Leadership in Research

How to succeed as a UXR Manager: Capitalizing on your strengths as a researcher.


Want to be a better manager? Look no further than the skills that got you to where you are.

Most of us started out as researchers and transitioned into management. As a people manager, you have a new set of responsibilities which require learning new skills.

However, several of the skills that made you successful as a researcher are key to being a star manager, including: active listening skills, empathy, cultural awareness, strong communication skills, great organizational and project management abilities, and the ability to conduct actionable research.

In this talk, I'll explain what makes for a great manager, especially in the domain of UX Research, and how utilizing your skills learned as a researcher can further enhance your capabilities and success as a people manager and strategic leader for your company.

Monal Chokshi.

Head of UX Research, Lyft


 

Monal is the Head of UX Research at Lyft, where she was the company’s first researcher. She has since grown the team to over 20, including quantitative UX research, design strategy, and research operations.

Monal has been building and leading UX teams for the last 8 years, including teams at Intuit and SoundCloud. Prior to that, she worked as a UX Researcher and Product Designer across a range of large companies and startups, dating back to the dot-com era.

Monal has an MS in Cognitive Science from UC San Diego, where she focused on methods of cognitive ethnography, studying people in real-life settings in order to determine how to best design everyday technology. Monal earned her BS from Stanford in Symbolic Systems, a Computer Science focused major complemented by courses in Psychology, Philosophy, and Linguistics. For both of her degrees, her concentration was Human-Computer Interaction.

A former national champion cross country and track & field runner, Monal still enjoys staying active outdoors, as well as wildlife spotting and travel with her husband. She works and lives in San Francisco.