

Insights Unlocked
UserTesting
What does it take to create experiences customers love, craft campaigns that captivate, and drive measurable results?Insights Unlocked features candid conversations with the builders, creators, and innovators driving some of the world’s most impactful digital transformations. Tailored for marketing, product, UX and CX leaders, each episode delivers actionable insights to help you create customer-first strategies and stay ahead in today’s competitive landscape. Each episode is about 30 minutes long. From optimizing product launches to leveraging AI for smarter workflows, Insights Unlocked is your go-to resource for designing experiences that resonate, drive loyalty, and achieve business results. Guests include influential leaders like Brian Solis, April Dunford, Kate Towsey, Jacob Nielsen, Teresa Torres, and Judd Antin among others, offering their expertise in CX, UX, and innovation. The podcast also highlights strategies and success stories from leading brands such as Verizon, Signet Jewelers, Figma, Microsoft, Tesco Bank, and more.UserTesting leaders and industry experts join as guest hosts, alongside show producer Nathan Isaacs, award-winning journalist and Senior Manager of Content Production at UserTesting.Brought to you by UserTesting, the leader in human insights and proactive customer experience strategies, Insights Unlocked empowers CMOs and marketing teams to craft experiences that drive growth, loyalty, and impact.Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Show notes, curated clips and more at usertesting.com/podcast.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Mar 7, 2022 • 32min
Deliver value at every stage of the customer journey with Harsha Thayi from T. Rowe Price
When T. Rowe Price rolled out a new process for creating an online investment account, they discovered a 37% drop off on the very first step after users opened the webpage.They needed to know “why behind the what” and for that they turned to UserTesting. Within hours they’d identified the problem and were making fix recommendations to product owners. The T. Rowe Price story is one of many shared in User Tested and that is being featured in Season 4 of the Human Insights Podcast. The book was authored by podcast hosts Janelle Estes, UserTesting’s Chief Insights Officer, and Andy MacMillan, UserTesting’s CEO. You can order the book here or on your favorite book seller’s website.Harsha Thayi, Senior Manager of UX Research at T. Rowe Price, shares their story and other insights in his interview. In their conversation, he and Janelle discuss:
How Thayi partners with other teams within T. Rowe Price to ensure they create and deliver exceptional experiences for T. Rowe Price customers
What metrics or KPIs does Thayi’s team directly or indirectly influence and how that maps to company strategy and purpose
How they are building a “shared understanding” of T. Rowe Price’s customers across the organization

Feb 28, 2022 • 29min
The #1 key to your startup's success with Ben Hoggan from Notre Dame's IDEA Center
Ben Hoggan's team at the Notre Dame's IDEA Center has mentored close to 200 startups and would-be startups from concept to revenue over the last four years.The best way, he said, to know if a company will be successful is by talking with its customers and potential customers. And after more than 6,000 customer interviews on behalf of those startups, he should know."It is very selfish to invest in customer research," said Hoggan, the Director of De-Risking at The IDEA Center. "You're saving yourself time. You're saving yourself money."Standing for Innovation, De-Risking, and Enterprise Acceleration, the IDEA Center works with faculty, student, community, and alumni entrepreneurs on their commercially viable, early-stage product ideas and innovations.The IDEA Center's story is one of many shared in User Tested and that are being featured in Season 4 of the Human Insights Podcast. The book was coauthored by podcast hosts Janelle Estes, UserTesting’s Chief Insights Officer, and Andy MacMillan, UserTesting’s CEO. You can purchase a copy of the book here or on your favorite book seller’s website.Listen to the episode to learn more about:
Ben's work as Director of De-Risking at The IDEA Center at the IDEA Center
What are some strategies he and his team use to identify if startup ideas will *stick* or be adopted by the market?
What metrics or KPIs does the IDEA Center own? And how does Ben's team work ties to those metrics?

Feb 21, 2022 • 47min
Powering your experience ecosystem to the next level with Tom Lorusso from Microsoft
In this episode, Janelle Estes talks with Tom Lorusso, the Principal User Research Lead for Xbox and gaming across Windows products and devices.Tom has been working in games for over 7 years, with 15 years in the user research field on phones, operating systems and portable ultrasound. Tom and his Xbox Experiences team tackle a variety of research questions in social gaming, community, monetization, communication, cross-platform gaming, video consumption, accessibility, and inclusivity.Tom's story at Microsoft is one of many shared in User Tested and that are being featured in Season 4 of the Human Insights Podcast. The book was co-authored by podcast hosts Janelle Estes, UserTesting’s Chief Insights Officer, and Andy MacMillan, UserTesting’s CEO. You can order the book here or on your favorite book seller’s website.Listen to the episode and learn how Tom and his team at Microsoft and Xbox tackle:
What strategies Tom and his team use to identify shifting behaviors and expectations in the gaming space
With all the changes (technology, pandemic, and so forth) happening in recent years, how does Tom and his team prepare and plan for the future
How Tom and his team partner with the other teams within Microsoft to ensure they create and deliver an exceptional experience for Xbox customers

Feb 14, 2022 • 28min
How a UX insights show is must-see programming at HelloFresh
This week on the Human Insight Podcast, we are excited to have James Villacci joining us to discuss how HelloFresh is scaling customer insights across the organization. As the first UX Researcher at HelloFresh, James Villacci established the value of conducting studies on the company’s online and offline projects. He is now head of Global UX Research at the company, which is the largest meal-kit provider in the world. He evangelized the power and impact of getting fast customer feedback through what has become “The Insights Show,” an internal watch party of customer insights that draws 100+ employees.The HelloFresh story is one of many shared in User Tested and that will be featured in Season 4 of the Human Insights Podcast. The book was authored by podcast hosts Janelle Estes, UserTesting’s Chief Insights Officer, and Andy MacMillan, UserTesting’s CEO. The book is being released on February 15th, but you can pre-order it today here or on your favorite book seller’s website.Listen to the episode to learn James’ recipe for democratizing insights across an organization. In their conversation, they discuss:
How HelloFresh’s insights show came to be
How James and his UX team partners with the product organization to ensure they create and deliver a great experience for HelloFresh customers
How James and his UX team built the case for UX research at HelloFresh, from business metrics to storytelling

Feb 7, 2022 • 33min
Building a design-driven culture at AAA
In this week’s episode, James Lane shares the evolving story of how AAA is becoming a design-driven organization.James, a Senior Product Design Manager at AAA Club Alliance, joins host Janelle Estes, UserTesting’s Chief Insights Officer, and Andy MacMillan, UserTesting’s CEO, to share AAA’s story, which is one of many being shared in the upcoming User Tested and that will be featured in Season 4 of the Human Insights Podcast. The book was authored by podcast hosts Janelle Estes, UserTesting’s Chief Insights Officer, and Andy MacMillan, UserTesting’s CEO. The book is being released on February 15th, but you can pre-order it today here or on your favorite book seller’s website.James said becoming a design-driven organization is similar to how organizations evolved into being data-driven, moving data insights from just the math wizards in a corner office to enabling everyone in an organization to use data to inform and improve their work. “We can all use design processes, just as we all use data, to understand our world a little better, as a process for exploring what customers are looking for,” he said. The results are impressive. Following their customer-informed design changes, organic conversions for the website were up 30%, including a 55% lift for Premier memberships (AAA's top-tier membership type), a 39% lift in revenue for this channel.In their conversation, they go on to discuss:
Going from pilot to launch
What he means by design-driven
And how customer insights are informing new initiatives, such as a recently rolled out new website

Jan 31, 2022 • 35min
Strengthening your startup with customer feedback with Jhanvi Shriram and Ketaki Shriram from Krikey
2022 may turn out to be the big bang of the metaverse, but no matter the reality- augmented, virtual, extended or mixed- doing business in an increasingly digital world needs to begin the human experience.This week on the Human Insight Podcast, Krikey co-founders Jhanvi Shriram and Ketaki Shriram join host Janelle Estes, UserTesting’s Chief Insights Officer, to share how they are putting customers first for their mobile augmented reality (AR) gaming app.Jhanvi, the CEO of Krikey, and Ketaki, the CTO, have been featured in the Forbes 30 under 30 list, and Fast Company’s Best Apps and Games of 2020.Krikey’s story is one of many shared in the upcoming User Tested and that will be featured in Season 4 of the Human Insights Podcast. The book was authored by podcast hosts Janelle Estes, UserTesting’s Chief Insights Officer, and Andy MacMillan, UserTesting’s CEO. The book is being released on February 15th, but you can pre-order it today here or on your favorite book seller’s website.With insights from UserTesting, Krikey has surpassed more than 2 million users, saw a 45% increase in app conversions, and they are now bringing their app to new markets worldwide. Listen to their interview to hear how the Krikey co-founders:
How and why they started the business
How customer feedback fits into Krikey’s business priorities
How testing the user experience helped evolved their offerings
How customer feedback is tied to user growth, retention and engagement

Jan 24, 2022 • 46min
Scaling insights across your organization with Jennifer Lee from Wise
In this episode, Jennifer Lee, UX Research Lead at Wise, shares her experience being the company’s first qualitative researcher to scaling insights across the company.Wise (formerly known as TransferWise) is a publicly-traded, London-based technology company founded in 2011. Wise is building the best way to move and manage money around the world, helping a community of over 10 million like-minded people and businesses.Wise’s story is one of many shared in the upcoming User Tested and that will be featured in Season 4 of the Human Insights Podcast. The book was authored by podcast hosts Janelle Estes, UserTesting’s Chief Insights Officer, and Andy MacMillan, UserTesting’s CEO. The book is being released on February 15th, but you can pre-order it today here or on your favorite book seller’s website.The book gives both individual contributors and executives an approachable, pragmatic playbook for stepping beyond standard business metrics and infusing real human insight into every business decision, design, and experience.In her interview with, Jennifer tells Janelle and Andy about holding monthly UX Research 101 classes that anyone at Wise could join to learn about qualitative research. This began the democratization of the research function, as requests to get involved came from their HR/People Team, Engineering, Project Management, Marketing, Design, and more. In their interview, they go on to discuss:
What role does the user experience play at Wise in securing and retaining customers?
How her team partners with the product organization to ensure they create and deliver an exceptional experience for Wise customers?
What metrics or KPIs does your team directly or indirectly influence?
How to build the case for customer listening?

Dec 27, 2021 • 44min
The flywheel of customer feedback
Join Andy MacMillan, CEO of UserTesting, and Janelle Estes, Chief Insights Officer at UserTesting, as they recap Season 3 of the Human Insight Podcast. And in January, Season 4 of the podcast launches with a focus on the success stories, examples and playbooks from User Tested, the new book co-authored by Janelle and Andy, now available for pre-order.

Dec 20, 2021 • 45min
What is (and isn't) customer centricity?
This week on the Human Insight Podcast, we interview Brent Leary, CRM industry observer, author and speaker. Leary is co-founder and Managing Partner of CRM Essentials LLC, an Atlanta based CRM/CX advisory firm covering tools and strategies for improving business relationships. He writes regularly for CRM Magazine and ZDNet, and is a founding member of Newseek's Expert Forum. He hosts the weekly One on One conversation series for Small Business Trends, the A Few Good Minutes livestream series, co-hosts The CRM Playaz show, and is a regular on the Gillmor Gang show on TechCrunch.In his conversation with Janelle Estes, UserTesting's Chief Insights Officer, Leary discusses: Can a company actually be customer centric? Or are they just data centric about their customers?The tension between tracking our customers and transparency of what that information is being used for?Building stronger customer relationshipsHow technology is making things easier to do, except it doesn’t seem to be getting any easier to find, catch and keep good customers. Why?

Dec 13, 2021 • 47min
Making a difference in HealthTech UX with Andrew Frueh from Health Catalyst
You could design UX for a B2C to increase conversions. Or you could oversee UX for health tech company and, ultimately, save or improve lives.For Andrew Frueh it was an easy choice. Frueh is the senior vice president of UX design at Health Catalyst, a leading provider of data and analytics technology and services to healthcare organizations. This week, he joins Janelle Estes, UserTesting’s Chief Insights Officer, on the Human Insight Podcast where they talk about: What metrics or KPIs does his UX team directly or indirectly influence? How does that map to his team’s strategy and purpose?When it comes to customer-centricity and experience, what is unique about the healthcare space? How does it compare to other industries, such as retail or financial services?Is there a difference between UX in B2B vs. B2C? If so, what are those differences?