What Kind of Researcher Are You?
In spite of Covid, these past two years have been full of transformation and growth for many of us, myself included. I am extremely proud of Curiosity Tank’s success in educating and inspiring user researchers around the world! At the same time, our corporate training growth reassures me UXR is here to stay (yesterday I led the first of seven workshops for an amazing org based in France), and our philanthropic efforts have created more awareness and impact for accessible research than I had imagined.
This newsletter allows me to share my passion for UXR with you and 5,457 others all over the globe. With a 60% YOY growth and a 47% average open rate, I am convinced I'm in the right place, taking the right risks, and that our UXR community is getting the recognition and awareness we deserve as an industry! WOOT WOOT!
Although Curiosity Tank is US-based, we have personal and professional ties around the world. My mother and father's parents, and their parents, come from Ukraine. My family is Ukrainian.
We offer our support!
It is unbelievably wonderful how the entire free world is standing up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We’d like to do more to help. So for everyone who registers for Ask Like A Pro® OnDemand workshops or as an Observer for the March 2022 cohort within the next 72 hours, Curiosity Tank will donate your full tuition to help Ukrainians! If you are Ukrainian and interested in our workshops, email to hear about a special Ukrainian student offer.
One size does not fit all
While we are all part of a community, we are not all the same. That would be wayyyy boring! However, we do want to make sure that we're sending you the right messages for your needs and situation. Simply stated, we, you, this list of 5k+ curious individuals, are now big enough that it makes sense for us to try to segment.
Learn more about segmentation below. Then let us know if any of these segments resonate with you.
Segment or bust!
Good segmentation is crucial to ensure what you are developing is applicable to the specific audience you’re serving. We help clients identify and better understand customer segments in almost every study.
Segmenting for UXR
Not your mother’s segmenting (your mom’s a marketer, right?)
In marketing, segments can default to basic demographics such as age, education level, gender, and or ethnicity. In user research, we often go beyond and segment based on the question set, or the problem space, we're exploring. Those groups, or segments, will likely consider behaviors and or attitudes. Simply put, segmentation is dividing your audience into meaningful groups.
The cobbler's children!
When a friend recently asked, “Do you segment your clients and students?” I was reminded of the old adage about the cobbler's children having no shoes. My answer should have been “Of course!” But while we do this for our clients we haven’t stopped to segment the people we serve through Curiosity Tank. #truthbomb! So my real answer was, “Sort of… I should!” But I had assumptions.
As you know, assumptions are not facts and when treated as such they can be dangerous! So all good researchers need to test assumptions. That's where you come in! One way to segment is to ask people how they self-identify with something. Take a look at the segments below and share your thoughts.
We think of our clients and students according to their goals. As such, we’d like to try to segment our community into four categories, described below.
Curiosity Tank Segments
The Accidental Researcher
“I now realize how important better research skills are to my job, how they can help me accelerate in my career, and feel more confident in making decisions and collaborating with my team.”
Many of us fell into user research. You never planned to be a researcher. You now realize how important it is for career advancement and confident decision-making. You may not devote your life to user research but want to better understand it so you can apply it to do your job better. You might be a writer, designer, founder or entrepreneur, product manager, writer, coach, etc.
The Aspiring/Evolving Researcher
“The CEO at my digital marketing internship asked me if marketing was my passion and if not, what did I want to do? I told him I was interested in UXR and he said they actually had new products that needed some foundational research, if I was up to it. Thanks to your classes, I was able to confidently take it on.”
Aspiring/Evolving Researchers want to learn it all! Maybe you wish you had studied UXR at school (sadly, there are no formal matriculated UXR programs - yet!), are starting a career in research, or want to further your existing research career. Maybe you work as a solo researcher, are self-taught, and or want to fill in some gaps.
The Temporary Researcher
“I have a specific topic to research. We want to understand what to offer our customers next, what problems they think we are well suited to solve, and why, so my team can start to wrap their heads around this and begin to plan. I also want to learn how to implement a more user centered approach in our organization.”
Research is not your jam. But you have very specific questions you to explore, pronto! And you’ve come to us to learn more and or help you get it done.
The Research, Design, Product, or UX Manager
“I’ve worked in the industry for eight years and my research team is growing. We’re hiring 12 new people this year and need efficient and effective training and onboarding. Creating and scaling these efforts in a culturally meaningful way is a full-time job in itself and my team doesn’t have the bandwidth or experience to do this well.”
You’re research savvy, skilled, and committed. Research is becoming more valued at your organization. You know that creating and delivering scalable curriculums is a separate skill set and you'd benefit from an expert to support you.
What kind of researcher are you?
As you can imagine, there are many ways to segment your audience to ensure that your work is meaningful to them. So...What do you think? How do you see yourself and your relationship to applied research? Do any of those descriptions above resonate with you? Do you fall into one of those Researcher segments?
Upcoming events
March 8th 5 - 6:30pm PST: UXR Case Studies & Job Interviews (Students and Alumni only)
March 15th 5 - 6:30pm PST: Live Info Session about Ask Like A Pro with Alumni. [free]
March 27th 3-5:30pm PST: First live workshop for the Ask Like A Pro WI22 cohort
April 7th & 14th: Data Security Spotlight events [Students and Alumni only]
Speak up, get involved, share the love
Connect with me on LinkedIn for more UXR tips and UX discussions
Read about Curiosity Tank workshops. The next series begins in late March!
Participate as an On-Demand, or as an Observer, for less!
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Forward this email to someone who you think might enjoy it. Better yet, sign them up here. It will be the gift that keeps on giving.
And that's a wrap!
We typically 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? Lmk. We're constantly iterating and love to hear your input.
Stay curious,
- Michele and the Curiosity Tank team
PS. Don't procrastinate! Which of these Researcher segments resonates with you the most?
PPS. Don’t forget to register for Ask Like A Pro® OnDemand workshops or as an Observer for the March 2022 cohort within the next 72 hours to have your full tuition donated to help Ukrainians!
