When I was younger, my curiosity in unpicking the invisible forces that shape the world drew me to study International Relations. It was the same curiosity that later led me into data journalism and data science. Today, I’m a self/community-taught programmer and data viz geek working as a data scientist at Synthesis, a specialist in growing audiences and changing preferences.
I started out with the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, working on international maritime affairs. This gave me an inside view of diplomacy and policy-making in a global industry. Later, as part of the strategic planning team, I researched key trends and developments that affect Singapore’s future as a maritime city.
I didn’t realise it then, but discovering journalist sites like Fivethirtyeight and the Pudding was the beginning of my career pivot. It blew my mind how they combined code, data, design, and story to uncover and bring to life the larger patterns in socio-economic, cultural, and political issues. I was fascinated and wanted to learn how I could do something similar.
I create custom datasets and use tools from network science and natural language processing to help build a picture of people’s preferences and behaviour.
It was a huge transition in several ways: I moved from a government agency to a fast-growing company with a startup feel; from an industry with centuries of history to a new world of open data and marketing insights; from a policy role to a data science and engineering role. However, it really wasn’t a sudden switch.
Whatever I was learning on the side—computer science, Python/R, new data visualization techniques and statistical analysis—I tried to apply it in my job or personal projects. I also got more involved with communities like She Loves Data, Singapore’s Hacks/Hackers meetup group, and the Data Visualization Society.
Then came a point where I felt a need to add more structure to my learning. I took a sabbatical and went for the Metis Data Science bootcamp, with support from IMDA’s Tech Immersion and Placement Programme.
But how I found my current role was rather fortuitous. I first got to know the people behind Synthesis when I joined a data storytelling challenge that they co-organised. My entry, which re-imagined and visualized popular wedding songs as cupcakes, made an impression and I won a commendation. Shortly after, they were expanding their data science team, and one thing led to another.
Learning to silence my inner critic when it’s not being helpful. In my first two weeks, I came close to a burnout because I thought I needed to grind it out in a new work environment when I didn’t have to. It was tough but I had to learn how to be kinder and more patient with myself.
The fact is, when switching careers, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and it’s OK. You’ve got to accept that it will take you longer to understand and figure out things that may be second-nature to more seasoned professionals.
In a way, simply pursuing my interests and skilling up led to open doors. I didn’t have to search hard to land my current role. Even before entering the data science field, there were always ways to practise aspects of it in my day job as long as I kept an open mind.
In my new role, I’m fortunate that my more experienced colleagues are super supportive when I reach out for guidance or simply to bounce some ideas off them. Even though my background is non-traditional, I feel very much part of the team.
Making the switch is only the beginning. I don’t think we talk enough about what comes after the switch as well as the non-technical skills needed for a happy, healthy work life in the data/tech industry. Aspects like self-advocacy and self-care are important too.
As a blog editor with SLD, I came to know and interviewed many accomplished brave women. Their own career transition stories inspired me and I learned from their wisdom, hindsight, and experience.
Being part of SLD also means being surrounded by other women and male allies with a can-do attitude who cheer each other on. It’s so uplifting!
Sep 07 2020 | Nikita Phavade
Meet Loucine Hayes, the head of our new chapter in Armenia! With decades of experience in international development and capacity building, Loucine has touched many lives. We’re delighted to have her as part of the She Loves Data community, and here, she shares her story as well as vision for the new chapter.
I repatriated to Armenia last year after living in 14 countries and working in over 27 counties in various fields. But I’m always focusing on building communities, effective business models and functioning policies. Throughout my career, data has been the pulling thread to stitch all pieces and decisions and make a wonderful tapestry. And now I am in Armenia to share all wealth, do knowledge and experience, inspire and guide young people to make bold steps toward attaining their dreams.
Armenia has made strides in IT and Data science. Sometimes it has been called the new Silicon Valley. There are many wonderful opportunists for women to get engaged in this industry and make better career choices, better solutions for their endeavors in entrepreneurship and other fields. Data can guide and help them thrive. The trend is there for women to get engaged and this will open a wide gate of opportunity and inspiration not to be afraid and make a bold step. The American University of Armenia Open Education (AUA OE) has a strategic focus to increase the engagement of women in the regions. We have the infrastructure and She Loves Data has the outlet to the world of knowledge in this field and together we can bring invaluable opportunities for learning and growth in this field for women.
Members can join by filling the volunteer form on She Loves Data website or sending a letter of intent. We will also have special events and meetings to explain and encourage members to join.
It will help them to get up to date training and skills in the field as well as make career advancement or start a career in this field. It will help them to network and meet other members and exchange of experiences and support.
Opportunity for every woman to attain a meaningful career in a data-driven world.
Career opportunities in data and connection to various industry leaders. Sub-sectors can be banking, health, education, agriculture, circular economies and environment protection.
Start-up entrepreneurship.
Coding and algorithms.
Educational opportunities.
Q1. Share with us your first meeting with Jana.I met Jana in 2019 when she applied for the She Loves Tech competition under her start-up company, Meiro. We organised an event for all finalists in Singapore that was sponsored by Zalora. Jana and I immediately connected and knew that this friendship would continue even after the event. We had drinks a few weeks after and spent hours talking about all the potential opportunities for collaboration between She Loves Tech and She Loves Data and realised that we have so many things in common. Jana is passionate about growing the women in the tech community, a highly inspiring individual and such a powerful force to reckon with!
Both organizations create opportunities for women in the tech space. She Loves Tech’s grand vision is to encourage more women to step up in technology businesses. Whilst, She Loves Data’s mission is to inspire more women to pursue careers in Data and Tech. In my view, one of the approaches to drive this common goal is through collaboration with key partners like She Loves Data, that is to empower women in technology. Jana has empowered so many women over the years and I have heard stories from volunteers who have grown passionate about data just being part of the movement.
We are still very much at the early stages of our discussion in terms of supporting each other and working through our collaborative plans. We have been invited to speak at Asian Professional Speakers Convention on 31st August, 2020 and it’s our first event together representing She Loves Data and She Loves Tech. This is just a start, to many more things to come.
I have a bookful of advice as I have learned so many things over the years by making so many mistakes in developing technology start-ups and here are a few thoughts: –
Do follow us on social media as we organise competitions in various locations and the women founders would benefit from participating in these events and learn from each other and the supporting partners as well.
I was pitching for my own start up last year with She Loves Tech and I was very impressed with the level of professionalism for the pitching competition, the level of support for female founders and the clear feel of the community’s presence. She Loves Tech has a foot print in more than 30 countries and I thought it would be great to collaborate. Leanne Robers, the Managing Director, of She Loves Tech and I met to explore collaboration between both organizations and both of us felt there were mutual benefits for us to come together and support the wider community, to reach out to more females.
We are announcing the collaboration as we speak.
I met other women founders and Venture Capitalists as part of my interactions with the She Loves Tech community. I met some of the female founders and was so inspired by them and I personally felt that being part of the competition was a once in a lifetime opportunity. I am super excited about supporting women entrepreneurs out there. I believe in collaboration between communities, instead of viewing the groups as separate entities. I hope this is just the beginning. We will find more ways to collaborate and support She Loves Tech. Leanne and I are very passionate and committed, and we will do our best to create and build a meaningful, long lasting partnership.
If you are a female founder, apply here: https://www.shelovestech.org/2020-key-dates
To join the movement and help the cause, subscribe to us at https://shelovesdata.com/ or https://www.shelovestech.org/
I am the founder of my online business “The Secret Pet Store” and a part-time social media specialist for She Loves Data (SLD). I was always passionate and excited to run my own online business. So, when my Reporting Analyst role got impacted due to covid-19 I thought that this is the best time to do what you love to do… I joined SLD to serve the community and also launched my online store.
I always knew in my heart that I wanted to start my own business and be a renowned best social media strategist. I never saw myself working until the age of 65 and that too in a field which I am not passionate about. Plus I always wanted to do something for our loving pets <3.
Also, we all know it’s not easy to simply leave a good full-time job and start again from ground level. So I think it was meant to happen, as my role got impacted by COVID and I started my dream journey. However, I also began my travel page on IG while I was working.
Its a lot of hard work now definitely much more than before. There are lots of uncertainty and risks however the main driving force is that I enjoy & love to do this.
I would say this is completely different from what I did before, as I am coming from a data analyst background into social media marketing 🙂 also 100% more exciting then analyst role! Hahaha
It was really tough as I changed my field, I knew I had to start from ground zero. I had to do many online courses and thanks to my friends who helped to keep me motivated on the days I was about to break-down and when I started doubting myself. Being an experienced analyst, it was a bit easy to get a similar, well-paying role but changing to a new career required me to start from entry-level roles or maybe internship
Yes definitely. I was at the first scared and overwhelmed with social media tasks at SLD as I knew it would be read globally, but now its fun and I enjoy it. For my online store, building the whole website from scratch was one of the things that I first felt would be so tough but turned out to be easy.
I should have believed in me and should have started working towards my passion sooner. But then I am happy as its never too late!
Absolutely! SLD gave me a chance to further develop and improve my social media skills. It gave me a platform where my knowledge and learnings can be implemented.
Bonus: I gained a lot more confidence as a social media specialist 🙂
It all started with a simple question: Where were the women? When Jana Marlé-Zizková and Pavel Bulowski went to work meetings or events in the tech industry, the other attendees were often men. They discovered that many women had a lot of enthusiasm and interest in data analytics and related areas. Yet, not everyone knew how to get started or access community support. This inspired the first workshop on data analytics for women in 2016. In the face of overwhelming response, one workshop led to another, and then to many more. She Loves Data was born.
As a community, we commit to the belief that women have many talents, virtues and value to bring to the table. This bears out in our very own logo, which is based off the Coxcomb chart. Florence Nightingale famously used the chart to explain the preventable deaths of soldiers during the Crimean war. She later led the sanitation reform of British hospitals. Just as Nightingale used data to create change, so too can more women become active contributors to a data-driven world. Pam Ooms, our volunteer who designed the logo, felt that Nightingale’s story fitted very well with She Loves Data’s purpose and wanted to borrow design elements from the Coxcomb chart.
Today, 200 years from Florence Nightingale’s time, she continues to inspires as a role model. We also find ourselves in the midst of a crisis, where the need for data literacy and digital skills is more urgent. We are forced to adapt to disruptive changes and in many instances, shift from the physical to the virtual. One silver lining is that the transition has led She Loves Data to create our first webinars, and we’re able to reach more people. At the same time, our community focus remains core.
It’s important that women building skills in tech don’t feel like they are in this journey alone. We understand that it can be tricky to build this feeling of community and sense of belonging online. There is no easy solution, but we can continue to support each other with friendly exchanges in our Facebook and LinkedIn groups. She Loves Data also continues to expand. We’re building local tribes and partnerships in places from Armenia to Vietnam so that more women can benefit from our work.
We hope you keep safe and stay strong.
These are some of our most dedicated volunteers, ladies who overcame their own mountains and pay it forward by building up our #DataTribe. Say hello to Kathleen Criselle Reverente, a data scientist a Novare Technologies who heads She Loves Data’s Manila chapter.
After I left my media job, I began searching for a career that I wanted to pursue. I remember asking, what will align with my interest in sharing stories and insights and move people? At that time, I didn’t know the answer. I went about with the openness to learn new things and trust the process of finding my career path. I landed different roles, including as a production assistant, a training assistant, and a sales associate in different industries.
It was 2018 when I interviewed for and won a scholarship to a web development bootcamp. The scholarship sponsors had the mission of encouraging women to pursue a career in tech. At that time, I was healing from my first miscarriage and felt lost with regards to my career. But I remember my mantra at that time was to say yes to opportunities. After completing the bootcamp, I was still not yet confident in shifting career to tech. Self-doubt crept in. I got overwhelmed with the jobs available as most were looking for bachelor’s graduates in Information Technology or Computer Science. Luckily, another scholarship opportunity for a web development course came along. After that course, I got an internship as a front-end developer. A few weeks after, I found out that I was pregnant and needed to be on bed rest. That pregnancy led to another miscarriage.
During this time, December 2018, I hit rock bottom. I didn’t know what to do next. I was sure that I had wanted a job in the tech industry and I would have taken on any job. I’m grateful that at the start of 2019, the company where I had my internship, offered me a Junior Manual Quality Assurance role. I enjoyed it because I had learned so many things. I discovered I loved analyzing systems and workflows, my discussions with developers and the product team, and also anticipating possible problems with our systems. In short, I loved everything!
Around that time, I saw a Facebook post on a data science scholarship for women and applied for it. In March 2019, I heard back and was invited to do the next steps in the application. I later got the scholarship, which offered an immersive data science learning experience.
In August 2019, I needed to make a big decision on which career path to pursue: Software testing or data science? I decided to go out of my comfort zone to finally pursue a career in data science. I received feedback that I was still far from landing a data-science related job, as I needed to learn more. So I kept on learning. I got lots of rejections in job applications. I remember there was a time, I cried during an online take-home exam with my dream data science company. I had the idea on how to do the exam, but it seems that my skills weren’t enough to execute it.
Again, doubts crept in on whether data science was for me, and I set a deadline of January 2020 to land a data science job. Last February, I started at my current company and I’m so grateful that they saw the potential in me. Every day, I’m happy to learn more about data science and its opportunities. Due to my current role, I get to know more about my learning style and my love for learning. Indeed, learning never stops and I’m loving it!
I found out about She Loves Data (SLD) in an Instagram ad way back in 2018. At that time, I was following different women tech groups that have local chapters in Manila. When I heard that SLD was going to have their first event in Manila in September 2019, I made sure to be there! I was like a fan girl at that time! It was so exciting to experience an event that I saw about in Instagram posts and stories. That was also when I met the co-founder Jana Marle-Zizkova.
She Loves Data played a part in helping me get to where I am now. Because of the SLD event last September, it widened my perspective that I would find my place in this field and that I need to keep on learning and going. There’s a community that will always there to support someone like me.
I spent my volunteer time by connecting to other communities here in the Philippines for future collaboration. I also share the current online SLD events. What inspires me to part of She Loves Data is that it is one of the communities that I’ve known that really encourages women to pursue a career in tech. As a career-switcher, I find it important to have a community like my support group, especially when self-doubt creeps in.
With the roller coaster journey that I have been through, I find that my experience with self-doubt keeps me grounded on how badly I wanted to pursue a data science career. What works for me is to find time to confront that feeling. I write thoughts that I’m having at that time and identify what triggers that feeling. After that, I read and process whether there is something I can do about it. If possible, I list down the steps.
Whenever I’m tackling self-doubt, I always end up being reminded of my why in pursuing this career and to trust the process! It’s best if you have someone or a community who have similar goals and you can share your progress with them.
Our events and workshops wouldn’t be possible without our awesome volunteers who dedicate their time to sharing their knowledge in tech and beyond. Say hello to Dalya Manatova, volunteer instructor, and Steve Remington, our director of curriculum.
Dalya: Switching careers to Data Science/Data Analyst positions is not a path for everyone. However, shaping an individual’s career such that it intertwines with data and relies on data-driven concepts—that’s the goal. I am filled with joy when I have an opportunity to show others how they can utilize data in their career. I help people understand the material during the workshops and make sure everyone is on track.
Steve: Two things. First, I was fortunate to have great mentors both professional and academic. Given that I am good at sharing my knowledge in a way that makes it easy for others to understand, this is the best way for me to give back and help prepare the next generation of my profession to be the best that they can be. Second, I want to help redress the gender imbalance in the analytics profession and the associated negatives that it sometimes brings. Also, I have taught, worked with and managed a number of female analytics professionals in my career. I have always found them to be equally or often more capable than their male counterparts. I want to share that with other women so they can shift from the “Maybe I can’t do this” mindset to the “I can definitely do this” mindset.
These are some of our most dedicated volunteers, ladies with a knack for building up our #DataTribe. Say hello to Jitka Raskova and Richa Tibarewal, our lovely co-heads for She Loves Data’s Singapore chapter.
Jitka: At this moment, I spend most of my time planning and organizing webinars for the whole SLD community in APAC. We run approximately 2-3 webinars per week focused on 3 main areas: Data & Tech, Digital Marketing, and Essential Skills. I am happy to share that since we have implemented our online strategy in the middle of April 2020, we have welcomed audiences from more than 51 countries and we have reached more than 2,000 unique registrations.
Richa: The time that I spend working for She Loves Data community is my personal passion time. The energy rush that I get by working for the women community is fantastic. At the end of the day, it is not about what you have or even what you have accomplished. It is about whom you have lifted up and what you have given back. I build long-term relationships with the partners of She Loves Data to bring more workshops to our community. I also work with various internal teams behind the scene to make sure we are consistent, strategic and relevant in whatever we do. As we are a volunteer-run organisation, it’s important to do reality checks and see if our activities are meeting real needs. Helping volunteers use their time fruitfully is another responsibility that I love to drive.
Jitka: As a mother returning from my maternity leave, I find that She Loves Data has given me an opportunity to be part of this inspirational community. This volunteering role allows me to learn a lot about how business and event management works in Asia. I have the chance to meet and talk to people from various countries, cultures and various business sectors. I love the enthusiasm and energy you get from the community members who attend our events. It’s truly rewarding to hear that we are able to help someone to find a job or that we encourage women not to be afraid of Data anymore. I also learn a lot while actively listening to these webinars and attending events myself.
Richa: The gender gap in the tech industry is still huge. This is why we do what we do! I strongly believe, an inspiring woman is simply a woman who can fill someone with the desire or urge to do something worthwhile, leverage their talent, and explore their passion. She Loves Data enables me to do my bit towards building a community where like-minded women can come together to learn, share knowledge, support each other, connect and have fun!
There are so many women out there who genuinely wants to learn. They want to switch their careers or get back into action after taking a break. Post-workshop, we get so many encouraging emails from participants. We have seen women landing unexpected opportunities because of She Loves Data. It could be a remote work opportunity with our partners or a networking opportunity that created a path for a new job. These are the stories that keeps me motivated. The entire team at She Loves Data is self-driven, and I get to learn so much from the team!
We are delighted to bring you this interview in collaboration with one of our partners, Contino. Simone Occulate, a data evangelist and principal consultant, believes in empowering through actions and good examples. She shares with us her experience in tech, including lessons learned from mentoring others.
When I was little, I was determined to be a ballerina and to have my own gym! Unfortunately, due to an injury, that was not possible, so I decided to work with computers as I was really good at mathematics and physics. It seemed to be a logical path to follow, as well as something challenging with a promising future.
I started my career as a software developer while still studying at a technical high school. I got my computer science bachelor’s degree followed by post-graduate studies in object-oriented analysis as well as in corporate finance, to gain a non-tech perspective. In between these studies, I switched to become an Oracle DBA, before becoming a data architect. I was also a data modelling trainer for a while before starting a job as an enterprise data architect, when an opportunity came up to be a reviewer of DAMA DMBoK on Data Governance and Data Quality chapters. My career has always been focused on data, working across different industries, overseas and in Australia.
I believe that regardless of your position, or the company you work for, you always have to keep an eye out on what’s happening and what’s trending so you can have different perspectives. I’ve always maintained this approach but it’s been especially important in recent years.
I can say the aspects that got me interested in tech are still valid nowadays: It’s dynamic, challenging, forward-thinking, innovative and breaks down barriers.
My job is as dynamic as it can be so there are no boring days! The beauty of it is that you know you are contributing, evolving and helping your colleagues and customers to also evolve. We help bring out the best in each other, which is reflected in our results and in the long term relationships we build along the way.
Not long ago, we changed from what I like to call ‘starving for data’ to ‘drowning in data but with scarcity of knowledge’. Each person and each company is on a different stage of their data journey but the pain points or root cause tend to be similar.
Despite the fact that data is always important, most recently, people have become aware of such importance. Who would have thought that a former US president would mention ‘metadata’ in one of his speeches? That showed that people outside IT or non-data-related jobs were now interested and much more aware of the recent changes, and the importance of data being an actual theme rather than just a distant idea.
Looking through human history, IT is very recent. If you compare it to civil engineering for example, I believe we still have a long way to go to figure out better ways of working, tools to be developed, frameworks to be developed. So, it makes even prouder to be working with data..
One of the things I like most about this industry is the speed of movement and the quick advances in technology. Keeping up-to-date is of course a challenge on its own, but I like to think of it as a part of life! It’s part of who I am – feeling comfortable being outside my comfort zone.
I’ve found the best way to make time for your personal life whilst pursuing your professional goals is by planning. From planning your day to planning your year. Obviously you get better at this over time. Goal setting is one part of it, as long as you put it into action of course. It can’t be just a list of bullet points forgotten somewhere in your computer! This allows you to have an introspective view of who you are and who you want to be, and plan accordingly. It should take into account all areas of your life, like a wheel of life: health, finance, professional, relationships, hobbies, etc.
You can adjust this plan along the way as circumstances may change and as you get a better sense of what has worked versus what hasn’t. At the end of the day, all those areas need to be in balance for you to be well and happy, and therefore to be a better professional achieving those goals.
From my experience, especially after founding a voluntary group to help newcomers in IT in Melbourne in 2010, I’ve come across so many different situations, scenarios, restrictions, and of course outcomes.
Sometimes it’s not your answer that is important, it’s the questions you ask them, forcing them to think from a different perspective that they may not have previously considered.
It’s been an amazing experience, being true to my beliefs and using my own learning and experiences to help other women discover different options in their career. It always comes down to a personal choice but I like to think that the final decision is data-driven. It’s based on the facts, rather than on emotion or ignorance of other options.
In this fast paced world, some people are lost when choosing what to study and invest time in a career. I don’t have the answers unfortunately! There are so many things being created that it is impossible for any of us to be across all the topics and subjects. The only way I can help them is by sharing the methods I use, so showing them how to fish rather than fishing for them.
Having said all that, I’d like to highlight these common challenges for women in tech:
However. I believe as a society, these challenges and many others should be talked about and solved with all parts of the equation, both women and men participating. Otherwise, the probability of not solving them, but creating other problems, is high.
I believe it must be through actions and good examples, as words alone are not enough.
As I like to say ‘Knowledge is NOT power, Knowledge in ACTION is POWER’.
We can use meetups, training, workshops, and share experiences of what worked well and what didn’t. More organisations could open this conversation up and launch initiatives to put these changes into place and share their experiences.
As an example, Contino hosts a great meetup, FiiT (Female Influencers in Tech), which helps empower the tech community with inspiring speakers and topics.
Many people’s careers take a circuitous, surprising path. We find out what it likes to come a full circle from Mara Zoco, who went from Anthropology to Business Systems to User Experience (UX) . She reflects on how she came to be a UX researcher with Experentia, a UX research and service design agency, and lessons learned along the way.
Read on!
It was a bit of fate, really. After my Bachelor’s degree and first Master’s degree in Anthropology, I have been working as a business systems analyst. I then went on to pursue an advanced Master’s degree in Public policy in Turin, Italy.
I had just graduated and was looking for work. It just so happened that Experientia was searching for a multidisciplinary UX researcher in their unit dedicated to R&D: someone knowledgeable in ethnographic methods but was also interested in studying for a Master’s degree in artificial intelligence (AI). This degree would be funded by an Italian regional project, aimed at hiring and upskilling young professionals, where Experientia is a partner.
Through my past work, which included the development of a business intelligence system, I became very familiar with data infrastructure. My role at Experientia has, in a way, brought me full circle by allowing me to merge the two perspectives: social science research and data infrastructure.
One full day a week, I attend classes for the Master in AI. The other four days vary quite a bit, depending on the specific project and its phase I’m currently working on.
Some weeks I do desk research or user research. This includes conducting user interviews or designing research tools, like protocols, surveys, and study guides. Other weeks I am more involved in analyzing the research material or developing and conducting workshops to present the research.
Often the work I do requires significant collaboration between team members. Each of us brings together different perspectives and works together to make sense of the data from our research. The most rewarding part for me is doing user interviews and synthesizing the research so that it can be used in the design process.
I think that the research process involved in UX is often taken for granted, particularly if it is qualitative in nature. In large part I think this stems from many industries, more or less, dipping their toes in the process, but not willing to dive in all the way.
What happens is either research is underfunded, unambitious, or, most often, insufficient time is allocated to crucial tasks like synthesis. I think this often produces lacklustre results. Many clients, for example, find comfort in standard market research. They are used to using it as the basis for their decision-making.
I think it often feels a little bit scary for organizations to use the insights from UX research in a double diamond framework to inform strategic business decisions, particularly if the organization is larger and more traditional. In the double diamond process, you expand and widen your understanding of a problem before synthesizing findings. This becomes essential for the ideation and prototyping phases that come later in the process. In the end, overcoming the inertia is possible if we use the right tools for communicating the research results and insights. This is why those who work in data visualization are so crucial to the team.
One is keeping up to date with information and developments across a variety of disciplines, fields, technologies, or projects. I try to dedicate a small portion of my day to reviewing headlines across several different sources (often supported by social media apps and email threads). Usually I do a quick skim of all the material and only dive a little deeper if something is relevant to the specific projects I am working on or to my larger interests for my role.
Another challenge is that it’s difficult to routinize tasks in UX research. My role requires lots of creative thinking and informed decision-making. Everything varies from project to project, which is the beauty of it, but it can also be exhausting. I try to think of ways to build frameworks and store knowledge to expedite some processes. Having some structures in place helps me direct my focus to where it’s most needed.
What would you say are the most understated skill-sets for being a UX researcher? A rather understated skill is theoretical grounding, but it can really sharpen and deepen the research results. UX researchers with very strong research backgrounds, generally across the social sciences, often have strong methodological and theoretical training.
I think the UX research community tends to emphasize method over theory, without realizing that both are mutually constitutive. Having a theoretical understanding of the research topics informs both the design of research tools and the analysis phase, particularly for complex topics like urban regeneration or health care.
It would be knowing how crucial relationship-building is across the job, whether internally with the team, externally with project partners, or even among the wider UX community. Every facet of relationship building is important in order to be successful across different aspects of the job. I’m continually learning how to better manage this.
Developing further skills in data science and data visualization. I’m learning a wide range of topics in AI, but because it is not a regular part of my daily job, I’ve been independently working on my technical skills. Finding the time to do so has not always been easy.
In particular, I’m interested in understanding how best to mix quantitative and qualitative methods in my role. One aspect is transforming qualitative data gained from ethnography into data stories. Another is engaging in larger discussions about data and ways to reframe that discourse. Instead of looking at data as “oil”, which can be extracted, consider that data is something chosen and created by people. As such, it is important to pay attention to the processes of creation and selection.
I like to explore ways in which qualitative research can render these data creation and selection mechanisms more transparent. This means contextualizing the data itself in more human-centered ways. I’m excited to work on a current project, where we are researching why people in a city with low crime rates may feel insecure, to help make the city more livable.
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