But First, UX Research (Issue #3)

Synthetic Users, Build Your AI Research Assistant Agent, Dovetail Keynote summary and more.

May 14, 2025

In partnership with

👋 Hey friends, welcome to this week’s But First, UX Research! I have just started a new job at Circle K, which is why this edition was a bit late.

I’m Christian Hartmann, and this time we’re diving into the most polarising theme in UX right now: AI in research.

From Teresa Torres warning us not to trust synthetic users…
…to practical guides for building your own AI research assistant in two hours…
…to Dovetail’s 2025 keynote redefining how teams scale research with AI.

This issue is loaded.

⏱️ Time Saved This Issue:

  • Original content = ~5 hrs 10 mins

  • Our summaries = ~30 mins

  • You save ~4.5 hours (plus avoid five open tabs and a mild existential crisis)

Table of Contents

Humans, Not Synthetic Users – Teresa Torres on AI and Discovery

🎧 Podcast | ⏱️ Original: ~48 mins · Summary: ~5 mins
Teresa warns: discovery is about real people—not LLM approximations. Learn where AI helps and where it’s a dangerous shortcut.
🔗 Read summary in Notion

Synthetic Users – Is There a Place for AI‑Generated Users in UX Research?

📄 Opinion Article | ⏱️ Original: ~15 mins · Summary: ~4 mins
They explore pros, cons, and traps of “fake users.” TL;DR: intriguing potential, but they won’t tell you why they rage-quit your flow.
🔗 Read summary in Notion

How to Use AI to Research Like a Researcher

🎧 Podcast with Cori Widen (Photoroom) | ⏱️ Original: ~24 mins · Summary: ~4 mins
From sceptic to AI-power user: Cori shares how she blends AI tools like Dovetail and Dust with manual methods to boost qualitative research without losing rigour. Practical, honest, and culture-driven.
🔗 Read summary in Notion

Create an AI Research Assistant from Scratch (Under 2 Hours)

📄 Hands-On Guide | ⏱️ Original: ~90 mins · Summary: ~6 mins
Step-by-step how to build an AI assistant using GPT and Notion. Scrappy, practical, and surprisingly useful.
🔗 Read summary in Notion

Dovetail Inside Out 2025 – Opening Keynote

🎥 Keynote Talk | ⏱️ Original: ~90 mins · Summary: ~6 mins
How Dovetail envisions the future of UX research at scale: AI tagging, insight surfacing, and building a “second brain” for your org.
🔗 Read summary in Notion

🧠 Bonus: Want a one-line takeaway for your boss?

→ “AI is useful—but humans are still the source of truth.”
→ “Use AI to scale, not simulate your users.”
→ “Prompt literacy = the new research superpower.”

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Thanks for reading—see you next week! In the meantime, keep asking smart questions (and don’t outsource empathy to a chatbot just yet).

Have a great week,
Christian