Welcome to the Anthro to UX Podcast with Matt Artz

01/15/21 • 2 min

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.

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.

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

Rachel Fleming on Anthro to UX with Matt Artz

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...