Rachel Fleming on Anthro to UX with Matt Artz

01/19/21 • 46 min

In this episode of the Anthro to UX podcast, Rachel Fleming speaks with Matt Artz about her UX journey. Rachel earned a PhD in cultural anthropology from the University of Colorado Boulder and currently works as a design researcher at Idea Couture.

About Rachel Fleming

Rachel Fleming is a user experience researcher and PhD cultural anthropologist working in the digital product space. Building on over a decade of experience using qualitative methods in international and US settings, she combines the iterative process of design thinking with an ethnographic approach to complex problems. She uses generative and evaluative research methods with the goal of improving products so they truly resonate with users. She often acts as a facilitator on product teams to focus strategic direction and help a team collaborate more productively.

Watch the Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmTP9jCI3r0

Episode Transcript

Please note this transcript is an automated transcription and may have some errors.

Matt Artz:

Welcome to the anthro to ux podcast, where you will learn how to break into UX with an anthropology degree, through conversations with leading anthropologists, working in user experience, you will learn firsthand how others made the transition, what they learned along the way and what they would do differently. We will be discussing what it means to do UX research from a practical perspective and what you need to do to prepare resume and portfolio. I'm your host, Matt Artz a business anthropologist specializing in design anthropology, and working at the intersection of product management user experience and business strategy. Let's get started. Hi everyone. Welcome to anthro the UX video podcast. Today, I'll be talking with Rachel Fleming, who I'm very glad to have here. Rachel is a design researcher at idea couture, which is a cognizant digital business. And so Rachel really thankful to have you here. I appreciate all the work you've done in this space so far, you know, I've read some of your articles and I know that you're passionate about helping other people get into UX from anthropology. So thanks. And I look forward to our conversation today.

Rachel Fleming:

Great. Thanks for having me. This is fantastic.

Matt Artz:

So can tell me a little bit about yourself, you know, how you sort of got to the role you're in today and a little background on your education and, you know, maybe just a little bit of the backstory.

Rachel Fleming:

Sure. Well, I discovered anthropology way back in undergrad and found it was a good fit for kind of understanding patterns about the world and getting to talk to people, find out what's actually going on. And I kind of hemmed and hawed about going to grad school and took a detour into urban planning. So I wanted to do something a little more practical got very interested in kind of work and the meaning of work and then realized I wanted to go back and study that as an anthropologist. So I ended up in a PhD program at the university of Colorado Boulder and did a project in India on women who are in tech jobs there in Bangalore and Bangalore is kind of the tech center of India. These jobs have not been around for very long. And so I really looked at kind of the generational impact of women having access to jobs that they hadn't had in generations past and what that meant for gender equity and also why their attrition was so high.

Rachel Fleming:

They tend to leave jobs quite qui...

About Rachel Fleming

Watch the Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmTP9jCI3r0

Episode Transcript

Please note this transcript is an automated transcription and may have some errors.

Matt Artz:

Rachel Fleming:

Great. Thanks for having me. This is fantastic.

Matt Artz:

Rachel Fleming:

They tend to leave jobs quite qui...

Previous Episode

Welcome to the Anthro to UX Podcast with Matt Artz

Welcome to the introductory episode of the Anthro to UX podcast, where you will learn how to break into UX with an anthropology degree.

I am Matt Artz, a business anthropologist specializing in design anthropology and working at the intersection of product management, user experience, and business strategy.

I've started this podcast and the Anthro to UX career coaching service because I frequently have people reaching out to me on LinkedIn looking for advice on breaking into UX with an anthropology degree.

In speaking with all of those aspiring UX'ers, I noticed that many recurring themes come up, so I thought this podcast could be a great way to address some of the common questions.

To do that, I will be releasing episodes every other week. Each episode will feature an anthropologist who has already made the transition.

You will get to hear from them, in their own words, about their journey and what they have learned since being in the role.

I hope you all find this podcast helpful, and most importantly, I hope it can help all of you break into UX.

Next Episode

Molly Rempe on Anthro to UX with Matt Artz

In this episode of the Anthro to UX podcast, Molly Rempe speaks with Matt Artz about her UX journey. Molly earned an M.S. in applied anthropology at the University of North Texas in 2015 and currently works as a Senior UX Researcher at AnswerLab.

About Molly Rempe

Having started her career building hardware products, Molly moved jobs to tackle the big question of "what should we build" in a software innovation hub, and now is conducting rapid remote research. Although the types of products, the depth of research questions, and the project deadlines have varied during this time, she has always been passionate about bringing users (and non-users) into the process.

Watch the Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDkX8pBEreg

Episode Transcript

Please note this transcript is an automated transcription and may have some errors. Matt Artz: All right. Well, welcome back everybody. I'm here today with Molly. Rempe, Molly's an applied anthropologist and a senior UX Researcher at AnswerLab, and a graduate of UNT, which I am as well. So you know, we were in a different class, but it's, it's nice to be talking to a fellow UNT students. So Molly thanks for coming on. Really appreciate you being here, looking forward to talking to you today. So would you mind by maybe giving everybody a little bit of background on your education and you know, kinda a little bit of the work career? Molly Rempe: Absolutely. thanks so much for having me on I'm flattered that you thought of me. And I think this is a great podcast for individuals trying to get into the UX field. As you can guess, my background is anthropology. I did obtain a terminal master's degree in business and design anthropology from UNT, which of course is where you and I met. And then from there I actually worked for about three years to help build a research program for a water tech company. So that was very hardware focused and I was lucky enough to get a job right away as a UX researcher. I know that that kind of more linear pathway isn't what most of us end up doing. So I was just very lucky to be able to be placed right away. And then it kind of pendulum from hardware to software join kind of an innovation hub or a software accelerator where we got to explore really fuzzy research problems with a lot of room for exploration. And then for the last year I've been a senior UX researcher at answer lab, which is a research consultancy. And I get to work with large tech clients to help improve their user interfaces. Matt Artz: Great. Thanks for that. Yeah, it's, it's interesting. You know, like you already pointed out, but it's, it's so unusual to hear most, you know, most people go right into that into UX research. And so definitely want to dig into that. Another thing maybe I do want to bring up, so you, you have an anthropology undergrad, right? Yeah. Molly Rempe: That's true. Anthropology and Spanish. Matt Artz: So, you know, some people like myself, they go back to get an anthropology degree. You know, I was working in tech wanting to go back to bring research in. But so you've been on this path of anthropology for maybe longer than some, or at least longer than me, but did you know you want it to be in your X research or like, you know, what brought you there? Molly Rempe: Yeah, I think that's one of the most pivotal points. I loved anthropology. I love the ethnographic toolkit. I love the idea that we could just kind of learn about people as they are without judgment. And that was kind of the seductive nature of anthropology. So...