User Research London 2022
Two years after booking my ticket, I finally got to go to User Research London 2022. My first proper in-person event for two years!
But it was totally worth the wait. With nine great speakers spanning a good variety of UX research themes I think there was something for everyone.
Although we started a little late due to technical issues I think we all soon forgot it as Behzod Sirjani started speaking. He told us that as researchers we can be impactful by creating a good research practice and this means we should not always be doing research. He blew my mind. If I am not always doing research how else am I to create impact for my organisation? He shared his thoughts on this.
Tom Hayes from UserZoom carried on this theme talking about avoiding stagnation as a researcher and in your research practice.
And Kate Towsey spoke more on Research Ops which helped to solidify some of my prior learning in the subject, especially just how interconnected the eight pillars of ReOps are, and made us think about what a scalable research practice actually means.
Christina Li reminded us that it does not have to be all interviews and usability tests, while Qui Han showed us that hybrid research (remote and in-person) really is the way to go now.
Dan Pidcock had the difficult after lunch slot talking about atomic research. I am always looking for ways to improve my repository and the way I share insights with stakeholders so found this a fascinating talk.
Veronica Naguib shocked us with stats about how effective our research is (or not) and gave us some pointers on how to improve this.
Our penultimate talk from Janelle Ward focused on how to thrive as a research manager, something that’s about to become very important to me as we start the interview process to grow my team.
Lastly Emma Craig talked to us about predicting the future using sailing as a metaphor.
The whole day was full of learnings and ideas and I am thinking hard now about what I can usefully take back to the office with me and what I need to keep for a later date. As a research team of one, events like this are so important for gathering new ideas and speaking to people from different industries and countries. I will be very happy to book my ticket for next year, but let’s hope I do not have to wait another two years to come back.