Recently, team of UserInterview published an annual report about condition User Research sphere «The State of User Research 2022».

The State of User Research Report by UserInterviews

I decided that I need to make some overview and share own minds about it.

Whoever has time, I highly recommend reading it first, and then moving on to read my review.

The study sample is 562 respondents, which represents a segment of researchers, or people who spend more than 10% of their work practice time on research. These are representatives of small, medium and large businesses, as well as independent researchers.

State of the market for researchers.

The field is very active and growing rapidly. The average number of people doing user research is growing in companies of all sizes. More and more respondents say they have a separate department dedicated to research.

This is a good sign for the entire market. Companies are beginning to understand the importance and value of research processes in a highly competitive environment.

The job market for researchers is growing, too. LinkedIn has more than 84,000 results for «User Research» worldwide. That’s not a lot, but it’s significantly more than a year ago.

I predict that there is a correlation with the creation of individual departments. Whereas researchers used to be within a particular product or design team, now it’s a separate entity. The more companies separate researchers from other positions, the more job openings we can expect.

Salary levels.

This point is also good. It’s even very good. Observes the growth of salaries for researchers, which makes this field even more attractive to strong professionals who are either just choosing a profession or moving from one profession to another, as is usually the case with designers or product managers.

A U.S. researcher earns an average of $100,000 to $200,000 a year.

Of particular interest is the fact that the percentage (compared to last year) of people earning $150,000 or more has tripled. More than half of those surveyed with less than 5 years of experience indicated that they earn between $100,000 and $150,000. This fact can not but rejoice, since last year there were only 24%.

The State of User Research Report by UserInterviews

As we can see, not only the number of vacancies is growing, but the level of salaries. Again, these numbers are definitely related. Of course, the salary level cannot yet be compared to that of programmers and product managers, but everything is moving towards it. The field is relatively new and its growth rate is positive.

Negative and positive factors.

By this category I mean: what researchers don’t like about the work, and what they like about the work.

The most acute problem was bureaucracy and the organizational structure of the company. Companies where this barrier is minimal have the happiest researchers. I echo this statement, as this problem is the root of all the other problems, which are both about the tool stack, the application of research results, and the importance of the research department in the company.

I’ll attach a chart of the major problems below. But as I said above: the key problem and difficulty is bureaucracy. From it, all the other problems flow.

The State of User Research Report by UserInterviews

The key positive factor is career opportunities. That’s really important, but that, I think, applies mostly not just to the research field, but to most professions in general, where professionals can grow, have more influence, and show strong results that impact the company.

Tools.

The toolkit, based on past research, is almost unchanged. Figma, Zoom, Slack, Miro, Google and Microsoft services, and Atlassian services.

The State of User Research Report by UserInterviews

It is very strange that Notion ranks 11th, given its functionality and usage scenarios. I predict that in a year’s time Notion will have a much larger share. Not all researchers have truly unlocked the potential of this tool.

Learning.

In this section I found that about 8% of the respondents studied at UXR Bootcamp courses. I didn’t know what that was so I decided to look it up yesterday. It inspired me! Be sure to check out their website, they have a very cool training program.

Conclusions.

The report is very large, I highly recommend that you study it in detail. In my review, I told you everything that I think is important for me.