Awkward Silences

Most people have no idea what UX researchers do. Even less known is what Research Ops Specialists do, which is why one of the Research Ops community’s main priorities is to shine a light on the people, mechanisms, and strategies that set research in motion.

In this episode of Awkward Silences, Hosts Erin May and John-Henry Forster chat with research design leader Benson Low about why it’s time to bring attention to Research Ops. They discuss the emerging role of Research Ops specialists, and Benson provides several strategies that can help communicate the value of Research Ops to stakeholders.
 

In this episode, we discuss:

• Ways to communicate the value of your work in Research Ops
• Tactics and strategies to gain support in your organization
• How to leverage the power of the ReOps community
• Tips for Research Ops advocates on dealing with roadblocks

 Highlights:

• [00:02:32] What is Research Ops? What is the Research Ops community?
• [00:07:50] How to start advocating for Research Ops
• [00:14:49] Use ReOps community resources to create awareness
• [00:17:30] Stress the importance of research in the product development lifecycle
• [00:19:55] Communicating the impact and value your work to stakeholders
• [00:32:36 ] Advice on overcoming barriers during advocacy work

About our guest
Benson is leading and scaling the UX Research practice as the Head of Design Capability at REA Group. For over 20 years, he's led design and UX teams throughout Australia, across the emerging web, games development, start-ups, design consultancies, and enterprise product design teams. He is also a board member of the ResearchOps community, organizing workshops and meetups, and has been part of other global projects.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging
• Why religion is an overlooked topic in UX research
• Attitudes and behaviors related to religion
• Tips for researchers on how to address inclusion from a UX perspective

Highlights:

• [00:01:41] The ‘I’ in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)
• [00:04:05] Forget about equity, this episode is about diversity and inclusion
• [00:07:48] Applying inclusion to UX research
• [00:10:56] How to start difficult conversations around inclusion
• [00:13:25] Why Zoë is interested in UX research on religion
• [00:20:38] How to keep your bias in check as a researcher
• [00:25:09] Zoe shares how she addresses religion from a UX perspective
• [00:27:11] Why it’s so hard to talk about religion at work

About our guest

Zoë Glas is a Senior UX Researcher at Google. She specializes in gathering and triangulating qualitative and quantitative data to improve amazing products. She has a Master’s degree in Natural Resource Social Science from Purdue University and a Bachelor’s degree in Wildlife Biology from the University of Montana. Zoe has been published extensively in several international journals, including Sage journals, Society & Natural Resources, and Human Dimensions of Wildlife. 

Our VP of User Research, Roberta Dombrowski, talks about the fast-paced work behind the scenes of UX research and the excitement when things fall into place. We also examine how deeper insight drives strategy and informs long-term planning as research matures, and the reality of team collaboration.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Our exciting plans and strategy for the future
• How we use research to inform planning
• Product perspectives vs people perspectives
• The beauty of new insights and their impact on a big relaunch
• The difference between healthy organizational tension and dysfunction

About our guest

Roberta Dombrowski is the VP of User Research at User Interviews, as well as a career and life coach at Learn Mindfully. She has spent her career leading research teams and enabling researchers in various industries to better understand their customers. In addition to her work as a UX researcher, she is  known for being an excellent cat mom, gardener, and thought leader. Visit her profile to learn more. 

Incentives do more than just attract quality participants to your study. Ultimately, offering great incentives helps you collect great data.

But if logistics aren’t your thing, managing and distributing incentives can be a nightmare. Nick Baum founded Tremendous, the payouts management platform, to take the pain out of that process. He joined us to chat about how Tremendous makes researchers’ lives easier, tips for managing research incentives, and how to choose the right type and amount of incentive.

In this episode:

• How Tremendous helps UX researchers pay incentives simply
• In-person versus digital incentives
• How to choose the right amount of incentive
• Managing incentive budgets

Highlights:

• [1:14] Why Tremendous?
• [1:57] How Tremendous helps UX researchers
• [5:06] Let the UX researcher research and not deal with incentives
• [6:24] What do UX researchers need to understand about incentives?
• [8:55] Incentive options
• [10:07] Choosing the right level of the incentive
• [11:41] In-person versus digital incentive
• [16:22] Managing incentive budgets
• [17:43] International incentive challenges
• [20:57] How can you make the incentive appealing?
• [24:41] Why should you set up authentic expectations for participants about incentives?

Sources mentioned in the episode:

• The Ultimate Guide to User Research Incentives
• The User Research Incentive Calculator
• Recruit qualified participants with User Interviews 

About our guest

Nick Baum is the Co-founder and CEO of Tremendous, a payouts platform enabling businesses to send money, pre-paid cards, and gift cards to people around the world. Before Tremendous, Nick was the Co-founder and CEO of GiftRocket and the Quantitative Equity Analyst of MDT Advisers. 

‘Ethical design’ is a term that encompasses a process of designing useful, empowering, and accessible products that do not harm, manipulate, or deceive people. It is, in essence, about treating people you design for with respect and consideration.

That’s a deceptively simple goal, and many companies miss the mark. Kat Zhou joins us today to talk about the challenges, opportunities, and urgent need for ethical design and research.

In this episode:

• Why is ethical design so critical for both users and companies?
• How to integrate ethics and respect in your UX research
• How ethical design empowers inclusive and equitable representation

Highlights:

• [0:51] What is ethical design in UX?
• [2:35] Where can you learn about ethical design for UX?
• [4:38] Ethical design resources for researchers
• [5:29] What does it mean to treat people with respect?
• [8:33] Could we balance business goals with respect?
• [12:40] Pragmatism versus idealism
• [15:52] What does deceptive design imply?
• [17:40] Ethical design practices for UX researchers
• [24:28] Boosting inclusive representation
• [29:44] Changing the world for the better
• [34:11] UX regulations
• [43:00] Kat’s key takeaways on ethical design and research

Sources mentioned in the episode:

• < Design Ethically >
• Race After Technology by Ruha Benjamin
• Algorithms of Oppression by Safiya Umoja Noble
• This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate by Naomi Klein
• The UX Designer's Guide to User Research

About our guest

Kat Zhou is a product developer and designer who focuses on integrating ethics into the design of AI systems. Currently, she is the Senior Product Designer at Epidemic Sound. Before that, Kat was the Creator of the < Design Ethically > project, a Member Of The Board Of Advisors at The YX Foundation, and a Product Designer at Spotify and IBM. Kat is also a strong advocate for more inclusive and privacy-friendly approaches to AI.

Tacos = the great. Tide Pods = the not-so-great. An honest chat about the (mostly really great) state of User Interviews.

Roberta Dombrowski, VP of UX Research at User Interviews, is back for our third installment of Tacos and Tide Pods. She joins Erin and JH to talk about the 100th episode of Awkward Silences, the importance of prioritizing authenticity over patterns on LinkedIn, and Roberta's upcoming wedding.

In this episode:

• The 100th episode of Awkward Silences
• Why you should focus on bigger things
• Maintaining LinkedIn content format while expressing authenticity

Onboarding is a customer’s first impression of your product. The way you research, design, and implement user onboarding can make or break the overall experience. So how do you refine this important aspect of your product’s UX?

Pulkit Agrawal, Co-founder and CEO of Chameleon, joins us to discuss just that: How to optimize the user onboarding experience to get your customers off to a great start.

In this episode:

• What is onboarding?
• Best practices for onboarding users
• How to integrate personality into onboarding

Highlights:

• [1:24] What is onboarding in an app?
• [3:50] Measuring the onboarding trade-offs
• [6:24] Where should UXers start optimizing their onboarding?
• [8:42] Limited segmentation in onboarding
• [12:09] How can UXRs understand the customer's core issues?
• [15:06] Onboarding golden practices
• [18:01] Great onboarding examples
• [22:40] Increasing user motivation
• [26:55] Implementing the right triggers and motivations to match the user and the product
• [28:49] Onboarding mistakes UXers make
• [30:38] The big picture versus the details
• [33:06] Top tips and takeaways about onboarding

About our guest

Pulkit Agrawal is the Co-founder and CEO of Chameleon, a product adoption platform for SaaS that helps companies create better user onboarding. He is also an Angel Investor at product-led startups and a part-time featured speaker at Product School. Before founding Chameleon, Pulkit was the UX and User Onboarding Mentor at 500 Startups.

Work smarter, not harder with the right UXR productivity hacks. Michele Ronsen, founder of Curiosity Tank and our first repeat guest, joins us for our landmark 100th episode to tell us about the best user research hacks she’s learned to increase productivity, reduce cognitive load, and save time. Make your life a little easier with these pro UXR tips on scheduling, archiving, recruiting, screening, and more.

In this episode:

• What is a UXR productivity hack?
• UXR productivity hacks examples and tips
• Enhancing productivity

Highlights:

• [2:48] The stakeholder kickoff sheet
• [5:14] The right balance between setting up systems and doing research
• [8:08] Defining every section of your UX research plan template
• [11:55] Scheduling hacks
• [14:03] Core screening criteria
• [16:26] PII tips
• [19:01] Saving time for the archiving process
• [21:12] Files and folders
• [24:03] Reducing fraudulent participants
• [25:39] Making sure your participants are prepared
• [27:59] How to build your own pool of participants

Sources mentioned in the episode:

• UXR Productivity Hacks Bundle (Curiosity Tank)
• Sample Stakeholder Kickoff Questions (Curiosity Tank)
• Research Countdown Planner (Curiosity Tank)
• Participant Question Starters Template (Curiosity Tank)
• “Ask Like A Pro” User research workshop series (Curiosity Tank)
• ‍Team Training (Curiosity Tank)
• Note-Taking for UX Research: Templates and Methods (User Interviews)‍
• Google Workspace‍
• How to recruit qualified participants, fast (User Interviews)

About our guest

Michele Ronsen is the founder of Curiosity Tank, a consulting and education firm specializing in human-centered research, design development, and hands-on learning programs. Her clients include Slack, Zillow, Facebook, Microsoft, and others. Michele is also an Instructor, Content Creator, and Workshop Facilitator at General Assembly. Previously, she worked at Wells Fargo as the Vice President and Creative Director and the Senior Vice President and Creative Director and held two positions at the Bank of America.

Healthcare in the U.S. is expensive—and as a result, some communities struggle to afford medical services. This inequity has become increasingly apparent as underserved communities are disproportionately affected by things like the pandemic.  So, what can UXers do to help?

Wendy Johansson, Co-Founder and Chief Product Experience Officer of MiSalud Health, believes the answer lies in health tech. In this episode, Wendy shares how the MiSalud app works and her approach to using qualitative research to help build a great product.

Highlights:

• [1:10] Why MiSalud Health?
• [5:50] A unique UX research method
• [12:27] Learning and discovery before launching the app
• [15:38] How to ensure you get qualitative data
• [18:23] Improving the product through user interviews
• [28:04] How UXers can build trust with participants
• [31:20] The importance of building equitable teams
• [34:05] Getting doctors onboard
• [39:17] Monetizing the app
• [42:39] The future of health tech

Sources mentioned in the episode:

• MiSalud Health

About our guest

Wendy Johansson is a global product experience leader and entrepreneur focused on the intersection of product and user experience and on scaling up high-performing global teams. She is the Co-Founder and Chief Product Experience Officer of MiSalud Health and an advisor for companies like Cerby, adplist.org, and Wizeline. Wendy has a background in design and product, focuses on building equitable teams and products, and supports underrepresented people in tech.

Let’s face it… most companies these days say they are customer-centric, but the reality just doesn’t bear that out. Because in order to be truly center-centric (or even “customer-obsessed”), you need to obsessively (i.e. continuously) gather and use customer insights.

Ferdinand Goetzen, CEO and Co-Founder of Reveall, joins us to explain how teams can start actually centering their customers by adopting certain practices that will help you collect, analyze, and interpret customer insights on a regular basis.

In this episode:

• How to gather and use customer insights
• Active vs passive data
• Making the most of your data

Highlights:

• [1:06] Start simple
• [3:47] Rating feedback
• [5:13] Active vs passive data
• [7:15] Interpreting the data
• [13:22] Start getting insights centralized across departments
• [16:06] Creating a culture where people want to share feedback
• [20:27] Making the most of your large data sets
• [24:44] User stories
• [27:00] Challenges and solutions

‍

Sources mentioned in the episode:

• Recruit qualified participants fast
• Google Analytics
• 🤔 Customer Success Teams: Are they a roadblock or a valuable resource for UX research?

About our guest

Ferdinand Goetzen is the CEO and Co-Founder at Reveall - a platform that allows product teams to better prioritize what to build next with the help of customer insights. He was previously the Director of Growth at Hubs.com and the Chief Growth Officer at Recruitee (both exited in 2021). He is passionate about customer-led product development and growth.