Welcome to another episode of Aona’s no-bull💩 talk: today let’s get real about what an actual day in the life of a UXR feels like. To be brutally honest: most of our work days are not as glamorous as social media depicts it. Yes, it is exhausting and hectic. A day goes by, you feel like a drained battery - but also feel like you have accomplished nothing 😂. Also I’m trying to #vlog again! Hope you like this new style? Yay or nay? Leave me a comment and let me know!
Same here. I recently got hired as the senior UX designer and never thought my workday will be that hectic too. Meetings occupied most of the time so I only have few "half hour" segments between two meetings to focus on the design work. Low efficient meetings and talkings, repetitive presenting made me frustrated and want to quit this job.But thanks for sharing your hectic day that makes me know I am not the only one. As what you said, try balancing the working and meeting schedule and protect some "heads-down" time.
Just found out about your channel yesterday just from browsing LinkedIn and man, what a wealth of knowledge 😊 I'm taking a UX Bootcamp right now and everything in this channel is so relevant to what I'm doing that it's so exciting to see where this will take me! I especially loved the video about storytelling and "mistakes" Bootcamp students can make and I'm definitely looking forward to the next video. This career path to me is so fulfilling in so many ways that I don't regret switching up my career to pursue this 🥳
After watching your vlog about a week in a life of a FAANG UXR , i keep wondering when will you be making a similar video like that again. And now we finally got this vlog, YAAAY! As an aspiring uxr, its very nice to see a realistic, full of stress and not-so-fun side of being a uxr. Thank you Aona for sharing this with us!
I love this so much!! Thanks for sharing your super duper realistic + stressful day with us! Also, just wanted to call out how engaging your videos are, you have a talent in storytelling :)
Just want to say I empathize with you so much. It sounds like my current life: need blocks of time for head-down research but also need to be guiding my mentees on their own projects... keep fighting! :)
I loved “my brain cells are pretty much dead at this point.” You are doing some great work Aona, and you will definitely understand the reach and impact in few years which this is creating.
I finally just finished my first winter break with my current UXR Job and you're right, that really was a more relaxed season compared to now. I'm happy to say I've reached out and have gotten more opportunities to be leads in more UX projects and future goals which has now made my schedule more cramped and busier than ever before! I'm enjoying the increased responsibility, but I've also started to implement block times to just focus and work without any meetings.
Thank you for sharing the ups and downs of UXR work! As a masters student majoring in Integrated Marketing Communications who is trying to figure out what to do with both life & career, this kind of vid is really inspiring and thought-provoking!!!
Finally a realistic video. I got bored of the „perfect“ days where you went to gym at 4am every morning, never press the snooze button and the desktop is always super clean. :)
Thank you for being so transparent in this video Aona! Another great vlog. While I am not a UXR (currently a Jr Product Manager/Product Owner), I can definitely relate with having many meetings and not enough heads down time. Meeting-fatigue is real. Sometimes I wonder if it’s due to the fast-paced agile environment that the tech industry operates on, and if other industries move as fast/require as many meetings to push out faster outcomes. With that being said, I hope you do take some time to rest in between your meetings and take care of yourself! See you in your next video!
A genuine and realistic representation of UXR's life in a day. I felt connected with the content and loved the way you explained back of the mind process. Let me be honest, This channel provides true learnings that teaches values of UXR. Pleasure watching you always, please accept my gratitude as a latest 'n' brand new subscriber. :D regards Aqwa
Love this - would love to see a video about what ux research cannot answer and what would not sit with ux research & how to deal with this. e.g requests that expect UXR to tell a PM everything
It was so endearing to see you also have hectic days :-) I struggle a lot saying no and keeping my workday meeting-free but geez... it's hard. And at the end of the day, it shows how much the teams need and want research.
I think the main thing I got from this video is that you have to run and strategize what your group is doing because your the lead. as well as having to be a ux research contributor. this is true for being a lead anywhere. starbucks verizon t-mobile amazon warehouse manufacturing leads they all pretty much pay their team leads a few bucks more per hour, but expect them to do all of the same duties as the manager. It's just that your stress is a little different. In my warehouse the lead is practically running around with his head chopped off. you have to report back to your findings.
Great channel Aona! This is amazing content. I have been in this same situation in my previous role as a research lead at Sony Music. Looking forward to watching more of your videos!
did not receive a new-vid notification but came into your channel just to look around, only to find a video uploaded ONE MINUTE AGO! What are the odds?!
Nice change of pace in your videos, Aona. I have a couple of things to say: 1. I got the upright go for my partner for Vday and she loved it. I wonder how Ermal is enjoying his. 2. TY for sharing your busiest of busy days. I'm not a lead, but currently onboarding as new UXR team member and learning all the products and customers and the many stakeholder 1:1s are also a bit overwhelming. Although stressed, I'm quite happy with this stress. 3. Starting my first semester in my master's program at Bentley's HFID program and OMG this isn't easy. The endless reading of textbooks and research to write research papers has completed annhilated the little social life I had to begin with. Your next video about balancing things is going to be so helpful. Do you use any tools to keep you focus and balanced? 4. What is that wooden wall behind your desk? Closet? Window? hmmm....OH, I was curious about your work from home setup. Maybe another video idea? 5. Sorry, I used your comment section as a venting space.
Haha I love these reactions and questions!! For 4 - the wooden wall is a murphy bed my husband hand-made!! Took him a whole month to build it haha thanks for noticing! For 3 - balancing and focus - omg I try to but honestly, I learned over the years that the best trick is actually *allowing* yourself to rest and to NOT focus. Don't beat yourself up if you got distracted or want to browse on social media or doing guilty pleasure things. This trick has helped me achieved so much inner peace.
This is so helpful! When you say they're understaffed, do you mean that companies don't plan to hire big enough teams or that there are vacancies in teams that need to be filled? Working to get into the field, and I love your channel!
I feel the struggle of "overworked" and "understaffed". Our company had recently lost 2 UXR resources and the workload was shared across the remainder of us, myself being one of those to take on a new project. What are you thoughts on seniority and creating UXR titles for determining the type of work you oversee? Our company currently has no set hierarchy for growth for the UXR team (JR, SR, Lead, Director, VP). At moments it feels like I'm running at Lead role capacity with decision making and briefing designers on their tasks and other times I am working as a contributor towards research. If I'm working at this capacity, am I not then considered to be at least at a SR UXR level or Lead Level? Curious of your thoughts.
In many larger companies (where UX maturity is higher) there are simultaneous career tracks of Individual Contributor and People Manager. Both tracks have various levels of seniorities (levels) and indicators. Seniorities are typically determined by a mix of factors e.g. years of experience, complexity of past work, amount of impact and influence you had on the team, etc.
This video is 100% relatable for me especially during the project preparation, sometimes I get the meeting scheduled around 8 AM, which made me shower at 6/7 AM (sometimes during the lunch break). But it pays with the privilege of working remotely, I get the access to make coffee whenever I want (multiple times) and unlimited snuggles with my cat during a break between meetings😁🙌. And I agree that meeting with the UXR team or workmates does more fun and relief😅 P.s my company also only has 2 UXRs, without a leader, so I need to step up my game and become a shadow leader with a lot of things to learn in a short time. Sometimes I get burnout, especially when I'm still a Junior, but seeing this video I feel relieved because of the validation that UXR are can be overwork and overwhelmed 😄
I'm a ux design student who is finishing up case studies on my portfolio and getting ready for the job market and l'm surprise to find that this video had very little to do with research and more to do with spending a busy day full of meetings. I expected it to be more of either usability testing or UX research, talking with users and debriefing findings.
Yes! Good observation! I’m surprised too. The switch happened a couple years ago - I realize the portion of actual research in my work got smaller and smaller.
Wondering how UX researcher evaluate their works/studies? Just read the article about circle of competency, and this question came up, then I think of you who might have an answer. (Or can be anyone coming across this comment) Thanks 🥰
Wow! How do you survive with just a protein bar after a hectic day? I know overeating will also not help but is protein bar for lunch sufficient? Any good recommendations for protein bar? Btw, thank you for being transparent, always wondered how hectic it is in Faang for UXRs.
Im getting into Ux design while having a gfx designer bg... What role would you recommend to strive towards? Any leading position sounds super hectic! I keep reading reddit posts of plp switching careers and going from 50k a year to 100k-300k in senior levels! Some of them being senior Ic's and Ux consultants
Can’t recommend roles to you just based on the info you gave me (that’d be irresponsible of me :P). Also I know the internet makes UX-related jobs sound very dreamy where you make beautiful and meaningful things for human beings while making 6-figure salary EASY - that’s not the case. You definitely work your ass off and have to endure high amount of stress to earn that privilege. Hectic-ness is unavoidable and the more senior you grow, the stress shifts - but doesn’t make it easier or less though.
I'm not sure if you've mentioned it before - what hours do you work typically? Just curious because my brother works for a large tech company in programming and typically works a solid 4 hours a day. Just interesting to me!
Omg so jelly! My working hours flex, sometimes it can be 8-6 with no breaks at all, sometimes it can be 10-4. But most of the days I work full 8hrs days if not more
Absolutely echo with you that the UXR team is always understaffed. I have been working in UXR teams whose sizes vary from 1 to 40. My experience is that the more UXR is hired, the more detailed UXR request become - In the condition when there's only 1-2 FT staff at the UXR team, projects we work on tend to be more strategic and fundamental. Overall, no matter how many UXR we hire, there're more projects there that always go beyond current manpower!
