Awkward Silences

Jonathon Hensley spends a lot of time creating strategies for businesses. So Erin and JH chatted with him about what's changed since COVID-19 and why alignment matters more than ever right now. The takeaway? Everyone needs to be aligned around a common goal. They also need to understand how every project supports that larger goal. In a world that's moving faster than ever, user research is a pivotal part of making sure each effort is serving that goal well.Highlights[7:06] The key to individual alignment is clarity on your goals and purpose, and providing people with the ability to fulfill those things.[10:46] Coming into research with bias or trying to validate an idea you already have can be a sign of misalignment[16:46] Right now, people want something concrete. While making a plan can feel good now, having a strategy and goals you're clearly aligned around is the key to long term, agile success.[25:13] Strategy is equating things to value and sharing values across your organization[30:47] The strategy, not the plan, will keep everyone working towards the same goals[37:52] If you can't afford to fail, research is one of the things that will ensure you don't.

There's a lot of data out there. Keeping track of Google Analytics, NPS scores, site metrics, usability test results, industry data, and everything else can be downright overwhelming. Which is why Hannah Shamji, Head of Research at Copyhackers, likes to say she's doing data-informed work, not data-driven work.For Hannah, her team, and her clients, working with tons of data can be overwhelming. Since you can usually find at least one graph to support a research point, it's important to put data in context. Hannah outlined how she gets in the zone with large amounts of data, puts things in context while doing her best to stay unbiased, and frames data around her research questions.Highlights[2:12] The difference between being data-informed and data-driven.[6:21] Why it's important to put data in context and pull from many different sources.[9:25] How Hannah approaches data through the lens of her research question.[16:40] How Hannah tries to build data narratives that tell both sides of the story.[23:21] Digging deep into data is a little bit like meditating.[27:07] Hannah, Erin, and JH chat about data and COVID-19. (This episode was recorded on April 24, 2020.)About our GuestHannah Shamji is a Consumer Psychologist, formerly the Head of Research & Insights at Copyhackers. There, she helped clients create great, data-informed, copy and marketing strategies. She blends qualitative and quantitative research to tell client stories.

UX benchmarking may seem like a lot of work, but Kate Moran is here to show you how to do it effectively. She's VP of Research & Content at Neilsen Norman Group and leads UX teams to better benchmarking, teaches newbies how to get started, and explains this complicated subject with clarity. She joined Erin and JH on our very first live episode to explain how UX benchmarking can help teams show the ROI of their work. She walked through how benchmarking can help get stakeholders on board, how to choose the right metrics early on, and most importantly, how to translate that to real ROI. Our very first live podcast was a great learning experience and a ton of fun! We really enjoyed the interactive aspect, and our audience asked a lot of thoughtful questions. Highlights[2:01] Kate explains what UX benchmarking is[3:37] How to choose benchmarking metrics[12:01] The difference between summative and formative studies, and why you need to distinguish between them.[17:21] Why context matters when evaluating benchmarking metrics[21:28] How to translate benchmarking results to ROI[29:11] Kate talks about case studies from NNg's ROI for Usability report[35:34] Q&A - How do you limit bias in unmoderated studies with non-users and users?[38:16] Q&A - How do you measure time spent on a task? Stopwatches aren't great.[39:59] Q&A - How do session replay tools fit into this?[41:10] Q&A - What happens when your stakeholders have different metrics for success?[44:57] Q&A - If a participant thinks they completed a task successfully, is that a success?[46:42] Q&A - How do you benchmark for emotional aspects, like how fun a product is?[49:07] Parting words of wisdomKate's recommended resources NN/g full-day seminar: Measuring UX & ROINN/g articles about benchmarking, ROI, and quantitative researchJeff Sauro’s articles about quantitative UX research (he also has very useful confidence interval and statistical significance calculators): measuringu.com Jeff Sauro’s book about benchmarking: Benchmarking the User ExperienceTwo great books for getting started with statistics: Straightforward Statistics and The Cartoon Guide to Statistics

Sales demos are a great opportunity to get to know your customers. The person on the other end is interested in your product, looking for a solution to a problem, and likely have some pain points with their current solutions. That's why Jane Portman, co-founder of Userlist, uses demos as an opportunity to connect with potential customers, keep pain points top of mind, and learn how to make her product even better. She chatted with Erin and JH about why she's doing customer research and sales demos at the same time, how constantly talking to customers helps her develop a better product, and how she came up with the podcast name UI Breakfast. Highlights[2:16] During the MVP phase, all new customers had to go through sales demos to start using Userlist. [4:24] Making early customers go through demos ensured that Userlist's customers were all well informed about the capabilities and what to expect from the product.[5:49] How do you combine meaningful research with sales demos?[8:35] Because Jane and her team are talking to people all the time, they're learning as things change.[11:57] The specific questions Jane asks in her demo calls.[14:40] If something is coming up in calls all the time, you can't forget about it. Since Jane and her co-founder are always hearing about pain points, they can focus on building solutions before logging insights.[20:43] Asking your most active customers for feedback as you go is helpful for product teams who like to stay in touch with customers. [24:03] How do you stay objective when doing research in a demo?About our GuestJane Portman is the CEO & co-founder of Userlist and the host of the UI Breakfast podcast. She's passionate about helping founders connect with their customers and learning more about their stories. Recommended ReadingUser Onboarding: The Ultimate Guide for SaaS FoundersHow to Design and Conduct a Customer Interview

We’ve heard from a lot of designers and user researchers on the show, but we’re always looking for fresh perspectives on how research can help your business. So this week, Erin and JH chatted with Aazar Shad, Head of Growth at Userpilot, about how research methods are essential to his growth strategy.Aazar started using research methods to find our who his users were, but continued using them to grow Userpilot’s business. He talked about how secondary research helped him find the best ways to connect with his target audience, continuous interviews help him identify where to go next, and how he honed his research skills over time. Highlights[3:44] User research is essential to acquisition [5:13] Aazar found that his usual toolkit wouldn’t sway the product managers he was targeting, so he’d need to meet them where they were: Google Search[13:03] Asking users how they would describe Userpilot to other people helped to better understand what they might search.[13:38] Setting notifications for keywords to conversations he may want to jump in on in Slack helped Aazar be in the right place at the right time.[22:39] Aazar found that asking less questions, but digging deeper during his user interviews helped him learn more about his users.[29:56] Asking other people to review the feedback you get from research helps to identify trends with less bias.Related links How to use Slack for social media marketing & user acquisitionSEO strategies for leadsConferences as a growth channelAbout our guestAazar Shad is a growth marketing leader and founder of The Performers, a paid social mastermind group (at the time of our interview, he was Head of Growth at Userpilot). He is the host of the podcast Growth Marketing Stories

With so many research tools on the market, it can be hard to nail down exactly which ones are right for your team. This week on the pod, Erin and JH chatted with Daniel Loewus-Deitch and Leo Smith, who are the Directors of User Experience and Research, respectively, at a large insurance company. They wanted to learn more about how Daniel and Leo choose the tools with the best ROI for their team.Daniel and Leo have spent a lot of time building out their tool stack. Since they have a lot of experience working for large organizations with many people conducting research and even more consuming it, it was important to them to get it right. In this episode, they talked about how they evaluate the ROI of tools, the summit they assembled to identify the tools their team could and would use, and how important it is to leave your assumptions at the door when tool-hunting.Highlights[10:15] Leo used to spend 20-30 hours just on recruiting.[12:53] Sometimes the simplest tool is the most effective.[14:23] It's important to consider how accessible the tools you're using are to everyone on your team. Even if you choose the best tools, your team won't use them if it's not easy to do so.[16:23] How the team defined their user-centered design process, mapped tools to the right parts of it, and moved forward from there.[20:43] Why Leo and Daniel's team prefer a customized toolset over an all-in-one solution.[24:07] Applying the thinking behind design systems to a larger ecosystem is helping the team build a better toolkit.[33:56] The shiny new tools everyone is eager to try.[38:58] Usability test the tools your team will be using.[42:09] Going for an all in one tool is like going to the Cheesecake Factory, lots of choices, all pretty mediocre. Choosing a few specialized tools is like going to a farmer's market, less choice from each vendor, but better results.Tools mentioned in the episodeLoom is great for recording your screen and sharing it with your team. It can also be used for usability testing. Dovetail is a research repository tool that makes it easy to organize and analyze your insights. Lookback is a great tool for conducting usability tests and taking notes live. Descript is a video, audio, and text editor. We’ve recently switched to it for editing the podcast, and I am absolutely in love. It does really good automatic transcription and makes pulling clips incredibly easy. Rev is a transcription tool that provides really accurate, done-by-a-human transcription. Zapier is a workflow automation tool that helps us make connections between apps that don’t naturally talk to each other. Userbit is a research repository tool that makes it easy to code your analysis into deliverables. ‍Dedoose is a research repository tool that makes the academic process of analyzing research more collaborative. About our guestsDaniel Loewus-Deitch is the Assistant VP, User Experience at Unum. He has over 20 years of experience in UX, and has worked at companies like IBM and Microsoft. Daniel is interested in holistic wellness and technological harmony. 💻🎵.Leo Smith is the Director of UX Research at SS&C Technologies. He has over 20 years of experience in UXR, and has worked for companies of all shapes and sizes in roles ranging from research to design. Leo is also a certified Hatha Yoga Instructor 🧘.

After three failed MVPs, Jonathan Anderson and the team at Candu realized they needed a better strategy for understanding how users interact with their product. So they started doing some user interviews. And they kept doing them. Every day for a year before launching their product. Jonathan chatted with Erin and JH about what he learned from those interviews, how it changed the direction of his company, and how he went from a total newbie to a research pro.Highlights[5:36] Doing one interview a day every day keeps the Candu team curious about what the users have to say, rather than hearing the same things all in one day.[8:29] Jonathan and his team always ask users what they would expect the prototype to do.[11:34] How do you know when you've done enough interviews?[13:31] Creating low-fidelity designs to use, even if it's just drawing within Zoom, is incredibly helpful to Candu's design team.[15:51] After their third failed MVP, Jonathan and his team decided they need to make research a priority to build something truly great.[16:41] Candu built out a panel of trusted partners who gave great feedback and wanted to be a part of building something new. They supplemented this with new people to get great perspectives regularly.[21:55] When Jonathan started, he really didn't know how to do a user interview. Learning to step back from his excitement and be objective was important in evaluating feedback.[23:53] Jonathan shares his secret to identifying good research participants[26:12] Asking people about their process and how they currently solve thier problem can be illuminating, both for your process and finding the right people to interview.[29:02] Research shifted Candu's entire outlook as a company

This week on the pod, Erin and JH talk to Cat Noone, CEO of Stark, a suite of tools designed to help teams ship accessible work. They chatted about how accessibility is constantly evolving, what teams can do to get started, and inclusive design. Highlights[1:50] Accessibility is continually changing and evolving, so it's important to think of it that way.[3:01] Accessibility is a side effect of inclusive design.[12:59] Identify other people in your organization that may be able to work with you on accessibility and create a bridge between teams.[15:08] Accessibility helps everyone, and framing it that way can help teams to understand its importance.[23:09] Ethics change team culture, exposure changes executive's minds, profit and customer loss changes action. [31:11] If you can, speak up about having the tools to do your job well.

This week on Awkward Silences, Erin and JH chatted with Joel Klettke, who has 6+ years of experience writing killer conversion copy for clients like Hubspot, Scott's Cheap Flights, and WP Engine. His first piece of advice? All the best copy [is] words you've stolen from the customers themselves.He also stressed the importance of meeting your customers where they are, involving copy from the start of any new project, and structuring your user research so it's easy to pull out the best insights. He walked us through how he used research to make changes at Hubspot that resulted in a 35% increase in demo requests and a 27% increase in inbound call volume. He also outlined how he used chatbot data to help an online divorce startup net an extra 165k in revenue by answering questions their users needed answers to.Highlights[2:09] The best copy comes straight from the mouths of customers[3:46] You can't sell to an audience you don't understand.[6:02] Structuring your research is important, so you can better identify good copy when you see it.[6:24] Joel wants to hear about people's experience. Here's the specific questions he asks to learn about them.[8:31] Taking copy straight from customers mouths is more compelling and specific. It makes you stand out from what your competitors are saying.[10:07] Joel uses text analyzer to identify recurring phrases from his research.[10:52] Companies default to their own internal language, but you have to speak to customers in a language they understand[13:00] How Joel used this process at HubSpot to make meaningful copy changes that resulted in a 35% increase in demo requests and a 27% increase in inbound call volume.[16:28] Joel works on anchoring new ideas for copy in known concepts to make it easier to digest.[18:16] Get specific, but not so specific your audience can't relate[21:44] Copy is more agile than design. It takes just a few minutes to change, so the best test is to actually deploy it to market.[26:35] Copy can help establish the order of operations for users, and work with design from the start to create something better than adding on copy later.[34:32] How Joel approaches copy for startups that don't have any data or customers yet.[35:51] How Joel uses insights from churned customers to write better copy and understand where promises weren't kept.[37:02] Ask your sales team "what question do you wish you never got asked again?" to identify gaps in your copy.[37:34] How Joel used chat bot data to help an online divorce startup net an extra 165k in revenue by answering questions their users needed answers to.[45:22] Every job Joel's had since university was something he didn't know existed until he started doing it.

One of the key tenets of the Lean Startup approach is ensuring you have product-market fit. To find it, you'll need to talk to potential users, and get them to confirm your product is something they really need, and are willing to pay for. Loic Alix-Brown started doing user interviews to learn if he had product-market fit for his Instagram hashtag startup Flick. But he didn't stop doing research after the MVP, it became an integral part of the way he's built his business. This week on Awkward Silences, Erin and JH chatted with Loic about how he built his MVP, how his research strategy has changed as his business has grown, how he used research to find the right pricing structure for his customers, and how he's maintained a regular research cadence amidst the chaos of launching a startup. Highlights[5:27] How do you decide what's viable enough for a minimum viable product?[7:20] What happens after the MVP?[8:28] How to find users to talk to for generative research.[11:17] Interview users who are less active, or even ones who have cancelled, for a better overall picture.[12:42] Loic talks about why qualitative interviews are more helpful at very early stages than quantitive testing.[15:58] How Loic restructured his pricing to make more sense for his users.[19:46] How Loic learned about who was using his product most often. [25:25] Adding a survey to your cancellation flow can help you learn why users leave.[27:26] Keeping a regular cadence of user research helps the Flick team stay on top of user needs.[28:36] Solve one problem at a time, and build up that way.About our GuestLoic Alix-Brown is the Co-Founder of Flick, a SaaS solution to help entrepreneurs, content creators and small businesses find the best hashtags to reach their target audience on Instagram.

This week on the pod, Erin and JH chatted with Luke Fraser, Founder & CEO of Stepwise Innovation (formerly Paper Ventures). They work with insurance innovation and product development teams to get products to market faster. Before starting Stepwise Innovation, Luke worked at IDEO's Design Lab and Liberty Mutual Insurance as a Product Manager. All in all, he's spent a lot of time working with teams at large enterprise companies, with lots of red tape around user research. He chatted with Erin and JH about how he democratizes research in risk adverse environments, works with legal teams instead of against them, and even how he got teammates from legal to start attending daily standups.Highlights[4:16] Luke talks about working on research in 100 year old financial organizations[6:56] Bringing legal and HR teams along for the ride[8:01] How to get legal to be a part of your daily standups[15:23] Getting everyone on the team to understand research findings[16:44] Research is going to happen, how to pitch it as a less expensive and time consuming option[20:02] Why participants really participate in research[22:20] How to work with other teams to do even better research[25:02] Making the tradeoffs clear when pitching research[28:45] Luke ❤️s recruitment

Vivianne Castillo’s career has always been human-centered. She started off as a counselor, helping people navigate through complex issues, but eventually found her way to UX research, helping companies better understand their users. Though she loves user research, she’s found it frustrating that it doesn’t adopt the same standards of care for its practitioners that counseling and other human service work does. Since researchers deal with the messy task of human emotion, all those sessions can take a toll on them. Things like compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma occur often, but without a name for what they’re feeling or the tools to do something about it, researchers are left feeling burned out and unsuccessful. Erin and JH chatted with Vivianne about how researchers can take better care of themselves and how they can empower their teams support each other psychologically. ResourcesVivanne Castillo’s “Self-Care for UX”About our guestVivianne Castillo (she/her) is the Founder and CEO of HmntyCntrd, an award-winning professional growth community supporting UX and Tech professionals in transforming the status quo of what it means to be human-centered in their professional and personal lives through courses, community, and consulting.

This week on the pod, we chatted with Elyse Bogacz, who has worked on product on Drift, Runkeeper, and now NDVR. She walked us through how she uses session replay tools like FullStory to supercharge her user research. She talked about how she shares replays with developers and stakeholders, how she deals with privacy issues, and how other teams can use session replay tools to add to their user research programs. Highlights[1:11] Tools like FullStory hand Hotjar have helped Elyse learn important things about users at early stage startups[4:43] You only get a limited number of time to speak with each user, use it wisely[6:20] How Elyse uses session reply to decide who to reach out to for user research[9:35] Actually seeing users struggle in session replay helps stakeholders build empathy[16:40] There's no replacement for a one on one chat with a user, but replays can be a good icebreaker[19:46] How privacy and GDPR plays into all this[25:21] Session replay is not screen recording[28:59] How Elyse keeps track of all the insights that surfaces[31:33] How to cope with backlog

Erin and JH chat with Michele Ronsen, founder of Curiosity Tank and General Assembly instructor. Michele talks to a lot of different people about user research, and she's found there are some situations where user research is (😱) not the best move forward. In fact, there are 7. Michele walked us through each one, and what teams should do instead. About our guestMichele Ronsen is a UX and design researcher, founder of Curiosity Tank (formerly Ronsen Consulting) and an instructor at General Assembly. She loves digging deep into research, being people’s research buddy, and introducing teams to the power of research.

If you’ve ever presented research to a crowd of glazed over eyes, or sent around a detailed report only to hear back crickets, this episode is for you. After reading Caitria O’Neill’s article UX Research is Boring and No One Reads It, we knew we had to chat with her. Caitria has made sure research is heard, absorbed, and utilized in companies like Airbnb and Facebook before moving on to her current role as a Staff UX Researcher at Google. She shared tips on how to make research reports fun, storing insights so they’re used more often, and how she makes the whole process easier for herself and her team.

There are many ways to become a UX Researcher. To learn more about the winding career paths many researchers take, Erin and JH talked to Jud Vaughan, Khalida Nicole Sebree, and Christianne Elliott, who are all UX Researchers at Mailchimp. Though they all hold the same job at the same company, they took very different paths to get there. Jud started at a Support Technician at Mailchimp and worked his way over to the Research department. Khalida wanted to go into medicine and studied Psychology in college. Then she got into the startup scene and began doing freelance design and research and eventually found herself at Mailchimp. Christianne also studied Psychology and wanted to go into medicine, but fell in love with academic research and moved into that after school. She wanted a new challenge and found her way to UX Research at Mailchimp.

Researching with your own users means you have to make some special considerations. When was the last time they used your product? Where are they in the funnel? When was the last time they participated in a research session with you? We chatted with Chad Aldous, Head of Design and Co-founder of Rentable (formerly Abodo), an apartment listing company, about how he and his team handle research with their own users. He chatted with Erin and JH about doing continuous and one-off research projects, how he chooses the right users to talk to, and how he creates great research invites that get results.

This is the third episode in our three part series on cross-cultural research. In this episode, Erin and JH chat with Chui Chui Tan, author of International User Research and Founder of Beyō Global. Chui Chui walked us through her "three tiers of culturalization", which can help international and cross-cultural researchers focus in on what they need to be researching. She also talked about how to prioritize different elements of your research based on the culture you're researching, the product you're working on, and how those two things interact with each other.

This is the second episode in our three part series on cross-cultural research. In this episode, Erin and JH chat with Leia Atkinson, Staff Researcher at Shopify. Leia chatted with Erin and JH about how her degree in Anthropology helps her learn more about international audiences through research. She shared her technique for recruiting participants through "snowballing", how she deals with culture shock, and how she maximizes her learning each time she takes a research trip abroad.

This is the first episode in our three part series on cross-cultural research. In this episode, Erin and JH chat with Elsa Ho, a Senior UX Researcher at Uber who works on airports and events. Elsa is no stranger to international and cross-cultural research though, she's spent most of her career helping companies and teams learn about international audiences. She walked through some of the meaningful cultural differences she's encountered over the years, how she works with translators to ensure she's getting the full message, and how she makes the most of each trip. About our guestElsa is a mixed-methods and impact-driven research leader with 12 years of experience. She led strategic research for products, services, and businesses that serve millions of people around the globe. Currently a Staff Researcher at Doordash. Ex-Facebook, ex-Microsoft, ex-Uber (where she worked at the time of our interview).

We’ve talked a lot about how researchers do research, now it’s time to hear from the participants. We invited our Participant Marketing Lead, Brittany Rutherford, and had some recent participants leave voicemails about their experience. We asked participants, "why do you participate in user research?" to help us understand how participants think about user research and how we can make their experience better. Learn more about why people like being part of User Interviews.

How do you get everyone on board with research? Vicki Tollemache has found that building a branded research practice that's fun, engaging, and impactful is pretty effective. She started Grubhub's Parts Unknown research practice to involve everyone in researching emerging markets and exploring new ideas within their product. Erin and JH talked to Vicki about how she set up Parts Unknown, the effect its had on Grubhub, and her tips for establishing your own standing research day.

Teresa Torres is a master of continuous interviewing. As a product discovery coach and founder of Product Talk, she works with teams of all shapes and sizes to help them build better stuff. Part of that is talking to customers all the time, and establishing a cadence that keeps customer needs top of mind. In this episode, she talks to Erin and JH about what it takes to establish a continuous interview practice, shares some tips for doing better interviews, and encourages everyone to get out there and start talking to customers. Highlights[3:31] What's continuous interviewing all about anyway?[11:52] Focus on the frequency of your interviews, not the number of interviews. [14:56] Automate your recruiting process first[17:03] Make customer interviews a part of your weekly schedule, just like any internal meetings you might have.[22:21] Throw away the discussion guide[35:55] Map everything on an opportunity solution tree[37:07] Make your synthesis visual[42:00] It's all about the magic lightbulb momentsResourcesContinuous Interviewing Course Teresa TorresWhy does every product have to be agile these days? Jeff GothelfPencil Me In Christina Wodtke

Personas are polarizing, some love them, but many love to hate them. This week, Erin and JH talk to Andy Budd, co-founder of Clearleft about why the social mediaverse should stop freaking out about the evils of personas. They're a tool in the toolkit, and come with contextualized nuance all their own. Read our blog post about it here: https://bit.ly/2KA7B5H About our GuestAndy Budd is the co-founder of Clearleft, an agency that helps design leader, founding member of the Adobe Design Circle, Venture Partner at Seedcamp, and executive coach. He writes down some of his thoughts about UX and design on his blog, and is a big fan of nuance.

Surveys are everywhere. They bombard us at every turn, and most of them aren't even helping teams learn what they need to know. We chatted with Erika Hall, co-founder of Mule Design and author of Just Enough Research about why most surveys suck and what we can do about it. Check out our blog post about this episode here 👉 https://bit.ly/2O5oDOg About our guestErika Hall is the co-founder of Mule Design and the author of Just Enough Research. She loves design, getting to the bottom of things, and well-designed research.

This week on the pod, we talked to Alec Levin, founder of the The UXR Collective and Learners. He chatted with us about something he thinks UX research needs more of—failure.He put it this way in the podcast, "If you’re batting 100% on all your points of view, you’re not trying hard enough. You’re working on stuff that’s too easy." Erin and JH spoke with with Alec about being open to new ideas, challenging yourself, and being transparent about your work.

This week on the podcast, Erin and JH talk to Noam Segal who recently gave a talk at the UXR Strive conference in Toronto, and after hearing all the buzz we had to chat with him about it ourselves. He shared some lessons he's learned about research from his four year old daughter, including, keep your eye on the prize, find a method in the madness, tell it like it is, be a good host, and believe in magic. About our guestNoam Segal is a UX, business, and career coach and the Senior Research Manager at Upwork (at the time of our interview, he was Director of User Research at Wealthfront). When creating magical experiences, he strives to see the same look on users’ faces as he saw on his daughter’s face the first time she saw a real live fish.

At the end of the day, we’re really just lucky to be in this field. You get to learn all the time every day. And you can’t ever assume you know all the things because you just don’t. That’s just a human thing. To learn from our customers and to serve them, it’s just so meaningful.This week on the podcast, Erin and JH talk to Susan Rice of Toast.As Toast developed their Toast Go, a handheld POS system for restaurants, Susan learned a lot about researching for both hardware and software at the same time. She also talked about her passion for service design, what she loves about working in design and research, and how she juggles design for B2B, B2C, and everything in between. About our guestSusan Rice is VP, User Experience at Workiva. She previously led Product Design and Research at Toast, where she built and scaled the UX function 500% in 1.5 years to create right-sized product teams focused on solving customer needs across mobile, web, hardware, and services platforms

This week, we’re doing something a little bit different. We’re talking to the CTO of User Interviews, Bob Saris, and a bunch of random strangers about one of the biggest questions out there—is it ok to recline your seat on an airplane? We got our whole team involved to do some on-the-street research. Read all about it here: https://bit.ly/2w3iUfU

This week on Awkward Silences, we talked to pro UX designer and researcher Nicola Rushton. She's worked with teams large and small to facilitate fantastic research. She walked us through how she does it and how to think of researchers as facilitators of learning. Read all about it here: https://bit.ly/2VRwqSk

This week on Awkward Silences, we talked to Kate Towsey, a ResearchOps thought leader and advisor and founder of the Cha Cha Club—a members' club for ResearchOps professionals. Previously Research Operations Manager at Atlassian, you may know her as the person who started the ResearchOps Slack community in March of 2018.In the past year, the ResearchOps community has grown and Kate has left her consulting career to join Atlassian. Erin and JH talked to Kate about how she's started a ResearchOps practice and what she's excited to see as ResearchOps grows.

65% of homeowners have experienced anxiety related to their home. Adam Sigel wants to figure out how to get that number down. As the VP of Product at Hometap, a home equity startup, he talks to homeowners about their hopes and fears about their homes. We talked to Adam about his experience interviewing users and how he's become a more empathetic researcher.Highlights[2:21] Adam talks about his research at Hometap[4:32] Resist the urge to pitch[9:15] Let discovery conversations be open ended[12:39] The difficulties of pattern recognition in complicated discovery interviews[17:40] Can someone productize dads?About our GuestAdam Sigel is VP of Product at Hometap. He once shared an elevator with Michael Keaton.

Talking to customers is pretty powerful stuff. This week Erin & JH talked to Katelyn Bourgoin, 3x startup founder and growth geek, about how qualitative research can become your marketing team's competitive advantage. Learn more about the episode here https://bit.ly/2IHsbSu Highlights[3:30] Go into qualitative research with a goal of learning[7:18] Stop running away from the angry bear[13:41] Doing a switch interview to learn about the buyer's journey[16:46] How to do churn interviews[20:03] Creating better marketing personas based on qualitative research[23:54] Don't do selfish marketing[27:57] Create a culture of consistent researchAbout our GuestKatelyn Bourgoin is a growth strategist, marketer, and 4x founder. She's founded 4 startups and has learned a lot about growing your business through customer feedback. Her specialty is helping growth-hungry teams figure out what triggers customers to buy so they can market smarter. Katelyn has been called an "influential entrepreneur" by Forbes and named as one of the "top 20 wonder women of SaaS marketing and growth."

This week on the podcast, Erin and JH talk to Shipra Kayan. After 10 years of working in UX design and research at Upwork, she's launched her own consultancy. On the pod, she talked about getting your research started on the right foot, no matter what kind of research you're doing or how big your team is. Highlights[5:47] How do you decide between what to do long-term and short-term?[7:49] Do research your team is ready to listen to[17:16] Always plan on learning from your research[20:05] Democratize your research planning process[24:21] Always document your research[27:48] There’s a lot of value in actually getting people together in a meeting About our guestShipra Kayan worked on UX design and research at Upwork for over 10 years. She is now an Evangelist at Miro and runs her own consultancy, helping teams create amazing research-driven UX.

John Cutler is a man of many talents. He’s a product development champion, team whisperer, and now, podcast guest on Awkward Silences! Erin and JH talked to John about just-in-time research, promoting healthy team practices, and integrating research faster. Highlights[3:22] Start together, work together, finish together[7:50] Consistently integrate your ideas[9:02] Continuous design, rather than design then build[10:16] Create a backlog of learning goals[11:30] Integrate research faster[17:32] Finding a working balance for you and your team[18:10] The dangers of defensive dogma[35:02] Critiquing your research process

In this special edition episode, we're talking about what we think about the podcast so far and where we hope to go. We want your feedback to help us decide what to do next! Let us know what you think here: https://bit.ly/2uoijV9

Erin and JH talk to Sonya Badigian. As a researcher at a fully-remote company, Sonya is a big fan of remote research. She walks us through how remote research can be affordable, flexible, and fun. About Our GuestSonya Badigian is Staff UX Researcher at Procore Technologies (previously UX and Content Specialist at Marketade). She has Masters in Human Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon. After graduating and taking a remote research job, she was surprised to learn how powerful remote research can be.

Pluralsight is built on continuous discovery and continuous delivery, which means they are constantly building and shipping code, while constantly digging in to how customers feel about their product. We talked to James Aylward about the framework that keeps his team moving while creating products that are all about the customer. Episode Highlights[1:45] James talks about how Pluralsight thinks about continuously delivering and discovering[4:10] Culture and values at Pluralsight[5:57] The directed discovery process[13:05] Who you should have on your team to bring the most value to your products[17:15] How a culture of learning promotes research[19:10] Different teams will work together in different waysAbout our GuestJames Aylward is GM and Chief Product Officer at PerkSpot (at the time of our interview, James was SVP and Head of Data Product at Pluralsight). He’s passionate about identifying customer needs and rapidly designing and developing products that offer solutions. He has 10 years of experience managing products and nearly 20 years of experience in the field.

Try to think of each user as a new friend, and you want to learn about them. Don’t get nervous — relax! It’s just nice to create the sense that you’re having a conversation with someone. You’re listening to what they’re saying and flowing with what they say, not just reading a list of questions.JH and Erin talk to Laura Powell about making user testing easy and fun for users and for companies. She’s just wrapped up her 9th User Test Fest, this time in Austin, TX, and was excited to chat with us about all things user testing. Highlights[3:18] Drunk User Testing becomes User Test Fest[8:20] Do people get meaningful insights out of this kind of testing? [9:53] Plan and rehearse for your testing[18:25] You can always do more research [22:50] Testing is a great way to get your team excited about the product againAbout our guestLaura is a self-proclaimed Specialized Generalist who helps companies get it together. She's worked on everything from user research to marketing strategy to organizational process and all of the fun in between. Clients include Appcues, MIT Media Lab, VETTA, Bow Market Somerville, Metaplane.

Algorithms don’t always handle “edge cases” well, and the people who design them can have too broad a definition of edge case—stillbirths, miscarriages, and other life tragedies are actually relatively common.So how do the people who are responsible for building things, often many many people for any given human experience, design for the possibility of unexpected outcomes? That is to say, for real life? This week on the podcast, Erin and JH talked to Laura Klein about building products that consider user's real life situations more thoughtfully. Sometimes, big tech does things that actually end up emotionally harming users. How do we do better?Highlights[3:50] We ask the big question. Why do bad things happen?[6:56] The hippocratic oath for researchers.[11:15] The consequences of short-term thinking.[12:41] Everyone makes mistakes, and we can learn from everyone else’s mistakes too. [18:56] Is the designer morally responsible for the actions of the product?[24:43] How do you make a difference as an individual?[33:25] The difficulty of separating yourself from some of the big companies[36:32] We’re all gonna die, how does tech deal with that? (hint, not well) [40:21] We wrap up. Laura’s not mad, she’s just disappointed.About Our GuestLaura Klein is the Principal at Users Know and the author of UX for Lean Startups and Build Better Products. She hosted her own popular UX podcast with Kate Rutter, What is Wrong with UX?, which goes best with cocktails.

If there’s anyone who can link stakeholders to the awesome power of user research, it’s Holly Hester-Reilly. Holly is a champion of research that is connected to every member of organizations; research that reaches across teams and unites companies towards a common product goal. Highlights[3:55] How research falls away from growing companies[7:12] Creating change even if you’re not at the top of the pyramid[9:15] Giving stakeholders options to help them make decisions[11:33] Creating snapshots of your sessions[13:30] Avoiding bias in your research presentations[17:23] Who to invite to your kickoff workshop[19:07] Are there certain roles or org structures that inspire better research environments? [24:25] Why stakeholders may not be using your research the way you expect them toAbout Our GuestHolly Hester-Reilly is a die-hard New Yorker and user advocate. She worked in the NYC startup scene for ten years before starting H2R Product Science, which helps companies of all shapes and sizes embrace user insights.

This week on the pod, Erin and JH talk to Maggie Crowley, Director of Product Management at Drift, about research as a product manager at a rapidly growing startup. They talk about how to do great research in a conversational way, how Drift's research practice is growing, and how Maggie thinks about research as a PM. Highlights[4:50] How do you establish the outcomes you’re looking for? [8:08] Since you use your own product, do you still need to test with outside users?[9:40] Using shared Slack channels with your biggest customers[12:10] How do you balance getting feedback with moving fast?[18:31] The risks of pushing through your pet features without talking to users.[22:07] Learning how to speak your customers language[26:28] How do you balance qual and quant data?About Our GuestMaggie Crowley is VP of Product at Toast (formerly Director of Product Management at Drift). She has her own podcast, Build, about all things product. She competed in the 2006 Winter Olympics as a speed skater and can confirm wearing spandex in front of the whole world is just as uncomfortable as it sounds.

Some people think you have to choose between qual and quant research when you start your study. Not Cat Anderson. At AP Intego, she works with a fairly small and scrappy team (just like us!), but that doesn’t mean she’s not doing big things with her research. She lets qualitative and quantitative research flow into and inform each other, creating overall better research results. ‍Episode Highlights[1:23] Cat walks us through how she found her way to a UX Writer position[6:01] The importance of stakeholder buy-in for user research[8:38] Cat talks about designing her cybersecurity research from the bottom up[9:42] The Experian effect[11:26] Going from quantitative to qualitative[13:23] Planning for free-flowing research[16:32] Deciding what kind of research to do when[22:34] Cat’s final thoughts on doing great researchAbout our GuestCat Anderson is the UX Content Strategist at Ladder (formerly UX Writer at AP Intego). She has a background in anthropology, research, and UX design. She’s relentlessly curious, occasionally funny, and perpetually snuggling as many dogs as she can.

What do you do when your user research session doesn’t go according to plan? It happens all the time, in a lot of ways, for a lot of reasons. Fortunately we have Jaclyn Perrone, Design Director at thoughtbot, on the pod today to talk us through it all. She shares stories of times things didn’t go quite right, what to do when participants get stuck on the wrong things, and how to avoid (avoidable) mishaps. Episode Highlights[4:05] Things go wrong when you do things with other humans (like user research)[7:06] Jaclyn answers the question, “Is it more important to be prepared or ready to improvise?[10:24] Test the test[12:07] Jaclyn warns against the dangers of fake data[14:53] What to do when you’re the note-taker and the facilitator strays from the script[20:58] Jaclyn’s top tips for avoiding research mistakes[22:29] How to be more comfortable asking stupid questionsAbout our GuestJaclyn Perrone is a Senior Product Designer at Groups Recover Together, an opioid addiction treatment solution. Formerly, she was Design Director at thoughtbot, where she hosted a podcast at centered around digital product design.

Listen as JH and Erin wrestle with the biggest question there is: why are we here anyway? We'll dive into what we think the podcast should (and should not) be and pave the way for our first guest.

What's this Awkward Silences podcast all about anyway? As a place to start, it's about embracing the awkward beauty of talking to people to learn and build better stuff. Get a sneak peek and meet our hosts, JH Forster and Erin May of User Interviews.