So You Think You Can Run a UXR Function?

I built a dumb thing over a couple of weekends and some late nights, and I love it.

It's a game. Mostly it is jokes, if I am being honest. You play the first UX researcher at a company that has never had one. There is no team. There is no repository. There is a backlog of opinions that have started calling themselves insights, and a calendar full of meetings about the pre-read for other meetings.

Then the requests start.

An exec read about synthetic users on a flight and wants your take by Monday. A PM wants last quarter's findings, but more positive this time. Design needs a study by Friday for a flow that shipped Monday. The CEO met you by the elevator and would like to know what you do here. Someone in marketing wants a stat that says 90%. It does not matter 90% of what.

You cannot do all of it. That is the entire point. The job was never the methods. The job is triage: deciding, request by request, how much research each one actually deserves, and what saying no is going to cost you.

So that is the game. You route each request, micro, rapid, or deep, or you push back and pay for it. You build the Frame or you let it rot. The Delta between what the org believes and what it actually knows grows quietly in the background until a launch walks off a cliff.

Do this well for twelve quarters and you build an intelligence function. Do it badly and you build a very fast service desk. Most people build a very fast service desk. The game has an ending ready for it. Tell me what ending you got (there are a quite a few)!

You can play the game here: https://www.thevoiceofuser.com/uxrtycoon/

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