36 Active UX Leaders to Follow on Linkedin in 2023

When you’re trying to learn more about your job and industry, where do you go?

If you didn’t say Linkedin, then you’re missing out on some of the freshest, most innovative thoughts and perspectives from active UX professionals. 

Leaders in UX, research, and design are using Linkedin to share their in-the-moment learnings on a daily basis. Anyone looking to learn, network, and follow industry trends should be following them. 

In this article, we’ve compiled some of the top, active UX leaders on Linkedin today. 

We chose these leaders based on crowd-sourced recommendations from UX research communities, as well as their regular, original posting activity (i.e. sharing their own thoughts instead of re-sharing others). Feel free to shoot me an email at lizzy@userinterviews.com if you think there's anyone missing from this list!

36 active UX leaders to follow on Linkedin in 2023

Follow these UX professionals to join some of the most important conversations happening in UXR today 👇

💬 Trevor Nielsen, Senior UX Designer @ Giddy

Writes about: 

• UX
• Branding
• Startups
• Productivity
• Product Design

“Seems like there are 1000 different design processes. In my experience, they all have one thing in common: 🟢 Start loose 🔴 Finish tight… ” — Read the full post

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💬 Jon Clancy, Senior UX Researcher @ Cox Automotive

Writes about: 

• UX and user research

“For everyone who needs to hear it: There is no AI tool available today that should be operating without a human checking its output.” – Read the full post

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💬 Nikki Anderson-Stanier, MA, Founder & Managing Director @ User Research Academy

Writes about: 

• Careers
• UX/user research

“Does anyone else get democratization scaries? Kind of like Sunday scaries or Sunday blues but about the loaded topic of democratization.

I've talked about how this topic needs to be redefined and reworked. Inherently, democratization doesn't have to be a bad thing, but I think we need to reshape it and create boundaries around it.” – Read the full post

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💬 Darren Hood, MSUXD, MSIM, UXC, Senior Staff UX Designer – Smart Connected Care @ BD

Writes about: 

• UX and user research
• Design thinking

“Do you know what it takes to be a leader? How to identify a leader? If you don't, you'll be doomed to the curse of misappropriation and its associated consequences. And up-and-coming UXers can't afford such.” – Read the full post

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💬 Varun M., Senior UX Researcher @ SeatGeek, Co-Founder of Apple & Banana

Writes about: 

• UX and user research

“Can a product be 100% usable?

I'm referring to somewhat complex products, not a website with one button that reads "click me." Is it possible to have a product that works across generations, cultures, contexts, and time.

My gut tells me ‘mostly no, but a little yes.’” – Read the full post

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💬 Gregg Bernstein, Director of User Research @ Hearst Magazines

Writes about: 

• UX and user research
• Management and leadership
• Careers

“I just created a new blog post: The coaching tree.

Managing a team is so much more than setting goals and managing tasks. It’s a commitment to a person and an investment in their growth. While a workplace might be the genesis of a relationship, that relationship should endure far beyond a role or organization.” – Read the full post

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💬 Janelle Ward, PhD, Founder & Principal Consultant @ Janelle Ward Insights

Writes about: 

• UX and user research
• Productivity
• Careers

“Imagine a world where the first thought every (potential) founder had, right after they came up with their initial great idea, was:

‘I need to find a researcher to partner with!’” – Read the full post

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💬 Rajeev Subramanian, UX Lead @ TEKsystems

Writes about: 

• UX and user research
• Design 
• Careers

“When you start with a company as a UX/Product Designer or Researcher, you must assess the state of mind and perception of how the company views the value of UX.

From my experience, it usually falls into 1 of these 5 buckets…” – Read the full post

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💬 Sharae Gibbs, Interaction Designer @ Google

Writes about: 

• UX design
• Women of color in tech
• Careers

“Support a scholarship fund for women of color in tech.

She Designs Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that offers scholarships to underrepresented women of color and non-binary people pursuing careers in technology.” – Read the full post

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💬 Indi Young, Independent Qualitative Data Scientist

Writes about: 

• UX design, research, and strategy

“Research is knowledge creation.

Before you just start a research study, there are a few questions to ask, of yourself, of your org, of your stakeholders, and of the context that you all exist within…” – Read the full post

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💬 Amy Santee, Career Strategist & Coach 

Writes about: 

• UX and user research
• Careers

“The mass tech layoffs are bad news for academics transitioning to UXR. So is it a fool's errand to try and do this now?

It's rough, but not all is lost. Depending on each person's circumstances, individual risk tolerance, and professional positioning, there are ways to stand out and ride it out.” – Read the full post 

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💬 Zoë ✏️ Glas, Senior UX Researcher @ Google

Writes about: 

• UX and user research
• Careers and mentorship

“My food for thought won't be as snappy (and even in my PR days, I can't say I was much of an expert on SEO)-- but here goes. Inclusion *is* more important than diversity to the success of your product, and your team.” – Read the full post

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💬 Devin Harold, Director of Design Research @ Capital One

Writes about: 

• UX and user research
• Health and wellness
• Culture

“My team is, and always will be, my #1.

I see myself as an enabler who helps my team of rockstars remove blockers, leverage the right tools, access the necessary resources, and most importantly **make space** to get shit done and grow their craft.” – Read the full post

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💬 Frederick Royster, Educator and Web/UX Designer

Writes about: 

• UX/UI design
• Mental health and neurodiversity 

“Remember Google Answers? Google Offers? Google Wave? You don't?!! Actually most people don't remember these Google products because they were all duds…” – Read the full post

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💬 Renee Reid, Senior Manager, UX Design Research @ Linkedin

Writes about: 

• UX and user research
• Diversity in tech
• Culture

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“The power of REST in the creative growth process is everything 🌱

Listen. I had to apologize to myself for thinking I had to create 24/7…” – Read the full post

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💬 Dr. Ari Zelmanow, Head of Experience Research @ Twilio

Writes about: 

• UX and market research
• Entrepreneurship
• Innovation 
• Personal development

“Research has a framing (positioning) problem...

The current framing is on the methods and tools...

"We conduct interviews!"

"I'm a qualitative researcher!"

"I can conduct a survey for you!"

We should be framing research in terms of taking a scientific approach to identifying and solving problems...” – Read the full post

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💬 Auzita Irani, Head of Research @ Sprig

Writes about: 

• UX and user research

“One of the first things you think through when you start working on a research project is: who are the right participants? Asking people who don’t currently use your product how you can make a specific product feature more valuable or usable isn’t going to get you the deep insights you probably need.” – Read the full post

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💬 Frankie Kastenbaum, Freelance UX Designer

Writes about: 

• UX/UI
• Product design
• Mentorship and education

“Especially in our still somewhat two dimensional world, it is important that we maintain a work-life balance! If you are anything like me, it has taken time to figure out what this looks like. That is why I wanted to share some of my tricks that I have learned along the way!” – Read the full post

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💬 Sarah Doody, CEO @ Career Strategy Lab

Writes about: 

• UX, design, and research
• Careers

“When writing your resume and UX case studies, you're told to measure the impact of your work and quantify what you've done. Here's the thing, that does NOT have to be incredible results such as how you saved the company $1 million.

There are other ways to quantify your work…” – Read the full post

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💬 Vitaly Friedman, Founder @ Smashing Magazine

Writes about: 

• UX, design, and research
• Accessibility

“How do we show the value of UX research? After all these years, Jared Spool’s User Exposure Hours are still one of the most impactful drivers to improve UX.

Here’s how it works…” – Read the full post

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💬 Michele Ronsen, Founder & CEO @ Curiosity Tank

Writes about: 

• UX, design, and research
• Careers

“Here is what I look for in a UXR case study to evaluate your previous work and current expertise. It should clearly and succinctly communicate:

1. Problem/opportunity explored (the goal)...” – Read the full post

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💬 Kelly Jura, VP of Brand & User Experience @ ScreenPal

Writes about: 

• UX and user research
• Women in tech
• Employee experience

“Layering the research from Gartner and PwC tells an interesting story. The "understanding" gap here can significantly impact brand loyalty and is an excellent example of why EX, CX, and UX are interconnected.” – Read the full post

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💬 Paige Elaine Nuzzolillo, Senior User Experience Researcher @ Indeed

Writes about: 

• UX and user research
• Anthropology
• Careers
• Self-care

“One of the hardest things as a UXR is translating generative insights to tangible product changes and tracing that impact back to your work.

My training in social justice-focused participatory action research (PAR) taught me to ground interventions in the research and move directly from insights to change for communities.” – Read the full post

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💬 Jan Ahrend, UX Research Lead @ YouTube Channel Memberships

Writes about: 

• UX and user research

A recent post:

“What happened in UX Research this week? Layoffs. Many amazing researchers were laid off in this and the previous weeks. Experiencing the abruptness and the scale of impact here on LinkedIn is sad. But seeing the community come together to share these difficult times also makes me grateful and hopeful.” – Read the full post

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💬 Harrison Wheeler, Sr. Design Manager @ Linkedin

Writes about: 

• Product design
• Design leadership and management

“Some themes around design/management/leadership I’ve been reflecting on heading into 2023:

Managing people is a responsibility and privilege; leading with curiosity and humility is essential. Don't shy away from taking risks and having hard conversations…” – Read the full post

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💬 Jane Davis, Principal Researcher @ Great Question

Writes about: 

• UX and user research
• Content design
• Growth and leadership

“I've watched a lot of amazing design researchers either burn out or leave the field because they reached a point where their work wasn't having an impact. And it sucks, every time. So I want to talk about it. Specifically, I want to talk about the part of it we, as researchers, have control over: how we think about socializing and sharing our research.” – Read the full post

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💬 Caitlin D. Sullivan, Founder @ User Research Studio

Writes about: 

• UX and user research
• Customer insights
• Business building

“I was really sick of ChatGPT posts, too.

Then I started using it for UX Research. Here's what happened:

In the last couple of weeks, I used ChatGPT to:

> Get the repetitive parts of work done faster

> Teach new UXRs twice as much in less time…” – Read the full post

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💬 Kate Kalcevich, Head of Accessibility Innovation @ Fable

Writes about: 

• Accessibility and inclusion
• UX and user research
• Culture

“Accessibility is innovation. Innovation forces you to be customer and industry obsessed. It requires you to stay in tune with your broader ecosystem.” – Read the full post

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💬 Julie Zhuo, Co-Founder @ Sundial

Writes about: 

• Product design
• Management and team building
• Personal development

“*A Manifesto for the Data-Informed*

What does it mean to use data well?

Data has been extolled as the vanquisher of uncertainty, the harbinger of a robotic future, a necessity in everything from product management to engineering, sales to design.

Yet many of us who have tried to use data for better decision-making have experienced a different reality in our organizations--one where we are constantly confused by how metrics are defined, bicker over how to interpret analyses, and struggle to apply insights into action.” – Read the full post

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💬 Jake Burghardt, Consultant @ IntegratingResearch.com

Writes about: 

• UX and user research
• Research ops and product ops
• Product management

“Existing research at the starting line. Product people often want fresh data on what they see as new questions, before they’ve considered how available insights could reframe and clarify their ideas.” – Read the full post

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💬 Patrizia Bertini, Head of Experience Design Operations @ TrueLayer

Writes about: 

• Design and design ops
• Leadership and management

“What is #designOps?

It is not just problem-solving, it is purpose and data driven problem-setting.

DesignOps' key role is to understand, measure, and assess inefficiencies and waste both generated and inflicted on the #design team that have a systemic impact on both the users and the business.” – Read the full post

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💬 Tony Moura, Federal Garage Lead / Sr. UX Architect @ IBM

Writes about: 

• UI/UX
• Design
• Careers

“UX Designers,

OMG! There's more people with a ‘UX’ background telling you what you need to do. The 5 things you ‘need’ to do to become a better designer. The 32 things you ‘need’ to think about etc.

Pssst, want to know a secret?

Come here.. You don't ‘need’ to do any of those, really.” – Read the full post

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💬 Erika Hall, Co-Founder/Director of Strategy @ Mule Design Studio

Writes about: 

• UX, design, research, and strategy
• Ethics

“If you aren't asking the right questions, it doesn't matter what tools you're using to gather the data.” – Read the full post

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💬 Stéphanie Walter, UX Research & UX Design Consultant @ Maltem

Writes about: 

• UX and user research
• Accessibility and inclusion

“I've seen accessibility listed as a UX trends for the last 4 years, yet, most sites are not, most people don't care. It's about time we turn the trend into something else than inspirational articles, and start, doing the work? Yes, I'm a little bit tired of all talk zero action.” – Read the full post

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💬 Behzod Sirjani, Founder @ Yet Another Studio

Writes about: 

• UX and user research
• Organizational design

“Research has always been an important activity, but it’s easy to do wrong and even easier to waste time doing it (both yours and customers). At its best, research helps reduce risk and increase confidence in the decisions that you’re making.” – Read the full post

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💬 Mia Blume, Design Executive Coach & CEO @ Design Dept.

Writes about: 

• UX design
• Design leadership and management

“Reminder: you don’t have to manage people to increase your impact in your organization.

Some ways individual contributors can have an outsized impact:

1. Connect your craft to business outcomes. Identify opportunities where design creates business value, map out the ROI of current priorities, and support others to do the same...." – Read the full post

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More ways to connect and network with UX research thought leaders

UX researchers are having fresh, groundbreaking conversations online every day. 

Here are other ways to stay connected with the UX community:

• Follow User Interviews on Linkedin for the latest content, job openings, and events in UXR. ‍
• Join these top 16 UX research communities to voice your ideas, learn from your peers, and stay informed.‍
• Subscribe to these 33 highly-rated podcasts (including our own podcast, Awkward Silences!) to level up your UX knowledge and get inspired by leaders in design, research, and business. 

Happy connecting!