Awkward Silences

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.

The rise of UX research was a game changer in software design and development. As UX continues to grow in nearly every industry, research ops experts with strong leadership skills are critical for companies working at scale.

In this episode, A'verria Martin, Director, Chief of Staff, Head of Research Operations and Strategy at ServiceNow, provides a high-level overview of the UX Research Chief of Staff role and explains why this position is in high demand. As A'verria shares her journey, she defines the role of UX Research Chief of Staff and outlines her core responsibilities. 

Thomas Aquinas once said, “Tacos cannot exist without tide pods”. 

In this bittersweet edition of Tacos and Tidepods—Erin and JH say their goodbyes to Roberta and reflect back at her time at User Interviews. Roberta talks about her decision to pursue a career in coaching and leadership development training at Design Dept. From career challenges and memories to lessons she’s learned, Roberta shares her journey with User Interviews as Erin and JH do their best to make her cry.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Roberta's career path
• Roberta's legacy at User Interviews
• Career development (finding your niche)
• Coaching for design leaders

Highlights:

• [00:02:54] Roberta shares the most important lessons she's learned from working at User Interviews
• [00:06:11] They discuss Roberta's contributions
• [00:14:52] How to grow as a leader through self-care and teamwork
• [00:16:22] Roberta's tacos: what she's looking forward to the most as
• [00:18:21] Career tips on networking and finding your niche

Sources mentioned in the episode:

• userinterviews.com/awkward
• Design Dept. Leadership Coaching
• Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans

About our guest

Roberta Dombrowski is a Research Partner at Maze (formerly VP of User Research at User Interviews). She is also an ICF certified Coach & Mindfulness Teacher, Level II Reiki Practitioner, and Predictive Index (PI) Certified Talent Optimization Leader. Roberta has been instrumental in creating and shaping cultures of learning at User Interviews, edX, Predictive Index, and Year Up. 

Finding your dream customers can be tricky, and knowing which customers aren’t a good fit is important. That’s where customer profiles come in handy. In this episode of Awkward Silences, Andrew Michael, CEO of Avrio, discusses the importance of ideal customer profiles. Andrew draws upon his experience and shares insights on creating customer profiles, customer research methods, and tips on how to get started.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The role of the ideal customer profile (ICP) in an organization
• Using thermographic and demographic properties to create an ICP
• Creating personas and segmenting audiences
• Conducting studies and collecting data about your customers
• How teams get ICPs wrong
• Tips and best practices for developing and using ICPs

Highlights:

• [00:06:03] The benefits of ideal customer profiles (ICPs) and who uses them
• [00:08:15] Andrew discusses the details of how they developed ICPs at Hotjar
• [00:11:34] Anti-ICP: Ruling out a large portion of your audience
• [00:24:08] Andrew details how to discover criteria that reveal insight
• [00:25:40] Tip: Don’t overcomplicate ICP, three or four defining characteristics are enough
• [00:29:19] Anti-ICP: How to communicate with customers that you don’t want
• [00:32:16] An effective ICP contributes to retention, alignment, and customer satisfaction
• [00:35:44] Andrew's final piece of advice: ICPs “needs to be a company-wide initiative”

Sources mentioned in the episode:

• userinterviews.com/awkward
• CHURN.FM Podcast

About our guest

Andrew Michael is the CEO at Avrio – a software development research platform – host of Churn.FM, and Founding Member of Startup Cyprus. Andrew is also a teacher and speaker featured at the How to Web Conference 2022 and Advancing Research 2022. Before joining Avrio, Andrew worked at Hotjar, where he held leadership roles in marketing, management, and experience design. 

If you ask Roberta Dombrowski why it's her favorite time of year, she'll probably mention the UX Research Tools Map. Why? Because it’s one of User Interviews’ most popular projects of the year that features the best UX research tools available across different use cases.

Ye one and all are invited to explore the fantastical land of the 2022 UX Research Tools Map! From the Royal Courts of The High Kingdom of Recruiting and Panel Management to the dark waters of Megalodon 365 and G-Dragon, you can explore more about each UX tool and get a comprehensive view of the UXR tool landscape. Informative, fun, and entertaining in its detail—the medieval-themed map is designed to help UX researchers far and wide gain a better understanding of the different UX tools available to them.
 

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why the UX Research Tools Map is awesome
• New features we love, updates, and categories
• The challenges of optimizing your tool stack
• Tools! UX research tools! And more wonderful tools!

Highlights:

• [00:01:44] Taco: Roberta explains the motivation behind the map
• [00:06:11] JH and Roberta list some of their favorite UXR tools
• [00:07:30] Why we created the map and how it informs the tool optimization process
• [00:10:44] À la carte vs all-in-one, the challenge of choosing the best solution
• [00:12:24] Exciting new UX research tools and use cases for tools User Interviews relies on
• [00:15:59] Fun features, funny details, and easter eggs

Sources mentioned in the episode:

• userinterviews.com/awkward
• https://sprig.com
• https://www.userinterviews.com/ux-research-tools-map-2022

About our guest

Roberta Dombrowski is the VP of User Research at User Interviews. She is also a Coach & Mindfulness Teacher at Learn Mindfully—her professional and personal development service that helps leaders and individuals reach their full potential. Roberta holds a Master of Science and Organizational Development Workplace Learning from Boise State University, a Level II Reiki Certification, and is a perennial lover of nature.

Healthcare organizations are responding to the UX design boom by focusing on the patient experience. What is driving this shift? Why did it take so long? How does quantitative research align with qualitative research?

In this episode of Awkward Silences, Tiffany Mura, Senior Vice President of Health Practice Lead at Mad*Pow, and Erica Devine, Associate Director, Patient Experience Strategy and Support at Otsuka Pharmaceutical Companies (U.S.), discuss patient-centered design in healthcare research. They explore the complexities of the healthcare ecosystem and share key aspects of their research methodologies to help paint a picture of how research can help improve the overall patient experience.

Highlights:  

• [00:03:48] Digital health companies are disrupting the industry
• [00:11:38] Erica shares data collection procedures and discusses research trends
• [00:14:28] How do healthcare researchers find the right people to talk to?
• [00:17:00] Tiffany explains standard healthcare research methodologies 
• [00:26:39] Ethical considerations are central to planning and recruitment 
• [00:37:02] How to use qualitative data to better understand the patient experience
• [00:40:21] New regulations will force companies to measure patient-reported outcomes

Sources mentioned in the episode:

• userinterviews.com/awkward
• The Experience Economy by Joseph Pine
• User Research for UX Designers: The Complete Guide
  
  

About our guests  

Human-centered design specialist Tiffany Mura is a senior-level brand marketing strategist with a range of experience in multiple healthcare sectors. She is currently the Strategic Lead of Healthcare at Stone Mantel (formerly Senior Vice President, Health Practice Lead at Mad*Pow). She has a Master’s degree in Business Administration and a Bachelor of Science in Sociology from Penn State University.

Erica Devine is a practicing pharmacist with over sixteen years of experience building and overseeing teams. She is currently the Associate Director of Patient Experience Strategy at Otsuka Pharmaceutical Companies. Her work centers around business development and customer experience strategy, among other things. Erica has a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Pittsburgh, licensed to practice in NY and PA.

As teams look for effective ways to collaborate between in-person and remote work, hybrid meetings are a flexible solution to meet both needs. But how can teams strike a balance of both in-person and remote meetings in a hybrid setting? How can facilitators reimagine collaboration to make meetings more effective and productive?

In this episode of Awkward Silences, Lead UX Research Manager at Miro, Eduardo Gomez Ruiz, is back to share his team’s insight from Miro’s latest research study on the advantages and challenges of hybrid meetings. He shares exactly how he secured stakeholder buy-ins, UX research methods, and surprising signals. As hybrid working models take hold, this study serves as a great starting point for understanding new paradigms, trends, and attitudes as we continue to navigate new ways of working.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How UX is affected by the evolving hybrid work environment
• Effective ways to gather collaborators and stakeholders
• The various UX research methods Eduardo and his team used for the study, and some surprising results
• The role of inclusion in facilitating hybrid work environments
• Best tips and practices from successful hybrid meeting facilitators

Highlights:

• [00:05:17] The project's hypothesis was to uncover the dynamics of the overlap between devices, environment, and culture
• [00:09:12] How Eduardo gained support from the CEO and the Chief Product Officer
• [00:13:50] The four-phase plan; observation, interviews, surveys, and a co-creation session
• [00:18:57] Revealing surprising insights about IRL vs. remote user research and inclusivity
• [00:21:27] Attending in-office meetings as if they were remote
• [00:25:29] The biggest challenge: maximizing hybrid meetings for both remote and in-person contributors
• [00:35:01] J.H. touches on emerging approaches to asynchronous communication in meetings
• [00:37:33] Helpful tips on inclusion and initiating collaboration during hybrid meetings

Sources mentioned in the episode:

• userinterviews.com/awkward
• https://miro.com/

About our guest

Eduardo Gomez Ruiz is the Senior UX Research Manager at Miro, which develops cutting-edge collaboration software trusted by over forty million users. He has also served as a Design Thinking Associate Professor at IE Business School for nearly eight years. Since Eduardo joined Miro in 2020, he has been instrumental in the growth and development of the company’s UX research department. Prior to joining Miro, he held positions at Uber and several consulting agencies as a Global UX Researcher and UX Consultant 

The dual nature of research on research is exciting in itself, especially for Senior UX Researcher Nicholas Aramouni. In this episode, things get meta as we address the UX of UX research. Nicholas discusses the importance of testing everything, testing early, and testing often. He elaborates on his approach to UX research from different angles and describes the beauty (and absurdity) of what it’s like when UX researchers become participants.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Best practices for building better UX
• The UX challenges UX researchers face
• Important factors that influence UX testing
• The pros and cons of adopting new research tools
• A walkthrough of Nicholas’ testing methods

Highlights:

• [00:01:52] The keys to designing a great UX test are flawlessness, simplicity, and making it intentional
• [00:05:42] Nicholas’ approach: test everything, test early, and test often to create the perfect test
• [00:06:53] Nicholas talks about staying focused on what matters and that empathy is a powerful research tool
• [00:10:42] The test is a valuable asset, and how tools affect the outcomes
• [00:23:17] Do researchers make good participants?
• [00:27:52] Tips for researchers using a new UX platform
• [00:31:39] More on researchers as participants. Nicholas shares his experience as a participant
• [00:33:04] Erin asks Nick how he got into user research

About our guest

Nicholas Aramouni is a Senior Communications Manager and UX Researcher at Userlytics who specializes in global UX practices. Nicholas has experience in various industries, including music, entertainment, media, and e-commerce. He is passionate about humanities, holds a B.Ed. in Social Studies from Mount Royal University, and was the former co-host of Mindspark. A learning podcast focused on K-12 education.