UX Research Geeks

In this field notes episode, Petra Rajkov reflects on her conversation with Joel Barr and outlines the lessons she is applying to her own user research practice. She examines why getting out into the field and observing users in their own environment remains key for teams building software, which business metrics demonstrate the research value better than CSAT and NPS, and why she shares Joel's view that AI can support researchers but should not replace the people at the center of the work.

To hear the full discussion, watch episode 76 of UXR Geeks with Joel Barr: https://youtu.be/MqtCH-6Ab9E?si=oNBHMhXo4CpKFCz6 

Chapters:

00:00 The warehouse interface nobody used

01:58 Get out into the field 

03:15 Choose the right metrics to prove your worth 

04:08 Don’t replace users with AI 

05:49 Petra's conclusions

📚 Related reading:

- UXtweak meta-analysis of synthetic participants: https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9057643/v1_covered_9dfd9a10-c893-490f-b28d-cceb2180ed9c.pdf?c=1773733359 

- UXtweak research on AI moderation in usability testing: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2025/02/human-centered-design-ai-assisted-usability-testing/ 

👉 If you have any tips on fantastic speakers from across the globe, feedback, or any questions, we’d love to hear from you. Reach out to [email protected]

🐝 Brought to you by UXtweak, an all-in-one UX research software. Start your research for free at: https://www.uxtweak.com/ 👈

🐝 Where to follow UXtweak:

LinkedIn / Instagram / YouTube / Facebook / Twitter

Deniz Kartepe, a product researcher at Miro, reflects on the most prominent changes AI is bringing to product development and UX research. He explores how agentic AI transforms the speed and quality of research, reshapes organizational culture and collaboration within teams, and redefines the skills the next generation of researchers will need.

Deniz also advocates a distinctive view of the product lifecycle: bottlenecks never disappear, they simply shift from building to discovery and alignment, which gives researchers greater influence over what gets built in the first place.

👉 If you have any tips on fantastic speakers from across the globe, feedback, or any questions, we’d love to hear from you. Reach out to [email protected]

🔎 Do you want to know more? Check out this episode at:

https://www.uxtweak.com/podcast/deniz-kartepe-how-ai-changes-ux-research

About our guest 

Deniz is a Staff Product Researcher at Miro in Berlin, exploring how product teams work and build together in the agentic era.

His focus is on how people collaborate and communicate, both with each other and with AI agents, and what the product development process will look like as those workflows evolve.

He's also an agentic builder, moving beyond uncovering insights to using AI to shape and build solutions directly. One example is the conversational intelligence and discovery tool he built, which is now used by a large share of Miro employees.

Outside of Miro, Deniz is a conference speaker, mentor, trainer, and consultant.

👉 Did you know that UXtweak also offers a series of webinars packed with practical knowledge for UX professionals? Check out the episode with Maria Rosala from NN/g, where she talks about using AI as a UX research partner.

About this podcast:

Welcome to UX Research Geeks, where Petra Rajkov, a senior UX researcher and product thinker, talks with researchers from around the globe about topics that matter to them. 

🐝 Brought to you by UXtweak, an all-in-one UX research software. Start your research for free at: https://www.uxtweak.com/ 👈

🐝 Where to follow UXtweak:

LinkedIn / Instagram / YouTube / Facebook / Twitter

Mujaahida Shakur, a behavior scientist and UX researcher with a background in public health and experience at Amazon Web Services, reflects on her journey into UX research and the challenge of translating a nontraditional career path into a compelling professional story. She explores career pivots, resume language, AI in hiring and research, inclusive recruitment, and the realities of navigating today’s job market. She also explains how she turned networking into a research project and how her curiosity turned career conversations into opportunities for learning, self-discovery, and genuine connection.

UPD: During the editing process of this episode, Mujaahida was hired at the SteerBridge as a User Experience Researcher. We wish her best of luck at her new company.

👉 If you have any tips on fantastic speakers from across the globe, feedback, or any questions, we’d love to hear from you. Reach out to [email protected]

🔎 Do you want to know more? Check out this episode at:

https://www.uxtweak.com/podcast/mujaahida-shakur-ux-research-career

Episode highlights

00:01:52 - Every UX research career is unique 

00:02:58 - AI in the interview process

00:04:12 - Using AI in UX research 

00:05:51 - Switching the industries 

00:10:38 - Representation in UX research studies 

00:11:58 - Framing your resume for success 

00:13:01 - Importance of networking 

00:19:13 - Discovering your strengths and weaknesses 

00:22:40 - Learning from your connections 

00:28:26 - Final advice 

About our guest 

Mujaahida is a Behavioral Scientist with 10 years of experience. With a background in Psychology and Public Health, she has dedicated her career to increasing equitable access to products, programs, and services that support traditionally marginalized populations. She has applied this interest across a variety of industries, including Education, Non-profit, Public Health, and Tech. She's currently working as a UXR, studying the ways people use and interact with technology to drive product and program strategy and development.

👉 Did you know that UXtweak also offers a series of webinars packed with practical knowledge for UX professionals? Check out the episode with Maria Rosala from NN/g, where she talks about using AI as a UX research partner: https://www.youtube.com/live/hRWLkpCBiyg?si=Bee9a1Ek7b7HKUqN 

About this podcast:

Welcome to UX Research Geeks, where Petra Rajkov, a senior UX researcher and product thinker, talks with researchers from around the globe about topics that matter to them. 

🐝 Brought to you by UXtweak, an all-in-one UX research software. Start your research for free at: https://www.uxtweak.com/ 👈

🐝 Where to follow UXtweak:

LinkedIn / Instagram / YouTube / Facebook / Twitter

Angie Amlani, Executive Director of Strategy and Research at Metalab, talks about what it really takes to design AI-native products. She covers how UX researchers can navigate AI-specific challenges like user trust and ethics, stay rigorous while working at speed, and build stronger storytelling and systems-thinking skills. She also shares tips for using AI in research for running studies, synthesizing findings, and communicating insights to stakeholders, while keeping empathy at the center of UX research.

🐝 Add UXtweak as a preferred source to always have the latests insights from UXR experts! ⁠⁠⁠https://www.google.com/preferences/source?q=uxtweak.com⁠⁠⁠

🔎 Do you want to know more? Check out this episode at:

https://www.uxtweak.com/podcast/angelina-amlani-empathy-in-ux-research

Episode highlights

00:02:04 - Advantages of being an agency UX researcher

00:04:20 - Empathy as the core of UX research 

00:08:41 - Speed vs. rigor

00:11:04 - Sense-making in working with AI-native products

00:14:34 - Traditional UX research vs. research on AI products

00:16:08 - AI tools Angie recommends for UX research

00:17:52 - Key skills every UX researcher needs 

00:20:35 - Communicating with stakeholders

00:22:11 - Working at Metalab

00:24:01 - User trust and AI products 

00:28:00 - Summing up 

About our guest 

Angie Amlani is Executive Director of Research and Strategy at Metalab, the design agency behind digital products like Slack, Uber, Headspace, and Amazon. She helps product teams uncover what users need most, and turn that insight into clear, strategic decisions. With a background in systems thinking and human-centered design, Angie brings focus to the early stages of product and brand development, when direction matters most. 

👉 Did you know that UXtweak also offers a series of webinars packed with practical knowledge for UX professionals? Check out the episode with Maria Rosala from NN/g, where she talks about using AI as a UX research partner.

About this podcast:

Welcome to UX Research Geeks, where Tina Ličková, a researcher and strategist, talks with researchers from around the globe about topics that matter to them. 

🐝 Brought to you by UXtweak, an all-in-one UX research software. Start your research for free at: https://www.uxtweak.com/ 👈

🐝 Where to follow UXtweak:

LinkedIn / Instagram / YouTube / Facebook / Twitter

👉 If you have any tips on fantastic speakers from across the globe, feedback, or any questions, we’d love to hear from you. Reach out to ⁠[email protected]⁠

Joel Barr, a UX engineer and software creation professional, reflects on why we need to rethink the place of UX research within organizations, arguing that researchers have much greater impact when they sit under operations rather than product. He explores the decline of field research, the importance of connecting UX to sales and customer success teams, and the risks of overrelying on AI and synthetic participants. Joel also advocates for measuring UX through business outcomes such as revenue, retention, and operational success rather than product-centric metrics, debating that only by proving its commercial impact can UX secure its future. 

👉 If you have any tips on fantastic speakers from across the globe, feedback, or any questions, we’d love to hear from you. Reach out to [email protected]

🔎 Do you want to know more? Check out this episode at:

https://www.uxtweak.com/podcast/joel-barr-ux-research-in-organizations

Episode highlights

00:01:48 - Why UX Research should not sit under Product 

00:08:08 - Servant leadership 

00:11:40 - How companies benefit from having UX researchers in the field 

00:16:27 - Will UX Research lose influence if moved under Operations?

00:21:23 - AI in UX research

00:26:10 - Connecting UX research with retention and sales metrics 

00:28:12 - Summing up

👉 Did you know that UXtweak also offers a series of webinars packed with practical knowledge for UX professionals? Check out the episode with Stéphanie Walter, where she talks about overcoming the challenges of enterprise UX: https://www.youtube.com/live/d9p4ShC_fMA?si=eYEl_S0UErpJiT4B 

About this podcast:

Welcome to UX Research Geeks, where Tina Ličková, a researcher and strategist, talks with researchers from around the globe about topics that matter to them. 

🐝 Brought to you by UXtweak, an all-in-one UX research software. Start your research for free at: https://www.uxtweak.com/ 👈

🐝 Where to follow UXtweak:

LinkedIn / Instagram / YouTube / Facebook / Twitter

After 4 years and 70+ podcast episodes, we're saying a heartfelt thank you to Tina Ličková, our amazing host of UX Research Geeks since its first episode.

Tina gave this show her critical mind, passion, and the courage to ask uncomfortable questions. She helped us shape UXR Geeks into what it is today, and we're incredibly grateful for that.

Stepping in is Petra Rajkov, our Senior UX Researcher, who cares deeply for our field and the users. With her experience from Slido, Cisco, and now UXtweak, Petra brings a new perspective and genuine passion to the podcast.

UXR Geeks continues. Same mission. New energy. New voice.

👉 If you have any tips on fantastic speakers from across the globe, feedback, or any questions, we’d love to hear from you. Reach out to [email protected]

🔎 Do you want to know more? Check out this episode at:

https://www.uxtweak.com/podcast/new-chapter-of-uxr-geeks

Episode highlights

00:00:36 - UX Research Geeks news 

00:01:22 - Meeting Petra

00:02:15 - Petra’s experience in the UXR field

00:05:25 - Petra’s mission for UXR Geeks

00:07:08 - Petra’s first guest on the podcast 

00:10:00 - Summarizing Tina’s 4 years with UXR Geeks 

00:12:40 -  Saying a heartfelt goodbye to Tina

About our guest:

Petra Rajkov is a senior UX researcher and product thinker. With a background spanning startups, scale-ups, and large corporations, she’s worked on a wide range of projects, but her main goal is always keeping real human experiences at the center of the company. Driven by curiosity and her experience at Slido, Cisco, and UXtweak, she is now bringing her passion for UX and empowering others to the UX Research Geeks Podcast.

👉 Did you know that UXtweak also offers a series of webinars packed with practical knowledge for UX professionals? Check out the episode with Maria Rosala, where she talks about using AI as a UX research partner.

About this podcast:

Welcome to UX Research Geeks, where Petra Rajkov, a senior UX researcher and product thinker, talks with researchers from around the globe about topics that matter to them. 

🐝 Brought to you by UXtweak, an all-in-one UX research software. Start your research for free at: https://www.uxtweak.com/ 👈

🐝 Where to follow UXtweak:

LinkedIn / Instagram / YouTube / Facebook / Twitter

Dr. Gyles Morrison, a Clinical UX Strategist and former medical doctor, discusses how UX research can improve healthcare by addressing the realities of clinical practice, systemic bias, and complex care delivery. He explores why healthcare research must go above and beyond combining user research with population health data, workflow analysis, and an understanding of clinical systems to design products that patients and clinicians can actually adopt. Gyles also introduces his principle of "designing with discrimination in mind," arguing that digital health products should anticipate where bias enters clinical decision-making and deliberately shape workflows that make evidence-based care the easiest path to follow.

👉 If you have any tips on fantastic speakers from across the globe, feedback, or any questions, we’d love to hear from you. Reach out to [email protected]

🔎 Do you want to know more? Check out this episode at:

https://www.uxtweak.com/podcast/gyles-morisson-challenges-of-user-research-in-healthcare

Episode highlights

00:01:50 - Unique aspects of user research in healthcare

00:05:33 - Example of complexity of user research in healthcare

00:12:33 - Motivation for work in healthcare

00:16:27 - The biggest problems in healthcare

00:12:16 - Care plans in healthcare

00:23:21 - A clinitial's mindset and subconscious bias

00:28:23 -  Communicating user research findings in healthcare

00:30:48 -  Final advice

About our guest

Dr. Gyles Morrison is a Clinical UX Strategist with 15 years of healthcare experience (as of 2026). Originally a doctor in the UK, he now works globally, aiding UX professionals and healthcare firms in crafting valuable products and services for clinicians and patients. His expertise spans digital therapeutics, healthcare behavior change, health equality, and UX strategy. Gyles also leads the Clinical UX Association, a worldwide community passionate about healthcare. As a UX mentor and career coach, he assists doctors transitioning from clinical practice to UX careers and delivers talks and workshops on career change, personal development, and personal branding. You can connect with him through his website or on LinkedIn.

👉 Did you know that UXtweak also offers a series of webinars packed with practical knowledge for UX professionals? Check out the episode with Stéphanie Walter, where she talks about overcoming the challenges of enterprise UX: https://www.youtube.com/live/d9p4ShC_fMA?si=eYEl_S0UErpJiT4B

About this podcast:

Welcome to UX Research Geeks, where Tina Ličková, a researcher and strategist, talks with researchers from around the globe about topics that matter to them.

🐝 Brought to you by UXtweak, an all-in-one UX research software. Start your research for free at: https://www.uxtweak.com/ 👈

🐝 Where to follow UXtweak:

LinkedIn / Instagram / YouTube / Facebook / Twitter

Anfisa Bogomolova, a product designer and the host of Honest UX Talks, reflects on how AI is dissolving the boundaries between UX design and UX research. She explains how role expectations are shifting and what role she expects UX researchers to play in the future. She also muses on the form of future collaboration between UX research and design roles and gives wonderful advice for junior UX folks. 

👉 If you have any tips on fantastic speakers from across the globe, feedback, or any questions, we’d love to hear from you. Reach out to [email protected]

🔎 Do you want to know more? Check out this episode at:

https://www.uxtweak.com/podcast/anfisa-bogomolova-ux-design-vs-ux-research

Episode highlights

00:01:42 - Meet Anfisa 

00:03:47 - Where is the line between UX design and UX research?

00:06:48 - What Anfisa values most in collaboration with researchers

00:09:29 - Getting a second perspective to reset your mindset

00:12:16 - The ideal cooperation 

00:15:12 - Do UX researchers make good PMs? 

00:16:21 - What should you learn from UX researchers? 

00:18:45 - Radical curiosity 

00:24:10 - Should UX designers do research? 

00:26:08 - Final advice from Anfisa

About our guest 

Anfisa is a Senior Product Designer with 14h of experience, a host of the Honest UX Talks podcast, and the founder of IntoUX.design, a community for designers who want to stand out on the market and land dream job.

👉 Did you know that UXtweak also offers a series of webinars packed with practical knowledge for UX professionals? Check out the episode with Stéphanie Walter, where she talks about overcoming the challenges of enterprise UX: https://www.youtube.com/live/d9p4ShC_fMA?si=eYEl_S0UErpJiT4B 

About this podcast:

Welcome to UX Research Geeks, where Tina Ličková, a researcher and strategist, talks with researchers from around the globe about topics that matter to them. 

🐝 Brought to you by UXtweak, an all-in-one UX research software. Start your research for free at: https://www.uxtweak.com/ 👈

🐝 Where to follow UXtweak:

LinkedIn / Instagram / YouTube / Facebook / Twitter

Vitaly, the UX lead with the European Parliament and co-founder of Smashing Magazine, reflects on the messy reality of designing AI products and why UX matters more than ever in the age of artificial intelligence and AI agents. He also explores how and why many companies rush into implementing AI without addressing issues in their processes and systems and discusses the importance of trust, transparency, and guidance in designing AI products.

👉 If you have any tips on fantastic speakers from across the globe, feedback, or any questions, we’d love to hear from you. Reach out to [email protected]

🔎 Do you want to know more? Check out this episode at:

https://www.uxtweak.com/podcast/vitaly-friedman-designing-ai-products

Episode highlights

00:01:56 - The confusing reality of 2026

00:03:54 - What are we doing with AI?

00:06:28 - Prompting and user experience

00:09:56 - AI is the next Internet

00:13:52 - Current state of AI

00:17:57 - The main problem with designing AI products

00:23:44 - How AI amplifies structural and data issues

00:31:12 - Final advice from Vitaly

About our guest

Vitaly loves beautiful content and does not give up easily. Born in Minsk, Belarus, he studied computer science and mathematics in Germany. While writing algebra proofs and preparing for software engineering at nights in the kitchen, at the same time he discovered passion for typography, interface design and writing.

After working as a freelance designer and developer for 6 years, he co-founded Smashing Magazine back in 2006, a leading online magazine for designers and developers. His curiosity drove him from interface design to front-end to performance optimization to accessibility and back to user experience over all the years.

Vitaly is the author, co-author and editor of Smashing Books , and a curator of Smashing Conferences. He is the UX lead with the European Parliament and Smashing Magazine and front-end/UX consultant in Europe and abroad, working with large and small companies and organizations like Haufe-Lexware, Axel-Springer and others.

He also runs Measure UX and Smart Interface Design Patterns, friendly video courses on UX and design patterns, along with a live UX training for passionate UX and product designers.

👉 Did you know that UXtweak also offers a series of webinars packed with practical knowledge for UX professionals? Check out the episode with Stéphanie Walter, where she talks about overcoming the challenges of enterprise UX: https://www.youtube.com/live/d9p4ShC_fMA?si=eYEl_S0UErpJiT4B

About this podcast:

Welcome to UX Research Geeks, where Tina Ličková, a researcher and strategist, talks with researchers from around the globe about topics that matter to them.

🐝 Brought to you by UXtweak, an all-in-one UX research software. Start your research for free at: https://www.uxtweak.com/ 👈

🐝 Where to follow UXtweak:

LinkedIn / Instagram / YouTube / Facebook / Twitter

This special episode is based on a webinar recording with Tadeas Adamjak, Head of Growth at UXtweak, where he shared the main findings from our AI in UX Research Revisited report. He talked about how stances on AI in our field have evolved in light of everyone’s deeper experiences with AI models, what common issues and concerns professionals have with the technology, and what the best use cases for AI in 2026 are.

👉 If you have any tips on fantastic speakers from across the globe, feedback, or any questions, we’d love to hear from you. Reach out to [email protected]

🔎 Do you want to know more? Read the full report at:

https://blog.uxtweak.com/ai-in-ux-research-revisited/

Episode highlights

00:00:00 - Introducing the "AI in UX Research Revisited" report

00:04:00 - 2023 results

00:05:55 - 2023 vs 2025 answers

00:10:40 - How UX researcher experts are using AI

00:14:15 - Applying the human-AI workflow

00:16:25 - Major problems with AI

00:20:43 - The risk of UX theater

00:24:49 - How to showcase the value of human research to stakeholders

00:29:11 - Synthetic participants

00:30:46 - The future of UX research

About our guest

Tadeas Adamjak is a CX/UX consultant and Head of Growth at UXtweak, a UX research platform that supports hundreds of research, product, and design teams worldwide. He is also one of the team members behind industry initiatives, including the 'Dealing with Resistance to UX Research' report, 'AI in UX Research' report, and Research Recruities: Award for the Best Recruiting Stories.

🔎 Where to follow Tadeas

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tadeas-adamjak/

👉 Did you know that UXtweak also offers a series of webinars packed with practical knowledge for UX professionals? Check out the episode with Stéphanie Walter, where she talks about overcoming the challenges of enterprise UX: https://www.youtube.com/live/d9p4ShC_fMA?si=eYEl_S0UErpJiT4B

About this podcast:

Welcome to UX Research Geeks, where Tina Ličková, a researcher and strategist, talks with researchers from around the globe about topics that matter to them.

🐝 Brought to you by UXtweak, an all-in-one UX research software. Start your research for free at: https://www.uxtweak.com/ 👈

🐝 Where to Follow UXtweak:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/uxtweak/

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/uxtweak/

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@uxtweak

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/uxtweak/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/UXtweak