Jen Blatz, principal UX researcher at Boeing Employees' Credit Union (BECU), takes us on a journey from journalism to UX design, sharing practical insights from the trenches of financial institutions and animal hospitals. With experience spanning VCA animal hospitals to Capital One to Rocket Mortgage, Jen brings a refreshingly honest perspective on the evolving UX landscape—including what's broken with personas and why the future might look different than we think.

Her background in journalism shapes how she approaches ethnographic observation, whether she's watching veterinarians work with anxious pets or understanding how credit union members navigate digital banking. Jen doesn't shy away from tough conversations about AI's role in research, the limitations of traditional UX methods, or the reality of today's competitive job market.

Currently at BECU, Jen navigates the unique challenge of conducting remote research for a Washington State credit union while being based in Texas herself, highlighting how smaller financial institutions operate differently from big banks with vendor constraints and community-focused approach.

Key points:

Jen also touches on the challenges of remote research when you're not physically located where your users are, and how the pandemic shifted both researcher capabilities and user expectations around digital experiences.

The audio and video for this episode has been edited by Gideon Kroutil.

Special Guest: Jen Blatz.

Links:

• BlatzChatz on YouTube
• UX Research and Strategy group
• VCA Animal Hospitals
• Alan Cooper on personas — In this Medium article, Alan Cooper, whom most credit with inventing personas, recounts how he developed the concept starting in 1983 through real-world software design practice, culminating in the goal-directed persona methodology that became widely adopted after his 1998 book "The Inmates are Running the Asylum."
• Personas and Goal-Directed Design: An Interview with Kim Goodwin — In this interview from Center Centre, Kim Goodwin, director of design at Cooper, explains how personas evolved from Alan Cooper's intuitive design process into a research-based methodology that helps teams avoid elastic user problems and design based on actual user goals rather than assumptions.
• Joe Natoli on BlatzChatz
• Jobs-to-be-Done by Tony Ulwick — While Tony Ulwick formalized Jobs-to-be-Done methodology and Clayton Christensen popularized it, the concept builds on foundational thinking from Harvard's Theodore Levitt and has been further developed by practitioners like Jim Kalbach and others in the design community.
• SAC Framework – Scenario Alignment Canvas
• Indy Young's approach, a scenario-focused methodology
• Why you are asking the wrong customer interview questions, on jeans by Teresa Torres
• Michael Margolis from Google Ventures on Lenny's podcast
• The bullseye customer sprint from How This Works co
• Taproot Foundation
• Catch a Fire

Dr. Chui Chui Tan, cultural strategist and author, shares her journey helping businesses navigate cultural nuances for global growth. With over 16 years of experience in user experience internationally, she has orchestrated successful market launches for companies like Spotify, Netflix, and Bumble across 50 countries. Her approach goes beyond user research and experience to incorporate a holistic understanding of market ecosystems, helping businesses avoid cultural stereotyping while making informed strategic decisions.

Born in Malaysia to Chinese parents, Chui Chui moved to the UK over 20 years ago. Her unique background and global experience inform her approach to cultural strategy. Beginning with mechanical engineering and an unexpected transition through music technology to human-computer interaction, she eventually specialized in international research after conducting user interviews in Beijing for a hotel client.

Over time, her work evolved from pure user experience research to a more holistic approach that considers history, infrastructure, politics, and economic factors when helping businesses enter new markets.

Key points from the conversation:

Chui Chui also shares her fascination with understanding the origins of cultural differences, currently exploring this through reading "Sapiens" by Yuval Noah Harari among others.

You can find Chui Chui at:

The audio and video for this episode has been edited by Gideon Kroutil.

Special Guest: Dr. Chui Chui Tan.

Links:

• "Research for Global Growth: Strategies and Guidance for Cross-Cultural Insights" & "International User Research" by Chui Chui Tan
• Chui Chui Tan on Erin Meyer's 'Culture Map' and other culture frameworks
• The Culture Map by Erin Meyer
• Erin Meyer's tools, including the Country Mapping Tool
• Geert Hofstede's six (6) dimension model of national culture
• Trompenaars's model of national culture differences
• Chui Chui Tan on hospital waiting rooms and business strategy
• ChatGPT
• Baidu's Ernie
• Jais — Jais is an open-source large language model developed in the United Arab Emirates and launched in August 2023. It was trained on both English- and Arabic-language data. Jais is named after Jebel Jais, the highest mountain in the United Arab Emirates.
• Why Gemini, Google’s AI tool, was slammed for showing images of people of color
• DeepSeek
• Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
• Culinary Class Wars on Netflix
• Taiko drumming

Drew Burdick, founder and managing partner of StealthX, shares his unconventional journey into design and entrepreneurship. After growing up in the Philippines (age 4-18) and studying political science and communications in college, a chance internship introduced him to graphic design — beginning with a bootleg copy of Illustrator/Photoshop CS2. During the 2009 recession, Drew scrapped his way forward, balancing freelance design work with jobs like valet parking at the Ritz Carlton and window washing.

His path included founding a successful clothing brand for the electronic music scene (complete with 163 street team members) before transitioning into corporate roles and eventually launching StealthX, a consultancy focused on customer strategy, product design, and software engineering.

Key points from the conversation:

Drew also predicts that within a year, solopreneurs will increasingly build and launch products independently using AI tools, potentially challenging traditional team structures in larger organizations. He encourages experimenting with these tools, seeing them as opportunities to augment human creativity rather than as threats.

Listen to the second part of our conversation over at Drew's podcast, "Building Great Experiences" —

Special Guest: Drew Burdick.

Links:

• StealthX
• Product Camp - Charlotte
• Lenny & Friends Summit — A one-day summit on 24 Oct 2024 in San Francisco for senior product leaders hosted by Lenny Rachitsky
• "Product is dead" - Claire Vo, CPO of LaunchDarkly — Claire Vo, Chief Product Officer at LaunchDarkly and creator of ChatPRD, deliver a groundbreaking talk at the Lenny & Friends Summit on how AI is revolutionizing product management
• Andy Polaine on the How This Works show
• Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson, Kenneth Blanchard
• The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle
• The Culture Playbook by Daniel Coyle
• Building Great Experiences w/ Drew Burdick from StealthX

Skipper chats with Bumhan Yu, a designer and coder, about his perspective shaped by his linguistics and psychology background. After moving from Korea to New York City, he transitioned from academia to design, where his non-design background enriches his approach to understanding user needs and communication. His career evolved from graphic design to design operations and team dynamics, emphasizing problem understanding before solution creation. Beyond design, Bumhan maintains interests in theoretical physics and the Zettelkasten note-taking method among other topics.

During the show, we talk through a number of topics, including:

Here's a photo of Bumhan's t-shirt from the episode:

Special Guest: Bumhan Yu.

Links:

• International Trauma Studies Program
• Eames design process diagram
• The Process of Design Squiggle by Damien Newman
• Audiobook for "The Order of Time" by Carlo Rovelli
• "How to Take Smart Notes" by Sönke Ahrens

Skipper chats with Aaron Young, founder of Switch Insights, breaking down the concept of "switch interviews" — a lesser known methodology that reveals the contextual moments leading customers to change products or services, emphasizing the importance of understanding the "why" behind customer behavior rather than just the "what." He explains that while companies often think they know why customers switch, a directed interview can reveal the complex, messy reality of customer decision-making, encompassing factors like grievances, magnetism, and effort underneath and surrounding the change.

During the show, we talk through:

Stay tuned until the end where Skipper tells Aaron about Stephen Colbert's oatmeal rum-soaked bing cherry cookie recipe, which Colbert (yes, him) says is so irresistible you'd "step on a baby's finger for one."

Special Guest: Aaron Young.

Links:

• "Competing Against Luck" by Clayton M. Christensen
• "Demand-Side Sales 101" by Bob Moesta
• The Jobs-to-be-Done Mattress Interview
• The Mattress Interview – Q&A
• The "commuter" car JTBD interview on the Critical Path show, episode 146 — Bob Moesta talks with Horace Dediu in 2015 on the job to be done for a Porsche Cayman (from archive.org)
• "Deep Work" by Cal Newport
• Stephen Colbert's favorite cookie to make, an oatmeal rum-soaked bing cherry cookie

In this episode, Andy Polaine, Dr. Polaine to some, talks about his career journey, starting with his background in film and interactive media, his transition into service design, and his current focus as a design leadership coach. Andy discusses his coaching approach, which is rooted in his experience as a designer, facilitator, and teacher. He also talks about some of what he's hearing from design leaders right now, emphasizing the importance of reading the room, even in a digital context, and how his work addresses common challenges faced by design leaders, such as imposter syndrome and the "leadership dip" — a period of uncertainty and self-doubt that can arise when transitioning into a leadership role. The interview also touches on the evolving role of design leadership in organizations and how designers can more effectively communicate the value of their work to stakeholders.

Some topics discussed:

Stay tuned until the end where we hear a behind the scenes (bts) snippet, a peek into our lives today, where we wait for Andy's wife to open/close some doors as she's seeing a patient at home while we're recording.

Special Guest: Andy Polaine.

Links:

• Ben Reason
• Julian Simpson on Powers of Ten
• MacroMind Director
• ZX Spectrum
• Fjord Fika (last updated in 2018)
• Carl Jung
• Impostor syndrome, also known as impostor phenomenon
• "The Impostor Phenomenon in High Achieving Women: Dynamics and Therapeutic Intervention" by Pauline R. Clance and Suzanne A. Imes — Published in 1978
• The Leadership Dip
• Andy's talking about the dip on his YouTube channel
• Elgato Prompter
• Daniel Stillman - Good Talk
• Malcolm Gladwell's What the Dog Saw
• Peter Merholz
• Dave Gray's "Gamestorming"
• Dave Gray's "Selling to the VP of No" — (Amazon affiliate link)
• You're Inching Me Out — From the first season of Esther Perel's How's Work? They were mates in university before co-founding a successful communications company. They still work together from different coasts, but they barely speak. One wants to move on; the other is grasping for his former friend. Neither can find the words to talk about it.
• Mitchell & Webb — Nazis sketch
• https://www.polaine.com/
• https://www.polaine.com/power-of-ten/
• https://www.polaine.com/coaching/
• https://www.youtube.com/@apolaine
• https://newsletter.polaine.com/

Joanne Weaver, who co-runs a design recruiting agency in New York City, discussed her dual career in recruitment and music. She highlighted the importance of networking and tailoring job applications to specific roles. Joanne emphasized the need for efficiency in communication and the value of understanding both job seekers and clients. She shared her journey from starting her agency during a financial crisis to having built a successful business. Joanne also discussed the significance of connection and authenticity, both in her professional and personal life, recommended the show "Alone" for its exploration of human resilience, and talked about her semimonthly show on LinkedIn live with two other design recruiters, Jared Tredly and Erica Fortgang for Design:Unfiltered @DesignedXTalent

Keep listening until after the outro music for a bit of tape from our first attempt at recording (Internet connection problems) where Joanne talks about how being a singer and being a performer helps to understand the clients and job seekers she works with.

A few specific points from the episode:

Special Guest: Joanne Weaver.

Links:

• Rebecca Levi
• Steve Jobs' commencement speech to Stanford’s 2005 graduating class — “Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backward ten years later,” Jobs said. “So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something-your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”
• Twisted Spritzer
• Ryan Adams - "Wonderwall" (Oasis cover)
• Simon Sinek on Design Matters in 2015 — With Debbie Millman
• "Speak" by Tunde Oyeneyin
• Tara Mohr's "Playing Big"
• Ted Lasso clip — When Rebecca "makes herself big" to build up courage
• Tony Robbins
• Alone (TV series)
• Voyager Golden Record
• Joanne Weaver Group
• Design:Unfiltered on LinkedIn
• Design:Unfiltered replays on YouTube
• Joanne Weaver's music on Spotify
• Twisted Spritzer
• Broanne

On this episode of the How This Works show, Skipper Chong Warson talks to Carl Cleanthes, founder of Epic Made, a creative content agency based in Hampton Roads, Virginia. Carl shares his entrepreneurial journey from selling timeshares to establishing an agency that now collaborates with top brands like SyFy, Nickelodeon, USA, TNT, and WWE. He discusses his passion for art and creativity, focusing on his exploration of NFTs as a way to immortalize his late father’s artwork. Throughout the conversation, Carl emphasizes the importance of living authentically, expressing emotions freely, and using his creativity to honor his father’s legacy.

Listen above or wherever you get your podcasts: https://www.howthisworks.show/028-carl-cleanthes. You can also listen on Youtube: https://youtu.be/yn74GSse5f0.

Key details from the episode:

Special Guest: Carl Cleanthes.

Links:

• Epic Made — Carl Cleanthes' creative studio
• Everquest — A MMORPG released in 1999 that immerses players in the fantasy world of Norrath, where they can create characters, complete quests, and engage with others in a shared, persistent online environment.
• Old Dominion University
• Epic Made's work includes Nickelodeon, SyFy, USA, network, TNT, and WWE
• Chris Metzen — An American game designer, writer, and voice actor, best known for his influential work at Blizzard where he played a key role in the development of Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo.
• NFTs — Non-fungible token
• Web3 — Web3 is a decentralized version of the internet that uses blockchain technology to give users control over their data, digital assets, and interactions, enabling peer-to-peer transactions and decentralized governance without relying on intermediaries.
• On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin — *On the Origin of Species* is Charles Darwin's seminal 1859 work that introduced the theory of natural selection, explaining how species evolve over time through the survival and reproduction of individuals best adapted to their environment. This groundbreaking book laid the foundation for modern evolutionary biology, challenging traditional views on the creation and diversity of life.
• About Time (2013) — A (romantic) comedy about a young man who discovers he can time travel, using his gift to improve his life, love, and relationships with Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams, Bill Nighy, Tom Hollander, and Margot Robbie among others
• Live Streaming Art 8 PM ET EVERY Wed — Carl's weekly live-stream art show
• Pixel Retentive podcast with Carl and Ross Ciuppa
• Colorful Carl — Colorful Carl, one of Carl's nicknames, is an artist, agency founder, and podcast host who combines his passions for digital art, animation, and storytelling.

Back in August, Skipper had a conversation with Jen Dary about her personal experiences and insights on leadership coaching, the importance of self-awareness and belief in one's abilities, Plucky's So Now You're a Manager (SNYaM), navigating the publishing industry, and prioritizing self-care in the coaching profession. Other topics include:

Special Guest: Jen Dary.

Links:

• Plucky
• Plucky's So Now You're a Manager
• The Andy Warhol Diaries — In 2022, a Netflix series (titled after Warhol's 1989 book) puts on center stage the life and emotions of the artist after he was shot in 1968. The six episodes utilize Resemble AI and original recordings as Warhol narrates his own diary entries, accompanied by a cast of characters, including his friend Pat Hackett.
• Plucky's Instagram
• Jen's Instagram
• Day Of Big Dreaming — Avail from today to end of January 2024, recommended
• SNYaM 2024 — There are currently two (2) virtual So Now You're A Manager cohorts planned in 2024, dates are TBA, interested folks should pre-register
• Plucky's podcast — This season, released earlier this year, featured eight (8) different mentors on a variety of topics, like negotiation, allyship, performance reviews, first impressions and more

Stay tuned for a bit of tape at the end where Karen and Skipper talk about one's "need to be right."

Note from TED: Karen's talk linked below contains a discussion of suicidal ideation. If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts, please consult a mental health professional and/or support organization, as this talk is not a substitute for mental health advice. If you are struggling with self-destructive or suicidal thoughts, call or text 988 to connect with someone who can help.

Special Guest: Karen Faith.

Links:

• Others Unlimited
• Karen's TEDx talk, "How to talk to the worst parts of yourself" around the subject of Unconditional Welcome
• Karen's recorded workshop session on Empathy for A**holes at CreativeMornings
• Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Alex Bogusky and John Bielenberg
• Karen talks to Joe Reichert on More Wiser about ethnography and everything else