Getting a Seat at the Table part 1: From reactive to proactive research

In my 15 years as a UX researcher—working at companies like Microsoft and Google—I’ve often heard fellow researchers express frustration over not having a “seat at the table” during key product decisions. I’ve felt that way myself early in my career. But my journey took a transformative turn when I shifted my focus from just complaining about the lack of influence to understanding why that seat wasn’t available—and how I could earn it.

Over time, I adapted my approach and evolved my role, gradually moving from a tactical contributor to someone who shapes product strategy and leads teams in making informed, user-centered decisions. I now work alongside cross-functional leadership teams, helping set the vision for products used by millions of people every day. This post reflects on the early stages of my career and how I went from identifying usability issues to proactively preventing them—and in future posts, I’ll continue this story to show how I earned a true seat at the table.

The Early Days: Uncovering Problems and Offering Solutions

When I started in UX research, my role was mostly about gathering user feedback on designs, prototypes, and even working code. The focus was on evaluating existing work: uncovering usability problems and offering insights to help designers and PMs fine-tune the solution. My main tool was usability studies, and my goal was always to ensure that the team addressed user needs as effectively as possible.

At this stage, my influence was mostly focused on design improvements—whether it was refining a feature in Microsoft OneNote, improving usability on the MSDN platform, or testing new pen interactions for the Microsoft Surface. In these early years, I learned how to identify pain points, build empathy for users, and create actionable insights that could improve the product.

A Shift Toward Proactive Influence: Anticipating User Needs

As my experience grew, so did my approach. I moved beyond just solving current usability problems to focusing on anticipating problems before they happened. By collaborating closely with designers and product teams, I started helping them frame user requirements even before a single design was created.

Instead of asking, "Are these designs effective at helping users achieve X?" I began to ask, "What do we need to understand about users before we design a solution for X?" This shift allowed me to get upstream in the design process, where I could influence product and design requirements—and help teams avoid usability issues in the first place.

To make this work, I had to balance my time carefully. I learned to streamline traditional usability testing through new tools and methods, including unmoderated research, which helped me collect scalable feedback without compromising quality. I also began prioritizing research questions more effectively, aligning with PMs, designers, and engineers to focus on the most important issues while letting the team make decisions on areas of lower priority.

From Insights to Strategy: Influencing Product Requirements

As I became more embedded in the product development process, my role expanded to include strategic influence. Instead of evaluating finished ideas, I worked to ensure the team had a deep, user-centered understanding that informed the product requirements. My work began to focus on building shared frameworks—like personas, user stories, and critical user journeys—that could guide design and product decisions.

This meant getting involved in every phase of the product lifecycle: from early concept development, where I influenced user requirements, to collaborating with cross-functional teams to refine and validate those ideas. I also worked closely with other researchers, sharing knowledge and expertise to create stronger, more robust insights that shaped our strategic direction.

Building Efficiency, Art, and Influence Along the Way

Part of my growth was about getting more efficient with how we conducted research. While tools and processes—like leveraging unmoderated studies—helped scale research efforts, the real challenge was mastering the art of influence. It’s one thing to gather insights, but it’s another to ensure those insights shape the decisions of designers, engineers, and product managers.

One of the biggest lessons I learned was how to prioritize research questions and align with stakeholders to focus on the right problems at the right time. By using my design background to better understand and communicate trade-offs, I gained the trust of my teams and built a stronger collaborative culture.

The Journey to Leadership: Getting Closer to the Table

This transformation didn’t happen overnight. It took years of learning, trial and error, and recalibrating my approach as I joined new teams and tackled new challenges. I had to continuously re-establish myself and my value in each new environment, but each experience brought me closer to the ultimate goal: having a seat at the table where key product and strategic decisions are made.

For those just starting out in UX research: Keep challenging yourself. Push beyond the day-to-day tasks and think about the bigger picture. Ask the hard questions, advocate boldly for users, and look for ways to influence product decisions from the start—not just as an evaluator, but as a strategic partner. The path to driving decisions is long, but the growth you’ll experience—and the impact you’ll have along the way—will be immense.

Continue reading: Getting a seat at the table part 2: Setting the stage for influence through a UXR maturity framework

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