These aren't necessarily UX or UX Research skills, but quality of life skills you should aim to improve LOL

• Typing speed: work on this for note-taking purposes (typeracer.com is a fun one to practice with)
  • Goal: try to average AT LEAST 60 WPM (words per minute)
  • My "try-hard" speed is around 150 wpm, and my effective average is around 110 wpm if I'm going to accuracy.
  • YEAH YEAH, AI and transcription tools can make note-taking obsolete, but I don't want you relying on AI tools to take notes for you.

• Slides/Powerpoint skills for visualization: know shortcuts to create things quicker, how to create shapes, gradients, etc...
  • My live cohort students watched me make presentation slides from scratch and were super impressed how I made a simple ugly template into something professional and good-looking.
  • Take inspiration from great presentations you see and decrease the amount of text

• Excel/Google Sheets skills: know how to use basic formulas, manipulating sheets, grouping rows, hiding rows, option+enter to create a new line within a cell, XLOOKUP, pivot tables etc...

• Practice moderating A LOT WITH FEEDBACK - moderating is hard. It's an art. Not a science. You have to know when to probe, when to leave it alone, what to ask when, recognize when a participant is frustrated, how to juggle incoming questions from your observers, how to handle a participant who cries etc...

• Public Speaking. Avoid filler words, avoid "up-speak". Communicate more confidently! Take some classes or training, or try improv/acting classes! Don't rely on your slides to tell a story.
  • A subset of this skill would be presentation, which we will cover in Module 4.6 (Presenting Insights and Inspiring Action), and Module 13