Awkward Silences – Details, episodes & analysis

In our Season 3 finale, Erin and Carol are joined by Caroline Morchio, Head of UX at Dashlane, a credential management platform. Their conversation explores UX research best practices at a security-minded organization like Dashlane, highlighting other what teams can bring to their own work.

Caroline shares the ways she structures the UX team to support the product landscape at Dashlane, their processes for empowering colleagues to contribute to research, and why she prefers a "decentralized" model. The conversation also unpacks the core skills that Caroline emphasizes no matter the company: storytelling, actionable insights, and templates. Together, these help her team maintain rigor while scaling to meet new user experiences opportunities.

Finally, Caroline discusses how to balance the security and usability when conducting UX research, and forecasts what the future of data privacy and security might have in store, like passwordless authentication.
 
Episode Highlights

• 04:27 Implementing research in stages
• 07:22 The strategic impact of UX on a business
• 11:23 Focusing on ICP segmentation and user sophistication
• 18:06 The importance of privacy and data security
• 23:01 Decentralizing research processes
• 30:17 The importance of research in complex technology

About Our Guest
Caroline is a Design leader with experience in innovative companies transforming their industries. She has led design teams through all phases of product development and fostered a culture of open collaboration and feedback. Caroline was previously VP of Design at Handshake, Neuralink, and is now an AWS Design ambassador and Head of UX at Dashlane.

More Resources on Security in UXR

• A Researcher's Guide to Data Privacy Regulations
• NDAs and Consent Forms for UX Research
• Examining Ethical Design and Respectful UX

Erin and Carol are joined by Jo Widawski, founder and CEO of Maze, to discuss the major findings from their "Future of User Research" report, which unearthed three trends animating researchers, PMs, and founders alike: 1) the demand for research is growing, 2) research democratization empowers stronger decision making, and 3) new technology—like generative AI—allows teams to scale their research.

Erin, Carol, and Jo unpack each of these trends, flagging what they mean for both the work of researchers and the value of research more broadly. For example, these trends signal a rise in importance of the research generalist, the critical value of stakeholder influence, and the skills tomorrow's successful researcher must build today. Together, these trends and skills help create a roadmap for how researcher's can grow from a tactical resource to a strategic partner.

Episode Highlights

• 03:57 The nature of research in organizations
• 11:01 Transitioning researcher roles: from operational to educational
• 18:01 The importance of democratization in design
• 22:43 Overcoming resistance to research in design
• 30:25 AI's impact on user research trust
• 37:59 Understanding competitive landscape in building products

About Our Guest
Jo Widawksi 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.

More Resources

• Read the 2024 State of User Research Report (from UI)
• Read the Future of User Research Report (from Maze)
• Learn how to create stronger stakeholder relationships

Carol and Erin welcome George Whitfield, an expert in applying AI to the analysis of qualitative data. George discusses the intricate challenges of leveraging language models to interpret expansive open-ended data (like interview transcripts), emphasizing the importance of context and not just keyword or topic identification.

They'll dig into the crucial role of human oversight in AI, what preliminary analysis might look like using AI, how to check and refine the work of an AI assistant without derailing your project delivery date, and recommendations for etiquette regarding the reporting of AI-informed results.

The episode closes with an exploration of the limits of AI and where user experience researchers can play a larger role in its development. George believes AI can (and should) inspire new directions of research, but not dictate them.

Episode Highlights

• 03:48 - Innovating consumer insights using AI
• 12:21 - Importance of human involvement in AI tools
• 20:04 - Enhance discussion sections with  AI tools
• 26:50 - AI-inspired insights provide inspiration, not guidance
• 34:12 - Interpretation beyond analyzing transcripts
• 36:46 - Applying engineering rigor to the process of building a business

About Our Guest
George Whitfield is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and CEO at FindOurView. As CEO of his most recent company FindOurView, he launched a Gen AI product to help user researchers synthesize insights faster from high volumes of customer interviews. George holds 4 patents and has 3 degrees from MIT including a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a Masters and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering.

Resources on Qual Data and AI

• Our AI in UX Report shares findings from a survey of over 1,000 researchers
• What does it mean to "code" qualitative data? This breakdown explains it all.
• Interested in trying an AI tool for your analysis? Here are 20 worth considering.

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 the context of participants’ decisions and behaviors
• The benefits of a diverse research team,
• And how she puts insights into perspective for stakeholders.

Highlights

• [4:58] Anthropology is about looking at the differences we may not notice in our own familiar environments, which is also an important mindset for researchers to adopt.
• [7:14] It's easier to see bias with lots of practice and by starting in your analysis. It's something that you grow in as you grow in experience and exposure to other researchers.
• [10:28] Vanessa illustrates how race and experience may color how different researchers think about a situation.
• [19:13] Having a team of diverse researchers that reflects the population you're studying is incredibly important because we're all human and can miss important context or cues.
• [26:07] How Vanessa puts things in context with contextual inquiries and video clips.
• [32:15] Everything is by design, so when something bad happens, we need to look to the systems to see why.

About our Guest

Vanessa Whatley is the UX Director - Research & Documentation at Twilio (previously at Google). Her background in Anthropology has inspired her to think about ways in which companies can prioritize user/customer needs when building products and executing business strategy. She seeks to promote humanistic/people based solutions to the challenges that institutions and individuals face. 

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 the facts of research stick around for longer, learning if your research presentations are engaging, and reminding everyone that it’s all about the users. 

Highlights

• [4:13] Ideally, research is the base for everything. Your whole team starts with research and learns to use it to tell compelling stories about the product.
• [8:17] Understanding your audience, their expertise, and how they like to consume data is incredibly important to telling a story that sticks.
• [13:47] Telling your user story by using quotes is really impactful at the beginning of a project.
• [19:07] Practicing telling fact-based stories about research helps you reflect on how well you know the information.
• [23:23] Knowing what kinds of media resonates well with your key stakeholders can help you tell a better story on their terms. 

About our Guest

Harrison Wheeler is the Director of Product Design at LinkedIn and the host of the podcast Technically Speaking. He’s passionate about UX, design, and empowering everyone to tell great stories. 

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 improving AI through your data. 

Highlights

• [2:53] Establishing the ethics around AI is a collaboration between private enterprise, governmental organizations, and the civic sector.
• [4:53] The difficult part of researching for AI is assessing how people may feel about something they've never interacted with before.
• [9:25] A big challenge for theAI industry as a whole is how comfortable are we with giving up our data in exchange for optimization?
• [14:42] How the system as a whole is responsible for AI outputs, not just the individuals who work on the AI.
• [24:59] It is incredibly important to identify our own biases when building AI systems. This involves a lot of self-reflection to root out biases you may not know you have.
• [32:42] In Hana's dream world, the work of creating and researching AI would be more widely shared among people with different expertise to create something more reflective of many perspectives. 

Mentioned in the episode

Moral Crumple Zones: Cautionary Tales in Human-Robot Interaction by Madeline Claire Eilish

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 contribute at the strategic level. 
• [12:00] Straying too far from day-to-day operations can make being a manager really tough, especially when you're managing researchers.
• [20:12] As a manager, being a coach is more important than telling people what to do.
• [23:12] You have to really connect with your direct reports and learn how to show up for them. Amber takes 10 minutes before every 1:1 to ensure she's grounded and there for that meeting.
• [34:21] Even though it's important to build good connections with your direct reports, make sure you keep enough distance socially so you can stay professional.

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 maps. 

Highlights

• [4:03] Diary studies are all about context.
• [9:08] Tony talks about how he combines self reported data from diary studies with in-app analytics.
• [10:27] Using a mixture of open ended questions and closed ones is incredibly important to getting the most useful feedback.
• [12:32] Recruiting early is key in a dairy study because it gives you time to find the best participants for your work.
• [14:54] It's ok if every participant doesn't answer every prompt, as long as you're getting the moments that matter.
• [19:37] If diary studies seem intimidating, start small with just a few participants. You can hone your skills and get lots of great insights.
• [21:44] After each diary study, Tony and his team make individual journey maps for each participant that help them understand how different people experience the process.
• [28:05] User research is all about helping people share their stories and experiences. 

Resources Mentioned in the Episode

• Expiwell - Diary study tool
• Adobe XD - Customer journey mapping tool

About our Guest

Tony Turner is a Senior Product Designer at Paramount (formerly Meta). At the time of our interview he was Lead UX Researcher at Progressive Insurance where he led all kinds of user research, like usability testing, contextual inquiries, card sorts, tree studies, first click studies, surveys and interviews. He's interested in HCI and studied Cognitive Science during undergrad.

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 address inequality is to reflect on the system we work in.
• [6:03] People in UXR help to bring truth to the organization through research, which puts them in a good position to do it in a greater context.
• [8:46] Now is the time to really dig into the messiness that comes with the details of user research.
• [10:22] You need to be actively seeking out feedback and information from all of your users and thinking about their unique situations. If you don't, you're opening yourself up for failure.
• [12:49] We spend a lot of time asking if we can build something, rather than should we built it.
• [14:57] Don't look at where you can go wrong when solving a new problem, look at what you can do to get it right. That means including people of diverse backgrounds from the start.
• [18:25] To make more inclusive panels when you recruit, think about the demographics that are actually important to your study. If you're recruiting for a test of a new keyboard on a mobile phone, does the person's income or location really matter?
• [26:35] Inclusivity is not only the right thing to do morally, it's also the law.
• [28:25] Randy talks about the difference between how think something will be used vs. how it is actually used and the importance of checking in.
• [31:35] It's also important to think about how features and products could be abused.
• [35:08] At the end of the day, systems work because we allow them to work. Taking the time to stand up and say things should be different is the only way to create change. 

Additional Reading

Randy recommended a few books for those interested in learning more about UXR, design, racial inequality, and inclusion. 

• Design Justice by Sasha Costanza-Chock 
• Cross Cultural Design by Senongo Akpem
• Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design by Kat Holmes

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] Everyone expects Jon to have great stories about one quick thing that 20x'ed conversion rates, but unfortunately the truth is that his work is a lot of research and testing to make meaningful changes. 
• [7:05] The trick to better conversion rates is giving the customers what they came to your site for in the first place.
• [9:33] Why onsite surveys may be hurting your customer experience, instead of getting you valuable qualitative data.
• [12:21] How Jon changed a real stakeholder's mind with feedback and business impact.
• [13:51] Jon suggests starting with quantitative data to identify the right areas to test, then following up with qualitative to learn what's wrong.
• [15:37] How Jon worked with baseball bat maker Easton to improve their buying process and doubled their conversion rates.
• [21:14] Why recruiting is one of the most important factors of research. 
• [27:18] The gang talks about A/B testing, including the tools they use.
• [35:11] How Jon cuts through the noise created by lots of different data sources.
• [38:58] Following up on your work at a regular cadence is a huge part of success.