Rajesh Nerlikar works with companies to help them build great products. As the CEO of Prodify , he and his team advise startups on how to build impactful, vision-led products that get customers excited. In his experience, the best way to get teams on the same page is with a compelling product vision that’s easy to understand. In this episode, Rajesh joins Erin and JH to chat about why great product visions are like comic strips, the hard work of actually putting those visions into action, and ho...
Aug 24, 2021•40 min•Ep. 74
Meg Pullis Roebling, Head of CX Research, Data & Analytics Solutions at BNY Mellon, talks us through her approach to building relationships with stakeholders, finding people to support her research efforts, and making research visible to the whole organization. Meg discussed... How she convinces relationship managers to get clients involved in research. What metrics she uses to make the case for research. How to know when research is weaving its way into the fabric of your organization. High...
Aug 10, 2021•34 min•Ep. 73
Your research question is where it all begins. It’s what drives your research forward, informs when you’re ready to wrap up your project, and it’s what gets everyone involved on the same page. But how do you know you’re asking the right research questions? This week on the podcast, Amy Chess, UX Researcher at Amazon, chatted with Erin and JH about how she chooses which questions to ask in her user research projects. Amy talked about… The difference between research questions, research objectives...
Jul 27, 2021•40 min•Ep. 72
Insights can come from a lot of different places. Support tickets, sales calls, market research studies, and of course, dedicated user research are all a part of an organization's insights funnel. But how do you synthesize all that data into useful insights for your business? Dave Chen , Director of Consumer Insights at Flipp , does it by blending his CX, UX, and Market Research teams into one superpowered insights group. Erin and JH chatted with Dave about how he handles all that research, who ...
Jul 13, 2021•29 min•Ep. 71
Researchers talk a lot about the importance of empathy. But what the heck does ‘empathy’ actually mean? What does empathy really look like in practice? Babz Jewell—an ethnographic sociologist and Principal UX Researcher at Variant—is here to explain. She joined Erin and JH to share her practical approach to empathy and active listening, and how these skills have transformed her UX research practice. Babz talked about… How active listening can help UX researchers improve their entire research pro...
Jun 29, 2021•31 min•Ep. 70
Indi Young has been researching people (not users), coaching, writing, and teaching about inclusive product strategy for over 25 years. Earlier this week, she joined Erin and JH for a live podcast episode to explain why researchers and designers are doing it all wrong! Okay, not exactly. But she did explain how researching and designing for the majority or “average user” actually end up ignoring, othering, and harming the people our designs are meant to serve. Indi shared how she finds patterns ...
Jun 18, 2021•48 min•Ep. 69
Shortly after Lucy Denton joined Dovetail as Product Design Lead, she was tasked with running a large-scale opportunity research project—and then making sense of all the insights. And the stakes were high; after all, she was researching user researchers! This week on the podcast, Lucy chatted with Erin and JH about how she knew it was time for a big generative research project, how she got the whole team involved, and what she did with all that research. Lucy talked about… How she and the team k...
Jun 01, 2021•31 min•Ep. 90
In this special episode, two UXR CEOs geek out about their work, the challenges of building tools for user researchers, and the future of UX research tools. This week we’re mixing things up a bit. Basel Fakhoury, CEO and cofounder of User Interviews, and Benjamin Humphrey, CEO and cofounder of Dovetail, braved transpacific timezone scheduling to chat about starting a company in the UX research space, what their teams are working on now, and what they think the future holds for user research tool...
May 18, 2021•37 min•Ep. 87
How do you measure success in a still-evolving field? Joey Encarnacion has been working in research ops since 2017. He joined Erin and JH on the pod to talk about Slack’s Rolling Research program, what success looks like for his team, and how he builds systems that scale. Joey discussed… Ensuring research ops can scale by building the smallest operable system first How he measures the success of his efforts in such a new field Slack’s Rolling Research program Highlights [2:14] Research operation...
May 04, 2021•40 min•Ep. 86
To celebrate our launch on Product Hunt , we're taking some time to reflect on what Awkward Silences is all about. Guests featured in this episode, in order: Jon Macdonald, Founder of the Good Cat Noone, CEO of Stark Roy Opata Olende, Research Operations Manager at Zapier Maria Rosala, User Experience Specialist at Nielsen Norman Group Joel Klettke, Founder of Case Study Buddy Erika Hall, Co-Founder and Director of Strategy at Mule Design Harrison Wheeler, Senior Manager, Product Design at Linke...
Apr 30, 2021•8 min•Ep. 65
Whether you’re paying a parking ticket or getting a divorce, chances are high that you’ll go through some (if not all) of that process online. Chances are also good that the UX of that process will be… not great. Cyd Harrell wants to change that. Cyd—prominent Civic Design Consultant and Service Design Lead at the Judicial Council of California—has been working in civic tech since 2012. She’s passionate about helping governments create digital services that meet people where they are. In this ep...
Apr 20, 2021•43 min•Ep. 64
Information architecture is everywhere. Page Laubheimer, Senior User Experience Specialist at Nielsen Norman Group, joins our hosts to shed some light on the complicated topic of IA and how the way we organize data impacts how we interact with products. He explains how and when to do IA work on a UX project, which research methods you’ll need, and how to launch your IA career. Page talked about… How and when to do IA work on a UX project Which research methods you’ll need to use to improve your ...
Apr 06, 2021•43 min•Ep. 63
Our third annual State of User Research survey gathered insights from 525 people who do research around the world. Katryna Balboni, our Content Director, joined the hosts of Awkward Silences to talk about how the 2021 report came together. They discussed the challenges of survey design, the changing landscape of user research, improving stakeholder buy-in for user research, and (nerd alert!) large-scale medieval surveys. In this episode, Katryna talks about… How we (re)designed our survey and di...
Mar 23, 2021•36 min•Ep. 62
Is your company truly customer-centric? Are your systems actually helping you create better experiences for your customers? Last week, Kim Salazar , Senior User Experience Specialist at Nielsen Norman Group, joined us for a live podcast episode to share valuable insights from her own work with teams trying to create truly customer-centric companies through CX transformation. She highlighted the importance of drawing from multiple sources of data and communicating the business benefits of CX work...
Mar 09, 2021•48 min•Ep. 61
Are your research discoveries really discoveries? Or are you collecting validation for your own assumptions? That’s just one of the big questions Maria Rosala, Director of Research at Nielsen Norman Group, tackled in our second-ever live “podinar.” Maria shared her expertise on conducting thoughtful discovery research and user interviews. Listen to (or watch!) the episode to learn: Why the discovery process is a non-negotiable part doing quality user research Maria’s favorite discovery methods H...
Feb 18, 2021•47 min•Ep. 60
Building great products is hard. Building great, secure, products is even harder. This week on Awkward Silences, we talked to Ted Harrington about the intersection between security and UX. He outlined what exactly ethical hackers do, how he challenges stakeholder assumptions about security work, and what teams can do to ensure their systems are secure. Ted talked about… What UX and security work have in common How teams can ensure their work is more secure Some of the common issues and myths he ...
Feb 01, 2021•28 min•Ep. 59
Being a research team of one isn’t easy. When you’re the only researcher at a company, you have to do every type of research, recruiting, planning, and analysis by yourself—all without the resources of a large team. But for Imani “Izzy” Nichols, being a UX research team of one is an exciting challenge. She’s been a team of one twice now and has learned a lot from her experience. In this episode of Awkward Silences, Izzy talked about how being a team of one allowed her to focus on championing res...
Jan 19, 2021•28 min•Ep. 58
In March 2020, Google Classroom’s user base grew from 30 million to hundreds of millions almost overnight. As schools closed, teachers needed new ways to conduct lessons and manage their work. This meant that Amanda Rosenburg, a Staff UX Researcher & Team Lead working on Google Classroom, had a lot of work to do. Research requests were suddenly piling up, and her team needed to execute quickly to help the product team adapt to new and unexpected challenges. Amanda talked about… How she adjus...
Jan 05, 2021•35 min•Ep. 57
The year is wrapping up and it’s finally time to say bye forever to 2020 👋. The hosts of Awkward Silences, Erin May and JH Forster, took this opportunity to reflect on some of the things that happened in research this year, what changes they think are here to stay, and what they see on the horizon in 2021. They also revisited some of the best conversations we’ve had on the podcast so far, like chatting with Vivianne Castillo about self-care, Cat Noone about accessibility, and Randy Duke about d...
Dec 22, 2020•36 min•Ep. 56
There is a growing need for research operations. As more companies embrace the importance of user research and scale their UXR efforts, a dedicated ops function is quickly becoming a necessity. Research ops—which involves things like participant recruitment, research processes, and programs to help non-researchers do better research—can be a career path for many different kinds of people. Roy has worked with ops pros who come from traditional business operations, marketing, UX, and of course, re...
Dec 08, 2020•39 min•Ep. 55
Understanding your product from start to finish is easier said than done. The same goes for integrating research into every stage of a project. Danielle Smith found that she would often work on foundational projects for a product team, then move right along to the next thing, losing sight of the end-to-end experience. When she was tasked with building the research team at Express Scripts, she knew she wanted to have a better view of the big picture. So she brought data scientists, analysts, pro ...
Nov 24, 2020•27 min•Ep. 54
User research and anthropology have more in common that you may realize. Both involve studying the way people interact with their surroundings and make critical decisions, though anthropologists focus on the cultures and societies that shape behavior. This week on Awkward Silences, Erin and JH chatted with Vanessa Whatley—a Senior UX Researcher at Google—about what researchers can learn from anthropology. Vanessa talked about… How anthropology can teach user researchers to look more closely at t...
Nov 10, 2020•41 min•Ep. 53
People are 22% more likely to remember something when it’s presented as a story, rather than a cut and dry fact. So if you’re struggling to get stakeholders to care about and utilize your research, storytelling can be the key to getting research to stick. This week on the podcast, Erin and JH chatted with Harrison Wheeler, UX Design Manager at LinkedIn and host of Technically Speaking, about the power of storytelling. Harrison talked about how getting everyone on board with storytelling can make...
Oct 28, 2020•32 min•Ep. 52
AI is becoming a part of everything we do. With voice-activated smart homes, ad targeting algorithms, and increasingly smart cars, AI is more and more a part of the fabric of daily life. But how do we make sure AI is built in a way that is user-friendly, unbiased, and ethically sound? That's where user research comes in. Erin and JH chatted with Hana Nagel, a Service Designer at Element AI, about how she researches for AI, why inputs are just as important as outputs, and the ethics around improv...
Oct 14, 2020•35 min•Ep. 51
It's time to take the next step in your research career, but is management right for you? Erin & JH chatted with Amber Davis, UXR Director at Audible, about her journey as a research manager, how to evaluate what you really want from your career, and who to talk to when you're ready to level up. Highlights [5:03] Even if you think you don't have management experience to look back on, research is full of management and leadership. [8:17] Being a manager gives you many more opportunities to co...
Sep 30, 2020•40 min•Ep. 50
Looking to add a new research method to your stack? Diary studies are a great way to get to know what your users are thinking in context, plus they can be run remotely! We chatted with Tony Turner, Lead UX Researcher at Progressive Insurance, about how his team uses diary studies to build out better customer experiences. He offered some tips on scaling up diary studies, which tools he uses to get the job done, and how he uses the data he gathers from diary studies to build out customer journey m...
Sep 16, 2020•29 min•Ep. 49
This week on the podcast, Erin and JH chatted with Randy Duke, Senior Research & Design Strategist at Cantina. They covered a topic that's on many people's minds right now, systemic racism and inequality, and how UX research can have a positive (or negative) impact on these systems. Randy talked with us about UXR's role in all this, how we can work to change the systems we work in, and how we can create more inclusive research. Highlights [4:58] A good place to start thinking about how to ad...
Sep 02, 2020•42 min•Ep. 48
We've been more and more curious about how user research can be used by more than just researchers. This week, Erin and JH chatted with Jon MacDonald, founder of The Good, about how marketers can use research to improve conversion rates. He talked about what conversion rate optimization really is, how to get stakeholders to see the value of research work, and why the key to conversion success is really just giving users what they came to your site for in the first place. Highlights [1:43] Everyo...
Aug 04, 2020•40 min•Ep. 47
When Andrew joined Adobe back in November, he faced an interesting design challenge. How do you manage a vast library of help content, spanning tons of different products in different industries, so that users can easily find what they need to know to fix their problems? Andrew has learned a lot about leveraging the power of community to problem solve, experimenting with different formats to make technical explanations more accessible, and proving the value of great help content. Erin and JH cha...
Jul 15, 2020•45 min•Ep. 46
Jonathon Hensley spends a lot of time creating strategies for businesses. So Erin and JH chatted with him about what's changed since COVID-19 and why alignment matters more than ever right now. The takeaway? Everyone needs to be aligned around a common goal. They also need to understand how every project supports that larger goal. In a world that's moving faster than ever, user research is a pivotal part of making sure each effort is serving that goal well. Highlights [7:06] The key to individua...
Jul 02, 2020•44 min•Ep. 45
