Why (Real) User Research Is Becoming a Career Advantage for Designers (Feat. Sara Fortier)

Your stakeholders say research is a waste of time. Just ship it. We’ll figure it out later. But later never comes. The product misses the mark, teams scramble, and you end up doing twice the work fixing mistakes you saw coming weeks ago. Relatable? For many designers it is...

In this episode, we’re joined by Sara Fortier, CEO of Outwitly and author of Design Research Mastery, to talk about just that, what design research really looks like today, and why it’s becoming more important as AI becomes bigger and bigger.

We talk about why research is less about methods and more about influence, how junior designers can stand out in today's super competitive market, and why the future favors designers who can connect business risk, human behavior, and product decisions instead of just pushing pixels.