Lisa Rex, UX research
A researcher who empower Fintech users' happiness through insightful data.
Hello, could you please introduce yourself đ
Hi! My name is Lisa. I'm a user experience researcher with over 15 years of experience in the tech industry. I have been with American Express for 4 years now, based in the London office, working on digital products for consumers. Lately I am helping our UX research team level up our research outputs and creating a library of research findings and insights. Iâve always fancied being a librarian, so thatâs fun I can combine the two disciplines. I started my career in design and technology in a customer support role, then learning HTML on the job, in the days of using inline styling. My CSS and JavaScript skills developed, but eventually I became tired of making web pages âlook the sameâ across browsers. Usability and accessibility began emerging as skills and I was interested in both, although these werenât clearly defined roles in the early days, at least at most companies.
I began experimenting with research methodologies while I was in a frontend QA role, using paper notecards for card sorting exercises with individuals (in person!), observing people using the websites we built, and using the JAWS screen reader. I am primarily self-taught, with lots of support and guidance from some wonderful experts. I also volunteered as a project manager, content writer, and usability tester in Drupal open-source community. This ultimately led to my first full-time research role!
How would you define a principal researcher?
To me, a principal researcher is someone who:
⢠Possesses a broad range of research skills and work experiences, and probably deep knowledge in a couple of areas
⢠Can remain calm under pressure when things don't go according to plan
⢠Quickly adapts to new methods with minimal ramp-up time
⢠While they may not necessarily have mastered quantitative research skills, they should be aware of when to use qualitative methods over quantitative ones, vice versa, or a mix of both
⢠Is comfortable mentoring junior researchers and helping them to upskill
I think principal researchers take on larger and more complex projects, those that span multiple areas and require strategic thinking or a mixed methods approach. These larger projects sometimes lack clear direction, requiring the researcher to explore uncharted territories. Anyone considering a principal role must be comfortable with complexity and ambiguity.
âTo me, a principal researcher possesses a broad range of research skills and work experiences, and probably deep knowledge in a couple of areas â
Have you worked on a principal level project before you get promoted?
The year before I got promoted to the Principal level, I led the research on a project focused on re-imagining the top levels of navigation on the primary Amex website, which serves over 20 markets. We wanted to learn how users interact with the website in different scenarios so that we could improve the organization and phrasing used in the navigation. We recognized early on that standardizing the navigation on American Express' website would be challenging because of the different product offerings and cultural nuances in reading and navigating complex websites. We decided to start with India, for a variety of reasons, allowing colleagues in London and New York to observe remotely. I collaborated with an external research agency that handled the logistics, and together we planned the study. I travelled to India to attend the sessions, and the experience of being physically present was truly invaluable. All that cultural context that is created during the interactions outside of sessions wouldnât have been captured if I was remote. In the lead up to my promotion, I tried to go the extra mile. I visited some Product colleagues when I was in Singapore to present an overview of UX research in our business unit. I tackled experimental approaches to UX research methods, including usability benchmarking key customer journeys, and keeping an eye on how approaches and ideas are evolving in the industry.
Was there a moment where things clicked for you that you decided to stay on the IC track?
I go back and forth. Going down the manager track comes with its rewards, but I also enjoy pursuing different nerdy projects as a Senior IC. Some days I want to âmaster the craftâ but thatâs an impossible goal! Currently I have one researcher reporting to me directly.
If a senior researcher is trying to decide between the IC track and manager, what guidance would you offer?
It's essential to know what gives you energy and you find rewarding, and what depletes your energy. If you love spending time helping people and are comfortable delegating entire chunks of work, being a manager may be the right choice, but if you prefer being hands-on, heads-down and focusing on your own deliverables, the IC track may be a better fit. Additionally, consider how you feel about having responsibility for someone's career, as it can be both exciting and scary. Before making a big leap, start by having a couple of people report to you to see if management is a good fit.
In 2022, I was diagnosed with ADHD, which explains so much about my life and career choices. I am also a hardcore introvert, so I am deliberate about going into the office on days I donât need to do deep focus work, and can instead do âpeoplingâ. I donât go into the office on back-to-back days anymore either. With numerous meetings and interruptions in the afternoons when East Coast USA comes online, I have the opportunity to make the most of my morning hours by blocking off time to ensure I get into interesting problems or research findings. Then I can âhyperfocusâ for hours and lose track of time sometimes! Balancing the roles of a player and a coach at the same time comes with its challenges. It's crucial to manage your time to juggle multiple responsibilities effectively. Also, I'm grateful for having a dedicated research operations team to take on a lot of the logistical administrative work!
Could you share your framework to be more impactful as a researcher in the organization?
My days in open-source taught me not to be afraid to show work in progress. Itâs about progress, not perfection. Weâve got a peer review process within our research team which has been really useful.
Strive towards the most effective communication:
Tailor your message to have the most impact on your intended audience.
Avoid using phrases and acronyms that only certain readers would understand. Use Plain English whenever possible.
Strive for scannability by ensuring content is chunked appropriately and uses meaningful subheadings.
Curate your message, reduce the content.
Highlight the most relevant information to draw attention to whatâs important.
What excites you about being a researcher in the next few years?
Iâm excited about a few things. Iâm excited to help elevate our research outputs by extracting re-usable findings and insights from reports, generating meaningful insights, ensuring our work is easily found, and creating âcheat sheetsâ for journeys, country-specific deep-dives, or big themes that emerge.
This is helping us to evolve from research designed to satisfy a specific request to growing a base of knowledge about our users and the experiences they have with us, and that also highlights the gaps in our understanding so that we can spend our time seeking out what we donât already know.
Itâs also exciting to see in-person research coming back. In early 2020, the pandemic meant we had to change 9 months of pre-planned in-person research labs in London and New York to be entirely remote/virtual-based studies, which I have to say, went surprisingly smoothly. Last year, in 2022, it was clear that some teams missed seeing the mobile app users holding a test device, seeing fingers hover, etc. and we are back to offering an in-person research option. Itâs not returned to the pre-pandemic ways entirely though, because we LOVE that weâre hearing from a more diverse range of people via remote studies, those who arenât necessarily 1) based near New York or London and 2) able to take time to travel to the lab during the usual weekday working hours.
In-office âwatch partiesâ are happening more often now, and the energy you get from a cross-functional team observing the participants is fabulous. Hoping that more âon the groundâ research is around the corner too!
