{"id":7530,"date":"2022-10-13T14:07:45","date_gmt":"2022-10-13T14:07:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uxdesigninstitute.com\/blog\/?p=7530"},"modified":"2025-06-05T08:41:40","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T08:41:40","slug":"a-day-in-the-life-of-a-ux-research-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uxdesigninstitute.com\/blog\/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-ux-research-manager\/","title":{"rendered":"A day in the life of a UX Research Manager with Google’s Dr. Stephen Hassard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Stephen Hassard is a UX Research Manager at Google and a lecturer in the Design School<\/a> at the University of Kansas. We had an excellent chat with him as part of our UX Insiders series<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Stephen has been working and teaching in the field for over 15 years for such companies as YouTube, Garmin<\/a> and Ubisoft<\/a>. He also taught at University College London, University of Winnipeg and the Google TechExchange programme. He then traded London for Southern California… but he still misses the kebabs.<\/p>\n

You can watch the full event through this link<\/a> but here are some of the highlights from our conversation.<\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n \n

[GET CERTIFIED IN USER RESEARCH]<\/p>\n Take our Professional Certificate in User Research<\/span>\n <\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Could you tell us a little bit about your background before Google? And so what did you study? And kind of what working experience led you up to the position that you’re in?<\/h3>\n

I feel like pretty much most people in UX, you kind of fall into it in a very roundabout way. So when I started my undergrad, I started in computer science. And I had this thought in my second year of computer science: \u201cDo I want to be programming eight hours a day, five days a week? That actually sounds like my idea of living hell\u201d. And this is not to knock on programmers –\u00a0 this is not something I enjoy.<\/p>\n

I happened to be taking psychology courses at the time just for something to do. Back then it was called human computer interaction –\u00a0 to totally date myself. And I was like, \u201cOh, that’s a thing. I’m taking psychology. I’m taking computer science. Let’s try that\u201d.<\/p>\n

Because of where I was living in Canada at the time – [UX was a] very small market, a very new area –\u00a0 I had to basically move out of there to start to get into that field. So, I moved to London and I did my PhD in Human-Computer Interaction<\/a> at the University College of London.<\/p>\n

When you do a PhD, there\u2019s a moment where you ask \u201cdo I stay in academia? Do I go to industry?\u201d And so I decided to stay\u00a0 in academia for a little while. I did that. I enjoy teaching. I still teach, but then I just realised \u201cI don’t want to be doing this\u201d. So, I pivoted to industry. I was doing some contract stuff originally and then got a job at Garmin\u2026 and then I got headhunted from Garmin to Google, which in itself was a weird story.<\/p>\n

Go on\u2026<\/h3>\n

I don’t take LinkedIn that seriously, I never really have. And I got a message one day on LinkedIn from Google, \u201cDo you want to talk to Google?\u201d And I was like, \u201cYeah, right, Google. Thanks. Do you need me to send you some money for a PlayStation Five that I can’t come pick up at your apartment? Sure thing, Google, let’s talk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turns out it really was Google and not a crazy phishing scam. And so we go through these talks but I think with a lot of big tech companies, there’s a lot of secrecy around it. And so I go through all the things,\u00a0 expecting it to blow up in my face at some point and eventually, they\u2019re like, \u201cHey, do you want to come in for an interview?\u201d \u201cOh, crazy. I never thought I’d make it this far.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like, I still have no idea what I’m interviewing for. And I eventually get in location, I do the interview. It’s the very last interview of the day and it’s with the guy who would be my manager in this role. As I’m talking to him, we have this very awkward moment where we both realise everyone has grossly misinterpreted my background.<\/p>\n

You could tell he’s like, \u201cthis is not the job for you because we totally thought it was this and this\u2026\u201d. I was like \u201cif I’d known you thought it was that, then I would have told you that three months ago\u201d.\u00a0 So it was awkward and, you know, clearly it blew up in my face.<\/p>\n

But, in the end, they’re like, \u201cSo, you were not a good fit for that job at all\u2026 but are you still interested in something?\u201d And I\u2019m like, \u201cSure, I’ll be the janitor or Google. I don’t care.\u201d And yeah! I kind of fell into it. Very, very backwards. So totally unexpected. I didn’t apply. And I got hired for a job. I was an absolute failure basically.<\/p>\n

Were you always interested in design?<\/h3>\n

I would say that I was pretty obsessed with design from a pretty early age. Despite the kind of North American accent, I’m originally from Northern Ireland. So I grew up reading the Beano<\/a> and Dandy<\/a> comics.<\/p>\n

So I was pretty obsessed with comic books as a kid and that’s where it kind of started. But I think where I pivoted into becoming obsessed with design was architecture.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I became –\u00a0 and still am\u00a0 – weirdly obsessed with McMansions. And just like very bad architecture drives me nuts. Because I’m a comic book nerd, I self-taught a lot of Photoshop, a lot of that Adobe Suite, which definitely came in handy. But the one thing I will say if people are looking to expand their brain about UX thinking, I always say Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics<\/a> is the best book about UX that is not about UX.<\/p>\n

What led you to UX?<\/h3>\n

I think it was mostly that intersection of design and psychology.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And I just happen to have a computer science skill set.\u00a0 I knew enough to be dangerous in terms of prototyping<\/a> and just understanding the technical conversations with stakeholders. I don’t know, it just always felt like that’s where I was going to go. So I don’t know, in some ways, it just felt like that was always the plan.<\/p>\n

At what point did you begin specialising in research?<\/h3>\n

I’ll answer this question in a backwards way. So, at Google, I’m a specialised UX researcher. Previous to that, when I was a Garmin, I was split. I did research and I did design, which is pretty common in what are referred to as midsize companies, although I had a specialisation in research. But previous to that, I just happened to have lots of jobs around research, so I tend to enjoy doing stats.<\/p>\n

I kind of fell into the field just by helping people with their stats work. And then from there, I just\u00a0 built up this expertise within research, just almost by accident. I don’t think if I had had that initial, accidental jump into research, I probably would have been way more on the design side than I am now.<\/p>\n

What differentiates user research from academic research?<\/h3>\n

So in terms of the skill set, there\u2019s no difference. The only piece of the puzzle that’s missing is what I refer to as \u201cthrown over the fence research\u201d. And what I mean by this is in academia, you do research and then everyone stares at it. And then you say, \u201cIsn’t this amazing? Is this not the greatest thing you’ve ever seen?\u201d And you expect everyone to be so bowled over by how amazing your research is. Then people can talk about it for years and months.<\/p>\n

And industry\u2026 that’s not at all how it goes. You could produce an amazing report and everyone would stare at it and be like, \u201cWhat?\u201d I go, \u201cWhat? It’s amazing. Look at it. Is this not amazing?\u201d And they\u2019re like, \u201cOkay, all right. Next thing, I don’t care\u201d.<\/p>\n

It’s about taking a finding and making it applicable and actionable. I think the big difference between academic research and industry research is the specificity in the action, the actual ability of it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When I was an IC researcher, I would easily say 60 to 70% of my workload was convincing people that they need to care about this research<\/a>. It’s by far the most amount of work that I do compared to actually doing the research.\u00a0 Doing the research is important –\u00a0 clearly – but it’s a smaller part of the work process than I think everyone appreciates or understands.<\/p>\n

Could you talk us through your daily responsibilities and what an average day as a UX researcher manager looks like?<\/h3>\n

So I manage a team of UX researchers. So if I was to just answer what my day looks like\u2026 I sit in meetings for about seven hours of the day but that’s mostly because I’m a manager, which is not interesting. No one wants to hear the various tales of me sitting staring at the wall and listening to stakeholders talk.<\/p>\n

As a researcher, there’s a few different types of work; tactical, strategic, and design. Those all fall in different spots in the design cycle and everyone, I think, has a particular strength.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I tend to like design type problems, some people like the tactical stuff, which is mostly where junior researchers tend to start. And then there’s the strategic stuff, which is coming up with the next thing we should be working on.<\/p>\n

I should probably define what those things are. So strategic is, what should we be working on six months ahead. Design is\u2026 how do we produce the best solution that meets a real user.<\/p>\n

And then tactical is what most people think of when they think research. That\u2019s when you show someone a prototype and they’re like, \u201cI don’t understand this button\u201d. And you’re like [mimics taking down notes], \u201cWell, okay, doesn\u2019t understand button\u201d. They say, \u201cThis button won\u2019t click\u201d, and you note, \u201cthis button won\u2019t click\u201d, which is great. It keeps lights on, it makes products more usable but that is very kind of nuts and bolts.<\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n \n

[GET CERTIFIED IN UX]<\/p>\n Take our Professional Diploma in UX Design course<\/span>\n <\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Could you give us an idea of what your team looks like and the other teams that you collaborate with the most?<\/h3>\n

So my team is probably, I would say, a fairly normal sized research team at Google. We tend to have around four to five people per manager, maybe up to six. It’s relatively rare to get a team bigger than that under one manager.<\/p>\n

So I have a team of five researchers underneath me and they’re roughly assigned to a particular problem area. So each one has a particular domain that they become an expert in.<\/p>\n

My team tends to work very closely with the UX design team, to the point that we have actually kind of established official partnerships. So this designer is paired with this researcher.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That is, ideally one designer, one researcher. Rarely does that work out.\u00a0 At the minute, I think my researchers are supporting two designers each. I think I\u2019ve got one researcher supporting three. So, that’s a lot of\u00a0 tactical evaluative stuff there.<\/p>\n

When we think about strategic stuff, that’s where we partner with project managers. Some orgs call them product managers, it just depends on how a particular title is being used in a particular organisation. So, for example, when I was at YouTube,\u00a0 I would actually work more with project managers.<\/p>\n

Now that I’m in Google, where I do some internal tools stuff, I tend to partner more with designers. Not that I don’t partner with project managers, but just the balance is a little bit different.<\/p>\n