User research day in the life
Selling your wares - working in an organisation with low user-centred design maturity and teams where no one knows what you do, how you can fit into the processes, how can you add value to programme work
Recruiting users… Nightmare! Hard to find! Lack of budget!
Site visits – Travelling to them, intensive, loads of data, drinking from the fire hose!
Difficult interviews – vicarious trauma - mental health challenges
Cognitive workload – stress of needing to be impartial and balanced all the time
Analysis – intensive, team sport, loads of data, seeing the wood for the trees
Wearing many UCD hats – research/product/service/coach/project manager:staffing
Difficult stakeholders, managers and sponsors – 3 types
- Those lobbying for their opinions to be incorporated at every stage
- Those impossible to engage, distant, uninterested
- Those Questioning everything – with disbelief or trying to justify out the pain points
Challenging stakeholders who remain committed to pre-conceived ideas, even as the evidence unfolds
TL;DR
In what other field (apart from legal) does every statement, suggestion or idea come under such scrutiny??
Sorry for the rant this was a hectic/difficult day/week!