User research in government – the career pathway

In this video, our Head of User Research, Louise Petre, explains why you should consider a user research career in government.

The career pathway

This is the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework pathway for a user researcher.

The government user research capability framework for user researchers starts with entry level roles and supports progression through to management and expert practitioner roles. It is possible for people to move into user research at different levels depending on their transferable skills.

Associates and Juniors

These are entry level roles. Those looking to join at this level are expected to mostly be aware of the skills they need, not have a lot of experience. Associates and juniors are trained and supported on the job by more senior user researchers so that they can develop their skills and work independently.

Midweights

Midweight user researchers work independently with teams. They are practitioners. Midweights consolidate their skills on the job and through more specialist training.

Senior

Senior user researchers are able to work on projects where user research is a new practice or the team might be new to user research. They might oversee multiple streams of research or work on a complicated product or service that crosses multiple organisational boundaries. They may perform quality assurance, do longer term planning with programme teams and develop user recruitment strategies.

At senior level, user researchers may start to develop a specialist interest such as survey writing or usability testing. Seniors who are interested in developing management skills may line manage and support the professional development of junior colleagues.

Lead

Lead user researchers work with other senior managers to manage user research across portfolios of work or directorates; this involves people management as well as taking responsibility for strategic decisions. Lead user researchers may be responsible for making things more efficient, strategic workforce planning and decision making. In some organisations, they may be responsible for representing a user group across the departments.

Principal

Principal user researchers are on the same level as lead user researchers, but they are expert practitioners with no management responsibilities. They will be involved in strategic planning of research and will generally be an expert in a particular method such as usability testing or survey design. Though they do not manage, lead user researchers may also mentor or coach junior colleagues.

Head

Heads of user research in government fall into two role categories: Heads of Profession and Heads of User Research. Heads of Profession lead a community of practice and provide professional support across an organisation, but may not have management responsibilities. Heads of User Research will have line management responsibility for a team of user researchers.

Routes into user research

As we learned in step 1.8, user researchers come from a variety of backgrounds and user research can happen on many different things across government. This diversity makes it a rich and varied profession with many opportunities to explore and develop new skills.

Some user researchers will join the profession as juniors, some will join straight from academia, and some will make the switch from other research fields into more senior roles.