Archive

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?”