Specializing from UXR to Quant UXR
When should you make the jump, if at all?
I’m a former chemical engineer, software tester, programmer, and UX designer who recently started as a UX researcher with a quantitative focus*. I write here monthly. If you’re new to Quant UXR, check out my article How to get started with Quantitative UX Research. If you’re an expert, leave me a comment to let me know all the mistakes I’ve made in this post!
*I admit it. I’m a liar. But I’m coming clean now. You know at the start of all my posts when I say I’m “transitioning into quantitative UX research” or “a UX researcher with a quantitative focus”? I love Quant but it’s honestly not my focus. Not yet at least.
That is still the plan, but as research requests come in, quant isn’t always the right method for them. I’m really a Qual UX Researcher at the moment.
I know I want to continue to develop my skills in Quantitative UX Research. But should I still try to “transition” into Quant UXR? Should I at least have a “quantitative focus”?
It’s a question of specialization.
A very brief history of specialization in tech roles
UX Design branched off from Software Development
Early developers didn’t have UX teams to focus on design, so that was part of their job. UX design skills (or should I say, Human-Computer Interaction skills) were an asset for them. Some did great at it, whereas others focused on more-technical problems like optimizing performance, and treated the User Experience as an afterthought.
Eventually, larger companies ended up splitting these roles. Developers were no longer solely responsible for UX.
I started my software engineering career after UX roles became mainstream, but I worked for a company without such roles. I couldn’t believe how hard it was to use some of the software I helped build. I wanted to improve that, so I started doing UX on the side even though there was no one else in my company doing so. I loved it.
Five years later, I left software engineering and started UX Design. I loved that even more.
UX Research branched off from UX Design
UX Research used to just be “part of the job” of a UX Designer. In many companies (probably the majority of companies), it still is. But in more and more companies, these jobs have separated.
Six months ago, I officially moved from UX Design to UX Research.
Quant UXR is branching off from UXR
The first Quant-specific UXR job posting is said to have been written in 2006:
But it is still quite rare for companies to have this role.
Specialization takes time
In 2022, most software developers have access to full-time UX designers. Many UX designers work with specialized UX researchers. But UX researchers don’t usually have pure-Quant UX research teammates. Not yet at least.
How common are pure-Quant UXR roles?
In a very unscientific study, I searched LinkedIn Jobs for “Quantitative UX Researcher” (with the quotes). Filtering to US-based jobs only, there were 58 roles with “Quantitative UX Researcher” in the job title. The vast majority were with Google. Other companies included Walmart, Playstation, AllTrails, and a few other companies that looked like they were probably just recruitment agencies hiring for Google.
By contrast, when searching for Quantitative UX Researcher (no quotes), 3,536 roles appeared. These research roles mentioned Quant in the job description, but most didn’t have Quant in the job title. These roles likely involve a mix of Quant and Qual.
In other words, there are currently roughly 60 times more job openings in the US that include Quant in the job description than jobs that are strictly Quant-focused.
In most companies today, Quant UXR is the responsibility of a UX Researcher (if it’s practiced at all); not a full-time job.
Which companies invest in Quant UXR?
I previously touched on this in How to get started with quantitative UX research and How Quant UXR works in the real world, where I mentioned the FAANGs (Facebook- now Meta, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google), plus IDEO, UserTesting, and Fidelity.
The list of companies that “do” Quant UXR keeps growing.
Quant UX Con 2022 took place in June 2022 and described itself as:
The first unconference dedicated to the field of Quantitative UX Research
There are five organizers listed on the site: 2 Quantitative UXRs from Google, 2 Quantitative UXRs from Pinterest, and 1 UXR from Spotify. Speakers at this “unconference” were from a wide variety of companies, including big tech FAANG companies, but also agencies, academia, and government. This is great.
It’s not immediately clear whether or not all of these companies have pure-Quant roles, but what is clear is that Quant UXR is growing.
So do I specialize?
No.
At this point, it’s not common for companies to hire pure-Quant roles. If you’re a generalist UX Researcher who does Quant, keep learning and keep developing those skills, but there’s no sense taking the leap quite yet. If and when the field of Quantitative UX Research matures beyond just a few early adopter companies, you’ll be ready to specialize then.
