Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for User Experience Research Technician

🎯 Role Definition

The User Experience (UX) Research Technician is a practitioner-focused, operational role that supports product teams by planning, executing, and synthesizing user research across web, mobile, and embedded products. This role is responsible for end-to-end research operations: recruiting and managing participants, running moderated and unmoderated usability studies, capturing high-quality qualitative and quantitative data, performing mixed-methods analysis, maintaining research labs and tooling, and delivering clear, actionable insights to product managers, designers, engineers, and executives. The UX Research Technician enables data-driven, human-centered product decisions and scales research practices across teams.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

UX Research Assistant / Research Coordinator
Junior UX Designer with strong research interest
Behavioral Research Assistant or Human Factors Technician

Advancement To:

UX Researcher / Product Researcher
Senior UX Researcher
Research Operations Manager / Research Program Manager
Head of User Research

Lateral Moves:

UX Designer
Product Manager
Data Analyst (UX-focused)

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Plan, design, and execute moderated usability tests for web, mobile, and desktop applications, including writing test scripts, recruiting participants, facilitating sessions, and recording and capturing high-fidelity session artifacts for later analysis.
Recruit, screen, schedule, and manage research participants by creating screener surveys, maintaining participant panels, coordinating incentives, and ensuring target demographics and behavioral profiles are met for each study.
Conduct in-depth user interviews, contextual inquiries, and field observations to surface user motivations, pain points, workflows, and unmet needs that inform product strategy and design direction.
Develop and maintain research assets, including consent forms, interview guides, survey instruments, task scenarios, and usability test plans that comply with legal and ethical standards.
Facilitate remote and in-person usability labs, set up and maintain recording equipment, ensure high-quality audiovisual capture, and troubleshoot technical issues during live sessions to avoid data loss.
Perform qualitative data analysis using coding, affinity mapping, thematic synthesis, and qualitative analysis tools (e.g., NVivo, Dedoose), translating raw transcripts into concise findings and design recommendations.
Execute quantitative analyses on survey data, task completion metrics, clickstream, and experimental results using Excel, R, Python, or SPSS to produce statistically sound insights that complement qualitative findings.
Synthesize research findings into polished deliverables—executive summaries, research reports, personas, journey maps, usability heatmaps, and presentation decks—tailored to stakeholders at all levels.
Partner closely with product managers, UX designers, engineers, accessibility specialists, and data teams to ensure research insights are prioritized, translated into user stories, and reflected in product roadmaps and acceptance criteria.
Support A/B testing and experimentation initiatives by turning qualitative insights into testable hypotheses, defining UX-focused success metrics (task success, time-on-task, SUS), and helping to interpret experiment results.
Maintain and enhance remote testing workflows using platforms such as UserTesting, Lookback, PlaybookUX, Validately, and manage vendor relationships for external recruitment and lab services.
Conduct accessibility testing and heuristic evaluations against WCAG standards, document accessibility findings, and collaborate with engineering and design teams to recommend remediation steps.
Monitor and report on UX health metrics (NPS, SUS, task success, error rates, engagement metrics) and build dashboards or reports that make UX trends visible to product leadership.
Create and maintain a centralized research repository and knowledge base (notes, raw recordings, coded transcripts, deliverables) to support reuse, longitudinal analysis, and team learning.
Translate research results into clear, actionable design recommendations and acceptance criteria, writing user-centered requirements that development teams can implement and test.
Assist in prototyping and rapid concept validation, testing low- to high-fidelity prototypes during design sprints to de-risk product decisions and iterate quickly on solutions.
Manage project task lists, timelines, budgets for research initiatives, and coordinate cross-functional resources to ensure research projects deliver on time and within scope.
Ensure research activities meet privacy, consent, IRB (if applicable), GDPR, and CCPA compliance requirements, and steward participant data securely according to organizational policies.
Conduct competitor UX and market studies to contextualize findings, benchmark UX performance, and identify industry best practices and innovation opportunities.
Train and mentor interns, research assistants, and junior team members in research moderation, data collection best practices, and analysis techniques to build team capacity.
Curate and present research findings in stakeholder workshops, design critiques, and sprint planning sessions, driving adoption of evidence-based user insights across product teams.
Archive and maintain metadata for research sessions, ensure traceability between raw data and synthesis artifacts, and maintain audit-ready documentation of methods and consent.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory analysis of user behavior, event data, and survey results to answer product team questions quickly and accurately.
Contribute to the organization's UX research strategy and roadmap by identifying high-impact study opportunities and operational improvements that scale user insights across teams.
Collaborate with product, design, and engineering teams to translate research insights into engineering requirements, acceptance criteria, and prioritized backlog items.
Participate in sprint planning, design sprints, and agile ceremonies to provide timely research context that influences sprint goals and tactical decisions.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Usability testing: moderated and unmoderated testing across web and mobile platforms, lab and remote methodologies.
Participant recruitment & panel management: creating screeners, coordinating incentives, and managing third-party recruitment vendors.
Interview moderation and contextual inquiry: empathetic, unbiased interview techniques and field study execution.
Survey design and analysis: experience creating, distributing, and analyzing surveys (Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey, Google Forms).
Qualitative analysis: coding, thematic synthesis, affinity mapping, experience with NVivo, Dedoose, or manual coding workflows.
Quantitative analysis and basic statistics: descriptive stats, t-tests, chi-square, confidence intervals using Excel, R, Python, or SPSS.
Remote research platforms: experience with UserTesting, Lookback, Zoom, Maze, Validately, PlaybookUX or similar tools.
UX metrics and analytics: defining and measuring SUS, NPS, task success, time-on-task, and using analytics tools (Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Amplitude).
Prototyping and design tools: familiarity with Figma, Sketch, InVision, or similar tools for setting up testable prototypes.
Accessibility testing: understanding of WCAG guidelines and assistive technology testing practices.
Data visualization and reporting: producing dashboards and visual summaries using Tableau, Looker, Power BI, or Google Data Studio.
Basic SQL and data querying: extracting user event data or metrics to support research hypotheses.
Lab operations and AV skills: setting up cameras, microphones, screen capture, and troubleshooting recording hardware and software.
Experimental design and A/B testing fundamentals: translating insights into hypotheses and supporting statistical interpretation of experiments.
Research ethics and compliance: knowledge of consent documentation, IRB processes, GDPR and CCPA considerations.

Soft Skills

Clear, persuasive written and verbal communication tailored to technical and executive audiences.
Empathy and active listening to build rapport with participants and accurately surface user needs.
Stakeholder management and influence: translating research findings into prioritized business actions.
Critical thinking and the ability to synthesize complex, mixed-methods data into concise recommendations.
Strong organization, time management, and project coordination skills to juggle multiple concurrent studies.
Attention to detail in data collection, transcription, and documentation to ensure research credibility.
Facilitation skills for workshops, synthesis sessions, and cross-functional presentations.
Intellectual curiosity and continuous learning mindset about UX best practices, tools, and methodologies.
Adaptability to fast-paced product cycles and changing research priorities.
Team collaboration and mentorship to grow junior researchers and share methods across teams.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Psychology, Human Factors, Cognitive Science, Anthropology, Sociology, Informatics, Statistics, Computer Science, or related field.

Preferred Education:

Master’s degree or graduate certificate in HCI, Human Factors, Cognitive Psychology, Design Research, or equivalent applied research training.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
Psychology (Cognitive, Experimental, or Social)
Human Factors / Ergonomics
Cognitive Science
Anthropology / Sociology
Statistics, Data Science, or Informatics
Design / Interaction Design

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 1–4 years performing user research, usability testing, research coordination, or human factors research in product teams, agencies, or academic labs.

Preferred: 2–5+ years of hands-on experience in UX research operations, participant recruitment, mixed-methods analysis, remote and in-person testing, and familiarity working with cross-functional product teams. Prior experience with accessibility testing, research tooling (UserTesting, Lookback, Qualtrics), and basic analytics / SQL is highly desirable.