Awkward Silences

This week on the podcast, Erin and JH talk to Shipra Kayan. After 10 years of working in UX design and research at Upwork, she's launched her own consultancy. On the pod, she talked about getting your research started on the right foot, no matter what kind of research you're doing or how big your team is. Highlights[5:47] How do you decide between what to do long-term and short-term?[7:49] Do research your team is ready to listen to[17:16] Always plan on learning from your research[20:05] Democratize your research planning process[24:21] Always document your research[27:48] There’s a lot of value in actually getting people together in a meeting About our guestShipra Kayan worked on UX design and research at Upwork for over 10 years. She is now an Evangelist at Miro and runs her own consultancy, helping teams create amazing research-driven UX.

John Cutler is a man of many talents. He’s a product development champion, team whisperer, and now, podcast guest on Awkward Silences! Erin and JH talked to John about just-in-time research, promoting healthy team practices, and integrating research faster. Highlights[3:22] Start together, work together, finish together[7:50] Consistently integrate your ideas[9:02] Continuous design, rather than design then build[10:16] Create a backlog of learning goals[11:30] Integrate research faster[17:32] Finding a working balance for you and your team[18:10] The dangers of defensive dogma[35:02] Critiquing your research process

In this special edition episode, we're talking about what we think about the podcast so far and where we hope to go. We want your feedback to help us decide what to do next! Let us know what you think here: https://bit.ly/2uoijV9 

Erin and JH talk to Sonya Badigian. As a researcher at a fully-remote company, Sonya is a big fan of remote research. She walks us through how remote research can be affordable, flexible, and fun. About Our GuestSonya Badigian is Staff UX Researcher at Procore Technologies (previously UX and Content Specialist at Marketade). She has Masters in Human Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon. After graduating and taking a remote research job, she was surprised to learn how powerful remote research can be.

Pluralsight is built on continuous discovery and continuous delivery, which means they are constantly building and shipping code, while constantly digging in to how customers feel about their product. We talked to James Aylward about the framework that keeps his team moving while creating products that are all about the customer. Episode Highlights[1:45] James talks about how Pluralsight thinks about continuously delivering and discovering[4:10] Culture and values at Pluralsight[5:57] The directed discovery process[13:05] Who you should have on your team to bring the most value to your products[17:15] How a culture of learning promotes research[19:10] Different teams will work together in different waysAbout our GuestJames Aylward is GM and Chief Product Officer at PerkSpot (at the time of our interview, James was SVP and Head of Data Product at Pluralsight). He’s passionate about identifying customer needs and rapidly designing and developing products that offer solutions. He has 10 years of experience managing products and nearly 20 years of experience in the field.

Try to think of each user as a new friend, and you want to learn about them. Don’t get nervous — relax! It’s just nice to create the sense that you’re having a conversation with someone. You’re listening to what they’re saying and flowing with what they say, not just reading a list of questions.JH and Erin talk to Laura Powell about making user testing easy and fun for users and for companies. She’s just wrapped up her 9th User Test Fest, this time in Austin, TX, and was excited to chat with us about all things user testing. Highlights[3:18] Drunk User Testing becomes User Test Fest[8:20] Do people get meaningful insights out of this kind of testing? [9:53] Plan and rehearse for your testing[18:25] You can always do more research [22:50] Testing is a great way to get your team excited about the product againAbout our guestLaura is a self-proclaimed Specialized Generalist who helps companies get it together. She's worked on everything from user research to marketing strategy to organizational process and all of the fun in between. Clients include Appcues, MIT Media Lab, VETTA, Bow Market Somerville, Metaplane.

Algorithms don’t always handle “edge cases” well, and the people who design them can have too broad a definition of edge case—stillbirths, miscarriages, and other life tragedies are actually relatively common.So how do the people who are responsible for building things, often many many people for any given human experience, design for the possibility of unexpected outcomes?  That is to say, for real life? This week on the podcast, Erin and JH talked to Laura Klein about building products that consider user's real life situations more thoughtfully. Sometimes, big tech does things that actually end up emotionally harming users. How do we do better?Highlights[3:50] We ask the big question. Why do bad things happen?[6:56] The hippocratic oath for researchers.[11:15] The consequences of short-term thinking.[12:41] Everyone makes mistakes, and we can learn from everyone else’s mistakes too. [18:56] Is the designer morally responsible for the actions of the product?[24:43] How do you make a difference as an individual?[33:25] The difficulty of separating yourself from some of the big companies[36:32] We’re all gonna die, how does tech deal with that? (hint, not well) [40:21] We wrap up. Laura’s not mad, she’s just disappointed.About Our GuestLaura Klein is the Principal at Users Know and the author of UX for Lean Startups and Build Better Products. She hosted her own popular UX podcast with Kate Rutter, What is Wrong with UX?, which goes best with cocktails.

If there’s anyone who can link stakeholders to the awesome power of user research, it’s Holly Hester-Reilly. Holly is a champion of research that is connected to every member of organizations; research that reaches across teams and unites companies towards a common product goal. Highlights[3:55] How research falls away from growing companies[7:12] Creating change even if you’re not at the top of the pyramid[9:15] Giving stakeholders options to help them make decisions[11:33] Creating snapshots of your sessions[13:30] Avoiding bias in your research presentations[17:23] Who to invite to your kickoff workshop[19:07] Are there certain roles or org structures that inspire better research environments? [24:25] Why stakeholders may not be using your research the way you expect them toAbout Our GuestHolly Hester-Reilly is a die-hard New Yorker and user advocate. She worked in the NYC startup scene for ten years before starting H2R Product Science, which helps companies of all shapes and sizes embrace user insights.

This week on the pod, Erin and JH talk to Maggie Crowley, Director of Product Management at Drift, about research as a product manager at a rapidly growing startup. They talk about how to do great research in a conversational way, how Drift's research practice is growing, and how Maggie thinks about research as a PM. Highlights[4:50] How do you establish the outcomes you’re looking for? [8:08] Since you use your own product, do you still need to test with outside users?[9:40] Using shared Slack channels with your biggest customers[12:10] How do you balance getting feedback with moving fast?[18:31] The risks of pushing through your pet features without talking to users.[22:07] Learning how to speak your customers language[26:28] How do you balance qual and quant data?About Our GuestMaggie Crowley is VP of Product at Toast (formerly Director of Product Management at Drift). She has her own podcast, Build, about all things product. She competed in the 2006 Winter Olympics as a speed skater and can confirm wearing spandex in front of the whole world is just as uncomfortable as it sounds.

Some people think you have to choose between qual and quant research when you start your study. Not Cat Anderson. At AP Intego, she works with a fairly small and scrappy team (just like us!), but that doesn’t mean she’s not doing big things with her research. She lets qualitative and quantitative research flow into and inform each other, creating overall better research results. ‍Episode Highlights[1:23] Cat walks us through how she found her way to a UX Writer position[6:01] The importance of stakeholder buy-in for user research[8:38] Cat talks about designing her cybersecurity research from the bottom up[9:42] The Experian effect[11:26] Going from quantitative to qualitative[13:23] Planning for free-flowing research[16:32] Deciding what kind of research to do when[22:34] Cat’s final thoughts on doing great researchAbout our GuestCat Anderson is the UX Content Strategist at Ladder (formerly UX Writer at AP Intego). She has a background in anthropology, research, and UX design. She’s relentlessly curious, occasionally funny, and perpetually snuggling as many dogs as she can.