I struggled with career development as a user researcher for the longest time. As a user research team of one, I didn't have a lot to go off when assessing my career and what was next.

Often, there wasn't a clear career framework or path to get to the next level. I was unsure how an organization was assessing me, or what I was meant to do to improve my skills.

It became a frustrating cycle. I wanted a promotion and believed I was doing more work than a junior or mid-level user researcher should be doing, but I had no way to "prove" it. There were no specific grading criteria. My job responsibilities lacked direction and clarity.

I was stuck, barely at the beginning of my career, and I already felt stagnant. At some point during my networking, I learned I wasn't the only one who felt this way.

User research is an increasingly vast field. If you aren't sure what skills to focus on or what skills to learn next, it’s easy to get lost in all the approaches and methodologies out there.

Why is having a career path critical?

There were (and are) a plethora of user researchers spinning their wheels, unsure where to go next or how to get to that next level.

If you’re feeling similarly—or in a position trying to build a career framework for your team—you aren't alone. Today, I want to walk you through the career framework I used for myself and my direct reports.

The number one reason for having a clear career path is so that you understand exactly what skills are vital for you to develop next.

User research is an increasingly vast field. If you aren't sure what skills to focus on or what skills to learn next, it’s easy to get lost in all the approaches and methodologies out there. Unfortunately, I walked this same path.

There was little clarity about what I had to learn next—and even less support on how to learn those skills. I had wrangled usability testing (to a certain extent) and basic surveys. Still, I didn't even know at the time that generative research existed, let alone that it was a necessary skill.

Alongside not having a clear path, my situation regarding promotions was muddled. Without a career framework, I had no idea what my manager was assessing me on. With that, I had no strategic way to choose my work. Everything I did felt reactive and misaligned.

My conversations with managers frustrated me because even though I felt above my current level, I had no clear way to articulate it.

So what did I do in this situation?

Honestly, it wasn't until I started managing other people that I realized I needed a career framework that clarified what I expected and what they were working toward.

With this change in responsibility, I started working on a career framework to help my direct reports and others who felt similarly to me.

A user research career framework

Before I dive into the details, I want to point out that there are a million ways to approach a career framework, and there is no one correct and perfect framework. Therefore, the best thing we can do is create or adapt realistic frameworks to our current organization.

That being said, this is the user research career framework I have used in my past organizations.

✔ Look at areas of focus

The first thing I did when looking into a career framework was splitting it into different focus areas. This differentiation allowed me to look at the user research industry from different lenses, rather than just listing all the user research skills you need.

The areas of focus I identified were:

1. Technical skills – The technical and core skills of a user researcher
2. Scope of projects – How involved user researchers are in the end-to-end research projects, and across the organization
3. Collaboration and partnership – How researchers can work with others and build relationships across teams and the organization
4. Growth mindset – How comfortable researchers are with seeking out and giving feedback to others
5. Impact – How much a researcher impacts individuals, teams, departments, and the organization as a whole
6. Team player – How a researcher operates inside their team culture
7. Leadership – How a user researcher leads themselves, and others to best suit teams and the business

✔ Identify levels

After I thought through these focus areas, the next step was identifying the framework's career levels. I looked specifically at four career levels:

✦ Junior user researcher

Embedded in a team to conduct user research activities. They have some practical experience, but need regular guidance and training to produce their best work and develop their skills. They generally work in combination with a more senior user researcher.

✦ Mid-level user researcher

Embedded in a team and responsible for planning and carrying out user research activities. They can work independently in a group without too much guidance.

✦ Senior user researcher

Can plan and lead user research activities in larger teams and on more complex services. They build user-centered practices in new teams and align user research activities with broader plans to inform service propositions. They may supervise and develop other user researchers to assure and improve research practice.

✦ User research manager

Leading and aligning user research activities across several teams. They ensure that teams take a user-centered, evidence-based approach to service design and delivery. They develop and ensure good user research practices.

While I know there are steps before and after these four levels, I only could speak to my experience and wanted to create a career framework based on my previous knowledge and situations I’d encountered.

✔ Create the criteria

The next step was to go through each focus area and corresponding level, filling out all the different criteria. This step took a lot of reflection and research since I was essentially trying to boil the industry of user research into different, easy-to-check-off boxes.

If you are looking into doing this, the best step is to delve into research. Speak to other researchers about their experiences, how they’ve been assessed, and the skills they believe are necessary to these different areas.

After some work it eventually came together, and I could create a full framework. One of the amazing pieces of work that came from this was my skills checklist, which is a great way to “level” yourself as a user researcher.

Since this skills checklist embodies most of the technical skills of a user researcher (as well as some soft), I’ll dive into two other focus areas as examples of this framework.

Collaboration and partnership

Collaboration is a hugely essential part of being a user researcher, and not one we often know how to improve or move forward in. Below are the criteria I’ve assigned to the four levels:

Junior user researcher

➔ Communication and expectation management

• Communicate research priorities and plans transparently to colleagues and stakeholders.
• Proactively flag when deadlines and timelines are at risk and seek advice
• Remains open to others’ perspectives and responsive to others’ needs

➔ Stakeholder collaboration

• Meets with stakeholders regularly and starts integrating with teams to understand their side of everything (team goals, OKRs, how sprints work)
• Understands how different functions work together to build products
• Asks the right questions to help focus peers on the right problem or outcome
• Builds relationships with peers across functions and within their own team

Mid-level user researcher

➔ Self- and project management

• Very good expectation and time management skills to prioritize and balance your own work

➔ Communication and expectation management

• Communicate your research priorities and plans transparently to colleagues and stakeholders
• Proactively flag when deadlines and timelines are at risk and seek advice
• Anticipates probable emotions, needs, and motives of others
• Seeks to understand the perspective of others who disagree

➔ Stakeholder collaboration

• Meets with stakeholders regularly and becomes a sparring partner on UX-related topics (team goals, OKRs)
• Able to challenge stakeholders and help them understand what user research questions are, and guide to shape better projects that don't make sense
• Navigates project constraints with designers, engineers, PMs, to define research goals, scope projects, and deliver research results within timelines
• Works effectively in multi-disciplinary teams
• Defines multi-disciplinary, collaborative research activities in a way that fosters inclusivity, and leverages a group’s time and energy effectively
• Builds relationships with more senior colleagues across functions and beyond the teams they work with

Senior user researcher

➔ Self- and project management

• Very good time and expectation management skills to prioritize and balance your own work
• Clarifies and breaks down fuzzy and nebulous research problems, into smaller, more manageable projects
• Plans and executes projects end-to-end

➔ Communication and expectation management

• Communicates research priorities and plans transparently to colleagues and stakeholders
• Proactively flags when deadlines and timelines are at risk and collaborate with relevant stakeholders to find alternative solutions
• Encourages others to share ideas and perspectives
• Understands and manages different group dynamics
• Addresses critical issues respectfully; is not deterred by opposition

➔ Stakeholder collaboration

• Works very closely with stakeholders to plan ahead within a product roadmap so that research is proactive and strategic and aligned with product/business
• Challenges stakeholders and helps them understand what user research questions are, saying no to projects that don't make sense
• Navigates project constraints with designers, engineers, PMs, to define research goals, scope projects, and deliver research results within timelines
• Identifies and suggests collaborative research activities, workshops, and rituals for the right context
• Runs smooth collaborations with PM, analytics/data science, and business

User research manager

➔ All the above +

• Creates a positive, safe atmosphere at work for team and others
• Identifies and initiates opportunities for people and teams to collaborate
• Gets multidisciplinary teams engaged around a common objective and empowers them with the right activities and rituals
• Resolves conflicts by providing guiding tenets and principles
• Builds alliances on their peer level

Leadership

Junior user researcher

• Manages own time and energy effectively
• Follows leaders and proactively asks for guidance
• Recognizes, regulates, and leverages emotions at work
• Understands core values and motivations for work

Mid-level user researcher

• Uses a group’s time and energy effectively
• Follows and partners with others to achieve shared goals
• Reads and engages effectively with both their own emotions and those of others
• Understands core values and motivations for work

Senior user researcher

• Coaches more junior colleagues to excel in planning and conducting impactful, high-quality research
• Naturally switches between leading, following, and partnering as appropriate
• Manages small (2-4 person) temporary, often multidisciplinary research teams within a project

User research manager

• Effectively embodies different leadership styles according to the situation
• Provides clear feedback, coaching, and career development guidance
• Ensures psychological safety and fosters social connections
• Tactically routes work to the people best suited to succeed
• Sets clear expectations and goals
• Ensures we reach goals by inspiring and motivating the team

Writing a user research career framework takes time and energy. But it’s completely worth the benefit of tracking your progress, having clarity around next steps, and knowing how to broach the subject of promotions with your manager.

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Nikki Anderson-Stanier is the founder of User Research Academy and a qualitative researcher with 9 years in the field. She loves solving human problems and petting all the dogs.

To get even more UXR nuggets, check out her user research membership, follow her on LinkedIn, or subscribe to her Substack.