#RealJob: UX Researcher, The Voice of Users in the Product Team
Meet Stephanie Anggun, our UX Researcher at Mekari. Anggun shared her journey of becoming a UX Researcher and the voice of users in the Product Team. What made her decide to pursue a career as a UX researcher?
“Anyone can be anything in tech industry.”
Anggun has been interested in research, even before she earned her undergraduate degree in Psychology. She started joining research projects, one of them as a Social Enumerator in an NGO, to gain more knowledge and skills. In 2018, Anggun got an opportunity to intern at an Indonesian financial technology company, where she was first introduced to User Experience (UX).
“At that time, I didn’t know that my knowledge in Psychology can be applied in the technology industry. I thought that only people from engineering majors can work in it. I then learned that in the tech industry, anyone can be anything as long as you have the willingness to continuously learn,” told Anggun to the students of ITB. She continued to gain more experience as a UX researcher until she joined Mekari.
What does a UX Researcher do?
The main job of a UX Researcher is to discover customer journey in using a product through a series of research methods and tools, in order to get insights about the efficiency and effectiveness of the product itself. Anggun explained that a UX Researcher has to go through the right research process and design thinking in order to become a great UX Researcher.
Anggun explained, “If you want to build a successful product, make sure you follow the steps properly. Most people tend to immediately jump into the step of creating the product before doing thorough research to discover the functionality, target market or objectives of the product. You also need to know whether your product is already packed with useful features or not. After that, you need to test the product to know if it is effective, efficient, engaging, easy-to-use, and error-tolerant. The last step is to listen to the user: What is the user’s review after using the product? Does it satisfy their needs? Going through these steps is really important to ensure users can get what they need from your product”.
In addition, Anggun said that becoming a UX Researcher doesn’t mean you only have to focus on doing research only. Collaborating with other teams (such as UI designer, technology or developers) and knowing the business aspects are also important, so the product can be developed into what the users really need.
An essential trait to have as a UX Researcher: empathy.
UX researchers must be able to discover the user’s problems and their needs while using a product. In order to do that, Anggun said that being empathetic is important to have as a UX Researcher.
“It is well-known that being a UX Researcher also means you are driven by the users. Without a high level of empathy, we tend to be more biased with our own perspective, instead of understanding what the user really needs. If that happens, we won’t gain valuable insights to improve the product itself.”
Interested to grow as well with Indonesia’s №1 Software-as-a-Service company? Join Mekari today to start your journey in empowering the progress of business and professionals.
