From academia to user research: my valuable transferable skills

This blog is the second in a series where we’ll explore how our existing skills as academics have become valuable assets for us as user researchers. In this instalment, I’ll share how my teaching experience delivering lectures and seminars has helped my work as a user researcher.

My background as a researcher and lecturer in academia

As an academic, my research focussed on prioritising lifelong movement and reducing the risk of injury. I worked on a range of projects from optimising sports bras for comfort while minimising breast displacement to understanding the causes of injury in elite sprinters.

During the Coronavirus pandemic, I joined Vanderbilt University in the US. Here, I explored ways to make tech more acceptable to the user. For example, I improved the thermal comfort of exosuits (a device or piece of clothing that supports movement). And I identified ways to extend the battery life of wearable sensors without impacting on machine learning algorithm accuracy.

I then decided to pursue a different career path. I wanted more freedom to make choices that I hadn’t got with academia.

How I realised that I had the transferable skills to become a user researcher

My background in biomechanics may seem unconventional for a user research role.

Biomechanics is a subdiscipline of mechanical engineering. It predominantly involves doing quantitative research into products that are based around augmenting human movement. During my biomechanics career, I learnt that it doesn’t matter how mechanically effective a product is, it also has to be useable.

Thankfully, a former colleague (and lifelong mentor) helped me join the dots and I am now a senior user researcher in the Healthcare sector at Kainos. The transition from academia to consultancy was initially daunting, but I knew I had a strong research background that would serve me well (and has).

Four transferable skills that helped with my career move

I’ve discovered many of my transferrable skills have contributed to my successful career move. Lots of my colleagues who also have academic backgrounds feel the same.

How I understand my audience and build relationships with them

Fundamentally, teaching relies on:

• establishing trust and respect
• creating a comfortable learning environment
• understanding students’ perspectives

This means that as a lecturer, you can adapt and meet student needs.

Similarly, user research demands an understanding of client goals for impactful outcomes. By combining my teaching experience with my natural academic curiosity, I can navigate business contexts and translate research findings into actionable recommendations aligned with organisational objectives.

How lecturing helps me communicate in the right way to stakeholders

My lecturing skills enable me to:

• build rapport
• actively listen
• negotiate constructively

This means I can work with different stakeholders to achieve a positive, user-centred outcome.

One of the most important aspects of teaching and lecturing is the ability to communicate complex ideas to diverse and non-expert audiences. This skill, honed by simplifying concepts for students, has been invaluable as a user researcher where effective communication is crucial. For example, I craft presentations that are engaging, understandable and persuasive. This also means I can bridge the gap between cross-functional teams, stakeholders and clients.

How academia helps me empathise with diverse types of people

As a lecturer, I had to understand diverse backgrounds, learning styles and interests. This has proved instrumental in empathising with users and tailoring my content and communication style accordingly.

How I help people to think openly

As a lecturer, I aimed to create an environment that facilitated critical and creative thinking. I asked open-ended, probing, and challenging questions that stimulated discussion and reflection.

As a user researcher, I often have to ask the right questions and promote critical thinking and problem solving.

This includes:

• designing and conducting user research that challenges assumptions
• guiding teams towards user-centred solutions
• ensuring that user research findings are applied to the design process

Find out more

This post has given a flavour of the main transferable skills I’ve used on my journey from academia to user research. Look out for more posts on this topic, coming soon.

Many thanks to Amy Noss, Kerstin Leder Mackley and Lizzie Coates for helping me shape this blog post.

Photo by Mikael Kristenson on Unsplash