A lot of chatter about UX on here lately. I personally love my job, but it might not be a great fit for some folks transitioning out of the academia. Here are some potential challenges with UX for academics making the transition. Thread / 🧵
1. A quick timeline. The typical timeline for most research projects is 4-6 weeks. That’s from study idea to communicating recommendations to your product team. There isn’t time to think about every intricacy of your research over several months.
2. Thrash thrash trash. Product teams can change quickly. People leave the company, or as I just experienced, a reorg that changed my research direction and my team overall. That means letting go of research that may no longer align with team strategy.
3. Intense prioritization. Research decisions are made based on the needs of the product. Even if you have an interesting research idea, if it doesn’t align with strategy, you most likely wont’t be able to do it (maybe later, though!)
4. You are literally the expert. This one took awhile to adjust to- but you are perceived as the expert for the product you are currently working on. That means learning the background, pain points, and potential research needs of the team quickly.
5. Performance review. For some companies, UX researchers may undergo a performance review at least once a year. Part of your compensation (or even the stability of your job) may be tied to how well you do on your evaluation.
I enjoy being a UX researcher for several of these challenges (especially working quickly). But some PhDs may not like working in this environment due to some very real differences with academia. And that’s ok.
(I’ll caveat that this obviously doesn’t apply to all UX jobs. I work at a large tech company FTE for context). #altac #AltAcChats
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