Research The Researcher S01C07 feat Frances James
Name and a brief intro about yourself…
I’m Frances; I’m a primarily qualitative UX researcher who specializes in understanding international (non-US) audiences.
Right now I’m super lucky to live in Tokyo, Japan, but before that, I spent ~11 years doing UX research at various agencies & then in-house in San Francisco. I originally hail from Cambridge, UK but I was born in Norway. So I’ve kind of been all over.
Current place of work
Indeed
Designation/role/title
Sr. UX Researcher
What you up to? (any interesting work or project you want to talk about)
Recently I’ve been doing lots of research to better understand Japanese and Indian job seekers and employers in particular, but I also get to help answer questions about job seekers and employers in other markets.
It’s super interesting to see the subtle (and not so subtle) cultural differences in how people look for jobs or hire people — and think about how we at Indeed can make those stressful tasks easier and less emotionally taxing.
How and Why did you get into User Research?
I graduated with my MA in Cognitive Psychology, and UX Research seemed like an interesting field where I could do research that would help people make decisions for the products they were building — as opposed to the more theoretical questions I was able to answer in grad school.
At the time the field was really new; it’s amazing to see the progress we’ve made as a domain, and how in demand our skillsets are now.
One book recommendation for those who want to get started in User Research (can also be a book which you often refer to)
Erika Hall: Just Enough Research
It’s an easy, fun read while being very grounded and educational as well.
What skills do you look for when hiring Researchers? (or what skills you think Researchers should have)
I look for folks who deeply understand how people work; innate curiosity, and an analytical mind. But it also really depends on the type of work we’re doing and the exact role I have at the time. I also think culture fit is really important, but of course what that means also depends on the company/team that I’m hiring for. So I guess my answer is a lot of: “it depends”!
What value does User Research add to Product Design & Development? (if any examples where User Research created an impact, that would be great)
I think UX research should help product designers, product managers, and others make decisions about the products they’re building, to ensure those products will be helpful to their users.
Part of that is about empathizing with the end user, in that empathy helps them REALLY understand and sympathize with the needs their user has.
Part of that is the trickle-down effect from that empathy — where it becomes clear and motivating to build the “right” thing.
How is User Research structured at your place of work? (is it that researchers are embedded into products or called for as and when the demand arises)
I think this is always a challenge organizations face and there are pros and cons to being embedded or centralized.
At Indeed, we kind of have a hybrid model — UX Researchers are embedded in each product team that they support, but we consider ourselves one team and have regular meetings to keep up to date with what everyone else is working on; brainstorm issues we’ve faced; nerd out about researcher-y things, etc.
I kind of like this model because we can rely on each other’s expertise and stay connected, while still being really close to our product teams so we’re not viewed as a “consultant”, but as part of the team.
How do you grow as a Researcher? (what should Researchers do to stay valuable)
I try to go to local events, to learn and stay connected to the community as much as I can. I also try to actively network with others who have different skills than mine (e.g. quant, data science, etc.) to branch out and keep learning.
I’m also a big fan of piloting new methodologies and tools when it makes sense (or hearing about what new finds other researchers have recently discovered and why they worked).
Thanks, Frances for your insights. Frances is on LinkedIn.
Past conversations —
