{"id":241,"date":"2022-07-24T21:43:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-24T19:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/verwaltungsgestaltung.de\/notizen\/?p=241"},"modified":"2022-08-20T17:43:59","modified_gmt":"2022-08-20T15:43:59","slug":"week-12-at-the-digital-service-notes-for-18-22-july","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/verwaltungsgestaltung.de\/notizen\/2022\/07\/24\/week-12-at-the-digital-service-notes-for-18-22-july\/","title":{"rendered":"Week #12 at the Digital Service: Notes for 18\u201322 July"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s out. We opened our first senior user research role on Friday and published the job description in English<\/a> and German<\/a>. It\u2019s the first new user-centred design role created since I joined, and it might not be the last.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creating a user research role<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Establishing a dedicated user research role was relatively straightforward. The case was easy to make as user research as an activity in the organisation had been already well established. Mostly, designers and product managers have been preparing, conducting and analysing user research studies. For 1 discovery, an external user researcher was hired and demonstrated more profound expertise and a broader range of skills and tools at their disposal. So when arguing for it, there was no resistance from no one. Quite the opposite was the case. People nodded in agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I worked closely with talent acquisition manager Corinna to draft the job description, define what person we are looking for and what the application process should look like. Quickly, it became clear that we needed to have designers and product managers involved in the interviewing process. Specific questions are best asked by a product manager \u2013 as the person coming into the role will have to work with them closely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having worked in organisations with user research as a separate function for over 10 years, I have never been involved in recruiting a user researcher. I have interviewed a few \u2013 but only when they applied for design roles. So I was not sure how to ask user researchers for previous work. Of course, I took it to Twitter again. The feedback received in 24 hours was pretty explicit, and we called it \u2018work examples\u2019 now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dear #UserResearch<\/a>-ers,

In a job description, may I ask for a \u2018portfolio\u2019 of your #UR<\/a> work?

Or what should I call it?

Thanks for letting me know!<\/p>— Martin Jordan (he\/him) ? ? (@Martin_Jordan) July 18, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote>