As a career researcher, I’m often asked why I don’t move into Strategy. The implication being that Strategy is … way more, well, strategic. And, presumably – a natural next step after 20 years of researching. For me, Strategy with a capital S – is what you set out to do. Rarely is it what you end up doing. Strategy is breakfast, but lunch and dinner are how the work gets done, and what work actually goes live or gets shipped.

I like to say that UX Design Research is where the rubber meets the road. This is the function that causes the executives to pay attention to how their (sometimes ill-conceived) strategies are playing out, in a digital interface such as a mobile website, or in an SEO campaign execution, or in some other User Experience competing for your attention in today’s online/offline world.

I posit that The Culture of the organization that is conducting this research – is critical to how the research is perceived, digested, internalized or shelved. If we’re just checking a box and making sure there are no “show-stoppers” you can bet the execs think of this process as Risk Mitigation. In UX terms, that’s like a baby, an infant somewhat helpless – but cute nonetheless. If, on the other end of the spectrum, research drives design decision-making and strategy, then there’s a culture of test and learn, discovery phases that take wild u-turns or go on tangents – and all of it, par for the course. This is preferable in UX terms, a more mature, integrated model of designing, researching, researching and designing as a collaborative effort, bringing Strategy along in the front seat, as a navigable map.