It's not rocket science.

This week from People Nerds: UXR on a tight budget, science versus practice, and a panel on democratizing UX during quarantine.

How precious is user research? Is user research more of a science or a practice? Answer: Why not both? Striking a balance between the two keeps research learnable and less rigid, while maintaining the rigor and reliability of scientific research.    LEARN MORE Getting user insights under your skin Launching successfully to a new market requires robust, in-depth research. Conducting robust, in-depth qual in a budget-conscious, "data-focused" org, requires a willingness to get scrappy.   HOW MEDLINE DID IT Is now a good time?  In our current, resource-scarce moment, we need democratization more than ever. Tune in to hear our panel of experts discuss tactics for further maturing our practice, and better involving our teams, while it's most mission critical.   SIGN UP NOW More we're discussing: If your products aren't cross-cultural, they won't be useable. Senongo Akpem explains how to uncover and address your cultural blindspots.  If your synthesis sessions feel sluggish or unfruitful—try switching to a "debrief" strategy. Career transition? Here's a guide to moving from full-time to freelance, and here's one for reworking that resume.  What we're hearing:  ICYMI: the folks at User Interviews put together a general overview of UX tools. Some thoughts from UX matters on the "whens" and "hows" of returning to face-to-face research. This five-minute brief on signal detection theory is an interesting dip into "cognitive ergonomics." dscout is a company composed of People Nerds working to make context-rich human insight an everyday habit across organizations. The dscout platform—Diary, Live, Recruit, and Express—enables remote qualitative research that brings researchers into the moments experienced and shared by real people. Curious about the platform or working with dscout? Talk to an account executive.  dscout, 222 North LaSalle St. Suite 650, Chicago, Illinois 60601, (312) 880-9715 Unsubscribe Manage preferences