We feel this is an important mission and realized pretty quickly that achieving our Mission would require attracting and retaining top talent so that’s been a primary focus as we continue to build the foundation of our company.
- By starting with the philosophy of hiring great people and then building in lots of support, processes and best practices, we’ve been able to become the user experience research partner trusted by the world’s leading brands.AnswerLab is a San Francisco based user experience research firm.
- You’ll be hearing a little bit from me and primarily from Pamela Walshe who manages our San Francisco research team. She brings deep experience in both research and management from her background in both services firms and working in-house. Before AnswerLab Pamela was in charge of the user experience research team at Wells Fargo.
- We put together an agenda that I think is really valuable information if you’re a hiring manager or may become one in the future. If you’re an individual contributor this gives you some ideas of how hiring managers may view you as a candidate or for promotions.
- Here’s the biggest challenge in hiring today – everyone wants to hire the best people and are competing for talent. So what you do? Focus on fit.
- If your company has a set of core values, highlight those.If they are not yet formalized within your organization, even jotting down 3-5 key attributes will help you to ensure you’re looking for cues that the candidate will be a good cultural fit. You may even have a set of values for your department that differs from the corporate values.Why? This is how you solve the “everyone hires the best” problem. We’ve turned down hundreds of resumes from really strong researchers because they weren’t a fit for us. They might be an amazing fit for another company and vice-versa. Focusing on the company mission and core values in the hiring process helps narrow your focus.These are our core values, in order of importance. They dictate who we hire and who we don’t. Think about what is truly core. One of Zappos’ core values is “Create Fun and A Little Weirdness”. I LOVE that core value. But would we turn down a great candidate because they didn’t create a little weirdness? No, but Zappos might.This is not just a hiring tool, but an engagement tool. The single greatest driver of customer satisfaction and loyalty, and overall company success is having engaged employees. Getting back to the core challenge. You’re competing for talent. It’s a bit of the wild west in hiring - user experience is a fairly new function, so there is no “cookie cutter” degree or qualification to look for. It’s becoming tougher to find talent since in the past only a handful of companies really focused on user experience and now it’s a big chunk of the fortune 500 and most startups. It’s also a critical role – the user experience team will shape your org, impact the customer experience.I’ll turn it over to Pamela who will talk about ways to approach this challenge, starting with identifying user experience team members that are right for your organization.
- Thank you Dan for that great introduction.Today’s presentation is all about making sure you don’t feel like THIS when you’re hiring a new member for your team – that sense of nervous anticipation….you might be jumping into a frigid pool or maybe it’s more like a warm bath…you could have a stinging belly flop, or a graceful dive.What I’m going to share with you today are strategies that enable you to make very confident hiring decisions, and to ensure you’re truly selecting the best possible candidate to meet your UX Researcher needs.If you’re joining us today as a job seeker, this will be a great opportunity for you to understand the ways in which you need to demonstrate your great skills so that you can more effectively highlight your experience during an interview process.
- At AnswerLab, we have hired some of the best UX Talent in the industry. We know that by our net promoter score (9 on a 10 point scale) from our clients. That tells us that our clients continue to be impressed with the quality of work that our team providesBelow average attrition rates – This shows us that our researchers find the work challenging, engaging, and that they want to grow their careers here at AnswerLabBoth of these metrics demonstrate that we have a knack for hiring the RIGHT people to do the work we do. I say this is a “knack,” but I don’t mean to down-play the significance of our very deliberate and thorough evaluation process. Creating a very rigorous, detailed, and CONSISTENT interviewing process across all candidates is key. At a high level, this consists of:(1) First, you have to know how to find great candidates:Knowing where to look Knowing what they look LIKE (appropriate resumes)(2) Rigorously evaluating them – this is where we’ll spend the bulk of our time today(3) Making sure you hire the right rock star for your organizationLet’s start by talking about how to find the right candidateThe best way to make sure you have confidence in who you hire is to have a thoughtful and deliberate way of evaluating them….Because we’re not just talking about filling an open position – we’re talking about HIRING ROCK STARS. Today we’re going to talk about How to find them – it’s a challenge given that they come from a myriad of backgrounds How to evaluate them – interviews aren’t enough! We’ve found through experience that applied, hands-on exercises have been the secret to distinguishing an OK researcher from a research Rock Star and How to keep them on your team!
- Before you go out into the market and look for a UX Researcher, it’s important to think through what a truly “rock star” UX Researcher would look like to you. So…to use the “rock star” analogy…let’s take a look at a few bonafide rock stars!
- As you can see from these images, there is quite a wide array “Rock Stars,” each of them talented and accomplished in their own way, you may or may not like them. Whether they produce the kind of music you would buy or play at a given event (like a party or a get together with friends), really depends on personal preference and your sense of what is appropriate for the occasion. In short, it’s all about CONTEXT and what is the best fit. Similarly, the way in which one defines a “rock star” has both an objective and subjective component.
- The important thing to remember is that YOU are part of the formula.When people ask me to rattle off a list of great UX Researcher attributes, my answer is always “well, I can do that, but it’s important that you think through the unique elements of your work place to make sure you look for additional qualities that ensure they’ll be the best possible fitYour job would be really easy if there was a magical “one size fits all” list of qualities that define a researcher, the harder work is to contemplate how your organization might call for additional qualities you’d want to look for in a researcher. For example, AnswerLab has interviewed many talented researchers that we think would probably do well In-house or in slower-paced environments, or working within design teams but not necessarily presenting to senior level executives. So, we’re going to start by talking about the “basics” of what constitutes a great UX Researcher – at a foundational level, what skills and qualities should you be looking for?
- I like to think of a great UX Researcher as a synthesis of Martin Scorsese and Oprah…A great UX researcher is going to be a combination of these two things – An expert in their field, and a trusted confidant.Martin Scorsese exemplifies an expert – he has the technical expertise, which of course you would be looking for. He also has a proven track record – there is evidence of his accomplishmentsHe is passionate – this comes across clearly in his demeanor – it doesn’t feel forced. You can feel passion…it oozes out of people who genuinely enjoy what they are doing.He is also active in the professional community – this is an important trait to look for. Being active in the proffessionalommunity through conference attendance, publication, etc. is an indication that the candidate enjoys ongoing learning – a critical attribute of a researcherHe is also a great advocate and educator, having established the film preservation movement and working closely with the library of congress. UX researchers by nature must also be natural advocates – they are speaking on behalf of the user to influence design for the better, and must be able to convey the importance of UX.Now, let’s move onto Oprah’s qualities…A great researcher must be able to make participants at ease in order to elicit feedback from them. This means easily establishing rapport by having a relaxed demeanorThey must also be able to hear other points of view and take them in for what they are – observations about someone else’s perspective – and to do this without judgmentFinally, they must be invested in trying to bring about change. The entire purpose of research can be boiled down into one purpose – affect change. The candidate must be inspired by the ability to influence and make things better, make the world a better place. Caring – This may seem like an odd first quality, but it shows itself in many ways. You want to be passionate about what you do, and you’re helping to improve people’s lives. People who truly care will go the extra mile for their design team and really care about improving the experience of end users.Non-judgmental / Neutral – Some people like to always please others and are uncomfortable making waves. Researchers have to probe to find problems with a product that their team worked really hard on. Occasionally a researcher has to call someone’s baby ugly. Can they find the issues, communicate the problems and do that consistently in a tactful way?Responsive / Flexible – Schedules change, priorities change, most companies are moving to a faster, more agile development process. Most researchers are analytical thinkers that are not hired to be impulsive. Can they easily switch gears and balance the need for analysis with the needs and timing of the business?See the big picture – The Director level recommends research approaches and oversees projects. The scope and level of rigor for research seen in the world can range from running long-term clinical trials in cancer patients to asking a few friends and family for their opinion. Can the researcher apply the right amount of rigor for each particular need?See the details – Can they dig into project details when needed to ensure project quality and consistency? Can they develop systems to help researchers be efficient and leverage their strengths?Strong Communicators – Those at the director level tend to be a hub with several touchpoints. They are interfacing with their team, their peers, execs, and internal business clients. Are they able to build relationships and adjust their communication to each audience? An exec will tune out if they see the level of analysis that would be shown at the design team level – they need to understand the big picture and bottom-line recommendations and plans for action.
- Earlier I mentioned that YOU are part of the equation, so here are some important questions Figuring out the unique needs of your business is not only critical so that you can identify the traits you’re looking for in a great UX researcher, it’s also critical because you will need to design your interviewing process to THOROUGHLY AND DELIBERATELY evaluate each of the qualities that are absolutely critical for success in your organization.Here are some questions you should contemplate when thinking about who you need to hire.
- Once you have defined what a Rock Star looks like for you in your organization, the next steps include:Finding great candidatesAnd Attracting great candidates
- One of the challenges in finding UX Researchers is that there is no ONE degree or specific set of criteria as there is in other professional fields – UX Researchers come from a broad array of backgrounds, many in the social sciences. The thing they all have a focus on understanding human behavior. Beyond the degree, for associate level researchers we look for academic excellence – as evidenced by the programs attended – as an indicator of high performance. And certainly for more senior level candidates we expect to see a progression of their expertise in UX over time. And that includes a widening breadth of methodological tools. If there is one piece of advice I could give you about what NOT to be too concerned about, that would be subject matter. For example, don’t be too concerned if they don’t come from your industry – a great researcher has an aptitude for learning and should quickly get up to speed with a little homework/reading. That would be a bonus, but I wouldn’t recommend favoring a candidate with more industry experience over a more experienced researcher who has not yet worked in your vertical.
- Once you’ve identified some great candidates, you clearly want them to be interested in YOU/Your opportunity and not lose them to the competition before you’ve had a chance to have your first pick….the really GREAT ones are in high demand and there is a lot of competition. To attract great talent, it’s important that you understand the things that are highly motivating for researchers. Since we’re a research organization, of course we conduct surveys of our own team on an ongoing basis to understand the most significant motivators fro researchers. Knowing this enables you to tell a more compelling story to applicants, Framing your opportunity in terms of these four values will help you speak to the issues that matter most to themThese are things that you should be considering too!If all of these things don’t exist within your organization, that’s OK – there are still ways to support it.For example, when I managed the research team at WF, we were often limited internal with regard to the types of tools or methods we were able to use for a variety of compliance or technical reasons, but by partnering with AnswerLab to conduct the research, my research team was able to participate in research we wouldn’t necessarily have been able to pull off in-house. . Even if your organization cannot offer a lot in one of the key areas (such as exposure to new tools, for example), there may be ways for you to still provide these opportunities by partnering with a trusted vendor to collaborate with your team or supporting their participation at industry events (conferences, workshops, etc).
- But you have to remember that it’s not all about you FINDING the candidate – it’s like a courtship, in that you also need to ATTRACT great candidates to you. This is something I think that is very overlooked by many organizations who simply post a job description and hope that candidates come flocking. Even if you DO have the challenge of receiving many applicants, you want to make sure you get the RIGHT people. And getting the right people is best achieved by projecting the most accurate picture of the role AND what it’s like to work within your organization.At AnswerLab, we’ve done this by posting a few videos about our culture and our leadership online. Candidates who have seen the videos and then come on board often remark how helpful the video was to give them a sense of our culture before they started…If you’re not able to post this kind of information about your team, you can at least be deliberate about highlighting this information in your interview processSo, now that you’ve attracted a bevy of candidates, the most critical next step is to make sure that you make the RIGHT CHOICE about who you hire!
- Once you’ve found some great candidates, and you’ve created a pool of UX Researchers to choose from, the next step is making sure you make the RIGHT choice.That may sound obvious, but smart people make hiring mistakes all of the time – simply because what we said earlier. There could be two AMAZING researchers, both talented and accomplished, but one is going to be the better fit for your organization. The key is finding out what truly differentiates them on those other “special” attributes that are unique to your company. We want people to remember the lesson from MilliVanilli back in the 80s…
- Many of you will recall the MilliVanilli debacle of the 80s – they achieved huge success and won numerous accoldales. By all appearances, they were stars….until much later when it was discovered that they didn’t actually sing any of the tracks on their award winning albums.How could this happen?….well, the fact is that bad hiring are made every day by SMART people who simply make the mistake of choosing the wrong candidate b/c their interviewing process wasn’t deliberately designed in a way to target the core values and attributes that are essential to the role they’re hiring for.
- We’re going to talk now about the steps AnswerLab uses to create many touch points with candidates, and many exercises that provide multiple points of comparison across candidates to make the ultimate selection.
- INTERVIEWSOf course this is an important step to make sure they qualify to even be in your consideration set. BUT THIS IS NOT ENOUGH! They could talk to every single person in the company and you could feel great about the candidate – but without seeing their skills IN ACTION, you won’t know until they are already hired if they can really do what they say they can do. This is where the rest of the process is SO CRITICAL. 2. WRITTEN EXERCISE We work on tight timelines, and so should our candidates. They’re given a challenging written assignment and a short deadline. We’re looking to see whether they can produce quality work under the gun and without errors or typos.3. Mock Research SessionModeration technique is critical to getting great insights, so we need to see these skills in action. Using an existing AnswerLab researcher as a test subject, all candidates moderate a mock session with observers in the back room. The test subject is deliberately “difficult” to really test the moderator’s technique. How do they deal with a distracted participant? How well do they keep them on task without losing rapport? Are they calm and able to create a comfortable environment throughout the experience?3. PresentationFollowing the mock interview session, the candidate must draft a presentation on-site within a limited timeframe and present to the team. Every candidate is given the same exercise, so it is quite easy to identify who really shines overall and who struggles over the course of the exercise. If the candidate cannot successfully pull together a cohesive story, be engaging, give clear and actionable recommendations, and field tough questions from the audience, then they simply will not be a fit for us.4. SocializationIn evolving our hiring strategy, one component that has proven critical is a social component. We create an opportunity for the candidate and our AnswerLab team to mingle over snacks in the office. We learn so much from this practice. Is the candidate at ease? Quick to introduce him/herself to new people? Does the conversation seem easy? This is a great way to answer the common question, “Would I be OK gettingstuck in an airport with this person?” If the answer is no, then you certainly don’t want them as part of your day-to-day work life.
- 3. Investing in development and ongoing learningWhile all of our researchers come to us with excellent research skills, new team members are all students of AnswerLab University for the first 30 days on the team. This program provides new hires with a combination of instructional and hands-on learning, shadowing opportunities, and ongoing peer coaching as they prepare to lead their first assignments. AnswerLab University isn’t just for new hires, it also encompasses training opportunities for current researchers who may be looking to broaden their skills by learning new methodologies, or to fine-tune their approach to managing projects or developing client relationships. Finally, to ensure our team has the opportunity for on-going learning and growth, we also offer sessions on broader topics of professional and personal development as part of our overall Wellness plan.Building the research team is one of the most rewarding aspects of my work with AnswerLab for a few reasons. One, it keeps me connected to the Universities and Institutions with programs specializing in developing professionals with UX expertise. Secondly, it’s exciting because we’re not just developing the AnswerLab team, we’re shaping the future of the professional space by developing a new generation of UX Research experts and new research methods.We think we’ve got a well developed process for hiring great people, now hear what they have to say about why they like working at AnswerLab!