The author observes that User Experience Research has fallen from grace. They see that UXR has become disconnected from the business. Their belief is that under

The author observes that User Experience Research has fallen from grace. They see that UXR has become disconnected from the business. Their belief is that understanding users isn't necessary for making a good product, and that UX Researchers enjoy answering abstract questions around the user that are only marginally useful. They conclude that UX Research needs to to perform low-level user interviews, focus on non-user strategy(?), talk in executive-friendly terms, and prioritize the business above users-- in order to be relevant once again. Ironically, the author is quick to provide answers that please executives, and slow to offer dangerous questions that would displease them. Questions like how the company's short-term optimization was causing a long-term loss on user retention. Or how certain executive-sponsored beliefs were hurting user trust. Researchers who ask those questions tend not to stick around too long, even before 2021. Those who remain self-select into safer "middle" research; they and their department have been pummeled into submission by the organization. The author turns a blind eye to this corruption; the author points the finger at researchers, not executives. The author also forgets the history that users made the business successful [1]. Today, however, the internal hierarchies and forward momentum of many tech companies depends on a selective understanding of users [2]. Good research slows down that momentum, it aims for good-enough understanding, it asks important questions. And when important questions collide with the status quo, they are not tolerated. Or to put in simple terms, from a chief of staff to a middle manager: "Nevermind you 'why', why ain't in your repertoire no more". [1] http://www.paulgraham.com/before.html http://www.paulgraham.com/before.html "Mark Zuckerberg didn't succeed because he was an expert on startups. He succeeded despite being a complete noob at startups, because he understood his users really well." [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35597279 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35597279 "The logic that the CPO applied at the time was some pretty sporty mental gymnastics: "we optimize for conversion (looker to booker) because that's a proxy to actually delivering value to the customer."