Our Ask Like A Pro cohort All-In researchers completed 78 interviews (over four days!) for our fantastic project sponsor, Blurb books! In between supporting their various questions and challenges I realized user research shares many parallels to real estate.

For two decades, I've been immersed in San Francisco real estate, design, and user research. My real estate journey spans the design, development, and management of both short- and long-term residential properties. This blog article explores the parallels between the real estate and user research domains.

1. Resembling Tenants and Collaborating with Stakeholders

Managing research participants mirrors the oversight of tenants. Just as collaboration with Homeowners Association (HOA) partners is vital in real estate, close collaboration with stakeholders is paramount in user research.

In real estate, I’ve navigated complexities with architects, contractors, plumbers, electricians, city planning authorities, agents, mortgage brokers, financial institutions, and more. These relationships and challenges echo the multifaceted considerations in user research, from legal and compliance to design and engineering, emphasizing the importance of understanding and adhering to established protocols, regulations, and systems, as well as the need to apply systems thinking.

Systems thinking is an approach to understanding and solving complex problems by examining the interactions and relationships within a system, rather than looking at individual components or parts in isolation. It involves viewing a situation holistically and recognizing how various elements within a system are interconnected, interdependent, and influence each other.

2. No Shortcut to Success

User research, like real estate, doesn’t offer a shortcut to success. While resources, mentors, and guides can provide valuable direction, true success demands dedicated effort. Yes, books and podcasts can be helpful, but hands-on activities such as conducting live interviews, and doing actual data analysis (touching it, feeling it, smelling it, moving data around!), provide irreplaceable learning. Comprehending and implementing an MVP applies in real estate too.

Our Ask Like A Pro user research training series embodies this winning formula:

“Guidance + Practice = Confidence” and it's highly effective.

3. Setting Realistic Goals

Imagine your user research journey as a real estate project. Instead of aiming for a $50M apartment complex from the start, set achievable goals aligned with your career stage. For junior researchers, find out what stakeholders want learn, what we already know, how the learning will be applied, and when decisions need to be made. Collaborate with stakeholders to frame study objectives and create a research plan that supports core business goals, directly.

Rather than immediately aspiring to lead a major user research project for a tech giant, focus on smaller milestones, build trust and your own confidence, while honing your craft. Master the art of “thinking like a researcher,” refine your question-asking and collaboration skills, and seek feedback from an experienced mentor at every step of the way.

In both real estate and user research, success is rooted in hard work, dedication, and a commitment to incremental learning and growth. Both real estate and user research are dynamic, complex industries. Both are long-term endeavors requiring sustained effort, persistent strategy, and commitment to the future.

The key is to initiate, stay committed, embrace questions (no question is unwelcome), and watch your skills and career flourish. Both are long games. Try to focus on your career path long-term and not as much on your (short-term) job. You’ve got this!

Massive congrats to our Ask Like A Pro researchers for achieving this incredible milestone! Seventy-eight interviews is no small feat!

SIDE NOTE: If you are looking to get starting in real estate, consider investing in a duplex (while you live in one unit and rent out the other), becoming an Airbnb or VRBO host, or rental arbitrage :)

In other industry news...

UsabilityHub rebranded! Their new name is Lyssna and they are moving their blog content over to the new site in batches. Super exciting!

I authored an article, titled Efficient Interview Scheduling for User Research, for their blog. It was especially helpful to our All-In researchers over the past two weeks. The focus is on the art of interview scheduling for successful user research. Discover expert tips to streamline the process and maximize participant engagement. I hope you enjoy it as much as they did!

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We try to alternate between a theme and UX/UXR jobs, events, classes, articles, and other happenings every few weeks. Thank you for all of the feedback. Feedback is a gift, and we continue to receive very actionable input on how to make Fuel Your Curiosity more meaningful to you.

What do you think? We're constantly iterating and would love to hear your input.

Stay curious,

- Michele and the Curiosity Tank team

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UXR & Real Estate: A Parallel Journey