When I first got into UX research after leaving academia, I had to learn everything the hard way.
I literally spent 6 MONTHS in the library, piecing together any bit of information I could find on anything that would help me become a better UX researcher…
From human factor psychology and behavioral economics, to quantitative analysis and leadership skills… you name it.
I was like a learning machine.
And I didn’t skip a single day in the library
I also learned C++, python, weird UX terms, and other things I later realized weren’t relevant… But I didn’t know that at the time. There was a lot of noise.
And even though I enjoyed the process, admittedly it wasn’t very efficient lol.
At the time, there wasn’t a “structured path” for learning UX research. And I didn’t have a mentor.
But I was determined to learn anything that might benefit me as a UX researcher.
(And when I learn things, I don’t just learn the minimum. I go all-out 🙂
And at the same time…
I also applied to countless jobs and faced nonstop REJECTION 🥲
Most of the job positions I saw required “5 years of experience” or something similar…
And I realized it was the classic catch-22:
I needed experience to get a job…
But I needed a job to get experience.
I was stuck.
But the “lightbulb moment” came when I realized…
I was only consuming knowledge.
And in the real world, no one cares what classes you’ve taken, or which books you’ve read.
They only care if you can solve problems.
And the key insight I realized was…
I didn’t NEED to have a job to get UX research experience
Because I could design my OWN research projects to get experience.
So I started conducting “guerilla” usability studies in a local Starbucks and offered to buy people free coffee if they wanted to participate.
I documented everything and posted my process on my blog, and I included it in my resume.
And that changed EVERYTHING.
When I started doing my own projects and showcasing that I actually knew how to do research…
I got way more calls and interviews.
Suddenly, my lack of on-the-job experience was no longer an issue because I was able to demonstrate my skills.
And eventually, I landed a contract working at Volkswagen working on self-driving cars.
Then I got an offer to work at Google, where I managed to get a patent…
And the rest, as they say, is history.
That was how my UXR career “took off.”
And that’s how I was able to overcome the “catch-22” of experience and successfully break into a new career in UX research.
Now, if that sounds like a lot of hard work, it’s because it WAS lol.
But…
Here’s how you can “shortcut” the process
After teaching myself UX research through trial and error, and eventually working with many well-known companies…
I began documenting all my learnings, questions, and failures, and compiling everything I knew about UX Research into my own “curriculum” that I could reference.
And I didn’t intend to show it to others at first.
It was just my own system for UX research that literally started out as a Google Drive folder back in 2016.
But over time, I had a lot of people coming to me asking for advice. And I started sharing lessons with them from my curriculum.
And eventually, that curriculum turned into my live Masterclass program.
Where I took 10 students at a time through an intensive 24-week live cohort to teach them everything I knew about UX Research.
The result?
Over 80% of my alumni ended up landing jobs at top companies.
And some eventually ended up becoming senior-level researchers.
So I knew the curriculum worked.
But the problem was, even though my students were getting great results…
I was only able to help a small number of people at a time in my live Masterclass.
Which is why, for the last few years…
I’ve been working on turning my curriculum into a self-paced course to make it accessible to more people.
Originally, I planned to release this all the way back in 2021… but I didn’t want to rush it.
And maybe I had a sliiight bit of perfectionism… but I wanted the course to be as high-quality as possible before I released it to the world.
And the reason I’m telling you this is because…
After so many years (and thousands of hours) in the making…
This long-awaited course is finally HERE!
The goal?
To give you a one-stop-shop to learn everything you need to know to master UX research.
So that instead of spending years trying to piece it all together through trial and error (like I had to)…
You can simply “download” over a decade of my best UX Research knowledge into your brain by following this step-by-step course.
Go here to learn more about the Self-Paced Masterclass
Mad love,
Kevin