The Learners Podcast

Beta programs in product development are nothing new. Deploying new software or hardware features, and then talking to users about them, has been around for decades. But, what if instead of product managers and leaders designing beta programs, we instead took it under our purview as researchers. How would we design these programs differently? Join Abby, Director of Research at Later.com, to learn...

Too often, employees can be seen as just what we produce. And researchers produce research reports. But we're a lot more than just report makers, and if we dig deep into our true roles, we'll understand just how important teaching, training and more are for our success. Join Behzod as he digs into a more holistic view of our job.

Are personas bad tools? Or do they just have a bad reputation because they're being built wrong? Amber and Carolina took a new approach to building personas, reimagining the data they contain, the way to build them, and the artifacts they produce. If you're looking for a better way to communicate information about your users, don't miss this step-by-step guide to persona building.

Change is afoot in the research world. There's never been more researchers in the field than there are today, but, there's also never been as much research being done by non-researchers as there is today, either. What does that mean for research practitioners? Molly Stevens, Director of Research at Booking.com, joins us to share what she believes is a path forward, not just for research as an acti...

We all know that research is an important component of a successful new product or feature, but what else can it do? Over at Brex, Nicky and Kira teamed up to find a way to leverage research for Brex's rebranding efforts. Tun into this talk to learn more about how you can use research to find success on a rebrand.

Empathy is a word we hear a lot in research. Maybe even too much? Lucky for us, Sekai is here to question that. Is empathy an obsession that doesn't do us or our participants any good? Should we be focusing on something else entirely? Join Sekai for an unforgettable talk on the irrelevance of empathy.

There's nothing worse than doing incredible research, presenting it to stakeholders, and then having nothing happen. To avoid this, researchers need to develop a new skill: marketing! Patti Carlson is the Director of Research at Mailchimp, and she makes marketing plans for many of her team's key research initiatives, to make sure they land and have an impact. To find out how to do the same, tune i...

Remembering everything you did yesterday is tough, let alone what you did last week. But often, these are the questions researchers pose to their participants during an interview. How can we overcome the fact that humans are forgetful? In this talk, Colette talks about her work leveraging triangulation, the use of multiple varied research methods, to dig deep, even when participant memory is somet...

Researchers see a lot of emotions when we're out in the field. But it's hard to know what to do with these emotions when it comes to translating them into insights that our teams can use. Can we measure them? Categorize them? In her talk, Lara outlines how to make sense of emotions and use that data to drive powerful research insights.

When doing research, it's often the case that we can just sit down or join a video call with our user, and discuss a prototype or product. But sometimes, to really evaluate a user's experience, we need to do something much more intensive. Peloton makes one of the world's most popular products, a workout bike that's paired with live classes, and is filmed in studios around the world. To better unde...

As researchers, we often feel like big decisions are constantly being handed down to us. Why aren't we in the decision making process? What's going on behind those closed doors at the big mahogany table? Eran Ben-Ari is a product exec who's here to share with you what you need to know about executives to build an efficient and effective research practice.

Should research teams embed, or be centralized? What skills does a research team need? What level(s) of seniority should it have? Structuring a research team is no easy task. Monal knows this first hand, having built the research team from the bottom up at Lyft. In this talk, watch as Monal shares her advice for how best to structure a research team for success.

Prototypes and designs are multi-faceted. As researchers, often we're looking at the experience as a whole, but sometimes we need to get extra focused on one part of the experience. And sometimes, that part is copy. In this talk, watch as Jennifer shares about why she thinks testing copy needs a new approach, and how she's been able to effectively evaluate copy in her own research.

For those of us who've worked closely with engineers, we know they are of a different breed. Their tooling and workflows look unrecognizable compared to those of accounting, legal, finance, HR, or almost any other line of work. That means our approach to doing research on developer tooling needs to adapt. Watch as Atikh shares his advice for doing research on the command line.

If you've been paying attention to the psychological sciences, you've probably heard of the replication crisis. Thousands of studies, including some seminal papers, have been unable to be replicated and the legitimacy of their findings have been called into question. What impact does this have on UX research, and what can we learn from this whole debacle? Sarah Wittman shares her takeaways.

All of us have been in situations where we've wondered if we belong. It's a natural experience. But, we don't have to feel that way in research. Many of today's leaders have felt the exact same feelings of imposter syndrome you might be feeling now, and have found ways to overcome. In this talk, watch as Noam takes us through his process for getting rid of imposter syndrome.

When it comes to doing concept tests and usability studies, sometimes a wireframe just isn't enough, while a fully engineered product is way too much. Is there something in between? In this talk, watch as Kira and Kathryn from Indeed share a new approach using 'Blueprint Fidelity' prototypes.

If you're anything like us, when we get an exciting research project thrown onto our plate, we can't wait to get started. Let's get to recruiting and talking to customers! But wait! Let's pause for a second. Have we done everything we need to do to protect the sensitive information of our users, and make sure we do no harm? Today, Alba shares her 'Ethical Researchers Checklist' to help you kick of...

When we do research, most of the time we use our tried and true methods: usability tests, interviews, and surveys. How about we expand our toolkit? In this talk, Yoanna teaches us about the power of ethnography. Here she explains what it is, how it helps, and a case study to tie it all together.

When you're jumping into a new job, you want to hit the ground running... especially if you're the only UX researcher on the team. But, what's realistic? How do we make sure we show steady, consistent progress, without overwhelming ourselves or missing the mark. In this talk, Snigdha shares her 30-60-90 day plan for any new research hire owning a new research practice.

How can you turn research into less of a tactical practice, and more of a strategic one? If there's one company that's figured it out, it's Slack. In this talk, Christina Janzer and Michael Massimi share their vision for research with us, and how it's allowed them to stay on the inside of the decision curve of major company initiatives at Slack.

Sometimes we need to take a step back to take a step forward. Like waaaay back. In this talk, Noam suggests we think back to when we were kids to rediscover some unwritten rules about research. To see everything with fresh eyes again, and return to our paths of growth. What do you think?

Returning for her second year in a row, Vivianne Castillo puts out the call for UX Researchers everywhere to do some deep self-reflection. Vivianne reminds us that not only do we have the capacity to do good, but to do harm, especially to our participants. By not doing deep and thoughtful work on ourselves, we risk hurting those we're trying to help. Join Vivianne for an intense and important conv...

Most researchers work in the private sector, but if you've used government services lately, you know quite well that the public sector is in dire need of our skills as well. Mithula Naik, who heads up research for the Canadian Digital Service, outlines her approach to pushing for positive change in government services as a research leader.

As one of the faster growing fields of work, Research Ops is on the rise! But what is ReOps? Who does ReOps? Am I ReOps? Listen as Kate Towsey, founder of the ResearchOps Community, answers these questions and more.