🔮 A bright future for strategic thinkers + 🤔 The real problem with research.

This week, The Real Problem with Research, Bright Future for Strategic Thinkers and Researching in UK Prisons – What It’s Really Like. Plus, check out our People of Research member interview from 🇺🇸 the US, our industry report pick from Great Question, our latest job opportunities in research, and finally, join +1200 other researchers across 162 cities who've joined our Research Lunch Club waitlist.

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People of Research
March 25, 2025

🔬 People of Research Member Interview

Our interview this week is brought to you by Breyta — explore how they empower UX Researchers with AI research assistants, try Breyta out for free.

People of Research Interview with Shreya

We'd love to showcase your career journey in our People of Research Interview series! It's a great opportunity to share your story, highlight your work, and connect with our vibrant community of over 2,000 researchers and more than 5,000 LinkedIn followers. 👉️ Email us!

📰 Article Picks

🔗 A Bright Future for Strategic Thinkers | In A Bright Future for Strategic Thinkers, Ed Orozco argues that the evolving complexity of design problems is creating new opportunities for designers with strategic and systems-thinking skills. He outlines how strategy-driven designers can thrive by shifting from traditional execution roles into leadership, product strategy, and change management. Drawing on industry patterns, Orozco highlights the growing need for “design generalists”—those who can connect dots across departments and align design with business outcomes.

🔗 Researching in UK Prisons – What It’s Really Like | Kat Wingfield shares a first-hand account of conducting user research across 20 UK prisons for the Ministry of Justice. Through detailed storytelling, she offers 10 lessons learned—from managing security restrictions and emotional tolls, to the value of face-to-face sessions in high-stress, reactive environments. Wingfield emphasizes the importance of adaptability, emotional resilience, and pragmatic thinking when working in spaces rarely designed with research in mind.

🔗 The Real Problem with Research | Maxim Mestovsky delivers a thought-provoking critique of how research is often misused in design. With 22 years in the field, he argues that research is frequently treated as a checkbox exercise that dilutes responsibility and stifles innovation. Mestovsky highlights how overreliance on validation cycles, poor interpretation of results, and lack of business context can lead to minimal impact. He offers blunt advice for designers: think like entrepreneurs, focus on execution, and don’t let research overshadow creative risk-taking.

🫂 Community Pick

Join waitlist!

We’ve had over 1200 researchers across 163 cities join our waitlist for Research Lunch Club. Research Lunch Club connects researchers for in-person lunches in small groups of 3. Whether you’re a UX researcher, behavioural scientist, academic researcher, or any other type of researcher, we’re shaking up the way you network.

researchlunchclub.com/?utm_source=beehive&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_content

📜 Industry Report Pick

UX research democratization is a tricky subject.

To better understand the current state of democratization today, our friends at Great Question recently surveyed 301 UX Research professionals from 34 countries.

Among survey respondents, they found: 74% support democratizing the execution of UX research studies, 95% support democratizing internal access to UX research repositories, and 65% believe democratization will have a positive impact on the future of their organization/business

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

"Democratizing research is not about cutting researchers or cutting research out of the process. It's about optimizing for the unique value researchers can provide and creating a customer-centric mindset across the whole organization, which are positive things."

Anonymous UX research professional

📹 Community Event

🇬🇧 People of Research x London Community Social Sponsored by Studio intO

RSVP here! This Thursday 27th March 2025! Last few…

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💼 Job Picks

Are you a hiring manager looking to share research opportunities with a global network of over 2,000 researchers in more than 60 countries? We'd love to hear from you! Just drop us an email ✉️.

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👋 About us

We’re People of Research - a global hybrid community uniting researchers across the tech industry, from UX Research to Behavioural Science. We connect, collab and grow:

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