Erin and special co-host Ben Wiedmaier are joined by Julian Della Mattia of the180 for a deep dive into being UX team-of-one. Julian has been the first user researcher at a number of companies and shares his top to-dos, milestones, and things to consider before accepting such a role.
The episode digs into the ways a solo UXR can start making an impact, but in a strategic, sustainable way. Julian identifies questions to ask stakeholder teams, processes to consider standing up, and the tools to consider investing in from the start. We also discuss the dual hat-wearing of UXR and Ops on smaller teams/teams-of-one. Julian shares how he balances his time between executing on business-critical work and organizing research workflows so that other teams can start connecting with customers.
Even if you're not a solo UXR or a team-of-one, Julian's experience building bridges between/across departments and his suggestions for aligning user research to core business goals from the start will help you and your team be more impactful.
Episode Highlights
About Our Guest
Julian is a UX Researcher specialized in Research Operations (ReOps), founder of the180 and based in Barcelona, Spain. Whether in-house or working with clients, he repeatedly found myself building Research teams from scratch as the first Researcher in the team. This experience helped him develop a real knack for infrastructure, so he decided to fully specialize myself in ReOps. He likes to talk about this as his switch "from Finder to Builder".
More Resources for Building UX Research Teams
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#127 - The Power of Failure with Kevin Kelly, Publisher and Founding Editor of Wired
#126 - AI Anxiety: The Dangers (and Opportunities) of AI in Research with Mike Adams of Grain
#125 - What is UX Business Coaching? with Sylvana Rochet of Elan Vital Coaching
#124 - Defining a Research Strategy with Devin Harold of Capital One
#123 - The Power of Atomic Research with Daniel Pidcock of Glean.ly
#122- Exploring UX Research Career Options with Marieke McCloskey of LinkedIn
#121 - The UX files: Top Moments from YouX 2023
#120- Building a Healthy Research Culture with Mike Oren of Klaviyo
#119 - It’s Not Research, It’s You! with Holly Hester-Reilly of H2R Product Science
#118- The Product Launch Playbook with Derek Osgood
#117 - Understanding Growth Research with Carlos Tellez of Nubank
#116 - Emerging Trends in UX and CX with Alfonso de la Nuez and Dana Bishop of UserZoom
#115 - Optimizing In-Product Research with Ryan Glasgow of Sprig
#114 - What Does a UX Research Chief of Staff Do?
#113 - Tacos and Tidepods: A Very Awkward Goodbye with Roberta Dombrowski of User Interviews
#112 - Finding Your Best Customers with Andrew Michael, CEO at Avrio
#111 - The 2022 UX Research Tools Map with Roberta Dombrowski
#110 - Experience Design Research in Healthcare with Tiffany Mura and Erica Devine
#109 - The Challenges of Hybrid Work with Eduardo Gomez Ruiz of Miro
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