1. Two ambitious paths: For Learners, I differentiate the thoughtful and strategic path toward getting research on your executive leadership team’s radar from the treacherous path that will lead to confusion, bad vibes, and hurt feelings
2. Can research ever come to an end? Also for Learners, I advise researchers to optimize for more decisions, not infinite research
3. One great link: Eduardo Hernandez sentences the double diamond to death
4. Updates: Recent events, etc.

Two ambitious paths

For Learners, I answered the question, "How can I get my research on the radar of the CEO and other top level people at my company?"

1. There is no one way to do UX research: Depending on your industry, your org, and your manager, your scenario is unique
2. One great link: Lawton Pybus on broadening the reach of UX research
3. Updates: Recent events, etc.

There is no one way to do UX research

We’re all navigating our own paths

1. Things I repeat often enough about surveys that it was time to write them down: I’ve developed strong opinions about how to build surveys that yield useful information while prioritizing the user experience
2. On transitioning from design to research: Break the research process into a series of smaller experiences to design for your participants and colleagues
3. One great link: How to do customer research with chatGPT. Yes, really.

Things I repeat often enough about surveys that it was time to write them down

I love surveys. They get a bad rap, sometimes deservedly. But a well-written and thoughtfully designed survey is a powerful research tool. I’ve sent plenty of them, as have the teams I’ve managed. Over time I’ve developed strong opinions about how to build surveys in a way that yields useful information while prioritizing the user experience.

1. This is where the hammer goes: Easy isn’t always effective. By being thoughtful and intentional, we design experiences that lead to better outcomes
2. One great link: An interesting and practical start-at-the-end approach to planning research
3. I'm hiring an intern: Join me and my team at Hearst Magazines this summer

A note and a request: this newsletter is part of a larger idea that is still taking shape. If this issue makes you feel a certain way, or if you have feedback, please let me know!

This is where the hammer goes

Just enough direct reports

I transitioned into my first UX research role in 2012, and became a UX research manager for the first time in 2014. I’ve scaled and managed a few teams of various sizes since then, and I created a short video for Learners about the ideal number of direct reports a UX research manager should have. Below I expand on what I shared in the video.

You can watch the original video here.

Me talking about the ideal number of direct reports for a ux research manager (screenshot only—click here to watch!)

My short answer is that a manager who is also doing research projects should have no more than two to three direct reports. However, if your sole duty is to manage (meaning you’re not also conducting your own studies), then five to seven direct reports is sensible. Here’s how I landed on those numbers…

A manager’s schedule

The bread and butter of competent management requires a great deal of time and attention. There’s no way around it. At a minimum, here’s where you can expect to spend your time as a manager:

• Weekly 1-1s with your direct reports
• Dedicated hours to review or talk through the work of your direct reports
• Daily or weekly stand-ups with your team of direct reports
• Meetings with your fellow managers
• Meetings with your cross-functional partners
• 1-1s with your own manager

That list doesn’t include the time you spend on tasks related to people management (time-off requests, goal setting, performance reviews), enablement (procurement, vendor calls, and budgeting), and culture building (team rituals and org events).

A manager’s capabilities

The business management term for the number of direct reports per manager is called the span of control. And there are a number of variables that impact the ideal span of control:

• The complexity of the work each individual contributor (IC) you manage is doing
• The maturity or experience level of your ICs, and how much guidance they’ll need from you as their manager
• Your experience as a manager, and how ready you are to manage multiple people
• Your scope of responsibilities. If you’re a manager who is a player coach—that is, you manage while you also embed on projects and conduct research—you should have a narrow span of control. If your only duty is to manage, you’re capable of a wider span of control.

The realities of UX research management

The work of UX research is complex, and oversight of that work is a commitment. As a research manager, you must afford time and space to talk through project plans with your directs, and you must also dedicate time to review the evolving plans and documentation created by everyone on your team. There’s no shortcut: the buck stops with you. You’re there to ensure sound methods, timelines, and deliverables.

What’s more, your direct reports are working cross-functionally with designers, product managers, and engineers, which requires that you pave the way for those cross-functional relationships to thrive. And you still have your own manager and peers to think about—the work your team prioritizes is an output of close collaboration with your fellow managers and your own manager. That close collaboration is a further investment of time on your part.

Those are just the table stakes. There are plenty of good resources on what constitutes competent management, but a good manager does everything above while also performing the emotional labor of creating a safe, inclusive, and thoughtful environment for their team.

Putting it all together

With all that said, if you are doing both IC work and research management, two to three direct reports is sensible. You’ll be able to attend to your team and do your own work. More than that and you’re going to be context switching all the time, which serves neither you nor your team well.

If you are a full time manager, five to seven direct reports should allow you enough time to fully invest in your team and their work while leaving time for the many other tasks on your plate.

Management is a privilege. There’s no better feeling than mentoring your team and being party to their excellent work. Be sensible about what you’re capable of and what you can reasonably offer to your team. They—and your organization—need you at your best.

Read the original post.

1. Moving from journalism to user research: An expansion on the advice I gave to the Learners community, including a portfolio starter template
2. Dealing with disrespectful research participants: Similar to above, I added more detail to a video created for the Learners community
3. One great link: Dave Hora on the past, present, and future of user research

Read on…

Moving from journalism to user research

The coaching tree

At the end of last year, I met with each of my team members individually to share the news that I was leaving Condé Nast to join another organization. At some point in each call, I found myself offering some variation on these words: “I’m leaving your Slack channels, not your life.”

I’m leaving your Slack channels, not your life.
—Me, a broken record, to my team

The thing is, this wasn’t a platitude. I meant it. I’m in the lives of my former teammates as much or as little as they like, from monthly 1-1 calls to quarterly check-ins to an open invitation to text anytime.

1. He gets on base: I went heads down 18 months ago to focus on my work and my team. Since then I’ve come up with a plan to find balance going forward
2. Grow your impact, then your team: I expanded on a video for the Learners community to explain why hiring is your last resort
3. Where should research report in an organization? For the Learners community, I attempted to answer where I think research should report in an organization

Read on…

He gets on base

Hot off the presses this week at gregg.io:

Where should research report in an organization?

For the Learners community, I created a short video in response to the question, “What are the arguments for research reporting into design?” You can watch the original video here.

For the Learners community, I created a short video in response to the question, “What are the arguments for research reporting into design?” You can watch the original video here.

Talking about org design for research orgs (screenshot only—click here to watch!)

My response, in typical researcher fashion, is to reframe the question: In your specific organization, where would research make the most impact?

Every organization has a different structure, culture, and appetite for research. Depending on the organization, impactful research that informs what to build, how to build it, and how to improve it can happen within any team, including design.

It’s true that in some organizations, reporting into design limits the capacity for researchers to do generative or strategic research. But that doesn’t mean that research would have more success elsewhere in that same organization. Rather it sounds like the design of the organization itself isn’t set up to optimize research.

For research to succeed, the reporting structure and the org chart are less important than the answers to these two questions:

1. Is the person who research rolls up to empowering research?
2. And is that person mandating that research is a key part of the decision making process?

I say this based on experience. I’ve reported to VPs of design and product, a head of user experience, COOs, CPOs, and a chief data scientist. Where I reported far less important than whether the person I rolled up to could support research, and whether they could work cross-functionally to create the space for research to inform and support decision making.

The argument for research reporting into design is the same as if research reported into any other part of the company: if research is valued and empowered, it’s in a good spot.

Hello, and thank you for being on this mailing list!

I haven’t sent a newsletter since March, because I burned out. Launch day for Research Practice took place in the midst of a pandemic, just after a failed coup, one week after I left a job over ethical concerns, and one week before I started a different job that proved highly dissatisfying. All of this is to say that I didn’t visit your inbox as much as I had planned, but the last 18 months have proven that none of our plans really mean anything anymore.

I took the very privileged but necessary opportunity to leave my job in June, after a wise friend and mentor said, “You sound burned the fuck out.” Sometimes having someone give name to your affliction is what it takes to recognize you’re in a bad way. I checked out for the summer to hang out with my family and rest. I feel like myself again, which means I also feel like writing again.

At the end of my last newsletter, I promised a walkthrough of how I published Research Practice. I detailed the entire journey in detail on my website, but for those who want the tl;dr, I list my tooling stack at the end of this newsletter.

Thank you for being on this mailing list! This newsletter looks a bit different from previous issues now that I’ve moved from Substack to Buttondown for newsletter services.

I’m very excited to share that Research Practice is now available . You can now order the book from independent, academic, large chain, and other bookstores the world over. I heard from a number of people who either wanted to avoid shopping with Amazon entirely, or didn’t even have the option of shopping with Amazon due to their location; it took two months longer than I anticipated, but problem solved.

My book Research Practice is now available as a paperback and for Kindle. It’s the book I wish existed when I started as a UX researcher. As my friend and former colleague Aarron Walter writes in the foreword:

While other research books offer standard operating procedures, this book provides something more durable in the real world. It’s a practical field guide that will give you the encouragement to get started, no matter what your background.

Buy now

Thanks again to everyone who signed up for this mailing list. Research Practice: Perspectives from UX researchers in a changing field launches next week! You can pre-order the e-book now, and the paperback will be available on 19 January 2021.

Buy now

Today I want to share examples of what you’ll find throughout the book: interviews, essays, and short answers from practitioners. One of the meatier topics I cover in Research Practice is how to get started in a new role. When I transitioned to this field from design in 2012, the literature on establishing or scaling a UX research practice was scant. Now enough user researchers have worked with organizations and teams of all shapes and sizes that collectively we’re better prepared to set ourselves up for success.

Considering a research opportunity

In “Considering a research opportunity,” I unpack the many factors that feed into a job decision:

Your choice is more than a vector of salary, benefits, and location. You also have to weigh your personal values against the mission of the organization. If you personally value a well-informed public, but that runs counter to the organization’s goal of disseminating any and all information and misinformation so long as the shareholders profit, you’re probably not going to be happy (nor should you be able to sleep at night).

Read “How to consider a research opportunity.”

The best place to get started

In “The best place to get started,” I speak to Janine Coover about where new researchers should start their careers.

Working in a consultancy or agency is a great place for a new design researcher to get started, primarily because you have a number of different clients, different kinds of challenges, and different team makeups. Oftentimes you have people that you’re working with on your team who have a variety of past experiences with user research. So it not only allows you to get a taste for an experience in different industries that you wouldn’t otherwise have if you are working within a single organization, but it also allows you to see and jump in midstream with projects at different points in their evolution.

Read “The best place to get started.”

Why organizations hire user researchers

I surveyed the research community about a number of topics, including why organizations hire user researchers in the first place. Here is an example of what I heard:

Sometimes organizations open roles because they think they should, perhaps because it’s an industry trend or someone has a vague idea in mind of how the role might work. Alec Levin offers his perspective:

I think a lot of orgs are hiring right now because research is trendy. Lots of folks are talking about it, and they want to be cool too and have their own researcher. Some hire a researcher because their UX is bad, or their product retention sucks, but ultimately I think the vast majority of hiring managers do not understand the full potential of the role.

Lucas Wxyz echoes Levin’s comments: “Sometimes organizations seem to hire researchers because it is the flavour of the month, but they don’t know what to expect.” Or perhaps they have vague expectations but can’t articulate what those expectations are, as an anonymous respondent participant writes:

Sadly, many places I’ve worked have hired user researchers because they thought they had to, yet had no idea how to create a healthy working environment for them. The good orgs understand how vital it is to learn from their audiences and customers as they endeavor to design and create products and services for them.

Read more about “Why organizations hire UX researchers.”

Next week the book launches. Until then, you can check out the list of contributors and the table of contents. Stay safe.

Buy now

Thanks to everyone who signed up for this mailing list. Research Practice: Perspectives from UX researchers in a changing field launches in 2 weeks! You can pre-order the e-book now, and the paperback will be available on 19 January 2021.

Buy now

The test print of the paperback arrived this week. I’m excited—I got to place the book on a shelf and see it in context. The test print also reminded me that my typography skills are a bit rusty—I made the rookie mistake of setting my type way too large on the back of the book. 😬 Everything’s been tidied up (and appropriately sized) for the final version.

Thanks to everyone who signed up for this mailing list. I’m excited to share that Research Practice: Perspectives from UX researchers in a changing field is done! The official launch date for the paperback and e-book is 19 January 2021, but the Kindle edition is available for pre-order today on Amazon.

Buy now

Right now editor extraordinaire Nicole Fenton is finding the last of my typos and excess ramblings, while my friend and former colleague Aarron Walter is drafting the foreword.

How’d the book turn out?

Welcome to the Research Practice book newsletter. Research Practice is the book that every HCI, UX, and interaction design student will read to understand what applied user research really looks like, based on the stories and experiences of the people who work in this field. 

Sign up for details!

Subscribe now

In the meantime, tell your friends!

Thanks to everyone who signed up for this mailing list. I promised a WeWork story in the subject line, but first I want to share some updates about . My north star for this project is that this is the book that every HCI, UX, and interaction design student will read to understand what applied user research really looks like, based on the stories and experiences of the people who work in this field. captures the day-to-day of the practice of user research for product organizations. From how to get started to scaling a team to working with designers to making tradeoffs thoughtfully, this book comprises the spectrum of user research practice experiences. The book features 75 essays and interviews from 40 research leaders and practitioners. The broad questions the book addresses are:

Thanks to everyone who signed up for this mailing list; it’s so exciting to me to see that there are over 600 folks who are interested in the book. I have some exciting updates.

First, thanks to everyone who signed up for this mailing list; I’m humbled that there are 275 folks who are interested in my in-progress book, . Today I thought I’d share some of my process, as well as my plans for development and publication of this book. I’m an early riser. There’s nothing better than waking way before the sun—before the kids need to be packed up for school and before responsibilities take over—and starting the day with a text editor and a hot cup of coffee. I start writing at 5:30 each morning, and plug away until 6:50 when the kids arise. I don’t always fill that time with writing—sometimes I need to stare at my outline a bit and orient my current thoughts within the larger story I’m telling. Sometimes I noodle on the right word choice or the best phrase for a solid hour. But it doesn’t matter—it’s my time and my words. I’ve been thinking about this topic for a few years now, which has manifested as a couple of conference talks, lots of conversations with allies in the industry, a whole lot of affinity mapping, and finally as a book outline. To be honest, I’m a better outliner than mapper, and feel like affinity mapping took me too far afield. Something about a nested list of words clarifies everything for me in a way that a cluster of notes doesn’t. I use the Bear notes app to write, and I keep my outline in a window on the left half of my screen, with my current chapter in a separate window on the right. If I keep the outline visible at all times, it both keeps me on track and reassures me when I have moments of “WTF are you even doing, Bernstein?”

Spread the good news

Published on Apr 25, 2018 05:34 am

Some workplace feedback rules of thumb:

Facebook's News Trustworthiness Survey

Published on Jan 26, 2018 04:34 am

For The Verge, I wrote about Facebook’s news trustworthiness survey. While its brevity is gaining attention, the real issue with the Facebook survey is poor editing:

Stop Pretending

Published on Nov 14, 2017 04:34 am

If you’re asking participants to guess, predict, hypothesize, or anticipate either their future behavior or that of a friend, you’re not researching. You’re pretending.

Scope and Scale

Published on Aug 08, 2017 07:34 am

As a kid, I used to be fascinated by nearby houses obscured by foliage and fences. Or the long driveways that disappeared into the distance. Where did they go? What was out there? Who was out there?

The Field Means Proximity

Published on Aug 06, 2017 07:34 am

In my role as a researcher on a product team, I spend a lot of time talking to users. It’s always a worthy endeavor—I get to learn about workflows, habits, and the larger context surrounding the person I’m speaking with.

Make Stability a Priority

Published on Jul 27, 2017 07:34 am

The Boston Celtics are a professional basketball team. What you might not know is that the Celtics are also an exemplar of organizational management. From their front office operation to their on-court product, the Celtics maintain an org structure that attracts great talent from top to bottom.

The Field Test & Ambient Research

Published on May 28, 2017 07:34 am

Some writing updates:

UX Research Templates

Published on Apr 25, 2017 07:34 am

On the Vox Product blog, I wrote about how I create an ambient awareness of user and product research across my product team by sharing everything, everywhere—repeatedly and redundantly.

The Parts Bin

Published on Nov 20, 2016 09:34 am

Sometimes you propose something to your colleagues, but it’s not met with much enthusiasm.

Listen Hard

Published on Jul 22, 2016 10:34 am

Listening is hard. It takes effort, patience, and practice. All at once, you’re taking in a narrative, providing cues that you’re engaged (nodding, saying “um-hmm”), analyzing what’s taking place, mulling over cogent responses, and mentally filing away bits to return to later.

Updates from

Gregg Bernstein

Researcher // Writer & Editor // Speaker