leiamanin.consult@gmail.com
+33 7 44 42 25 23
I Have a UX Problem — What Do I Even Hire For? — The UX Research Library
The UX Research Library

I Have a UX Problem — What Do I Even Hire For?

You don't need the right vocabulary. Just describe what's actually happening.

What's actually going on?

What this is called

A Heuristic Audit

An expert walks through your interface against proven usability principles and hands you a prioritized list of what's actually wrong — fast, no need to recruit anyone.

What it actually involves
  1. An expert reviews the interface screen by screen against established usability principles, not personal opinion.
  2. You get a written report ranking issues by severity, so you know what to fix first.
Signs this is genuinely the right fit
  • No time or budget to recruit real users right now
  • You want a fast, defensible list of issues to act on
  • You want to catch the obvious problems before investing in user testing
Typical timeline
Days
Weeks

One of the fastest ways to get a real, expert-backed answer.

You might also hear this called
Expert reviewUX auditUsability auditHeuristic evaluation

You don't have to know the right term. That's the researcher's job.

Let's talk

What this is called

Research Diagnosis — Interviews, Analytics, or Both

This usually means talking to real users and looking at where they actually drop off, not guessing. Sometimes it's one method, sometimes a mix — that's exactly the part a researcher figures out with you.

What it actually involves
  1. Looking at where in the journey people are actually dropping off, not where you assume they are.
  2. Talking to real users about why — the numbers show what's happening, conversations show why.
Signs this is genuinely the right fit
  • You have a hypothesis but no proof it's the real cause
  • Different people on your team blame different things
  • The drop-off is measurable, but nobody can explain it
Typical timeline
Days
Weeks

Usually 1–3 weeks depending on which methods make sense.

You might also hear this called
Conversion researchFunnel analysisUser research

You don't have to know the right term. That's the researcher's job.

Let's talk

What this is called

Discovery Research

Before building anything, this is where you talk to real people about their actual needs — so you're building toward something they'll use, not a guess dressed up as a roadmap.

What it actually involves
  1. Talking to the people you're building for, before anything is built.
  2. Looking for patterns across conversations — one opinion isn't a direction, five similar ones might be.
Signs this is genuinely the right fit
  • You're about to invest real time or budget in a direction
  • You have more than one idea and no way to choose between them
  • Nobody's actually validated the assumption everything else depends on
Typical timeline
Days
Weeks

Usually 2–4 weeks — longer for bigger, riskier bets.

You might also hear this called
Discovery researchGenerative researchUser interviews

You don't have to know the right term. That's the researcher's job.

Let's talk

What this is called

Information Architecture

This is the structure underneath everything — how things are grouped, named, and connected. Fixing it is usually less about redesigning and more about reorganizing what's already there.

What it actually involves
  1. Mapping how things are currently grouped, named, and connected across the site or app.
  2. Reorganizing based on how people actually think about the content — not how your org chart happens to be arranged.
Signs this is genuinely the right fit
  • Your own team struggles to find things on your own site
  • Search gets used constantly because browsing doesn't work
  • The structure grew organically over time and was never designed on purpose
Typical timeline
Days
Weeks

Usually 1–2 weeks for most sites, more for large or complex ones.

You might also hear this called
IASite structureNavigation designCard sorting

You don't have to know the right term. That's the researcher's job.

Let's talk

What this is called

AI Enablement

Getting a team to use AI tools well — consistently, with judgment, not just enthusiasm — is its own kind of work. It's less about the tools themselves and more about the habits and guardrails around them.

What it actually involves
  1. Assessing where AI genuinely helps your team's actual workflows, not just where it's trendy to use it.
  2. Building shared habits and guardrails, so quality doesn't depend on which person happens to be using it well.
Signs this is genuinely the right fit
  • Everyone's using different tools, differently, with no shared approach
  • Nobody's sure what's actually okay to feed into an AI tool
  • Output quality varies wildly depending on who's using it
Typical timeline
Weeks
Ongoing

Initial habits take a few weeks to build; keeping them current is ongoing.

You might also hear this called
AI adoptionAI enablementAI training

You don't have to know the right term. That's the researcher's job.

Let's talk

What this is called

Exactly the Right Place to Start

"Something's off but I can't name it" is one of the most common ways this conversation actually starts. Figuring out what's actually going on — and which of the above it turns out to be — is genuinely part of the work, not a prerequisite for it.

What it actually involves
  1. A short conversation about what you're actually seeing or hearing from users.
  2. Landing together on which of the above (or a mix) fits — without you needing to have decided that in advance.
Signs this is genuinely the right fit
  • You've read through the other options and more than one sounds a little bit right
  • You know something's wrong but couldn't confidently name which category it falls in
  • You just want someone to help you figure out where to start
Typical timeline
One call
Weeks

This part is usually just one conversation before anything else begins.

You don't have to know the right term. That's the researcher's job.

Let's talk
Part of The UX Research Library — leiamanin.com