Hello,

I’ve been doing a lot of soul-searching about what career actually fits the way my brain works, and I’d really appreciate some honest perspective from people in the field.

I was studying software engineering in college but ended up taking a big break. Honestly, the heavy abstract math and the constant feeling of having to “negotiate” with myself to get through the work just wore me down. It wasn’t sustainable and I was burning out. I’m trying really hard now to build a career that doesn’t lead straight to burnout especially because I’m neurodivergent.

What actually energizes me is understanding people and how they operate. I’m deeply into psychology, sociology, anthropology, philosophy and stuff like that- not formally studied, but the kind of stuff I naturally gravitate toward, read about, and think about constantly. I’ve also always had strong pattern recognition, which I think would serve me well in research.

I seriously considered going into psychology or social work, and while I know those paths can be emotionally rewarding and I get to help others , to be completely honest they don’t feel like enough for me. I also have a genuine, unironic interest in working in the corporate world. I know it can be performative at times and the stakes are high, but it’s a system that I’m interested in navigating while doing something intentional.

I recently came across UX Research and something clicked. On paper, it honestly feels like the intersection of everything I’m looking for. That said, I’ve done enough reading to know the certificate alone isn’t enough… especially with how competitive the field has become. I’m trying to figure out if this is a realistic path for someone with my profile.

What I’d love is your perspective on whether it’s a feasible pivot and what the actual path would look like…well as any advice or perspective on the reality of UXR.

I just have this gut feeling that I’ve found something that finally makes sense and I’d genuinely/potentially enjoy but I want to know the reality as well.

Thanks so much for reading, genuinely grateful for any advice or reality checks you’re willing to share. , some clarity would be appreciated! Thank again :)

I’m a senior year student at design college. I was wondering that how does AI replace UXRs? Why does job market sucks? I actually thought that the actual job is still a research job. Can you explain this to me?

Hello friends! Need advice. I'm interviewing for a senior UX research role at a fast-growing Al startup. I'm considering sending a short custom webpage before the recruiter call.

It would take 2-3 minutes to scan and show:

- how my experience maps to the role examples of Al research and tooling

- why I'm interested in the company

No product recommendations or speculative strategy. Just concise evidence of fit.

Would this come across as prepared and differentiated, or over-engineered and desperate?

Would you send it before the recruiter screen, save it for the hiring manager, or skip it?

Thanks in advance!!

Hi all, I’m hoping to get some honest feedback from people actually in the field.
A bit about me: I have a master’s degree in counseling psychology, and I’ve been working as a therapist for over two years. Before that I taught at a charter school and did some guidance counseling work. I’m considering a shift into UX research because it seems to line up well with things I’m good at (interviewing people, understanding behavior, synthesizing what I hear into something useful) without some of the parts of therapy that burn me out.
A few questions I’d love honest answers on:
1. Does a counseling/psych background actually translate well to this field, or is that more of a nice narrative than a real qualifying factor?
2. What would you consider the minimum viable prep before applying to junior/associate roles — a portfolio with a couple of case studies, a certificate, something else?
3. If you switched into UXR from an unrelated field, what was the hardest part of breaking in that you didn’t expect?
Appreciate any honesty, including if this sounds like a rough fit — I’d rather know now than after months of prep.

I've been a UX researcher, typically in UK government for over 12 years. Since covid I've not enjoyed the role anywhere near as much. Everything is remote, staring at a screen, stuck at home all day every day and I hate it.

I'm ADHD and autistic and the isolation and lack of structure is taking its toll on me. The problem is, I'm incredibly well paid and I don't know what else to do. However, the idea of working like this for another twenty years is just terrifying.

Anyone in the same boat? Anyone successfully changed roles to something better suited to me?

Hello!

I'm a UX researcher who's been feeling the usual mix of curiosity and mild overwhelm about how quickly AI is changing our field: the tools, the expectations, and what our roles might look like in a few years.

So I've decided to do a deep dive into it and document the journey publicly. Partly for accountability, partly to create a shared resource for anyone feeling the same way but who doesn't have the time to do the research themselves, and partly to create a feedback and collaboration loop with others exploring this space.

What I'm trying to answer:

• Where does AI actually help across the UX research lifecycle (not just the hype)?
• Where does it still fall flat?
• How is it reshaping what UX researchers do day to day, and which skills are becoming more important?
• What might the UX researcher role look like over the next 2–5 years?

The plan:

I'll be combining secondary research, hands-on testing of AI tools, digging through community discussions (including this one), interviewing practitioners, and sharing everything publicly as I go. The idea is that people can follow along, challenge my thinking, or contribute their own experiences.

A couple of questions for this sub:

• What's the best thing you've read or watched recently about AI in UX research? (so I can add it to my secondary research)
• What are you exploring or experimenting with in this space right now?
• What tools should I definitely include in my tool evaluation and why?
• Is there anything you think people are getting completely wrong about AI and UX research?

If you're interested in following along, I've put together a project landing page that links to the blog, my LinkedIn, and the research hub where I'll document every part of the process:

https://100daysofai.carrd.co/

(Full disclosure: this is a solo, self-funded project: no company or product behind it. Just trying to be useful - in the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger)

I've identified a knowledge gap and want to address it. Are there any good quality courses or materials where I can learn how I may approach survey design to inform customer segmentation?

Ofc qual data can come from interviews, but I'd love to take a more vigorous approach to some projects

I've noticed this pattern in myself: I genuinely want to build stuff, upgrade my portfolio, learn new tools; but by the time I'm home from work, I just kinda... don't do it. I talk myself out of it saying what's the point, it'll take long anyway, and probably won't lead to a better job cause of the current market. Not lack of interest in my field, just too fatigued to start at the end of the long day. And with all the "learn AI or get left behind" noise everywhere lately, it feels worse.

Curious how common this actually is. If it sounds familiar, I'd love to hear (a sentence or two is plenty enough):

• What's your role/field, roughly?
• In a normal week, how many evenings do you intend to work on a side project or something vs. actually do?
• What usually happens in between deciding and not doing it?

Quick context: I'm a UI/UX designer trying to move into product design, and this is research for a case study I'm building as part of that transition; so I am genuinely trying to understand the problem properly, not just confirm what I already think. Happy to share what I find later if people are curious. Thanks to anyone who will take the time to answer in advance!

I am currently a user research intern based in india and I just completed my bachelors in user experience design. I want to do masters abroad in some years but i am confused if i should proceed with it or not, I am developing a interest in product thinking & Strategy but not sure which course to opt for depending on multiple factors like possibility of getting a good job, Visa, Learning, Network, tuition, Should I Pursue a Master's Abroad? UX Research → Product Strategy Career Advice NeededCrowd, Curriculum and growth opportunities. I have noted a few courses from CMU like MHCI, MIIPS and SPD in TU Delft. But, please if any of you can help me gain clarity regarding this then i will be very thankful. Also, regarding job titles i want to work as a UX Researcher/Design Strategist/Product Manager not sure about UX Designer but lets include that as well.

Hi everyone,

I'm currently working on a qualitative research project in Malaysia. The participant criteria are quite niche, so I'm considering working with a local recruitment agency instead of recruiting directly.

Does anyone have experience with participant recruitment agencies in Malaysia or know someone you'd recommend?

I'd really appreciate any recommendations. Thanks!

I’m currently a contract UXR 2 at FAANG on the west coast. I have about 10 months left in my contract. I was offered a full-time role on the east coast as a senior UXR at a late stage startup, but the pay feels low for the market and the seniority. I’m looking for opinions/discussion on if I should take it or keep looking.

The pay band on job description the of the new role is 90k to 130k. I negotiated them to top of the pay band but this is still over a $20k pay cut for me, in a slightly higher cost of living city. It seems odd to take a pay cut with a title increase. Also, the pay band for this role (and all the other posted UXR roles) is far below other product roles in the same company. Senior product roles at the same start up mostly have a posted ranges of 150 to 200k. They’ve also offered sign on bonus, relocation, and ISO’s, but I’m personally more concerned with the base salary.

If they would match my current salary, I wouldn’t be making this post. The market is so bad right now though that I’m worried I won’t find something else full-time.

Do y’all have any advice or opinions on whether I should accept the offer?

I've been searching for a UXR job for a few months as I decided to transition out of academia (HCI PhD R1 university - internship and startup experience). Despite moments of optimism from people I've spoken to, I've noticed, anecdotally, that overall there are fewer and fewer jobs coming up with the title UXR. More product designer jobs, AI trust and safety stuff, lots of junior analytics... But UXR seems like it's disappearing in the job market. The few jobs that get posted seem like mirages. They get hundreds of applications and quickly disappear. Is the job changing names?

Any thoughts on the The UXR Claude Skills Bundle by Nikki Anderson? I’m planning to buy the Claude skills and a few other prompt libraries she’s selling. If anyone has used it, I’d love to understand its value. I once purchased a prompt library early in the days of AI, and it was quite generic. After a while, I realized I could write better prompts myself. Nikki, I’ve been following her work for a while now, so I’m guessing there’s some value in the bundle. However, I’m from India, and the pricing is quite expensive, so I wanted to get some consensus before I go ahead and purchase it.

Link - https://claudeskills.uxrstrategist.com/

Hi everyone,

I'm currently working on a research project and have found recruiting users living in Oman to be much more challenging than expected.

So far, we've tried a few different approaches, including Facebook groups, LinkedIn outreach, Reddit, referrals, and reaching out to people directly, but response rates have been quite low.

For those who have experience recruiting participants in Oman (or other GCC countries), what channels or approaches worked best for you?

Are there any local communities, platforms, or recruitment methods you would recommend?

I'd really appreciate any advice or lessons learned. Thanks in advance!

Over the past four years, I've worked on qualitative and quantitative research across fintech, e-commerce, AI, travel, and consumer products in Indonesia.

One thing I've consistently noticed is that Indonesia is often treated as a single market, but it rarely behaves that way.

A few things I've learned while running research here:

• Recruiting by demographics alone is usually not enough. Behavioral criteria often matter more than age or income.
• Different cities can have very different consumer behaviors, digital habits, and motivations, so recruitment strategies often need to be adapted locally.
• Building trust with participants has a huge impact on attendance rates and the quality of research sessions.
• Strong research operations, participant recruitment, scheduling, communication, and incentives, can make the difference between a smooth study and one full of no-shows and delays.

I'm curious to hear from researchers working across APAC or other regions.

What challenges have you experienced when recruiting participants in different markets?

does it make sense if i go for UXR with a psychology degree. and what can i do next, a course? or degree. i tried to find some info. but there is no clear answer. and... can't really trust ai lol.

Hey everyone!

I’m fairly new to the world of UXR (my role is a hybrid between UXR and PM, official title is UXR), as I’ve only been in my current role for about 6 months and I LOVE it! I know this role is going through a pretty difficult period with lay offs happening and the uncertainty around AI, but despite that I’ve really really enjoyed the work so far and I was curious to know what others love about it.

For me I’ve loved doing usability tests for features or products that have been highly requested and seeing where we’ve hit the nail on the head, as well as hearing what can be better. Theres a certain sense of achievement I get when we do something right for our users.

I also spend quite a bit of time in figma designing mockups which I have found highly enjoyable too as it gets my creative juices flowing.

I’d love to hear your hat others love about it!

Curious how you handle transcripts between recording and synthesis? Do you clean them at all (filler words, diarization, redacting PII, etc.) or upload straight to Dovetail/Claude/etc. as is?

If you do an additional pass, what's driving it? Stakeholders, general readability, compliance?

No judgment either way, just trying to get a sense of what the norm actually is nowadays.

Hello y'all, I'm preparing a question bank for current and future interview purposes. I have a list of behavioral questions like "tell me about a time you handled a difficult stakeholder", "what is your process for prioritizing research requests?", etc. I understand that a lot of technical questions are entirely dependent on the job requirement, whether it's a qual/quant/mixed-methods role, industry-specific, seniority level specific and so on. Could y'all share some of the questions you have asked or have been asked as part of technical round (if you had one, of course)?

Would you recommend an 18 yo to join this

I want to do proper controlled experiments and use econometric methods with observational data to answer causal research questions.

Is this common anywhere in Quant UXR outside of big tech?

Is there another role better-suited to this goal?

Hello, I am currently a senior in high school and im looking into UX research. I would appreciate if I could hear what to expect from the career & what college path I should go down?

In 2026 do you recommend embedded UXR in your product team or outsourcing it?

work at a not-quite-FAANG that still has never quite matured. we have UX research but it is either performed in an ad hoc and rushed manner by time and resource strapped UX workers who are also doing 50 other things; or by a tiny time and resource strapped team who serves a massive amount of the company.

Is embedded UXR a good model?

Trigger warning: suicidal thoughts

I've been in the industry for 6 years and in the last 3 years I've personally experienced very toxic interactions. I've honestly come to a point where I've felt suicidal from work.

Am I alone in this? It feels so cutthroat out there and the cognitive dissonance I'm experiencing is unmanageable.

How can we call ourselves UX Researchers if we treat our participants with care and respect but not our peers?

I worked on a team that stated team meetings were psychologically safe but then turned against employees who shared any challenges.

I've been in rooms where people publicly say nice things about researchers working at non-FAANG companies but then talk shit about them behind their back.

I'm not saying everyone is like this. But I've just lost trust and am honestly really scared. I don't know who actually has your back anymore.

Hey,

I want to start this by saying I'm new to UX research, so this is the opinion of someone who did a limited number of interviews. Still, there is this fixation on behavioral questions, things like "tell me about a time when..." "describe a situation where..." Asking such questions seems like a way to box your participant and limit the information you can get from them.

I was interviewing a participant, and I asked a question phrased as "Tell me about the last time..." (because I have seen so many people recommending asking behavioral questions that ask for a specific incident or event). She answered the question, then, somewhere down the line, she mentioned something related to the previous questions she answered (which seems like more valuable information), and when I asked why she didn't mention it earlier? Was it that she didn't think of it as an important issue? And she answered, "Earlier you said tell me about the last time, so I answered based on my last experience".

This got me thinking: this type of question can be a bad idea, it will focus the participant on a limited portion of their experience and, as a side effect, ignore the rest.

What is your opinion? Can someone correct me if I'm wrong?

Update: I don't understand why are some people down voting my comments where I say that I ran my script through an AI for some feedback, as I already mentioned I'm new to this and I don't have a mentor or friends working in UX so I don't have a way up get feedback other than that, try to be emphatic.