A solid UX research strategy serves as the compass that guides research ops and helps ensure repeatable success. But how do you envision, create, and execute a strategy that helps you achieve your goals in the most effective way possible? 

In this episode of Awkward Silences, Devin Harold, Director of Research at Capital One, unpacks how to craft and refine a winning UXR strategy, including tips to help you make team playbooks, win stakeholder buy-in, and inform your strategy with maturity models.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The significance of a robust UX research strategy
• The definition of a good and bad strategy 
• Essential components of an effective research plan
• Aligning research with stakeholder needs and expectations
• Metrics and KPIs to evaluate progress and success

Highlights

• [00:01:17] Strategy vs delivery, prioritizing projects and allocating resources  
• [00:10:13] The role of flexibility and adaptability
• [00:15:38] Gaining stakeholder buy-in and tying research to organizational objectives
• [00:21:05] Establishing KPIs and metrics to measure progress and success
• [00:33:46] Periodic reviews and updates to maintain relevance and effectiveness

Sources mentioned in the episode:

• userinterviews.com/awkward
• Good Strategy/Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt
• UXR Maturity Models: Move to a more advanced level in your org by Nikki Anderson of Dovetail
• UX Strategy Components by Nielsen Norman Group
• The Organizational Appetite for Research by Behzod Sirjani

About our guest:

Devin Harold is the Director of UX Research at Capital One, where he leads a team dedicated to improving end-to-end experiences and touchpoints for one of the company’s primary business units. With over eleven years of experience in UX design and research, he has a deep understanding of research methodologies, leadership, strategy, frameworks, and interaction design. Devin’s expertise and leadership have been recognized with multiple awards, including the IDEA Award, Verizon Beyond Award, and Verizon Credo Award. 

Maintaining a huge insights repository can be overwhelming. It’s even more difficult to extract the right insights from research findings. Atomic research is an approach developed concurrently by Tomer Sharon and Daniel Pidcock to manage and break down research knowledge to their smallest modular form. 

This week on Awkward Silences, Daniel Pidcock, the co-creator of atomic UX research and founder of Glean.ly, joins Erin and JH to explain this new approach to research knowledge management. Additionally, Daniel shares success stories of companies that have used Glean.ly to integrate data from disparate sources and glean meaningful insights. 

In this episode, we discuss:

• What is atomic UX research?
• The pillars of atomic research
• How atomic research can improve your research strategy
• How does Glean.ly power atomic research?

Highlights:

• [01:38.75] What is atomic research? What is Glean.ly?
• [08:24.98] Daniel discusses why atomic research works, including how it helps organizations solve crime cases
• [11:14.58] How Glean.ly enabled Just Eat to grow and expand
• [14:06.67] One big benefit of atomic research powered by Glean.ly
• [23:59.45] Applications for atomic research and research strategy tips
• [38:27.70] The atomic research origin story

Sources mentioned in the episode:

• Glean.ly
• Cheat sheet

About Our Guest

Daniel Pidcock is the co-creator of atomic UX research and founder at Glean.ly, a UX research repository platform used by some of the world’s largest brands. He has spoken about atomic research at several events, including the UX Brighton Conference and Atomic UX Research for agencies. Before founding Glean.ly, Daniel worked as a UX consultant at Neighbourly, JUST EAT, and ie Marketing Communications. 

What are the best UX career options? How do you vet a potential employer to ensure it’s the right fit? Should you join a smaller firm that offers plenty of autonomy and flexibility, or does it make more sense to work for a larger company with a ton of resources? Erin, JH, and Marieke McClosky, Director of UX Research at LinkedIn, address these questions, examining UX research as a career and a practice as they discuss Marieke’s journey as a UX researcher. 

In this episode, we discuss:

• Navigating a career path in UX research
• Making career moves that align with your goals
• How to start a career in UX research
• Pros and cons of different working environments 
• Vetting potential employers

Highlights

• [01:27] Marieke’s first job was at Nielsen Norman Group
• [04:42] The benefits of working at a large organization like LinkedIn
• [7:12] Getting started with– choosing a direction when you are new to UX research
• [12:57] How to vetMarieke shares valuable advice on vetting employers
• [19:37] How does the UX research team come up with research questions?
• [25:29] TJH summarizes the differences between working at a large company vs. a smaller firm
• [39:24] The best thing about consulting is “the breadth of who you get to work with, the different industries, different teams”

About our guest

Marieke McCloskey is the Director of UX Research at LinkedIn. For over a decade, she has worked as a UX researcher and consultant with the world’s most innovative companies, including Nielsen Norman Group and the NFL. She completed her undergraduate degree in Neuroscience at the University College Utrecht and earned a MA in Cognitive Science at John Hopkins University. 

YouX 2023 is a wrap! No big deal, just us and 3500 other UX-obsessed friends. The half-day virtual event featured breakout sessions and presentations conducted by some of the brightest minds in UX, who covered a number of topics from personal wellness and professional growth to work-life balance and community.  

We’d like to thank everyone who attended the event, especially our guest speakers, panelists, and moderators. It was a truly extraordinary YouXperience for everyone. Head over to our blog to get a full recap of the 2023 YouX conference and videos of the sessions—we clipped all the awkward silences parts out, so you don’t have to. You can also download a recording of the entire event at the YouX event page.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Interviewing with confidence
• Mentorships and coaching
• Wellness and UX
• Your unique UX career path
• Dealing with imposter syndrome

Highlights:  

• [00:02:59] Interviewing with Confidence (Danny Essner) – Awkward silence is your friend and dealing with self-doubt
• [00:07:38] Will You Be My Mentor? (Paul Derby) – Navigating the mentor-mentee relationship
• [00:12:36] Reframing the Imposter Syndrome (Panel) – You are not a computer! The panel address imposter syndrome and getting to the root of the problem
• [00:18:06] Wellness and UX: Going Beyond the User Experience (Dr. Christelle Ngnoumen) – Dealing with stress through mindfulness. The power of language on your perspective
• [00:24:32] Research for All: Building Healthy Teams Through Democratization (Kate Kalcevich) – for all, How can we democratize research? Democratizing generative and evaluative research

Sources mentioned in the episode:

• userinterviews.com/awkward
• YouX 2023 Recap: Learnings, Session Recordings, and Additional Resources
• YouX 2023 - The Event for You, Researchers

About our guests  

Danny Essner is VP of Marketing at Chameleon, a SaaS platform that allows startups to create personalized and engaging experiences for their users. 

Paul Derby is a SR. Manager of UX Research at ServiceNow. Paul is also the founder of Paul Derby Coaching, LLC, where he provides 1:1 coaching to UX researchers who want to establish their personal style of leadership.
Devin Harold is Director of UX Research at Capital One, where he leads a team focused on design and research for Capital One's Financial Services in New York.
Erika Spear has ten years of experience in qualitative and mixed-method research design and execution. She is currently a Research Manager at AnswerLab.
Varun M is a Senior UX Researcher at SeatGeek and the Co-Founder of Apple & Banana. 

Tiffany Eaton is a talented and creative self-employed graphic designer with expertise in logos, cover art, graphic design, children's illustration, and children's book illustration.

Nikki Anderson-Stanier is Founder & Managing Director of User Research Academy, a company that offers coaching, mentoring, and remote courses on UX Research. 

Fredrick Royster is an accomplished educator and UX/Web/Graphic Designer with over twenty years of experience in web design and front-end development.

Dr. Christelle Ngnoumen is Principal User Experience Designer at Headspace Health, where she leads internal and external research programs dedicated to the design of Headspace's evidence-based digital interventions.

Kate Kalcevich is Head of Accessibility and Innovation at Fable, a platform for people of all abilities, where she works on democratizing design and accessibility. 

For our guests' full bios, visit https://www.userinterviews.com/blog/best-highlights-from-youx-2023 

Whether you are a team of one or one hundred, cultivating a healthy research culture starts with strong leadership. Strong leadership encourages UXR teams to promote better research practices across teams and manage healthy conflict. But what does a healthy company culture look like IRL? And how do you promote best practices throughout the organization to help scale your research?

Mike Oren, Head of Design Research at Klaviyo, has built and scaled several thriving research teams from scratch throughout his career. In this episode, he discusses the power of company culture and shares advice on culture building.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The overall impact of research culture on companies’ bottom-line goals
• The anatomy of a “healthy” company culture
• Establishing cultural norms in your organization
• Dealing with challenges and avoiding mistakes
• Tips and tricks for nurturing and developing a research-focused company culture

Highlights:

• [00:01:11] Planting the seeds of research culture
• [00:03:18] The importance of psychological safety for UXR teams
• [00:06:04] Maintaining healthy conflict and avoiding cognitive bias
• [00:12:21] Attributes of a healthy research culture
• [00:21:45] How research culture fits in with the rest of the organization
• [00:28:39] Tips on how to build research awareness and educate stakeholders

Sources mentioned in the episode:

• http://userinterviews.com/awkward
• https://www.linkedin.com/company/klaviyo

About Our Guest

Mike Oren, Head of Design Research at Klaviyo, a technology company that provides an automated email marketing and SMS marketing platform. He is also the Founder of Societech, an Adjunct Professor at Illinois Institute of Technology’s Institute of Design, and an independent UX Research Consultant. Mike holds a Ph.D. and a Master’s degree in Human-Computer Interaction and Sociology from Iowa State University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and English Writing from DePauw University. 

In this episode of Awkward Silences, Erin May and John-Henry Forster are joined by Holly Hester-Reilly, CEO and Founder of H2R Product Science. They delve into how research can go  wrong, how bad research processes can give research a bad reputation, and how the methodology and timeline of your research can complement each other. Holly also outlines the best way to determine the right research method for your product. Tune in for an engaging conversation on research best practices with industry experts.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How bad research processes can give research a bad reputation
• Top most common ways that research can go wrong
• The relationship between research methodologies and project timelines
• Figuring out the right method for your research

Highlights:

• [00:04:27] Holly’s unique perspective from academic research and into tech
• [00:07:58] How can research go wrong?
• [00:10:20] The components of a good research model; what you need to get right
• [00:14:32] What to do with a research plan once you have it to ensure maximum alignment
• [00:16:54] How to combat biases in research and questionnaires
• [00:21:54] The interaction between methodology and the timeline in research
• [00:24:18] Figuring out the right method for your research
• [00:31:01] Interacting with stakeholders and organizations for the best research outcome

Sources mentioned in the episode:

• Holly’s LinkedIn
• H2R Product Science Website
• H2R Product Science LinkedIn

About our guest

Holly Hester-Reilly is the Founder and CEO of H2R Product Science, as well as a Product Discovery Coach and Consultant for the company. She also serves as an Adjunct Professor at New York University, a Member of the Board of Advisors at Octane11, and a Product Advisor at Ergatta. Needless to say, Holly is an undisputed expert in her field, and we’re lucky to have her on the show! 

According to Derek Osgood, it takes a "great product and product marketing collaboration" to get people to adopt products. But with such a small window of opportunity and many moving parts, it's easy to get it wrong. So how do massively successful brands execute a winning product launch?

Join Erin and JH as they welcome guest Derek Osgood, CEO of Ignition, to examine the key components of a product launch. Derek shares his perspective on branding at scale as he outlines critical aspects to consider before, during, and after launch. He also provides a step-by-step walkthrough of a successful go-to-market strategy, complete with specific marketing tactics for planning, targeting, collaboration, and research.

In this episode, we discuss:

• What makes a successful product launch?
• The elements of a winning launch
• Best research practices, tactics, tips, and tools
• Common mistakes and oversights

Highlights:

• [00:03:37] The ingredients to a successful launch
• [00:08:34] Walkthrough of a successful launch (plus a laundry list of important questions to consider)
• [00:12:11] Internal marketing and the importance of communicating across teams
• [00:17:17] How teams get it wrong, dos and don'ts
• [00:20:39] A simplistic way to segment your audience
• [00:26:25] Message testing tips - the how, when, and why
• [00:32:02] Specific tactics and tools Derek uses to find pricing and understand features

Sources mentioned in the episode:

• http://userinterviews.com/awkward
• Ignition LinkedIn

About Our Guest

Derek Osgood is a product marketing specialist, entrepreneur, and Founder & CEO of Ignition, a platform that helps brands streamline go-to-market strategies. He has launched several products that have collectively generated over $1 billion in revenue. Before Ignition, Derek worked as Director of Product Marketing at Rippling, Director of Marketing and Growth at BBVA, and as a Product Manager at Playstation. 

Erin May, John Henry Forster, and Carlos Tellez, Growth Research Manager at Nubank, get to the bottom of growth research. This episode is focused on two of Erin's favorite things – optimization and research. They discuss how research informs growth teams as Carlos describes the moving parts involved in the research process. Listen to hear what Carlos loves the most about his job, the scope of growth research, research design methods, tools, and tactics.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The value and impact of growth research
• Key differences between growth research and product research
• Research workflows and the dynamics of working relationships
• Research methodologies, tactics, and toolkits

Highlights:

• [00:01:08] What is growth research? What is platform research?
• [00:06:52] One big difference between growth research and product research
• [00:12:07] How does growth research "operate within the growth context"?
• [00:09:39] Support from leadership and the value of research in the context of growth
• [00:15:18] Carlos shares Nubank's approach to qualitative research
• [00:18:34] Carlos details his team's creative approach to data collection
• [00:28:41] Tactics for identifying the impact of research
• [00:28:41 Triangulation is a requirement of UX research; it's also the trickiest part to get right

Sources mentioned in the episode:

• userinterviews.com/awkward
• Nubank website
• Nubank LinkedIn

About our guest

Carlos Tellez is a digital strategist, UX researcher, service designer, and education enthusiast. Currently, he is the UX Research Manager at Nubank. Much of his work is focused on creating effective research teams and advancing the field of UX research. Carlos has a Master's degree in Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He also has a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies from Vassar College.

UX is exploding! It's tremendously exciting. But much of the technology pushing the state-of-the-art has been around for over a decade. What are the key driving factors behind the rapid rise of new tools like Figma? What does this mean for the future of collaboration? How will this affect research practices?

Alfonso de la Nuez, Co-Founder, CVO & BoD Member at UserZoom, and Dana Bishop, VP, Strategic Research Partners at UserZoom, drop by to discuss the evolution of the UX and muse on Adobe's recent acquisition of Figma. They take Erin and JH along for a retrospective look at the past 30 years of UX, dig into industry trends, and explore the nuances of user research.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The reasons behind the rise of UX tools like Figma
• The nature of collaboration in UX design, research, and stakeholders
• How tools affect the way we approach projects
• An evolution of UX design and UX research

Highlights:

• [00:01:52] Why is Figma the “darling of the design world”?
• [00:06:37] Prototyping changing for two reasons: time and necessity
• [00:13:09] Alfonso puts things into historical perspective with an anecdote
• [00:17:28] Fundamental differences between UX design and UX research
• [00:24:38] Dana discusses one dramatic industry change
• [00:30:06] A CX story about an encounter DoorDash
• [00:36:46] What's the next big thing in UX research?

Sources mentioned in the episode:

• http://userinterviews.com/awkward
• https://www.figma.com
• https://www.linkedin.com/company/userzoom
• https://www.userzoom.com

About Our Guest

Alfonso de la Nuez is Co-Founder, CVO & BoD Member at UserZoom. He has over seventeen years of experience in various disciplines, including UX, digital marketing, eCommerce, web design, and user-centered design. He is also the author of The Digital Experience Company, co-founder and former CEO of Xperience Consulting, and former co-founder and CEO of Xperience Consulting.

Dana Bishop, VP and Strategic Research Partner at UserZoom, has over twenty years of experience in UX research. After spending nine years at Keynote Systems, Dana worked at Key Lime Interactive until she joined UserZoom in 2017. Her work in UX research is primarily focused on competitive research and benchmarking. Currently, she is co-host of UXpeditious, a weekly podcast exploring the world of UX. 

In this episode of Awkward Silences, hosts Erin May and John Henry Forster welcome Ryan Glasgow, CEO of Sprig, to discuss the importance of in-product research. They dive into Sprig’s generative and evaluative research tools, as well as recruiting current customers and reaching out to prospective users for market research. The conversation concludes with a discussion about best practices for in-product research.
 

In this episode, we discuss:

• What is in-product research? Why is it important?
• The power of real-time research post-launch
• Strategies and best practices for conducting in-product surveys
• Shortening the feedback loop with Sprig

Highlights:

• [00:01:46] The role of in-product research in the process of product development
• [00:04:39] How Sprig streamlines gathering feedback for in-product research experiments
• [00:08:26] Best practices: advice on how to maximize response rate and more
• [00:14:49] The benefits of hyper-targeted product research
• [00:17:55] Advanced use cases for Sprig - combining sentiment data with conversion data

Sources mentioned in the episode:

• http://userinterviews.com/awkward
• Sprig

About Our Guest

Ryan Glasgow is the Founder and CEO at Sprig (formerly UserLeap), a research platform that provides advanced usability testing and in-product survey capabilities to companies such as Dropbox, Loom, and Shift. He is the author of The Customer‑Obsessed Product Manager's Playbook and current host of the People Driven Products Podcasts. Ryan has a strong background in product management. Prior to founding Sprig, he was the Group Product Manager at Weebly, Product Manager at Vurb, and Product Designer at Extrabux.