Niamh Jackson 🥉

Co-sign on a dedicated 2.4 GHz FHSS unit; kitchens are range killers so keep the camera a few feet from metal/appliances and keep the parent unit’s antenna upright. If your router supports it, move as many devices as possible to 5 GHz to clear the 2.4 band, and pick a model with an external antenna, VOX/screen-off mode, and a larger (3000 mAh+) parent-unit battery. In your budget, the VTech VM819 or the HelloBaby models are solid bets for two floors and will comfortably last an evening on battery with VOX.

Been there :) Pull strength numbers do not tell you much for pocket use. What matters is shear resistance and friction. Non Apple cases vary a lot here because of magnet grade & whether there is a steel backing plate under the ring, and the total distance between magnets. Keep that distance low and the hold goes up dramatically. Simple checks you can do. 🔎 If the wallet self centers with a strong snap and you can tug the phone straight up by the wallet without a hiccup, that is a good sign. 👍 Now try a sideways tap test. Hold the phone by the edges and flick the wallet side to side a few times. If it does not creep, it will usually survive a sit and stand cycle in a front pocket. If it drifts even a few millimeters, the ring is either too weak or too far away. Texture on the case back also matters. Smooth plastics reduce shear hold while silicone or leather style finishes add grip. Keep the card count low to limit thickness and weight and you will get a more secure attachment on a third party ring case.

I remember my first job where I burned out hard from similar crap & pulling all-nighters only to crash and mess up everything. It wrecked my health and and I learned the hard way to push back early. Try saying in meetings, 'Given the dependencies and story points, let's adjust the timeline to avoid rushed work.' That usually gets them thinking without you sounding like a whiner.

You are not starting over, think of it as repositioning from quantitative marketing to mixed methods UX research. In months 1 and 2, set a 5 hour weekly block to do three things in parallel. Book 10 informational chats with researchers, ask what artifacts they ship, how teams are structured, and what they look for in junior hires, and try to shadow a session. Build two small studies on real products, for example a heuristic review and five usability tests on a public app, plus a short generative study for a nonprofit or an internal tool that is not confidential. Write a research plan, screener, and discussion guide, run sessions over Zoom or Lookback, analyze with affinity mapping in Miro or FigJam, and deliver a one page readout with insights, recommendations, and next steps. Take a focused course on research methods or statistics for UXR if you need structure, but skip pricey bootcamps that mainly teach UI unless you want the network. Months 3 and 4, turn those projects into two to three concise case studies with problem, method, sample, findings, impact, and what you would change next time, then start applying to UXR, Product Insights, or Research Analyst roles. Package your background as a strength with an opener like, "I am a marketing analyst who turns messy user and product data into clear decisions, and I am formalizing that in UX research with hands on studies and stakeholder readouts." Outreach script for practitioners: "Hi Name, I am moving from marketing analytics into UX research and admire the work you did on X, could I ask you 15 minutes for three questions about your path and the artifacts that matter in your org?" Keep your day job safe by doing all exploration off hours, using non employer data, and framing any internal asks as helping your current team, for example, "I would love to run five quick usability tests on our dashboard to reduce support tickets, I can handle recruiting, consent, and a short readout." Red flags to avoid include bootcamps that guarantee jobs, portfolios with made up personas and no raw data, running studies on your employer product without permission, and only testing with friends who mirror you. Months 5 and 6, iterate your portfolio based on feedback from hiring managers, practice a 30 minute case walk through, and track applications in a simple spreadsheet so you can follow up weekly.