🗞 State of User Research 2025

✍️ On My Mind This Week

Here's the thing about UX research that isn't talked about enough: being methodologically correct is table stakes. What actually moves product decisions is whether people trust your judgment beyond the specific study you just presented.

I see researchers constantly optimizing for the wrong metric. They perfect their sample sizes and statistical significance while completely missing that their PM doesn't trust them to understand engineering constraints or their designer thinks they don't grasp the business model.

Real influence comes from demonstrating both rational credibility (yes, your methodology matters) and emotional credibility (your judgment about what matters, your honesty about limitations, your understanding of the whole picture).

Last month I watched a researcher completely change a product direction not because their usability study was flawless, but because when the engineering lead questioned the feasibility of the recommendation, they immediately said "You know what, I hadn't considered the technical complexity here. Walk me through what makes this hard to implement." Then they worked together to find a solution that preserved the user need while respecting the engineering reality.

Four tactical moves:

• Sit down with Eng, PM and UXD to understand the trade-offs behind their opinions and decisions
• When presenting findings, lead with the business implications, not the methodology
• Admit uncertainty immediately - then propose how to reduce it
• Become the person who connects stakeholders when their problems intersect

The best researchers aren't human survey machines. They're strategic advisors who happen to use research methods.

Happy Researching, 
Jan 🙌

😌 Humans of User Research with Jade Polay

Hi Jade, tell us a little bit about yourself!
I’m a User Experience Researcher at CNN Digital in NYC, where I focus on improving the CNN.com experience, particularly the homepage and interactive features. I recently moved into our dedicated UXR team after several years in a hybrid analytics-and-research role, though I’ve been leading UX projects for over five years.

My path into research was a bit unconventional; I studied journalism, which fueled my interest in understanding people and their motivations, ultimately leading me to CNN. Before that, I worked in audience and analytics at WSJ’s global newsroom and in audience strategy at NBC News. Across these roles, a common thread has been my passion for understanding people’s needs and helping shape meaningful user experiences, making the transition into full-time UXR a natural step.

What energizes you about your role?
What energizes me the most is the ability to shape how millions of people around the world stay informed and connected to the news through clear, engaging product experiences. I don’t take that responsibility lightly. It’s humbling to be the voice of our consumers and to influence how they catch up and feel knowledgeable about current events, especially during critical moments like elections, natural disasters, or wars. 

Connecting directly with our users, especially through 1:1 interviews, then translating their feedback into improvements and recommendations on CNN.com also brings me great joy. I’m also motivated by the opportunity to shape the future of digital news consumption. With the landscape rapidly evolving, especially as younger audiences turn to social feeds and aggregators; I take pride in helping CNN’s website adapt and remain a trusted, relevant source in this changing environment.

How would you explain your work to a 6-year-old?
Since I’ve transitioned into this role, I’ve noticed some people confuse user research with researching news stories. I explain that my job isn’t about writing articles, but about studying how people use and feel about digital news, so that we can make it easier for them to stay up-to-date or dig deeper if they wish to do so. Unlike a news article, my work doesn’t have a clear beginning or end. Research is ongoing and iterative, and it shapes how audiences experience CNN.com. 

What can people reach out to you about and how can they find you?
You can reach out to me on LinkedIn or reach me at jadepolay@gmail.com. 

Thanks, Jade!

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📚 Articles of the Week

From products to systems: The agentic AI shift
Agentic AI is shifting design from shipping products to architecting systems that generate context-specific experiences. Build agent-aware design artifacts, ship scaffolded templates, and protect human judgment on core UX decisions. John Moriarty

AI-Augmented Workflows for UX Research: Making Insights Accessible and Actionable
AI-augmented workflows transform UX research from one-off deliverables into continuously accessible, evidence-based decision tools. Checklist: centralize tagged data; preserve metadata and evidence links; deploy Slack bots or custom copilots for on-demand synthesis. Nathaniel Steinrueck

Human-Centered Alignment: A Practical Playbook for UX Researchers in AI Post-Training
UX researchers are the missing link to make AI safe, useful, and trusted. Do: define JTBD, curate human datasets, run preference tests, red-team safety, wire feedback, and link gains to KPIs. Jeremy Williams

State of User Research 2025
User research is cruising at altitude despite AI noise, layoffs, and seniority shifts. Checklist: quantify impact, use recruiting tools, experiment with AI responsibly, grow ReOps, and diversify methods. Liz Steelman & Morgan Koufos & Nick Lioudis

Beyond the "black box": Measuring research impact
Measuring UXR impact turns research from a black box into a business driver. Track Operations, Projects, Discipline; connect Metrics, Outcomes, ROI; document decisions, follow up, and link changes to product and business KPIs. Pedro Vargas

How UX Research shapes AI Evals
UX research anchors AI evals to real human trust and usefulness, not just benchmark scores. Checklist — define evidence-driven quality pillars, translate them into measurable guidelines, pair LLM scoring with human feedback, and iterate. Pooja Dhaka

The Psychology Of Trust In AI: A Guide To Measuring And Designing For User Confidence
Trust in AI is measurable and crucial: hallucinations collapse confidence and cause real-world harm. Checklist: measure ability, benevolence, integrity, predictability; surface uncertainty, graceful fallbacks, explainability, feedback and user control. Victor Yocco

Prioritize Smarts over Sentience to Increase Trust with AI
Trust rises when AI looks competent, not sentient. Do: prioritize correctness; limit scope; avoid anthropomorphic avatars; cite sources; penalize emotional finetuning. Evan Sunwall

How to Spot Signs of UX Maturity Regression
UX maturity quietly regresses, turning past wins into costly rework. Checklist: run quarterly 30–45min maturity check-ins; audit tool adoption; tie UX metrics to business outcomes; broaden ownership. Kate Kaplan

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🎥 Video of the Week

Startups, Founders, and the Truth About UXR: A Conversation with Michael Margolis
User research is often misunderstood in the startup world. Is it a luxury for big companies, or a secret weapon for founders? In this Fireside PM conversation, Michael Margolis - a veteran researcher who led UXR at Google and GV - unpacks the real value of user research. It digs into when UXR actually makes sense for startups, how it balances with founder intuition and data science, and how AI is reshaping the field. Michael Margolis & Tom Leung

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🔉 Audio of the Week

Balancing user needs with technological capabilities in product development
Balancing user needs with technical capabilities is the key to delivering viable products. Checklist: treat users as stakeholders, involve them early, map constraints, prioritize features, iterate with engineers, and measure outcomes. Amanda Di Dio

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🗓 UserCalendar.com: Upcoming Events.

How Dropbox Empowers Everyone to Learn from Customers
September 29 @ 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm EDT
A session on how Dropbox built and scaled a research democratization program—sharing leadership strategies, practical tactics, and tools to empower non-researchers while maintaining rigor. Learn more

Research that Scales
September 30 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm EDT
Join UXrG Book Group host Lija Hogan, of UserTesting, as she discusses Research that Scales: The Research Operations Handbook, with author Kate Towsey, THE globally recognized research ops expert. Learn more