Building a UX Research Brain: Atomic Research, Zettelkasten, and Obsidian

Research Amnesia — repeatedly re-running studies your team already conducted — wastes budget and erodes stakeholder trust. A practical framework combining Atomic UX Research, the Zettelkasten note-linking method, and Obsidian is presented as a cure. Research is broken into four atom types: Studies, Research Questions, Facts, and Recommendations. Obsidian's bi-directional linking and graph view let Facts from one study automatically surface as evidence for questions in future studies. A 7-step workflow is detailed using a hypothetical onboarding research scenario, showing how raw session notes become standalone Fact notes linked to Research Questions, replacing bulky slide decks with a living, searchable knowledge graph stored in plain-text Markdown files the team fully owns.