A Different Case Study:
The Ongoing Development of Me
(Now in Beta… But Pretty Solid)

Background on “Julie Researcher ver. Next Level”

Time for an upgrade

After the UX Lead at my organization left to explore new opportunities, I realized it was time not just to support UX projects, but to level myself up along the way. My new mission: Improve the digital experiences for my organization’s users and install a few new upgrades in myself.

Method

Get everyone rowing in the same direction

To tackle complex, high-impact work, I equipped myself with a few essential tools:

  • Strategic Alignment Protocol – I learned to set UX roadmaps that connected directly with the development team, our end-user’s experiences, and my organization’s mission.

  • Research Readiness Module – I honed the ability to spot UX gaps, build out research plans, and create studies that got us the insights we needed.

Research & Learning

Along the way I absorbed…

  • The magic of sharing insights clearly and creatively through:

    • Team talks, 1:1 conversations with state agency leaders and content editors, plus our annual conference webinar presentations.

    • The art of giving guidance that brings people along for the journey and not just throwing decks into the void.

    • How to distill key user findings into recommendations that weren’t just a wishlist, they were immediately actionable.

    • Steering road maps, whether they were quarterly, monthly milestones or individual research studies.

Collaboration Module (Keeps Iterating)

Strengthened my cross-functional team muscles.

Thanks to this module expansion I was able to:

  • Turn research into solutions and wireframed them for back-end developers

  • Collaborate with content specialists on website migrations

  • Join forces with the service product team to untangle processes with service blueprints

  • Work with the communications outreach team to launch a usability testing service for state agencies

Outcomes

Thanks to these experiences, I didn’t just support the work, I evolved my skill set.

Over the past 5 years, I became:

  • A strategic roadmap planner for both long-term team goals and individual studies

  • The research study lead always focused on end-user feedback

  • A UX explorer pro-actively searching for enhancements for our users

  • A flexible communicator, to keep everyone in the loop regarding results, issues, re-testing and action steps.

  • Expansive collaborator with stakeholders, developers, communications, content editors, outreach and product teams.

Final Notes

Installing “Next Level”

 I’m still a work in progress, but isn’t everyone?

This project “Julie Researcher Next Level” continues to grow with every sprint, stakeholder meeting, and user study. And the best part? There’s always another version around the corner.

Project Case Studies

Want to know more?