Awkward Silences
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Top 10 Awkward Silences Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Awkward Silences episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Awkward Silences for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Awkward Silences episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
06/11/24 • 50 min
It's our 150th episode! To celebrate, we brought together three thought leaders for a discussion about UX research's future. Erin and Carol are joined by Judd Antin, Dave Hora, and Christiana Lackner, who bring over 40 years of combined experience in UX research, both as practitioners and leaders.
This wide-ranging conversation combines our guests' reflections on the trends that brought UX to its current moment with an analysis of what the future holds—and how we can prepare ourselves (and our teams) for it. From strategies on creating more business value for our work to tips for creating stronger cross-functional partnerships, this conversation will equip you with practical steps to future-proof your research practice.
Episode Highlights
- 09:28 - The evolution of the UX research industry
- 15:48 - Adapting UX methods for team dynamics
- 21:56 - Balancing our focus between the business and the user
- 30:45 - The role of UX research in fostering shared understanding
- 41:18 - Planning strategically and anticipating team needs
- 47:27 - The promise of AI for user experience professionals
About Our Guests
Judd Antin is an executive coach, consultant, advisor, writer, and teacher, leveraging his 15 years of experience as a research, design, and product executive at top companies (Meta, Airbnb) and his PhD in Social Psychology & Information Systems from UC Berkeley to help individuals and organizations achieve their goals and overcome their challenges.
Dave Hora is the founder of Dave's Research Co. where he helps product teams drive critical initiatives with the right mix of data, insight, and common sense. He began professional research work in 2011, eventually starting the practice as the first research hire at six companies, including PlanGrid and Instacart.
Christiana Lackner is a UX research leader and dot connector. She's building research maturity within organizations so that teams involve the right people, ask the right questions, and act on the answers.
More Resources on the Future of UX Research
- The role AI will play in the future of UXR
- Connecting UX research to business revenue
- The 2023 State of User Research Report
02/21/24 • 41 min
In this episode of Awkward Silences, Carol and Erin dive into the world of conference networking and planning with Bryan Dosono, a staff UX research lead at eBay known for his extensive experience curating and organizing conference programs.
Bryan share insights on how to prepare for conferences such as using apps to schedule meetings and emphasizing networking over solely focusing on content. He also discusses strategic scheduling to align conference participation with career goals and offers advice on making spontaneous, serendipitous connections.
The conversation also covers practical tips for adding value during small talk, how to approach and connect with other researchers, and the importance of being open, vulnerable, and willing to face rejection in the pursuit of meaningful interactions. Bryan provides guidance for both newcomers to the UXR field and seasoned professionals: overcoming imposter syndrome and leveraging transferable skills from related fields.
Episode Highlights
- 03:58 - Navigating the Unpredictable: Strategies for Introverts at Networking Events.
- 08:24 - Strategic Networking: Maximizing Opportunities Before and During Conferences.
- 12:33 - Networking strategies for academic and professional growth.
- 22:36 - Balancing Attendance: Prioritizing Conferences with Active Roles.
- 28:03 - Maximizing Remote Networking: Strategies for Engagement in Virtual Conferences.
- 33:07 - Conference Insights: Making the Most of Your Experience through Pre-Planning.
About Our Guest
Bryan Dosono, PhD, is a user experience research leader in the consumer technology space. He applies human-computer interaction research methods with visual storytelling to modernize the design of global marketplaces and online communities. He currently volunteers as a Conference Chair at UXPA International and serves on the User Interviews Research Council.
Looking for a UX community? Here are 16 to join for networking and development.
#29 - Researching Your Own Users with Chad Aldous of Rentable
Awkward Silences
10/23/19 • 26 min
Researching with your own users means you have to make some special considerations. When was the last time they used your product? Where are they in the funnel? When was the last time they participated in a research session with you?
We chatted with Chad Aldous, Head of Design and Co-founder of Rentable (formerly Abodo), an apartment listing company, about how he and his team handle research with their own users. He chatted with Erin and JH about doing continuous and one-off research projects, how he chooses the right users to talk to, and how he creates great research invites that get results.
01/30/19 • 41 min
Algorithms don’t always handle “edge cases” well, and the people who design them can have too broad a definition of edge case—stillbirths, miscarriages, and other life tragedies are actually relatively common.
So how do the people who are responsible for building things, often many many people for any given human experience, design for the possibility of unexpected outcomes? That is to say, for real life?
This week on the podcast, Erin and JH talked to Laura Klein about building products that consider user's real life situations more thoughtfully. Sometimes, big tech does things that actually end up emotionally harming users. How do we do better?
Highlights
[3:50] We ask the big question. Why do bad things happen?
[6:56] The hippocratic oath for researchers.
[11:15] The consequences of short-term thinking.
[12:41] Everyone makes mistakes, and we can learn from everyone else’s mistakes too.
[18:56] Is the designer morally responsible for the actions of the product?
[24:43] How do you make a difference as an individual?
[33:25] The difficulty of separating yourself from some of the big companies
[36:32] We’re all gonna die, how does tech deal with that? (hint, not well)
[40:21] We wrap up. Laura’s not mad, she’s just disappointed.
About Our Guest
Laura Klein is the Principal at Users Know and the author of UX for Lean Startups and Build Better Products. She hosted her own popular UX podcast with Kate Rutter, What is Wrong with UX?, which goes best with cocktails.
11/30/22 • 40 min
As teams look for effective ways to collaborate between in-person and remote work, hybrid meetings are a flexible solution to meet both needs. But how can teams strike a balance of both in-person and remote meetings in a hybrid setting? How can facilitators reimagine collaboration to make meetings more effective and productive?
In this episode of Awkward Silences, Lead UX Research Manager at Miro, Eduardo Gomez Ruiz, is back to share his team’s insight from Miro’s latest research study on the advantages and challenges of hybrid meetings. He shares exactly how he secured stakeholder buy-ins, UX research methods, and surprising signals. As hybrid working models take hold, this study serves as a great starting point for understanding new paradigms, trends, and attitudes as we continue to navigate new ways of working.
In this episode, we discuss:
- How UX is affected by the evolving hybrid work environment
- Effective ways to gather collaborators and stakeholders
- The various UX research methods Eduardo and his team used for the study, and some surprising results
- The role of inclusion in facilitating hybrid work environments
- Best tips and practices from successful hybrid meeting facilitators
Highlights:
- [00:05:17] The project's hypothesis was to uncover the dynamics of the overlap between devices, environment, and culture
- [00:09:12] How Eduardo gained support from the CEO and the Chief Product Officer
- [00:13:50] The four-phase plan; observation, interviews, surveys, and a co-creation session
- [00:18:57] Revealing surprising insights about IRL vs. remote user research and inclusivity
- [00:21:27] Attending in-office meetings as if they were remote
- [00:25:29] The biggest challenge: maximizing hybrid meetings for both remote and in-person contributors
- [00:35:01] J.H. touches on emerging approaches to asynchronous communication in meetings
- [00:37:33] Helpful tips on inclusion and initiating collaboration during hybrid meetings
Sources mentioned in the episode:
About our guest
Eduardo Gomez Ruiz is the Senior UX Research Manager at Miro, which develops cutting-edge collaboration software trusted by over forty million users. He has also served as a Design Thinking Associate Professor at IE Business School for nearly eight years. Since Eduardo joined Miro in 2020, he has been instrumental in the growth and development of the company’s UX research department. Prior to joining Miro, he held positions at Uber and several consulting agencies as a Global UX Researcher and UX Consultant
06/04/24 • 51 min
In this episode, Erin and Carol sit down with Tyler Wanlass, lead product designer at CommandBar, to explore practical strategies for conducting user research without a dedicated research team. They dig into techniques that designers and product managers can use to gather valuable insights efficiently, especially in resource-constrained environments. Tyler's approach is scrappy, flexible, and creative.
Tyler shares some of the tools that create his research toolkit, including efficient note-taking, creative approaches to participant recruitment, and mixed-methods continuous discovery methods. He explains how session recordings and account impersonation can offer deeper insights when primary research isn't possible. Tyler reinforces the value of proactive research, such as social listening and competitive analysis.
This is a useful conversation for anyone without "researcher" in their title, but who wants to increase their customer engagement, build more thoughtful products, and do so in a way that respects both budgets and timelines.
Episode Highlights
- 03:16 - The scrappy mindset: learning from real-life experiences
- 10:21 - Broadening perspective through cross-industry inspiration
- 16:12 - Proactive user research for connecting and learning
- 24:17 - Streamlining customer feedback with TL;DR summaries
- 36:51 - Tools and tactics for customer insights
- 44:09 - The importance of pricing and packaging
About Our Guest
Tyler design interfaces for software products, builds internet businesses, and occasionally writes books. In his off time he's renovating a 100 year old Victorian house in the Pacific Northwest. In a past life he designed video games.
More Resources on UX Research for Designers and PMs
- The Product Manager's Guide to UX Research
- The UX Designer's Guide to Research
- Uncomplicated Recruitment for Non-Researchers
- "People Who Do Research," a Discovery Study
05/14/24 • 51 min
In this episode, Erin and Carol tackle one form of research impact growing in importance and necessity: revenue. Their guest is Claudia Natasia, co-founder and CEO of Riley AI. Before starting Riley, Claudia grew product teams at early-stage companies and worked in the financial industry. These experiences showed her the importance of linking user research outputs to the bottom line of a business.
During their conversation, Claudia breaks down what revenue typically looks like for a company and where you can find the specific revenue goals for your company. Then she digs into the important processes of weaving those revenue goals into a research strategy from the start, offering examples from her time on product teams.
The discussion also explores the importance of triangulation, or combining multiple data types to form a more complete whole. Claudia explains that user researchers should balance conducting primary research with existing information to help clarify how UX is linked with wider business goals. She offers suggestions for teams big and small looking to make impact with the highest level decision makers and company executives.
Episode Highlights
06:07 - Strategic frameworks for company growth and revenue
12:05 - Leveraging competitive analysis for market success
22:06 - Creating meaningful insights for your business
30:05 - Tracking research impact: Setting expectations and routine updates
37:13 - Elevating projects: Moving from junior to senior stakeholders
44:39 - Triangulating data: Connecting research to company success
About Our Guest
Claudia is a leader with 10+ years experience leading product, strategy, and data teams across the enterprise and financial technology space. Her work has directly influenced companywide strategies, leading to a $5B total valuation, a successful international acquisition, and multi-million dollar growth fundraising rounds. She advises and angel invests in early stage startups, in North America and Southeast Asia. Her areas of focus are enterprise, finance, and consumer AI-generated content.
Resources on Research Impact and Revenue
- A guide to showing the value of user research
- Claudia's textbook of choice for learning about revenue
- The three aspects of high-impact UX research
- The Business of Research Slack Community
04/16/24 • 49 min
Erin and special co-host Ben Wiedmaier are joined by Julian Della Mattia of the180 for a deep dive into being UX team-of-one. Julian has been the first user researcher at a number of companies and shares his top to-dos, milestones, and things to consider before accepting such a role.
The episode digs into the ways a solo UXR can start making an impact, but in a strategic, sustainable way. Julian identifies questions to ask stakeholder teams, processes to consider standing up, and the tools to consider investing in from the start. We also discuss the dual hat-wearing of UXR and Ops on smaller teams/teams-of-one. Julian shares how he balances his time between executing on business-critical work and organizing research workflows so that other teams can start connecting with customers.
Even if you're not a solo UXR or a team-of-one, Julian's experience building bridges between/across departments and his suggestions for aligning user research to core business goals from the start will help you and your team be more impactful.
Episode Highlights
- 03:49 - Strategies for success as the first researcher in an organization
- 12:52 - Strategies for building bridges as a researcher in a new organization
- 19:16 - Building essential processes for small research teams
- 27:59 - Comparing research repositories and insights hubs
- 30:47 - Triangulating insights from different teams
- 35:11 - Strategies for scaling your research capacity
About Our Guest
Julian is a UX Researcher specialized in Research Operations (ReOps), founder of the180 and based in Barcelona, Spain. Whether in-house or working with clients, he repeatedly found myself building Research teams from scratch as the first Researcher in the team. This experience helped him develop a real knack for infrastructure, so he decided to fully specialize myself in ReOps. He likes to talk about this as his switch "from Finder to Builder".
More Resources for Building UX Research Teams
- Use this checklist to organize and build your UX team
- The steps to build and lead an impactful UX team
- How to scale yourself while avoiding burnout
#121 - The UX files: Top Moments from YouX 2023
Awkward Silences
03/22/23 • 35 min
YouX 2023 is a wrap! No big deal, just us and 3500 other UX-obsessed friends. The half-day virtual event featured breakout sessions and presentations conducted by some of the brightest minds in UX, who covered a number of topics from personal wellness and professional growth to work-life balance and community.
We’d like to thank everyone who attended the event, especially our guest speakers, panelists, and moderators. It was a truly extraordinary YouXperience for everyone. Head over to our blog to get a full recap of the 2023 YouX conference and videos of the sessions—we clipped all the awkward silences parts out, so you don’t have to. You can also download a recording of the entire event at the YouX event page.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Interviewing with confidence
- Mentorships and coaching
- Wellness and UX
- Your unique UX career path
- Dealing with imposter syndrome
Highlights:
- [00:02:59] Interviewing with Confidence (Danny Essner) – Awkward silence is your friend and dealing with self-doubt
- [00:07:38] Will You Be My Mentor? (Paul Derby) – Navigating the mentor-mentee relationship
- [00:12:36] Reframing the Imposter Syndrome (Panel) – You are not a computer! The panel address imposter syndrome and getting to the root of the problem
- [00:18:06] Wellness and UX: Going Beyond the User Experience (Dr. Christelle Ngnoumen) – Dealing with stress through mindfulness. The power of language on your perspective
- [00:24:32] Research for All: Building Healthy Teams Through Democratization (Kate Kalcevich) – for all, How can we democratize research? Democratizing generative and evaluative research
Sources mentioned in the episode:
- userinterviews.com/awkward
- YouX 2023 Recap: Learnings, Session Recordings, and Additional Resources
- YouX 2023 - The Event for You, Researchers
About our guests
Danny Essner is VP of Marketing at Chameleon, a SaaS platform that allows startups to create personalized and engaging experiences for their users.
Paul Derby is a SR. Manager of UX Research at ServiceNow. Paul is also the founder of Paul Derby Coaching, LLC, where he provides 1:1 coaching to UX researchers who want to establish their personal style of leadership.
Devin Harold is Director of UX Research at Capital One, where he leads a team focused on design and research for Capital One's Financial Services in New York.
Erika Spear has ten years of experience in qualitative and mixed-method research design and execution. She is currently a Research Manager at AnswerLab.
Varun M is a Senior UX Researcher at SeatGeek and the Co-Founder of Apple & Banana.
Tiffany Eaton is a talented and creative self-employed graphic designer with expertise in logos, cover art, graphic design, children's illustration, and children's book illustration.
Nikki Anderson-Stanier is Founder & Managing Director of User Research Academy, a company that offers coaching, mentoring, and remote courses on UX Research.
Fredrick Royster is an accomplished educator and UX/Web/Graphic Designer with over twenty years of experience in web design and front-end development.
Dr. Christelle Ngnoumen is Principal User Experience Designer at Headspace Health, where she leads internal and external research programs dedicated to the design of Headspace's evidence-based digital interventions.
Kate Kalcevich is Head of Accessibility and Innovation at Fable, a platform for people of all abilities, where she works on democratizing design and accessibility.
For our guests' full bios, visit https://www.userinterviews.com/blog/best-highlights-from-youx-2023
04/01/24 • 39 min
In this episode, Erin chats with Victoria Sakal, Head of Growth at Wonder, all about desk (or secondary) research—think web searches, checking internal resource libraries (like repositories), or interviewing colleagues. Desk research is a critical step when starting a new project.
Victoria shares her framework for thinking about the differences between primary and secondary research, suggesting that instead of distinct categories, they exist on a continuum. She argues that primary research is sharper, more impactful, and has better ROI when it's supported by secondary research.
In addition to sharing best practices for desk research, Victoria walks through research her team conducted on how organizations approach research, offering strategies to maximize your efforts based on specific company growth stages and product demands. The episode closes by exploring how desk research is changing in light of emergent technologies such as large-language models and the benefits of reading widely.
Episode Highlights
- 06:39 - Integrating desk research into your research strategy
- 12:30 - Desk research techniques and best practices
- 17:41 - Unpacking trends in the kinds of questions asked during desk research
- 23:31 - How desk research is evolving alongside AI technology
- 25:14 - The role of curiosity in desk research and innovation
- 34:20 - How research repositories and agile methods impact desk research
About Our Guest
With a passion for turning complex inputs (data, research, behaviors) on customers, market dynamics, and competitors into smart strategies that drive growth, Victoria has spent the last decade helping companies ask better questions to get better data, source more powerful insights, and stay on top of important dynamics that matter. Previously at Morning Consult and Kantar, Victoria now focuses on all things demand gen, product marketing, market research, and growth strategies to deliver more value for Wonder users.
More Resources on Desk Research
- How to conduct (and write) a research literature review
- UX research is better with market research collaborations
- This database showcases AI-powered desk research tools
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FAQ
How many episodes does Awkward Silences have?
Awkward Silences currently has 154 episodes available.
What topics does Awkward Silences cover?
The podcast is about Ux Design, Product Management, Product, Research, Podcasts, Technology and Business.
What is the most popular episode on Awkward Silences?
The episode title '#61 - The Role of Research in CX Transformation with Kim Salazar of Nielsen Norman Group' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Awkward Silences?
The average episode length on Awkward Silences is 38 minutes.
How often are episodes of Awkward Silences released?
Episodes of Awkward Silences are typically released every 13 days, 21 hours.
When was the first episode of Awkward Silences?
The first episode of Awkward Silences was released on Nov 26, 2018.
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