Enterprise vs. startup UX research: Same job, different description

The job description of a UX researcher can vary widely depending on the environment.

Your day-to-day on the front lines of an early-stage startup might seem like a world apart from that of a fellow UX researcher embedded deep within a large enterprise company. In this article, we’ll explore the pros, cons, and unique challenges of each, helping UX researchers navigate their company environment better or even decide which environment is right for their next career move. 

Spoiler alert: there’s no winner. It all depends on what you value and need most—autonomy and creativity or stability and structured growth. For this article, I spoke with Jessica Papiot, a fellow UX researcher who's worked in both startups and big companies like me and knows the different landscapes and their intricacies. 

First, a note on company size

In this article, startups refer to companies with fewer than 250 employees and under $100M in annual revenue, where UX research is often a newer function. Unlike a CFO or lead engineer, a UX researcher isn’t usually among the first hires; they tend to join once a company has a product in the market and starts realizing the need for deeper user insights.

Research budgets in startups are often ad-hoc, pulled from other departments like marketing or product, whereas in enterprises—large companies with 1,000+ employees—there’s a more structured approach, with dedicated teams and the potential for research funding reaching hundreds of thousands or more.

The role of the UX researcher

In startups, being a UX researcher (or in any other role really) often means wearing many hats. You’re likely the only person dedicated to talking to customers, so your role goes way beyond running studies. You’ll need to advocate for the value of research, anticipate skepticism, and educate others about what UX research can do for the company

The good news is that startups are small and usually collaborative by nature. Everyone knows each other’s work, which makes cross-functional collaboration easier—at least when things are going well. But when business pressure mounts, research can quickly be deprioritized in favor of short-term goals like launching a marketing campaign or boosting e-commerce KPIs.

By contrast, large organizations often have centralized UX research teams with multiple specialists. This setup means you’ll have peers to collaborate with, bounce ideas off, and support you on complex projects. There is so much more support and companionship compared to being a lone researcher.

However, the downside is that these teams can feel a bit detached from the rest of the company, which may lead to an “us vs. them” dynamic with other departments. Staying embedded in the wider organization can take extra effort, like an initiative I’m currently working on with one of my enterprise clients to improve their UX/PM ways of working. 

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While it might seem obvious that UX researchers are customer/user-facing regardless of company size, in reality that’s not always the case. In big companies, there’s usually a budget for dedicated UX research software that allows you to do remote studies, run quantitative methods like large-scale surveys, and generally combine different methods.

In startups, the variety of options can be limited. It’s common to have small budgets to spend so the one method that many lean on is to run interviews or, in other words, get face-time with actual people. Especially as an entry-level researcher, this can feel challenging as the spotlight is on you to not only skillfully moderate those sessions, but also organize everything around it such as writing appropriate invitations, looping in stakeholders at each step, and facilitating more technical aspects like distributing participation incentives. 

Navigating resources & processes

The operational side of research—budgets, tools, and processes—differs dramatically depending on the company size. Startups are often scrappy and resource-constrained. There’s rarely a dedicated budget for research, so you have to get creative with how you run projects. I remember working with a fashion startup where we offered 50€ gift vouchers as incentives for one-hour interviews. It worked well for loyal customers, but if we’d needed to speak to people who dislike or aren’t familiar with the brand, that approach wouldn’t have gotten us very far.

In enterprise companies, there is more structure. Budgets are planned well in advance, and processes are well-defined, making it easier to plan research activities. However, this formality can also be a constraint. If demand for research increases unexpectedly, it’s hard to get extra resources and budget on short notice. Flexibility—something startups thrive on—is often very limited in large organizations.

Educating on & advocating for UX research

A major part of working in startups is helping others understand the value of UX research. You might think that a casual startup culture would make people naturally “get it,” but that’s not always the case. Roles can be surprisingly siloed, and you’ll find yourself frequently explaining what research is and why it matters. This kind of constant advocacy can be exhausting, but it’s also a chance to shape the company’s understanding of user-centered design from the ground up and based on the principles you deem most relevant. 

In enterprise companies, the need for education seems less intense when joining a team where there are already multiple researchers, at least at first. UX research is often part of the onboarding process for roles like Product Manager or Developer, so people tend to have a solid baseline knowledge.

But old habits die hard, especially in more traditional organizations. Senior leaders who’ve been around for decades might dismiss research because they remember the “old ways of doing things.” Hierarchical structures can make it extra tough to push back. While you can occasionally influence a startup CEO by making the right arguments in a department meeting like I did in the past, that same access is rare, if not impossible in a large organization.

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Making an impact with research

If you’re driven by visible impact, startups might be your playground. With small teams and fewer layers of approval, your work can lead to faster results with greater impact and visibility. Research is often directly tied to key business goals like unlocking new customer groups, increasing revenue, or improving conversion rates. When you deliver insights that move the needle, it’s hard to miss the contribution you’ve made—after all, you’re probably a one- or two-person team anyway!

In large organizations, it’s a very different story. Your work might feed into multi-million-dollar initiatives, but with dozens of people involved, your individual impact can easily get lost. If you’re hoping for recognition, you’ll need to be proactive in making your work visible. This can be challenging when compared to the fast-paced, high-impact environment of startups.

Related read: How to pace research for maximum impact by Hannah Kirkbride

Career growth & personal development

Career development is another area where startups and large companies offer very different experiences. Startups tend to be more unpredictable and lack clear progression from junior to senior roles; you’ll likely need to pitch for every promotion and opportunity.

While that can feel like a lot of work, it also empowers you to define your own path and how you will get there. People who have worked both in startups and big orgs often say their time at the startup was the hardest but most rewarding work they’ve ever done.

In contrast, large organizations typically have defined career ladders and formal promotion processes. Whether you want to move from junior to senior or transition into management, there’s usually a clear path based on job leveling in place.

The trade-off is that competition can be huge and internal processes on how the final decision is being made can lack transparency. There are often many people vying for promotions each year, so standing out requires strategic thinking and good stakeholder management.

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The bottom line

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to whether it’s better to do UX research in a startup or a large enterprise. Both have their own unique rewards and challenges. Ideally, experiencing both can give you a well-rounded perspective—helping you appreciate the strengths of each and adopt practices from one environment to the other. To recap, these are the biggest pros and cons of each:

Ultimately, it comes down to what kind of challenge excites you most.

• Do you want to get scrappy, build something from scratch, and wear multiple hats?
• Or do you prefer the stability and structure of a larger company, where you can specialize and navigate complex systems?

Whatever your preference, each experience will help shape you as a researcher and open new doors for your career.