UX Research Essentials

🐑 Business Language vs. UX Language. How to present design work, explain design decisions and get stakeholders on your side ↓ 🤔 Businesses rarely understand the impact of UX work. 🤔 UX language is overloaded with ambiguous terms/labels. 🤔 Business can’t support initiatives it doesn’t understand. ✅ Leave UX language and UX abbreviations at the door. ✅ Explain design work through the lens of business goals. 🚫 Avoid “consistency”, “empathy”, “simplicity”, “affordance”. 🚫 Avoid “design thinking”, “cognitive load”, “universal design”. 🚫 Avoid “lean UX”, “agile”, “archetypes”, “Jobs-To-Be-Done”. 🚫 Avoid “stakeholder management” and “design validation”. 🚫 Avoid abbreviations: WIP, POC, HMW, IxD, PDP, PLP, WCAG. ✅ Explain how you’ll measure success of your design work. ✅ Speak of business value, loyalty, abandonment, churn. ✅ Show risk management, compliance, governance, evidence. ✅ Refer to cost reduction, efficiency, growth, success, Design KPIs. ✅ Present inclusive design as an industry-wide way of working. As designers, we often use design terms, such as consistency, friction and empathy. Yet to many managers, these attributes don’t map to any business objectives at all, often leaving them baffled and utterly confused about the actual real-life impact of our UX work. One way out that changed everything for me is to leave UX vocabulary at the door when entering a business meeting. Instead, I try to explain design work through the lens of the business, often rehearsing and testing the script ahead of time. When presenting design work in a big meeting, I try to be very deliberate and strategic in the choice of words. I won’t be speaking about attracting “eye-balls” or getting users “hooked”. It’s just not me. But I won’t be speaking about reducing “friction” or improving “consistency” either. Instead, I tell a story. A story that visualizes how our work helps the business. How design team has translated business goals into specific design initiatives. How UX can reduce costs. Increase revenue. Grow business. Open new opportunities. New markets. Increase efficiency. Extend reach. Mitigate risk. Amplify word of mouth. And how we’ll measure all that huge impact of our work. Typically, it’s broken down into 8 sections: 🎯 Goals ← Business targets, KRs we aim to achieve. 💥 Translation ← Design initiatives, iterations, tests. 🕵️ Evidence ← Data from UX research, pain points. 🧠 Ideas ← Prioritized by an impact/effort-matrix. 🕹 Design work ← Flows, features, user journeys. 📈 Design KPIs ← How we’ll measure/report success. 🐑 Shepherding ← Risk management, governance. 🔮 Future ← What we believe are good next steps. Next time you walk in a meeting, pay attention to your words. Translate UX terms in a language that other departments understand. It might not take long until you’ll see support coming from everywhere — just because everyone can now clearly see how your work helps them do their work better. [continues in the comments]

Ever presented rock-solid research only to hear "Thanks, but we're going with our gut on this one"? Securing stakeholder buy-in is rarely about the quality of your work. It's about something deeper. When you’re dealing with a research trust gap, ask yourself 5 questions. 👽 Are you speaking alien to earthlings? When you say jargon like "double diamond" or "information architecture," your stakeholders hear gibberish. Business leaders didn't learn UX in business school—and most never will. Translate everything into business outcomes they understand. Revenue growth. Customer retention. Cost savings. Competitive advantage.  Speak their native language, not yours. ⏰ What keeps them awake at 3am? Behind every skeptical question is a personal fear. That product manager who keeps shooting down your findings? They're terrified of missing their KPIs and losing their bonus. Have honest conversations about what they're personally on the hook for delivering. Then show how your research helps them achieve exactly that. ❓Are you treating assumptions as facts? You might think you know what questions matter to your stakeholders. You're probably wrong. Before starting research, explicitly ask: "What questions do you need answered to make this decision?" Then design your research to answer exactly those questions. ⚒️ Are you dying on the hill of methodological purity? Sometimes you have 8 hours for research instead of 8 weeks. Being dogmatic about "proper" research methods doesn’t always pay off. Focus on outcomes over process. If quick-and-dirty gets reliable insights that drive decisions, embrace it. 🍽️ Are you force-feeding them a seven-course meal when they wanted a snack? Executives need 30-second summaries. Product managers need actionable findings. Junior team members need hands-on learning. Tailor your approach to each one. You can also use my stakeholder persona mapping template here: https://bit.ly/43R7wom What’s the best advice you’ve heard about dealing with skeptical stakeholders?

After mentoring over 800 UX researchers over the past decade, I’ve noticed one clear pattern: The best researchers don’t just gather data, they drive action. They have habits that help them uncover insights, inspire teams, and de-risk decisions. Here are 8 of the most effective habits I’ve seen (and how you can start practicing them): 1. Comfort in ambiguity ↳ Great researchers don’t rush to conclusions. ↳ They embrace the grey areas and let insights emerge. Next time you’re synthesizing data, resist the urge to clean it up. Explore contradictions, which often lead to breakthroughs. 2. Ask the unasked questions ↳ They challenge assumptions and dig deeper. ↳ When everyone’s aligned, they ask, “What if we’re missing something?” Start every project with this question: “What don’t we know that could derail us?” 3. Endlessly curious ↳ Great researchers don’t just ask why, they ask what if? ↳ Curiosity fuels their creativity and problem-solving. Pick one unexpected user behavior from your data this week and explore why it’s happening. 4. Know when to stop ↳ They understand that more data doesn’t always mean better decisions. ↳ They recognize when diminishing returns set in and shift from research to action. Before starting a new study, ask, “What decision are we trying to inform?” If you already have enough data, stop and act. 5. Playful with insights ↳ They treat insights like puzzles, not checkboxes. ↳ The best researchers experiment with how findings are framed and presented. In your next synthesis, frame one insight in three different ways to spark new perspectives. 6. Thrive in collaboration ↳ Effective researchers know insights gain power when shared. ↳ They work closely with designers, PMs, and engineers to co-create solutions. Bring stakeholders's needs into research studies directly, help them make tough decisions and mitigate risk, watch how buy-in skyrockets. 7. Bring discomfort ↳ They don’t settle for validating assumptions—they challenge them. ↳ Insights that spark discomfort often lead to the biggest breakthroughs. If your findings aren’t sparking hard conversations, dig deeper. Research that challenges assumptions often drives transformation. 8. Unafraid to be ignored ↳ Effective researchers understand that not every insight will lead to action—and that’s okay. ↳ They focus on building a culture of evidence-based decision-making over time. Track the outcomes of your research. Revisit findings at the right moment, like a project pivot, a problem resurfaces, or priorities shift. Timing can turn a no into a valuable yes. What habits have made you a better researcher? Share them in the comments // Sick of begging people to listen to your research only to be met with a thumbs up emoji? I share strategies to deliver UXR impact on my Substack: https://lnkd.in/eR5M2geZ

To succeed in a UX role, you must align your work with a business’s bottom line. Staying relevant means thinking and talking like a business stakeholder. Here are key ways to achieve this. 1. From Wireframes to Market Fit Crowd-pleasing UI isn’t enough. Your work needs to align with go-to-market strategies. Example: Consider a SaaS product redesign. The UX team used to focus on the sign-up flow and in-app navigation. Now, they’re also collaborating with product marketing to identify the most profitable customer segments, validating market fit before investing design hours. Business concept cheat sheet: ✅ Market Segmentation: Which user groups should we prioritize for maximum ROI? ✅ Value Proposition: How do we articulate the unique value that differentiates our product? 2. Driving KPI-Focused Outcomes UXers track usability metrics like clicks, conversions, time-on-task, and error rates, but business leaders focus on other KPIs: Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV), Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR), and Net Promoter Score (NPS), to name a few. We need to design experiences that drive these measurable outcomes. Example: You’re working on an e-commerce platform and propose A/B tests that measure conversion rates. Want to speak the same language as the CFO? Translate those numbers into anticipated revenue upticks or cost savings. Business concept cheat sheet: ✅ MRR, CLTV, CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) ✅ Unit Economics: Understanding the cost vs. revenue per user 3. UX as a Strategic Differentiator When UX truly resonates with end users, it can become a competitive moat. Example: Think of the premium Apple charges. Yes, the hardware is elegant, but what truly commands loyalty is the end-to-end experience that aligns with a brand strategy aimed at high-end markets. Knowing this means positioning UX as a differentiator for stakeholders, protecting market share, and expanding into new verticals. Business concept cheat sheet: ✅ Competitive Analysis: Evaluate how user experience stacks up against industry peers. ✅ Brand Equity: The intangible value gained from user perceptions and loyalty. 4. Earning Executive Buy-In No matter how brilliant your UX solutions are, you’ll need decision-makers – CEOs, CFOs, VPs – to champion the cause. Example: Communicate in business terms, build a compelling business case, and link your ideas to organizational objectives. Fail to do this? You’ll leave groundbreaking UX initiatives unfunded and abandoned. Business concept cheat sheet: ✅ Stakeholder Alignment: Understanding each executive’s priorities (e.g., reducing churn, increasing upsells). ✅ ROI Calculations: Be prepared to show how a redesign could drive X% revenue growth or Y% savings. The UX evolution sits between user centricity and corporate strategy. UX professionals who embrace this have the power to transform the bottom line.

Ever noticed how two UX teams can watch the same usability test and walk away with completely different conclusions? One team swears “users dropped off because of button placement,” while another insists it was “trust in payment security.” Both have quotes, both have observations, both sound convincing. The result? Endless debates in meetings, wasted cycles, and decisions that hinge more on who argues better than on what the evidence truly supports. The root issue isn’t bad research. It’s that most of us treat qualitative evidence as if it speaks for itself. We don’t always make our assumptions explicit, nor do we show how each piece of data supports one explanation over another. That’s where things break down. We need a way to compare hypotheses transparently, to accumulate evidence across studies, and to move away from yes/no thinking toward degrees of confidence. That’s exactly what Bayesian reasoning brings to the table. Instead of asking “is this true or false?” we ask: given what we already know, and what this new study shows, how much more likely is one explanation compared to another? This shift encourages us to make priors explicit, assess how strongly each observation supports one explanation over the alternatives, and update beliefs in a way that is transparent and cumulative. Today’s conclusions become the starting point for tomorrow’s research, rather than isolated findings that fade into the background. Here’s the big picture for your day-to-day work: when you synthesize a usability test or interview data, try framing findings in terms of competing explanations rather than isolated quotes. Ask what you think is happening and why, note what past evidence suggests, and then evaluate how strongly the new session confirms or challenges those beliefs. Even a simple scale such as “weakly,” “moderately,” or “strongly” supporting one explanation over another moves you toward Bayesian-style reasoning. This practice not only clarifies your team’s confidence but also builds a cumulative research memory, helping you avoid repeating the same arguments and letting your insights grow stronger over time.

10 Things I Learned Working with EY, BCG, and IBM on UX at Scale I never planned to work on UX at a scale where one insight could affect thousands of users across continents. But EY taught me structure. BCG taught me clarity. IBM taught me scale. Together they shaped the way I design and think as a UX Researcher and Design Manager. Here are the lessons I wish someone had told me earlier. 1. Enterprise UX is not glamorous. It is impact driven. At EY I learned that most wins come from hidden workflows nobody talks about. One navigation change can save a team hours every week. 2. Research beats assumptions every single time. Task analysis. Personas. Heuristics. Accessibility reviews. These were not deliverables for me. They were decision making tools. They kept projects grounded when opinions were loud. 3. The real bottleneck is usually not the interface. It is the workflow. At BCG we rebuilt internal tools to eliminate duplication and complexity. Result was a 90 percent reduction in repeat work and 30 percent faster proposal creation. Scale comes from removing friction. 4. Consistency protects the experience. Multiple teams. Multiple countries. One unified product. Consistency reduces learning curves and increases trust. 5. Accessibility is not optional. It is foundational. Following Section 508 and WCAG at EY and IBM changed how I see interfaces. Inclusive design is efficient design. 6. UX at scale requires negotiation not perfection. You balance deadlines. Teams. Engineering constraints. Good UX is often the most realistic option that still respects the user. 7. Research insights are only valuable if people act on them. I learned to translate research into business terms. Retention. Revenue. Efficiency. That is how UX earns a seat at the strategy table. 8. Small ideas can shift entire ecosystems. Like a content checklist that increased traffic by 5 percent. Or a simple “Download Font” button that reduced issues from 50 percent to 11 percent. Tiny changes. Large ripples. 9. Service design is the missing piece in many organisations. Airline journeys. EdTech classrooms. Global M&A teams. When you study real journeys end to end the gaps become obvious. 10. The bigger the organisation the more important empathy becomes. People do not resist technology. They resist uncertainty. Design becomes the bridge between human comfort and system capability. Key reminders I carry even today • Users do not care about your process. They care about outcomes. • Enterprise UX is slow but the impact is deep. • Accessibility is everyone’s responsibility. • Research is the fastest way to alignment. • The best designs disappear into the workflow.

❌ Being "good at your job" isn’t enough to build influence as a UXer. I worked with many senior UXers who felt stuck. Yes, they had: - Years of experience - A reputation for delivering great work - A solid seat on the team But when it came to decisions that mattered, they were always on the sidelines. So, what went wrong? They fell into one (or more) of these traps ⬇️ 🪤 : Staying in "delivery mode." 🪤 : Talking about the "what" instead of the "why." 🪤 : Waiting for permission to contribute strategically. Their work was solid... But it wasn’t opening doors to bigger opportunities or strategic discussions. Why? They were unknowingly playing small. Here’s what we did to change that ↴ Step 1️⃣ Stop being the "UX person" and start being the problem-solver. The title “UX designer” can box you in if you’re not careful. Instead of saying, “I improved the checkout flow,” they started saying, “I identified and eliminated checkout friction, simplified the checkout process to make purchases easier, which is expected to cut cart abandonment by at least 15%.” Small change. Massive impact. Step 2️⃣ Show the "why," not just the "what." Designers love to talk about WHAT they did. Stakeholders care about WHY it matters. For example ↴ WHAT: “We successfully redesigned the XYZ dashboard.” WHY: “Customers were overwhelmed by the old XYZ dashboard. Our redesigned version prioritizes key actions, reducing time-on-task by 30%.” The second statement proves you’re thinking strategically, not just checking boxes. Step 3️⃣ Speak like a leader, not a contributor. Most UXers default to talking about deliverables. Leaders talk about outcomes, risks, and opportunities. We worked on shifting their language↴ ❌ FROM: “I think [this design] solves [this problem]” ✅ TO: “Here’s what happens if we DON'T solve [this problem] - and why [this design] addresses it.” Instead of waiting to be invited into strategic conversations, they started leading them. And the result? They stopped being seen as "just another designer." They became the person stakeholders wanted in the room for every big decision. Building influence isn’t about being louder. It’s about being smarter with your visibility. Here’s the formula: 1️⃣ Speak to impact, not just design deliverables. 2️⃣ Frame your work as solving HIGH-VALUE problems. 3️⃣ Start owning the conversations that matter. Do this, and you won’t just be at the table... You’ll shape the direction! ↓ ↓ ↓ ♻️ Share if it resonated. 🧠 Follow Marina Krutchinsky to learn how to go from "high-performing" to "promotion-ready". ✍️ Join 6,000+ smart UXers receiving actionable career tips in their inbox twice a week: uxmentor.substack.com

Telling a compelling story with UX research has nothing to do with flair and everything to do with function, empathy, and influence. One of the most critical yet underappreciated lessons in UX and product work - beautifully articulated in It’s Our Research by Tomer Sharon - is that research doesn’t succeed just because it’s rigorous or well-designed. It succeeds when its insights are heard, understood, remembered, and acted upon. We need to stop treating communication as an afterthought. The way we present research is just as important as the research itself. Storytelling in UX is not decoration - it’s a core deliverable. If your goal is to shape decisions rather than just share findings, the first step is to design your communication with the same care you give your methods. That means understanding the mindset of your stakeholders: what they care about, how they process information, and what pressures they’re facing. Storytelling in this context isn’t about performance - it’s about empathy. The insight must also be portable. It needs to survive the room and be retold accurately across meetings, conversations, and documents. If your findings require lengthy explanations or rely too heavily on charts without clear conclusions, the message will fade. Use strong framing, clear takeaways, and repeatable phrases. Make it memorable. Avoid leading with your process. Stakeholders care far less about your methods than they do about the problems they’re trying to solve. Lead with the tension - what’s broken, what’s at risk, what’s creating friction. Only then show what you learned and what opportunities emerged. Research becomes powerful when it forecasts outcomes, not just reports behaviors. What will it cost the business to ignore this behavior? What might change if we take action? When we can answer these questions, research earns its place at the strategy table. Treat your report like a prototype. Will it be used? Will it help others make decisions? Does it resonate emotionally and strategically? If not, iterate. Use narrative elements, embed user moments, bring in supporting visuals, and structure it in a way that guides action. Finally, stop thinking of the share-out as a one-way street. Facilitate instead of presenting. Invite stakeholders to interpret, ask questions, and explore implications with you. When they co-create meaning, they take ownership-and that leads to real action. Research only creates value when it moves people. Insights are not enough on their own. What matters is the clarity and conviction with which they are communicated.

Measuring and showcasing the business impact of UX research can be challenging, but it’s crucial for demonstrating the value we bring. To make this more tangible, I’ve built a dashboard that tracks key metrics and insights to help communicate our contribution to the company’s success. Here’s how I’m breaking it down to show impact for the business: 1. Research impact: We categorize each research project by its level of impact: ➔ Low: Provides valuable insights but doesn’t lead to immediate action. ➔ Medium: Validates or refines existing ideas. ➔ High: Directly influences the product roadmap or business strategy. By tracking these metrics, we can demonstrate how many projects directly contribute to strategic decisions and influence the company’s goals. 2. Tied to business KPIs: We tag each research project with the business goals it aligns with, like CSAT, conversion rates, or task completion rates. This allows us to highlight how research contributes to improving key business metrics. By linking research findings to KPIs, we’re able to quantify the value we’re adding. 3. Project complexity and external costs: We categorize projects by complexity (simple, moderate, complex). This helps us see how often we’ve needed external resources because of a lack of internal capacity. Tracking this allows us to highlight the extra costs of outsourcing, helping make the case for expanding the internal research team to reduce expenses. 4. Denied Projects: We track the number of projects we’ve had to deny due to capacity constraints. This is crucial for showing unmet demand for research, which in turn shows the business the need for more resources. Denied projects highlight how much additional impact we could be making if the research team had more capacity. 5. National vs. International: By tagging whether research projects are national or international, we gain insights into where the company is focusing its efforts. This helps ensure that we’re aligning our research efforts with market priorities and identifying gaps where more international or cross-market research could drive business growth. By creating these dashboards, we’re able to quantify and visualize the impact UX research makes for the business, whether it’s driving decisions, contributing to KPIs, or highlighting the need for more capacity to meet growing demand. How are you showing the business value of UX research in your company?

When reporting on your impact as a UX Researcher, here are the best → worst metrics to tie your work to: 𝟭. 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 Every company is chasing revenue growth. This is especially true in tech. Tying your work to new (or retained) revenue is the strongest way to show the value that you’re bringing to the organization and make the case for leaders to invest more in research. Examples: - Research insights → new pricing tier(s) → $X - Research insights → X changes to CSM playbook → Y% reduction in churn → $Z 𝟮. 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 This might not be possible for many UXRs, but if you can, showing how your work contributed to key decisions (especially if those decisions affect dozens or hundreds of employees) is another way to stand out. Examples: - Research insights → new ideal customer profile → X changes across Sales / Marketing / Product affecting Y employees' work - Research insights → refined product vision → X changes to the roadmap affecting Y employees' work 𝟯. 𝗡𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀 If you can’t directly attribute your work to revenue, that’s ok! The majority of research is too far removed from revenue to measure the value in dollars. The next best thing is to tie your work to core user engagement metrics (e.g. “watch time” for Netflix, “time spent listening” for Spotify). These metrics are north star metrics because they’re strong predictors of future revenue. Examples: - Research insights → X changes to onboarding flow → Y% increase in successfully activated users - Research insights → X new product features → Y% increase in time spent in app 𝟰. 𝗖𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 For tech companies, a dollar saved is usually less exciting than a dollar of new (or retained) revenue. This is because tech companies’ valuations are primarily driven by future revenue growth, not profitability. That being said, cost savings prove that your research is having a real / tangible impact. 𝟱. 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗻’𝘁 𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘃𝗲 Hot take: The biggest trap for researchers (and product folks generally) is focusing on user experience improvements that do not clearly lead to more engagement or more revenue. At most companies, it is nearly impossible to justify investments (including research!) solely on the basis of improving the user experience. Reporting on user experience improvements without tying them to any of the metrics above will make your research look like an expendable cost center instead of a critical revenue driver. — TL;DR: Businesses are driven by their top line (revenue) and bottom line (profit). If you want executives to appreciate the impact of (your) research, start aligning your reporting to metrics 1-4 above.