UX Research was never the point. So why do I stay?

This isn’t an article about UX methods, frameworks or how to become a better researcher. It’s a personal, lived reflection on why I’ve stayed in this profession for years and what I discovered was keeping me here all along. If you’ve ever wondered why you’re still doing the work you do – especially when you work in UX/Product Research, maybe you’ll find parts of your own story in mine. Spoiler: I honestly didn’t know the exact answer when I started writing this. Maybe that’s exactly why I needed to.

There is something I genuinely love asking people. Why do you do the work you do? Not what you do. That’s usually the least interesting part for me. I want to know why you chose that path and, maybe even more importantly, why you stay and keep going. What keeps pulling you back after the excitement has faded and the ordinary days begin. I love that question because, after a while, people stop talking about their profession and start talking about themselves. They tell you about a teacher who believed in them, a conversation that quietly changed everything, a difficult season they never planned for or simply a feeling they couldn’t ignore. Those are the moments I remember most.

A few weeks ago, it occurred to me that, despite asking others this question for years, I had never really, really sat down and answered it myself. Why am I doing research and testing in this big, fast-moving product world?

I’ve been working in research for quite a while now. Looking back, it actually started when I was 18 years young. No joke. I worked as a hostess and promoter during my bachelor studies in business and psychology, trying to bring products to people on fair, exhibition, in shops, even on the street. I really and honestly, absolutely, strongly.. didn’t like it to bring products (that mostly didn’t work, because they didn’t solve an existing problem of people) to them and say: try it, buy it, it’s amazing. No. Please don’t do that. Looking back, I guess those were my first unintended field studies. I just didn’t know it yet.

Later, I moved into market research during my bachelor’s degree. After that, I took a step back, did my masters and went deep into scientific methodology, trying to understand what science actually is, what data really tells us, how information become meaningful and impactful, what correlation means and how methods shape the conclusions we draw. Right after finishing my master’s, I jumped straight into the world of agile Product Development and UX Research in Switzerland. To make a long story short…, I’ve been doing this long enough to know a few of the methods, the frameworks, perspectives, principles and the discussions about what research truly is and what it’s not. I enjoy all of those things, but somewhere over the last few months I realized that none of them are actually the reason I’m still here. In fact, I don’t think I ever fell in love with research itself. Research simply became the medium through which I could do something I had been drawn to for much longer. I know, this sound abstract, but stay with me, I will clarify it while I’m writing this quit random article, where I still don’t know yet, what the value behind it. But I trust the process.

It took me years to put words to that because, for the longest time, I would’ve probably said that I’m simply a curious person, but the truth is… I’m actually not.

I am not really curious. People often describe researchers as endlessly curious (or ask for it in the job offer), almost like children who want to know everything about everything. I don’t recognize myself in that description at all. If something has nothing to do with me and nobody invited me into it, I honestly don’t feel the need to know it all. I don’t.

But invite me into a real challenge, a problem that people genuinely can’t make sense of and something changes. It’s difficult to explain because it doesn’t feel like curiosity. It feels more like a force waking up within me - I feel it physically in my stomach area. I slow down. I start listening differently. I ask one question, then another and another, not because I’m trying to sound clever, but because I can feel there’s something underneath everything that’s being said. Some kind of patterns that need to be unfold first.

Most of the time, the first problem isn’t the real problem. And somehow, that’s where my mind naturally goes. Beneath the surface. Into the depth of what’s really going on, into the truth of a situation. If you ask me, that’s the mindset a researcher should have. Not endless curiosity about everything, but a deep desire to understand reality before trying to change it.

I think that’s also why my favourite moments in research – and why I stay in this profession / work – have never been the presentations or the beautifully organized Miro boards. They’re much quieter than that. They usually happen after an interview or somewhere in the middle of a synthesis session, when the room suddenly goes silent because something clicks. Everyone has been looking at the same information, each from their own perspective, but nobody had really seen it yet. Then, almost out of nowhere, a pattern begins to emerge. It’s not that you’ve discovered some magical insight. It’s that you’ve finally understood how all those seemingly unrelated, fragmented pieces fit together. They suddenly make sense. Those moments still fascinate me because they remind me how easy it is for different people to look at the very same reality and walk away with completely different conclusions.

Sum Up

To sum it up, it’s not the methods that keep me in Product Research. It’s not collecting information and it’s certainly not endless curiosity. I can get information anywhere. What keeps me here are the moments when understanding changes something. Because information informs. Understanding transforms.

Information informs. Understanding transforms. Information is everywhere. Understanding is rare. I stay in UX research because I love understanding and meaning making. I know, that only then something can change and transform.

Continuation

I could stop here and say that this is the part of research I love most. Finding patterns. Making meaning out of information that initially looked messy and disconnected. For a long time, I thought that was the answer.

It isn’t. Pattern recognition isn’t the destination for me as a researcher. Neither is understanding or making meaning. As much as I enjoy it, that’s a more personal part of the work. It’s what naturally draws me in. It’s how my mind works. In a way, it’s about my relationship with the product, the data and the people behind it. I mean the user.

But that’s not why someone hires a researcher. Nobody hires me because I enjoy understanding things. They hire me because behind every product is a team of people trying to make good decisions. They need a deeper understanding of the people they’re building for. They carry assumptions they don’t even realize they’re making. They genuinely want to build a meaningful and better product, but they can’t always see the whole picture yet. Which is okay and, I guess, normal.

The part that keeps me here isn’t the moment I understand something. It’s the moment they do. When a product team begins to see their users differently. When conversations change because everyone is suddenly looking at the same reality instead of their own assumptions. When better understanding leads to better decisions and better decisions eventually shape a better product. That’s the moment I keep coming back to. That’s why I stay in UX Research. Even though I never planned to become a Researcher for digital products in the first place.

Shared understanding about user’s real experience, to me, has never been the destination. It’s always been the needed beginning. It’s the bridge that makes transformation within product teams possible.

Once I saw that, other parts of my life suddenly started making sense as well. People often ask me how psychology, Product Research, writing, painting and the community I’m building all fit together. For years I honestly thought they didn’t. I kept waiting for the day I’d finally choose one path and quietly leave the others behind. Instead, the opposite happened. The older I get, the more I notice that every one of those things is simply another expression of the same desire. Whether I’m interviewing users, writing an essay, painting or sitting around a table with people I’ve never met before, I’m hoping that someone leaves seeing something a little differently than they did before. Sometimes that’s another person. Sometimes that’s a whole product team. Sometimes it’s a decision they’ve been wrestling with for weeks, even months. The setting changes. The medium changes. The intention never really does.

Calling myself a UX Researcher has always felt slightly incomplete. It’s accurate, of course. That’s what I do, but every time I introduce myself that way, I have the feeling that I’m leaving the interesting part out.

If someone asked me today what my work is really about, I don’t think I’d begin with interviews, usability tests or even making a product better. I’d probably say that I’m creating the conditions people begin to see differently, because I bring a new, fresh perspective on reality, a deeper understanding. And understanding is where transformation begins. Research just happens to be one of the ways I get to do that.

So, why do you do the work you do?

Why I DON’T stay in UX Research

• Because I’m naturally curious.

• Because I love interviewing people.

• Because I enjoy collecting data.

• Because I like methods and frameworks.

• Because I want to find insights.

• Because I want to make users’ lives easier.

• Because I want to advocate for the user.

• Because I love another FigJam and Miro boards.

Why I REALLY stay in UX Research

• Because I want to seek truth.

• Because I want to help people see reality differently so transformation becomes possible.

• Because I want to understand reality before changing it.

• Because I want to turn information into understanding.

• Because I want to create meaning from complexity.

• Because I want to help teams replace assumptions with reality.

• Because I want to help teams see what they couldn’t see before.

• Because I want to create shared understanding.

• Because I want to help teams improve product decisions.

• Because I want to build help teams products that truly solve problems.

• Because I believe transformation begins with truthtelling and shared understanding.

Explanation for the phot

See content credentials

Photo taken by me in a café in Warsaw while writing this article

While I was writing this article, something AMAZING happened. A group of about twelve dance students walked into the café where I was sitting – and writing exactly this article. A few minutes later, their teacher gathered everyone around one long table. At first, I didn’t pay much attention. Then I almost felt the dance teacher’s presence at my table. She was completely present, listening, asking, sharing, laughing with her students (which are her clients). Then I overheard her say something that immediately made me smile. Her exact words were:

Screenshot from my notes

She wasn’t running a research project. She wasn’t a UX Researcher. She was a dance teacher who genuinely wanted to understand the people she was responsible for. She wasn’t looking for confirmation and she wasn’t trying to defend herself. She didn’t want to be right. Instead, she wanted reality, whatever it looked like! Yes! Here’s the key.

She could have spent that evening teaching. She could have focused on attracting new students. She could have relaxed in her own assumption and thing that she is certain: The students have a good experience at her school. She didn’t! Even though – and that’s even more humbling and impressive - she was incredibly close to her students – in contrast to People who develop Products and their Users at home. She could have done countless other things. Instead, she chose to invite her students, slow down at ONE TABLE. She paid attention. She asked thoughtful, sharp questions. She listened. And she cared enough to replace her assumptions with understanding, so that transformation (and optimization) can happen!

My personal takeaway: She reminded me that understanding isn’t a research method. It’s a way of relating to people. One that product teams rarely have the time or sometimes the courage to practice.

I couldn’t have imagined a more fitting moment while writing this article!! <3

Final thoughts

I still ask people why they do the work they do whenever I get the chance because I’m interested in the moment a conversation becomes honest. I honestly don’t care that much about our professional identities or job titles. I care about what sits underneath them. Sometimes it’s something the other person has never put into words before. Sometimes it’s something they haven’t even noticed themselves and sometimes, it’s something I hadn’t seen either.

Those moments have taught me that meaningful, lasting change, whether in our personal lives or in the products we build, rarely begins with another framework, another quick survey or another clever answer generated by AI.

It begins when we slow down enough.

I know…even writing those words, I feel a resistance. We live in a world that celebrates speed. Faster shipping. Faster decisions. Faster iterations. Faster growth. Slowing down almost feels irresponsible. Especially in product development, where optimization has become part of the culture. But I’ve come to believe that the opposite is often true and I stand behind this full-heartedly.

Only when we slow down do we begin to see what has been there all along. Another person. Ourselves. An assumption we never questioned. The actual problem hiding beneath the one we thought we were solving. That’s also what science has taught me. We don’t start with certainty. We start with observation. We pay attention to reality, even when it contradicts what we hoped to find. We let evidence challenge our assumptions instead of protecting them. This whole speed in product thing is a topic for itself. Let me finish with this:

Looking back, I think that’s the work I’ve been drawn to all these years. Research simply happened to give it a name and if this profession has taught me one thing, it’s that transformation almost never begins with certainty. It begins with truhtelling. With paying close attention to what is. With the willingness to see reality from another perspective, especially when it doesn’t fit the story we were already telling ourselves. That’s the kind of work I hope I’ll always do, no matter what my job title happens to be.

Your turn. Tell me, why do you do the work you do? Why do you stay?

Here is a sequence of question I generated from AI and I kind of like them. I hope the can help you in the process of truth-telling and reflecting on “why you do (or don’t like to do) what you do for work”. I hope it bring you some practical value. Ready?

Part 1 – The obvious answer

• What do you do?

• Why did you choose this profession?

• What keeps you here?

Part 2 – Go beneath the surface

• When did you first realize you wanted to do this?

• Was there a moment, person or experience that influenced that decision?

• If you had never discovered this profession, what do you think you would’ve been doing instead?

Part 3 – Find the emotional driver

• Which moments at work make you lose track of time?

• Which moments give you the feeling, “This is exactly where I’m supposed to be.”

• What part of your job would you still do, even if nobody ever noticed?

• When do you go home feeling deeply satisfied?

Part 4 – Remove the job title

• Imagine your current profession disappeared tomorrow. What would you still be trying to do in the world?

• If I took away your job title, what part of your work would still remain?

• What are you actually trying to change through your work?

• Who becomes different because you did your job well?

Part 5 – The identity questions

• What truth are you trying to bring into the world?

• What do you care about more than your profession itself?

• What kind of transformation are you hoping to create?

• What would still matter to you if your role changed completely?

  
  

One last reflection for you.

If you’re a UX/Product Researcher or simply someone doing some kind of research work in a company, let me leave you with one thought:

Information is everywhere. Today, understanding and meaning making are rare. That’s the gold, we should look for. That’s what I believe our work, as researcher, is really about.

If you think or you’ve been told, that you don’t have time to slow down and really go into the process of understanding, I’d gently challenge that. In my experience, that’s exactly when you need to. I’ve rarely seen teams regret taking a little longer to understand and go into research. I’ve seen far more regret building the wrong thing with confidence instead of evidence.