“I think UX professionals are better qualified for leadership roles than they (often) realize. That empathy and passion we have for users is just as important when applied to the business and the people you’re responsible for.” – Kate
Meet Kate Moran – a globally recognized UX expert, UX researcher, and a Vice President at Nielsen Norman Group (which has been women-led for the past 2 years), where she currently oversees the research and content functions.
Kate has spent 15 years in the tech industry, with a strong foundation in UX, starting out in technical writing and front-end development. Her experience spans major companies like IBM, a small design agency, and now a consultancy.
She’s passionate about helping others make sense of the complex world of UX — especially those just starting out or looking to grow in their careers.
In this interview with UXtweak, Kate covers:
🔥 Lessons from stepping into leadership at NN/g
🙋♀️ Her opinions on AI participants
💡 Practical advice for UX professionals aspiring to leadership
📢 Challenges of visibility and gender bias in UX
🛠️ Bridging the gap between UX research and business strategy
🤖 The role of AI in UX research and design
… and so much more! Let’s dive right in!
Career journey, leadership & NN/g
You started in technical writing and front-end development before moving into UX. What drew you to UX, and how did that transition happen?
I actually knew I wanted to break into UX since my freshman year of college at the University of North Carolina! I’ve always loved technology, people, psychology, and communication, and I adored how UX brought those pieces all together.
But, as many UXers know, it’s very hard to land that first job without work experience. I took an internship in technical writing at IBM, which turned into a full-time job and got me some initial exposure to product teams.
Then, once I realized there was high demand for developers, I taught myself CSS and Javascript to transition into that role. I found there was a lot of value in learning the medium I’d later design for – it really helped with communication and empathy.
From there, I was finally able to move into UX design and research at a small agency.
What was the biggest learning curve for you when stepping into leadership?
Well, it’s been 3 years since I was promoted to director and then VP at NN/g, and I feel like I’m still learning! It’s definitely forced me out of my UX research comfort zone, and I’ve had to develop new skills I didn’t have before.
One of the big things I’ve had to acquire is more confidence in my own instincts. And that came slowly over time, as I had ideas for new processes, programs, and projects. When they were approved and implemented and actually worked, that was a big confidence boost.
I think UX professionals are better qualified for leadership roles than they (often) realize. That empathy and passion we have for users is just as important when applied to the business and the people you’re responsible for.
It equips us to balance between the (sometimes conflicting) needs of users, the business, and our employees.
UXers tend to have a long-term mindset, which is something that a lot of business and product leaders really lack. It’s a strength.
What advice would you give someone who wants to move into leadership, what steps should they take?
When I’m considering promoting someone, I’m looking for:
- A contextual understanding of the business, and that individual’s role in it
- Attention to detail and strong time management skills
- Proactive problem solving — don’t point out a problem without a suggestion for a solution. Even if it isn’t the right solution, I want to see that initiative
- The ability to understand how to effectively prioritize your own work, and anyone you manage, to ensure you’re making the biggest impact possible
Don’t confuse effort with impact. Simply working harder or for longer hours doesn’t matter if you aren’t working on the right projects and doing them really well. Personally, I’d rather have staff that can figure out how to work efficiently; use the available resources and tools (including AI); and deliver results while also maintaining healthy work-life balance. Long hours are ok as long it’s occasional, but burnout isn’t good for anyone (including the business).
A big mistake I see a lot of smart, hardworking junior people make (especially women): don’t be afraid to raise your hand when you’re overwhelmed. Talk to your manager and ask them to help you prioritize, if you aren’t sure what to focus on. I promise they would rather have that conversation with you than not know you’re struggling until it’s too late and deadlines are missed.
Ask questions, identify problems, offer solutions — again, these are things UX people tend to do naturally in a product context, but they can apply that skill to business.
If there’s something that seems inefficient, figure out why and what you’d do to solve it. Bring that to your boss.
NN/g’s content is known for being highly detailed but easy to digest. How do you approach making research findings useful for both beginners and experts?
It isn’t always easy, but it’s something the whole team strives for every day! It helps that we hire really insightful deep-thinkers with strong self-expression.
The most important thing is to always think about your audience. Who’s going to read this, why would they read it, and what do they need from it?
For example, UX has a ton of jargon (and it seems like companies are inventing new terms every day.) It can be really confusing to junior UX pros, let alone people who don’t work in our field.
Really think about the terminology you’re using when presenting to business and other non-UX stakeholders. Do they know what a ‘persona’ is? Do they care about reducing ‘cognitive load’?
Put things in context and speak your audience’s language as much as possible.
I’d like to address a relevant issue that’s been a problem for as long as I’ve been at NN/g (10 years). Every so often, I’ve seen chatter (LinkedIn, Reddit, Medium) accusing NN/g of being sexist… because we hire many young women. The irony.
To be clear, NN/g is an equal opportunity employer that actively seeks out to hire people with diverse backgrounds and perspectives. There is not one person of any gender who works with us who has not earned their place through their hard work, intelligence, and talent.
I have seen posts implying that I, personally, as well as other women working at NN/g, are simply mouthpieces for Jakob and Don’s ideas. That my hard work, research findings, and ideas were not my own. For years, I ignored that thinly veiled misogyny masquerading as feminism.
But then, early last year, I saw a woman who is very established in the UX community, with a large following, posting about this again. She even implied that she didn’t believe NN/g was actually women-led, which is incredibly insulting to me, Kara, and Sarah.
But the final straw was I saw her commenting on a specific, junior employee that we had hired recently — one of the most intelligent young women I’ve ever worked with — implying (yet again) that her ideas and insights were not her own, and she was just a “pretty” puppet for male thought leaders.
I couldn’t keep quiet at that point, and ended up writing a very personal response post that went a bit viral. (In the face of public criticism, the thought leader in question quietly went back and edited her post to remove her sexist comments.)
I bring this up to highlight some of the challenges and double standards that women can encounter in field, as they do in others. While the broader tech field tends to be predominately men, UX (especially research) seems to tend to attract more women. In some ways, that makes it feel like a safer space for us — but that isn’t always the case.
Don’t let anyone else define you or what you’re capable of because who you are or what you look like. When they try, call them out for it. Stand up for yourself and others.
AI’s Role in UX Research
Kate at a conference in Bangalore.
How has NN/g’s focus on AI and UX grown recently, and where do you see that heading?
At NN/g, we strive to take a practical, insightful, research-backed approach to any topic, including AI. In 2023, it felt like all we saw were extreme takes on AI — it’ll save the world, or it’s the start of the apocalypse. In reality, we feel that the truth is somewhere in between.
We’re writing a lot about AI lately, and I hope our audience doesn’t get AI fatigue! But there’s truly so much to say about it, and (like it or not) it’s here to stay in a meaningful way.
We’ve focused on covering:
- Explaining important aspects of the underlying LLM technology (like sycophancy and hallucinations) in an approachable, non-techical way
- Exploring how AI developments are likely to change our work in the near future
- Cutting through the hype and marketing BS by evaluating AI tools intended for design and research (especially in 2023, some of those claims were just outright lies)
- Providing practical advice for how AI should be integrated into your work with the tools that are available today (and there are plenty of small-but-valuable ways to do that)
- Commenting on design mistakes being made as teams try to figure out how to integrate AI into their products
We’re currently in the middle of a multimethod qualitative study on AI feature usability (I just wrapped up the first phase last week!) There are finally enough AI features integrated into products (beyond the basic chat) that we can study them with users and develop AI design best practices. It’s been really fascinating.
We’ll be publishing lots of those findings through our newsletter in the coming weeks.
We also have two live full-day courses on AI:
What’s your take on the growing debate about AI participants and generated responses for UX research?
Oh, you know I have opinions on this! Maria Rosala and I wrote an article on synthetic users, detailing our evaluation of them and comparison of their “fake findings” against real ones derived from humans.
In a nutshell – no, AI ‘participants’ are not a replacement for real users (I can’t believe that has to be stated, but it does.) They’re a valuable method of desk research, but currently not much else.
However, I know several research repository platforms are working towards AI personas – a similar concept, but they’re essentially interactive personas based on your real research with your human users (not simulated findings based on whatever information is available on the internet.)
Women in UX
NN/g team at a curling teambuilding.
Are there any women in UX or tech that you look up to or find particularly inspiring?
Is it lame if I say all the women I work with? 😂 But really though, one of the things that’s kept me at NN/g for a full decade is how bafflingly brilliant all my coworkers are (of all genders, but we do have more women at NN/g.)
I would list them all, but just to name a few of my coworkers I really look up to:
- Kara Pernice: Our CEO and the researcher behind famous findings like the F-pattern and other scanning patterns; In her 3-decade career she’s played a major role in shaping our field
- Sarah Gibbons: Senior VP at NN/g and an amazing thought leader in service design as AI (we collaborate often — check out our recent article on the state of UX in 2025)
- Maria Rosala: Director of research at NN/g, and very likely the best researcher I’ve ever met in my career (and I’ve met a lot of genius researchers!)
- And so many more
Outside of NN/g:
- Nancy Douyon: A bubbly and deeply experienced expert in cross-cultural design and inclusivity — she’s the woman behind Uber’s expansion into 66 diverse countries, each with very different design needs
- Savina Hawkins: A former Meta prompt engineer who founded her own AI-driven research platform (she’s one of the few founders building an ethical AI product with a sound understanding of both AI and UXR)
- Erika Hall: A talented researcher and hilarious writer. I’ve been loving her (admittedly quite pessimistic) takes on genAI over the past few years
- Kate Towsey: She is the authority on all things ResearchOps! Maria recently interviewed her on our podcast, and they had a great conversation.
- Michaela Hackner: Senior Director of UX at Indeed, I love her common-sense approach to UX leadership
If you’re interested to read more of inspiring interviews with women from the UX industry, check out our other Women in UX talks!
And dont’ forget to check out UXtweak – an all-in-one UX research platform. From user interviews, to surveys, card sorts and usability tests – we have it all 🐝
