Pushed for quantity, evaluated on quality

You are a UX Researcher. You work with 4–5 Product Teams. Every team wants a piece of you. If you can’t do the full project for them, at least do a little something, they ask. That’s still better for them than nothing.

Consider these two scenarios and their effect on the reputation of UX Research

A) Quantity approach: You do the five little things, one for each Product Team. Five small/hasty/surface level/low-hanging fruit research. Even though each of these contributed only a little value, you can justify it: your overall impact was big. You maximized your impact on the organizational level, not on the teams’ level.

But how do the teams experience your service? Maybe they will think that User Research is not that big of a deal after all. It gave them some extra confidence but hasn’t changed the direction much. Maybe they can forego research the next time around.

B) Quality approach: You do one project, decline 4. You do the one project with focus, passion, and to the highest standards of the craft. You double down and emerge with insights that transform the way the Team thinks about the problem and the solution space.

The Product Team is high-fiving you. You are the star of the day. They can’t get enough of you. The other four teams envy them like hell. They demand that they get their own UX Researcher headcounts too.

Consequences for promotion prospects

Your performance review approaches and 360-degree feedback is solicited from your teams and stakeholders.

A) with the Quantity approach

Feedback from all 5 teams: “Nothing notable here. He managed to contribute here and there, but nothing out of the ordinary. He is not one of the top performers. …A little more transparency would be nice. As he was juggling many projects for many teams he had to extend deadlines and cut scope multiple times. This just adds extra complexity for us.”

B) with the Quality approach

Feedback from one team: “Amazing job. He is the best partner we can wish for. He understands our product, our priorities, and our market. He anticipates our questions and tracks them down proactively. He notices our assumptions and blind spots. Our understanding has changed quite a bit thanks to his research. The product direction wouldn’t be the same without him.”

Feedback from the other 4 teams: “No opinion. We didn’t work together.”

Consequences for your career prospects

You are about to change companies. You prepare your portfolio and start talking to hiring managers.

A) with the Quantity approach: You have a portfolio of 100 low-hanging fruit projects, none of which had a demonstrable impact. Each project shows only a tiny glimmer of your full potential. But hey, which hiring manager has the time to piece them all together and see you for your full potential?

B) with the Quality approach You have a portfolio of 5 projects. A masterpiece each. Demonstrating thoughtfulness, reflection, cutting-edge craftsmanship, end-to-end ownership of complex projects, deep collaboration with stakeholders. A stellar track record worthy to show off with.

All in all the argument can be made that less is more. Both for the reputation of UX and for your career prospects.

Of course, A) and B) are the two extremes. There is a middle-ground: you can do 2 projects instead of 1 or 5. You can do 1 big and 2 small projects. But that doesn’t defeat the argument: any decrease in project quality will adversely affect the reputation of UX and your career prospects. The middle-ground is a step backward too.

Disclaimer: I am not saying we all should take the quality approach. But it’s a compelling argument about personal incentives and UX maturity.