15 minutes, report the moment they finish
UX researcher skills assessment
Twelve written situations, about fifteen minutes, that measure whether a researcher can tell what data does and does not support, fit a study to the decision, and say no to a question that cannot be answered.
The gap
What you cannot see when you hire a ux researcher
A research portfolio shows tidy findings. It never shows the studies that were badly framed, or whether the recommendation survived contact with the business.
The case starts here
“Run some user interviews and tell us whether people want this feature.” — the Head of Product
Every case opens with a request that already contains its own answer — because that is how requests arrive at work. What we measure starts with whether they notice.
What this case shows you
- Whether they reframe an unanswerable question
- Whether they match the method to the decision, not to the budget
- How they spot a flawed study and say so
- What they conclude, and what they refuse to conclude
- How they report a finding nobody wants to hear
Scoring
The same six capabilities, every role
The case changes. The rubric does not. That is what makes a ux researcher comparable to another ux researcher, and a score meaningful across your whole shortlist.
- Spots when the brief is wrong
- Knows what the data supports
- Sweats states and edge cases
- Knows what is cheap to build
- Explains decisions outside the team
- Holds a position with a senior stakeholder
- Moves without being told
- Keeps going when the plan changes
Marta R. · UX Researcher
Leads with both of the things you named
Reaches first for picks the method the question deserves and last for knows what the data supports, and works at a different pace from your team.
How much of their attention this one gets — not a pass mark.
How it works
Three steps.
No calls, no setup.
What must they be good at?
- Spot when the brief is wrong
- Knows what the data supports
- Moves without being told
- Sweats states and edge cases
One credit per candidate, spent only when they start. The first is free — see what the packs cost — and nothing expires, so a role on hold costs nothing.
Related reading
Worth reading before you decide
8 min
How to evaluate a design engineer
Evaluate a design engineer on the decisions nobody logs: when a component should be new, a variant, or should not exist at all; how they trade system consistency against shipping this week; what they do with a design that ignores the system; and which debt they take on purpose. A GitHub profile shows what they merged. The value of this role is largely in what never got built.
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How to evaluate a UX writer
Evaluate a UX writer on whether they fix the interface or just the sentence: whether they flag the broken flow behind a confusing message, how they handle a destructive action, what they do with a legal constraint they cannot remove, and how they decide what not to say. A writing sample shows the final line. It never shows what the screen looked like before, or what they refused to paper over.
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How to hire a product manager
Hiring a product manager well comes down to what they refuse rather than what they shipped: whether they interrogate a request instead of writing the ticket, how they size an opportunity with incomplete data, what they say no to and how, what goes first when the deadline halves, and which single metric they would move and by how much. A roadmap shows the output of a hundred decisions and none of the decisions.
Read it
Hiring a ux researcher right now?
Invite one candidate and read their report the moment they finish. The first one is free, with no card.