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 there!

It’s been more than a year since I last sent a newsletter. The good news is that I plan to rectify that starting next week. The bad news—at least for me—is that you might no longer care to receive it.

This newsletter has always been centered on my relationship with user research, first as an outlet for ideas and projects, then later as a way to share news and excerpts about my Research Practice book. Going forward, it will return to its original mission of being a place where I work through ideas and share what I’ve learned about research, UX, management, and leadership.

If this isn’t for you, here’s your off-ramp: unsubscribe from this newsletter.

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