Recently I had an epiphany. Been quite sometime since I had one of those. Mostly because have been bouncing around from dealing with daily tactical execution of work and long term product thinking.
This extended period of epiphany is a stark reminder for me to recognise that the brain, my brain specifically, needs to get bored for it to be engaged in fleeting flights of creative dot connecting sojourn. So let me get back to the epiphany before I get carried away with the cantankerous gusts of work winds.
The Epiphany
Having worked on a product as a pseudo Product Manager whilst also continuing with my regular role as a UX researcher, I realised that the role of an UX researcher is not just to be a multi-lingual advocate of realised human behaviour (as opposed to hypothesised). The advocate bit is a function. The role is actually much deeper and a lot more nuanced. It is to aid and abet the team to have a “shared reality”.
Shared reality?
If you have ever been a long distance relationship (of any kind with anybody - boyfriend/girlfriend/family) then you know that one of the key reasons of people feeling disconnected is that the two parties involved may tell and share the most minutest of things, but there is no recognisable anchor for the other party to moor onto.
For instance, let’s say, I talk about a particular colleague or friend at work, I whinge and moan about how things are not working in the manner they should and how this colleague/friend is being completely unreasonably OR being totally supportive - you, the other party listening to this story are only partially interested in this story primarily because you have no idea who this friend/colleague I referring to is.
Replace yourself with the head of engineering, your product team, your designers. The response is pretty much the same.
What does all this have to do with being a researcher?
Research is not just about presenting the voice of the user, it is about bridging the gap and ensuring that each and every action undertaken is to narrow down this separation of realities and bridge the chasm between them.
Research is not just carrying out desk research, user interviews etc., it is also about recreating the environment profile for your audience which reads the report or listens to you whilst you give the presentation. Context matters. It matters even more when you are telling stories - product stories, user stories, evolution stories…
Will write some more if I allow myself to get bored.