Awkward Silences

What is design psychology? Thomas Watkins of 3Leaf compares it to ergonomics—both fields aim to make products feel as comfortable as possible for their users. Where ergonomics is concerned with things like the shape of your office chair’s back or the height of its armrests, design psychology is all about making software experiences more intuitive and reducing cognitive load.This week on the podcast, Thomas chatted with Erin and JH about the similarities and differences between design psychology and UX research, risks and need-to-knows for psychologists transitioning into business research, the power of mental models, and more. Highlights[01:08] What is design psychology?[05:44] Similarities and differences between design psychology and UX research[08:32] Practical examples: Superiority effect, perpetual intermediates, mental loads[13:59] What psychologists need to learn to thrive in business research[18:26] Risks of applying design psychology in UX[26:03] Why Thomas likes bringing his expertise to UX research[26:59] The power of mental models like JTBDAbout our guest Thomas Watkins is UX architect and Principal and Founder of 3Leaf. He is a life-long learner who has a passion for bringing greater clarity to the world.  Thomas has made it his career’s focus to combine technology with design psychology in order to drive business success. He specializes in helping his business partners bring their own brilliant ideas to life, by translating complexity into simplicity. The scope of his work has included interface design for mobile, SaaS system architecture, usability research, and data visualization.

The State of User Research 2022 Report unpacks the data from our international survey of UX researchers and people who do research as part of their jobs. This week, we met with Roberta Dombrowski, VP of User Research at User Interviews and one of the creators of the report, to talk about how it was made and what she thinks of the insights. She talked about the rise of buy-in and demand for research, what democratization means for professional researchers, and her predictions for the future of user research.

Doing user research in an agency setting comes with its own set of challenges—from context switching to stubborn clients to less-than-optimal tool stacks.Karen VanHouten, Director of Product Strategy at Philosophie by InfoBeans, spent most of her career in enterprise B2B before transitioning to agency life. In this podcast episode, Karen shared some great advice on setting expectations, fostering ongoing client relationships, and why she thinks more researchers should be involved in the sales cycle.Episode highlights[00:01:29] Transitioning from enterprise B2B to agency life[00:03:05] The value of getting involved in the sales cycle as a researcher[00:06:04] Which clients does Karen not want to work with?[00:13:00] Setting clear client expectations[00:20:10] Why her team only uses essential tools[00:24:35] Building trust by saying “no”  [00:27:59] Finding your champion[00:33:14] Recruiting for client projects[00:37:54] Should you make the move to an agency?Resources mentioned in this episodeKim Goodwin on stakeholder researchEssential tools: Google Sheets, MURAL, MiroJust Enough Research, Erika HallAbout our guestKaren VanHouten has over 20 years of experience as a UX professional and strategist, with a focus on B2B & SaaS. She uses human-centered design principles to build useful & accessible digital products and healthy and impactful product teams. Karen is currently the UX Practice Lead at TMG.

The democratization of research continues to grow—and with it, the complexities of research operations. This week, we chatted with Garrett Tsukada, Head of Customer Connect UX Research Operations at Intuit about how research ops supports democratization at scale. He talked about how Intuit approaches research democratization for a 14,000+ team, guardrails and processes to ensure research quality, advice for starting and scaling a research operations function, and more.Highlights[04:39] How Intuit approaches research democratization at scale[11:53] The compounding value of research education[13:28] Guardrails and processes to ensure research quality[24:02] Keeping up with the growing demand for democratization[27:37] Balancing the 6 pillars of research operations[32:18] Advice for starting and scaling a research operations functionAbout our guestGarett Tsukada is Head of Customer Connect UX Research Operations at Intuit. He leads a global Research Ops team to amplify the value and impact of connecting with customers at scale, drive operational impact, and foster a culture of innovation and customer obsession.

You’ve mastered the basics, but now it’s time to take your interviews to the next level. This week, we chatted with Therese Fessenden, Senior User Experience Specialist at NN/g about how to get even better at interviewing. She talked about how to master the basics, hone your skills, and become an A+ interviewer.Highlights[3:40] You can get more out of your interviews by going in with a solid plan.[9:44] Mastering probing questions.[20:36] Common mistakes people make when they get comfortable doing research, like oversharing.[29:19] Staying objective as you get further into the research and learn more.[33:52] How do you know you're getting better at interviews?[35:10] Doing inclusive research. About our guestTherese Fessenden is a Senior User Experience Specialist with Nielsen Norman Group, host of the NN/g UX Podcast, and manager of the 1-Hour Talk program. Her research focuses on understanding human behaviors, attitudes, and expectations in order to better orchestrate system and service design strategies.

Should everyone do research? It’s a tricky question. Yes, research is a craft that takes years to master. But on the other hand, if we want research to happen all the time, everyone needs to be able to do some of the basics on their own. Today, we talked to Jonathan Widawski, Founder and CEO of Maze about how the democratization of research is actually advancing the craft. He talked about the need for researchers to be good teachers, how research can grow in the same way data and design did, and why the future is user-centric.Highlights[4:52] Ultimately, research teams need to scale to meet the rising demand. But democratization is a good way to increase an organization's learning potential and the visibility of research.[8:25] How do we balance good research practices with letting everyone participate?[14:55] Unlike disciplines like data and design, research needs to be guided by an expert at multiple points in the process.[19:13] The Maze team’s research process.[23:07] How to balance being your own user with getting out of the building. [25:06] What Jonathan is excited about as research advances.About our guestJonathan Widawski is the Founder and CEO at Maze. He’s a veteran Product Designer & former UX teacher. As a UX lead working with clients like McKinsey, Rocket Internet & PSG, he saw first-hand how hard it is for product teams to get the data, insights, and feedback they need to make confident design decisions. Now he’s co-founded Maze, the continuous product discovery platform for user-centric teams.

It’s our most meta episode yet. Today, we chatted with Roberta Dombrowski, VP of User Research at User Interviews, about doing user research about user researchers at a user research company. Listen in to learn about how adding a formal user research practice has benefited the UI team, the challenges of going from an IC to a leadership role, and building a research practice from the ground up.Highlights[2:58] What’s different about being a user researcher for a user research platform.[11:04] Roberta's biggest wins from adding a formal researcher to the UI team.[16:27] Tackling insight management when lots of people do research.[22:33] Lessons from talking to lots of different researchers about their work.[27:57] Why are so many researchers introverts?[30:50] On making the transition from an IC researcher to a research leader.[34:26] Our hosts reflect on what’s changed since Awkward Silences began.

Recruiting participants for user research is hard. Recruiting participants from a pool of your own customers? Somehow even harder. There’s client relationships, privacy concerns, and lots of red tape. This week on the podcast, Matthew Morrison joins Erin and JH to share what he’s learned after a year of B2B recruiting at Braze.Highlights[2:04]The key problems with B2B recruiting.[8:22] Make your sessions as short as possible, 30-45 minutes is best.[12:53] How to make users feel connected to research, even if you can’t offer an incentive.[16:53] How to work with internal stakeholders to get better response rates from participants.[23:08] How Matt built a study about new Braze users with a lookalike panel of people who had never used Braze. [33:09] Steering clear of over contacting participants, even with a small pool. [38:09] What Matt's thinking about going into 2022.About our guestMatthew Morrison is a UX Research Manager at Braze. Before Braze, he worked on the research teams at Etsy and WillowTree. He’s excited by the challenge of B2B recruitment and is looking forward to continuing to improve his practice.

What’s it like to be black in UX right now? Are companies sticking by their plans for diversity and inclusion? How do researchers ensure their work is as inclusive as possible? This week on the podcast, Dr. Lisanne Norman joins Erin and JH to talk about all this and more.Highlights[8:13] What to do when people try to make diversity and inclusion your job. [11:12] How including Black participants created aha! moments.[18:01] Creating an environment of openness with participants is key to understanding their experiences.[23:56] How Black UX Austin came to be.[29:52] The challenge of communicating to companies the value candidates can bring without relying on big name schools or bootcamps.[33:49] How to recognize if a company is just talking the talk or if they're walking the walk when it comes to diversity.[38:58] Lisanne talks about what’s on the horizon for DEI in tech. About our guestDr. Lisanne Norman is the Director of the Walter J. Crain Fellowship at the Hotchkiss School (formerly UX Research Lead at Gusto). She’s also a founder of Black UX Austin. She’s an advocate for creating more inclusive environments in tech and passionate about uncovering insights and trends that translate into creating inclusive digital products that anyone can use.

Creating a video game requires more than just development time and coding—to make sure the experience is enjoyable, you have to test it. In this episode, User Researcher Steve Bromley joins us to discuss the nuances of conducting user research in the video game industry.He describes integrating user feedback with the developer's creative vision, recruitment for games research, and the evolution of the gaming industry since he first started.Steve talks about…How to integrate user feedback with the developer’s creative vision.What playtesting is (and isn't).The surprising challenges of recruiting video game testers.Highlights[00:01:16] So what exactly is “games user research?”[00:03:15] What do you mean by “playtesting?”[00:16:51] How do you navigate something as broad as “making a game fun?”[00:27:48] Steve talks about what it’s like to be on the bleeding edge of games research.[00:38:17] How the field has changed since Steve first started out.About our guestSteve Bromley specializes in establishing new user research teams and in user research for video games. He wrote Building User Research Teams and How to Be A Game User Researcher. He works with mobile studios, indie teams, AAA teams and VR studios to help them run playtests and integrate user research into the production process. Prior to this, he was a lead user researcher for the PlayStation VR headset.