Insights Unlocked

What is Human Insight? What can you do with human insight? And how do you get started gathering human insight? 

Those are the big three questions the Center for Human Insight, presented by UserTesting, hopes to answer. 

“People tend to think of user tests as being something just tied to usability when in fact it's a way to get broad feedback on anything that you need to get reactions to or input on in real time,” said Michael Mace, VP of the Center for Human Insight. “And the range of things you can do with it, the range of things you can learn are just amazing. We want to bring that to life for everybody so that they see what you can do.”

Mace along with Michael Domanic, Head of Solutions Partners at UserTesting; and Sean Treiser, Insights Strategist at UserTesting, were guests on this week’s episode of the Human Insight Podcast. 

In their conversation, they also discussed: 

Links from the show

Center for Human Insight

Emailing the center: [email protected]

Customer onboarding is critical to the success of a business not just in activation, but in the long-term retention of those users.

Typically, we think of the example of when we sign up a new customer and then onboard them on our product or service. 

But onboarding is more than that. You’ll need to re-onboard a once-every-few-months user every time they log on. And you’ll need to successfully onboard a customer every time you release a new product feature. 

“If you don't,” says Pulkit Agrawal, cofounder and CEO of Chameleon, “that feature won't get adoption activation, retention, and won’t be part of the reason why customers stick around.”

Chameleon helps companies build better onboarding experiences. Agrawal was this week’s guest on the Human Insights Podcast, joining co-hosts Andy MacMillan and Janelle Estes. 

“User onboarding, while it's typically considered at the start of the product journey, really applies across the product lifecycle as you build functionality,” Agrawal said. “And in the world of product-led today, where really the companies that have the best products and the most usage in engagement are the ones that win, it's really vital that companies have a method, a process, a system and tooling to continue to onboard users onto features and continue to drive engagement adoption.”

Listen to the episode and learn more about: 

Welcome to our second annual roundup of book recommendations from guests on the Human Insight Podcast. 

It is a good mix of books, covering creativity, money, innovation and product development. There is even a children’s book recommendation, as well as one for a newsletter. 

And don’t forget, our own User Tested and The Digital Experience Company.

Timothy Embretson is Global Vice President of Experience Design and Karolina Boremalm is Global Head of Design Operations at Ingka Group, IKEA’s largest retailer. In this episode, they discuss how they are leading a digital transformation at a major global retailer. Scaling the design organizations and helping to make the special in-person IKEA experience just as delightful when a person is shopping online.

Julia Austin is a strong advocate for feedback never stopping, whether she is pushing her students to get out and talk with customers or talking with business leaders. 

“I'll get this question, especially from founders early on, of ‘when do I stop talking to my customers and getting feedback and start building my product?,’” said Austin, Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School’s Rock Center for Entrepreneurship where she currently teaches Startup Operations. “And I'm like, ‘Never ... You need to be talking to them all the time.”

In this episode of the Human Insight Podcast, Austin joins UserTesting’s CEO Andy MacMillan and Chief Insights Officer Janelle Estes to discuss the importance of customer feedback, as well as: 

Erin May and JH Forster of User Interviews and hosts of the Awkward Silences podcast, discuss the value of high-value research participants. Depending on where a product is in its lifecycle, an intentional pool of research participants can substantially impact the strategic direction of a product.

You have to understand how people work, and why, says Kaj van de Loo, UserTesting’s Chief Technology Officer, on this week’s episode of the Human Insight Podcast. 

“What do they actually want to do or need to do to reach their goals, vs. what are they doing as weird workarounds or because they are being told to do,” he said. “Look at the former, and support it. In our case, every product manager, designer, and engineer wants to understand our customers and users and they all want to hear about how our product is being used, what people think of it, and how we can make it better. We lean into that.” 

In their conversation with Kaj, co-hosts Andy and Janelle ask him about business workflows and how the pandemic and digital acceleration changed the way we think about processes and workflows. 

The also discuss how understanding how people work, and how they leverage tools and technology, as well as customer insights, to launch products successfully.

Jesse James Garrett is a Design Leadership coach, author and speaker with over 25 years of experience in the UX industry. Jesse was part of the first wave of professional user experience designers and co-founder of one of the first user experience consultancies, Adaptive Path. In this episode, we talk with Jesse about what UX leadership needs in order to keep the industry thriving.

Producer’s note: This week’s episode is a conversation with futurist and author Brian Solis at The Human Insight Summit held in New Orleans in 2022.

Do you know how your customers experience your brand today? Do you know how they really feel? Do you know what they say when you're not around? You think you know your customers, but you really have no idea–until you talk to them!

Brian Solis, author of X: The Experience When Business Meets Design, joined Janelle Estes, UserTesting’s Chief Insights Officer and co-author of User Tested, met onstage in a fireside conversation at The Human Insights Summit last week in New Orleans to discuss the importance of customer understanding and empathy in an always-on world, and why today customer experience is your brand.

Solis is a world-renowned digital anthropologist, futurist, 8x best-selling author, and international keynote speaker. He serves as VP, Global Innovation at Salesforce and has consistently been recognized as one of the world's leading voices in innovation, business transformation, and leadership for over two decades.

Leveraging insights from each of their books and professional experiences, Brian and Janelle spoke about the parallels in their books and beliefs on powering customer-centric experiences.

Malini Leveque is VP of User Insights and Research at SAP. A huge multinational software company, SAP has over 100,000 employees. In this episode, Malini shares how she’s leading product teams throughout the organization using big data, analytics, and live user insights to drive actions that generate real business value.