#150 - The Future of UX Research with Judd Antin, Dave Hora, and Christiana Lackner

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

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

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

Previous Episode

#149 - Research Tactics for Designers & PMs with Tyler Wanlass of CommandBar

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

Next Episode

#151 - Improving Your UX Research Efficiency with Auzita Irani of AirBnB

Erin is joined by Auzita Irani, a research manager at AirBnB to discuss being a more efficient user experience researcher. In today's work world, resources—time, budget, headcount—always seem to be in limited supply. How can we balance these things along with other important elements of our research practices? Auzita has been thinking about "doing more with less" for a long time and shares practical strategies.

After discussing the challenges facing today's UX researcher, the conversation shifts to what Auzita has seen work for researchers, both those working in large and small companies. Erin and Auzita touch on tools (like AI), tactics (like prioritization frameworks), and collaboration approaches to work more productively with stakeholders and teammates. They also discuss burnout's effects and the ways of combatting it.

Finally, Erin and Auzita make some predictions on where UX is headed in the months and year ahead, and what these trends might mean for our work.

Episode Highlights

03:53: Challenges and strategies of "doing more with less"
11:23: Addressing time and deadline constraints
21:38: Failure modes and avoiding burnout
32:05: Balancing tactical and strategic work
38:21: Emphasizing your research's impact
44:57: Adapting to blurred work boundaries

About Our Guest
Auzita has a background in computer engineering and Human Computer Interaction. She currently leads teams dedicated to optimizing customer support experiences and developing cutting edge AI tooling solutions at Airbnb. Prior to this she led the research and annotation teams at Sprig working on streamlining the process of obtaining real-time insights for product teams.

More Resources on Research Efficiency