WayUp recently partnered with Foursquare on a research project for their awesome app, Swarm, which allows users to share their locations within their social network.
We sat down with Rekha, who does User Experience (UX) research at Foursquare, to learn more about her job and what it’s like to work at such an awesome tech company.
Before joining the Foursquare team, Rekha graduated with a master’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Clemson University in 2012 and was a research assistant with the Glass team at Google. Prior to moving to the U.S., Rekha studied electronics and communications as an undergrad in India, where she’s from originally!
Read below for a Q&A with Rekha about her experience at Foursquare, and more!
When did you first become interested in UX Research?
As a master’s student at Clemson University, I worked with a professor on a project she was spearheading, to create tools to help 8th graders learn better. It was a ton of fun, and I got to work with a couple of friends who were on the research team too! Every week, we would spend time with the 8th graders, and hold focus groups for them. I began to see the professor’s product really change from beginning to the end, and see the transition based completely on the product usage we observed! After this experience, I knew I wanted to make a career out of user experience research.
What is the most rewarding and challenging part of your job?
The most rewarding part of my job is seeing users actually USE the product. Even if the user has an issue, I feel good about it, because it will help us make the product better. I would say the most challenging part of the job is that we work in such a fast-paced environment. For instance, you can always test every feature of both of our apps. Sometimes you have to say no because there’s not enough time!
What are some key skills and attributes for someone entering UX research?
I think the main skills required to excel in UX research are presentation and communication abilities. Being able to communicate with different teams within the organization, and having great presentation skills are keys to success. It is vital to always be the advocate for the user as someone in UX research: You are the only person who knows how users feel about the product, and how they actually use it!
What’s the best advice you got as a student? What pieces of advice do you wish you could tell your student self?
That’s easy: DO AN INTERNSHIP! I decided to take my summers off, but I think an internship speaks a lot about what work you have done in the past and helps you learn a lot about yourself.
If you are planning to get into this field (UX Research), definitely work on your portfolio, even if you are not a designer! This is something everyone asks for. It is really important that you are able to show future employers what other research project(s) you have you done, what the impact was, and who you worked with.
I wish I had told my student self to get recommendations from people I worked with in the past. It’s good to get them while you are working still together!
What is the culture at Foursquare like?
It is SO much fun! Everyone does impactful work at our office, which I think is part of what makes a great company culture. Everyone does work A LOT here (but just during the week, we have our weekends free!) We have company outings often, like happy hours and game nights. And, we have a ping pong table in the NYC office :).
