The Learners Podcast

There's no doubt that AI is changing the way we do research. New AI tools are popping up all the time, but sometimes they don't fit the bill of what we're looking for. Could there be an opportunity to build them ourselves?Christie thinks so. Join her as she discusses how her team has started to build multiple AI agents to support their research work.

There's no doubt that partnership between research and other functions is pretty important. But, in an enterprise, B2B context, it's even more true.How do you manage the complexity of customer relationships, customer success, engineering, and more, to make sure your research has the impact it should? Michelle and Warren join us to explore.

As research teams change, the burden of research will end up distributed across a wider range of people, both researchers and non-researchers alike.How can we empower our entire team to develop the right skills to widen the range of projects we’re capable of doing? Tune in as Josh explores this very question.

Nizar Saqqar, the first user researcher at Snowflake, discusses transforming user research into a powerhouse for business impact. He shares lessons from his journey, including clarifying research roles and reframing focus from reports to actionable insights. Nizar emphasizes five principles that earned user research a seat at the table and advocates for researchers to engage early in product development. He highlights the importance of aligning research with business goals and creating practical, impactful recommendations, making a compelling case for user research as a high-value hire today.

Jessa Anderson and Hayley Mortin from ServiceNow delve into the intersection of generative AI and UX research in enterprise contexts. Jessa highlights the importance of user-centered design and ethical considerations in developing AI tools. Hayley provides insights into the challenges AI poses for customer service agents, emphasizing the necessity of transparency and user control. They discuss how to navigate the complexities of integrating AI while ensuring user trust and addressing data security concerns, all while advocating for effective, human-centered solutions.

Researching a product that has a clear function is relatively straight-forward. Researching connection, fun, or even just 'vibes', is a lot less so.Kathryn leads research at Warner Music Group, and was previously a research leader at Instagram. These products are not used to accomplish a specific function, but rather to make people feel ways that are intuitively hard to research. Join Kathryn as she shares her insights on researching fun and connection.

Most of us are focused on tactical research to improve the products and services our organizations ship to market. But, product teams aren’t the only ones who need research.In this talk, Andy unpacks what it’s like doing research for executive and board-level stakeholders.

Getting out of the office to do research has always been a fantastic way to see beyond the customer interview. Watching a customer in their context provides insights for product teams that most users wouldn't even know to share with a research team.But, getting out into the 'field' to do research comes with unique challenges: some logistical, some strategic. Watch as Bri from Toast shares here advice for field research that works.

Megan McLean, a user research manager at Spotify Advertising, shares her insights on navigating research challenges for vast user bases. She introduces the 'Rivers and Roads' metaphor, where rivers embody change and data flow, while roads represent structured planning. Megan emphasizes the importance of prioritizing high-risk, low-clarity research questions to maximize impact. Her three-part prioritization framework focuses on assessing uncertainty, measuring potential impact, and prioritizing decisions that are hard to reverse, ultimately linking insights to strategic product development.

You can't research social experiences like any other research project. Social experiences involve more than one person, and that adds a lot of complexity.Morgan from Snap and Cindy from CashApp join us to share their insights on managing research on social experiences.