x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

Awkward Silences

User Interviews

Welcome to Awkward Silences by User Interviews, where we interview the people who interview people. Listen as we geek out on all things UX research, qualitative data, and the craft of understanding people to build better products and businesses. Hosted by Erin May and Carol Guest, VPs of growth/marketing and product at User Interviews. Take this survey and let us know what topics you want to hear next! userinterviews.com/awkwardsurvey

technology

All Episodes

46:48

#31 - Why No One Listens to Your Research Reports...

Awkward Silences ·

2019/12/06

If you’ve ever presented research to a crowd of glazed over eyes, or sent around a detailed report only to hear back crickets, this episode is for you. After reading Caitria O’Neill’s article UX Research is Boring and No One Reads It, we knew we had to chat with her. Caitria has made sure research is heard, absorbed, and utilized in companies like Airbnb and Facebook before moving on to her current role as a Staff UX Researcher at Google. She shared tips on how to make research reports fun,

en

49:16

#30 - How 3 Mailchimp Researchers Landed Their Dream...

Awkward Silences ·

2019/11/07

There are many ways to become a UX Researcher. To learn more about the winding career paths many researchers take, Erin and JH talked to Jud Vaughan, Khalida Nicole Sebree, and Christianne Elliott, who are all UX Researchers at Mailchimp. Though they all hold the same job at the same company, they took very different paths to get there. Jud started at a Support Technician at Mailchimp and worked his way over to the Research department. Khalida wanted to go into medicine and studied

en

26:44

#29 - Researching Your Own Users with Chad Aldous of...

Awkward Silences ·

2019/10/23

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

en

33:03

# 28 - The Three Tiers of Culturalization with Chui...

Awkward Silences ·

2019/10/17

This is the third episode in our three part series on cross-cultural research. In this episode, Erin and JH chat with Chui Chui Tan, author of International User Research and Founder of Beyō Global. Chui Chui walked us through her "three tiers of culturalization", which can help international and cross-cultural researchers focus in on what they need to be researching. She also talked about how to prioritize different elements of your research based on the culture you're researching, the

en

24:24

# 27 - International Markets and Anthropology with...

Awkward Silences ·

2019/10/17

This is the second episode in our three part series on cross-cultural research. In this episode, Erin and JH chat with Leia Atkinson, Staff Researcher at Shopify. Leia chatted with Erin and JH about how her degree in Anthropology helps her learn more about international audiences through research. She shared her technique for recruiting participants through "snowballing", how she deals with culture shock, and how she maximizes her learning each time she takes a research trip abroad.

en

22:45

# 26 - Cross Cultural Research in Action with Elsa Ho

Awkward Silences ·

2019/10/17

This is the first episode in our three part series on cross-cultural research. In this episode, Erin and JH chat with Elsa Ho, a Senior UX Researcher at Uber who works on airports and events. Elsa is no stranger to international and cross-cultural research though, she's spent most of her career helping companies and teams learn about international audiences. She walked through some of the meaningful cultural differences she's encountered over the years, how she works with translators to

en

28:34

# 25 - Why Participants Participate in User Research...

Awkward Silences ·

2019/10/01

We’ve talked a lot about how researchers do research, now it’s time to hear from the participants. We invited our Participant Marketing Lead, Brittany Rutherford, and had some recent participants leave voicemails about their experience. We asked participants, "why do you participate in user research?" to help us understand how participants think about user research and how we can make their experience better.

en

39:56

#24 - What's in a Name? Building Custom Research...

Awkward Silences ·

2019/09/23

How do you get everyone on board with research? Vicki Tollemache has found that building a branded research practice that's fun, engaging, and impactful is pretty effective. She started Grubhub's Parts Unknown research practice to involve everyone in researching emerging markets and exploring new ideas within their product. Erin and JH talked to Vicki about how she set up Parts Unknown, the effect its had on Grubhub, and her tips for establishing your own standing research day.

en

42:26

#23 - How to Interview Customers Continuously with...

Awkward Silences ·

2019/08/20

Teresa Torres is a master of continuous interviewing. As a product discovery coach and founder of Product Talk, she works with teams of all shapes and sizes to help them build better stuff. Part of that is talking to customers all the time, and establishing a cadence that keeps customer needs top of mind. In this episode, she talks to Erin and JH about what it takes to establish a continuous interview practice, shares some tips for doing better interviews, and encourages everyone to get out

en

28:58

#22 - Stop Freaking Out About the Evils of Personas...

Awkward Silences ·

2019/08/08

Personas are polarizing, some love them, but many love to hate them. This week, Erin and JH talk to Andy Budd, co-founder of Clearleft about why the social mediaverse should stop freaking out about the evils of personas. They're a tool in the toolkit, and come with contextualized nuance all their own. Read our blog post about it here: https://bit.ly/2KA7B5H About our GuestAndy Budd is the co-founder of Clearleft, an agency that helps design leader, founding member of the Adobe Design

en

43:35

#21 - Why Surveys [Almost Always] Suck with Erika...

Awkward Silences ·

2019/07/23

Surveys are everywhere. They bombard us at every turn, and most of them aren't even helping teams learn what they need to know. We chatted with Erika Hall, co-founder of Mule Design and author of Just Enough Research about why most surveys suck and what we can do about it. Check out our blog post about this episode here 👉 https://bit.ly/2O5oDOg About our guestErika Hall is the co-founder of Mule Design and the author of Just Enough Research. She loves design, getting to the bottom of

en

28:34

#20 - Why Being Wrong is Right with Alec Levin of...

Awkward Silences ·

2019/07/10

This week on the pod, we talked to Alec Levin, founder of the The UXR Collective and Learners. He chatted with us about something he thinks UX research needs more of—failure.He put it this way in the podcast, "If you’re batting 100% on all your points of view, you’re not trying hard enough. You’re working on stuff that’s too easy." Erin and JH spoke with with Alec about being open to new ideas, challenging yourself, and being transparent about your work.

en

45:25

#19 - What UX Researchers Can Learn From Children...

Awkward Silences ·

2019/06/28

This week on the podcast, Erin and JH talk to Noam Segal who recently gave a talk at the UXR Strive conference in Toronto, and after hearing all the buzz we had to chat with him about it ourselves. He shared some lessons he's learned about research from his four year old daughter, including, keep your eye on the prize, find a method in the madness, tell it like it is, be a good host, and believe in magic. About our guestNoam Segal is a UX, business, and career coach and the Senior Research

en

28:27

#18 - Juggling Hardware and Software (and Service...

Awkward Silences ·

2019/05/30

At the end of the day, we’re really just lucky to be in this field. You get to learn all the time every day. And you can’t ever assume you know all the things because you just don’t. That’s just a human thing. To learn from our customers and to serve them, it’s just so meaningful.This week on the podcast, Erin and JH talk to Susan Rice of Toast.As Toast developed their Toast Go, a handheld POS system for restaurants, Susan learned a lot about researching for both hardware and software at

en

22:02

#17 - Is It Ok To Recline Your Seat On An Airplane?...

Awkward Silences ·

2019/05/16

This week, we’re doing something a little bit different. We’re talking to the CTO of User Interviews, Bob Saris, and a bunch of random strangers about one of the biggest questions out there—is it ok to recline your seat on an airplane? We got our whole team involved to do some on-the-street research. Read all about it here: https://bit.ly/2w3iUfU

en

28:13

#16 - How to Facilitate User Research in Any Team...

Awkward Silences ·

2019/05/08

This week on Awkward Silences, we talked to pro UX designer and researcher Nicola Rushton. She's worked with teams large and small to facilitate fantastic research. She walked us through how she does it and how to think of researchers as facilitators of learning. Read all about it here: https://bit.ly/2VRwqSk

en

44:24

#15 - Starting a ResearchOps Practice with Kate Towsey

Awkward Silences ·

2019/05/01

This week on Awkward Silences, we talked to Kate Towsey, a ResearchOps thought leader and advisor and founder of the Cha Cha Club—a members' club for ResearchOps professionals. Previously Research Operations Manager at Atlassian, you may know her as the person who started the ResearchOps Slack community in March of 2018.In the past year, the ResearchOps community has grown and Kate has left her consulting career to join Atlassian. Erin and JH talked to Kate about how she's started a

en

27:02

#14 - How to Make a Potentially Awkward User...

Awkward Silences ·

2019/04/24

65% of homeowners have experienced anxiety related to their home. Adam Sigel wants to figure out how to get that number down. As the VP of Product at Hometap, a home equity startup, he talks to homeowners about their hopes and fears about their homes. We talked to Adam about his experience interviewing users and how he's become a more empathetic researcher.Highlights[2:21] Adam talks about his research at Hometap[4:32] Resist the urge to pitch[9:15] Let discovery conversations be open

en

36:59

#13 - Make Qualitative Research Your Competitive...

Awkward Silences ·

2019/04/18

Talking to customers is pretty powerful stuff. This week Erin & JH talked to Katelyn Bourgoin, 3x startup founder and growth geek, about how qualitative research can become your marketing team's competitive advantage. Learn more about the episode here https://bit.ly/2IHsbSu Highlights[3:30] Go into qualitative research with a goal of learning[7:18] Stop running away from the angry bear[13:41] Doing a switch interview to learn about the buyer's journey[16:46] How to do churn

en

30:37

#12 - Essential Times for Qualitative Research With...

Awkward Silences ·

2019/04/11

This week on the podcast, Erin and JH talk to Shipra Kayan. After 10 years of working in UX design and research at Upwork, she's launched her own consultancy. On the pod, she talked about getting your research started on the right foot, no matter what kind of research you're doing or how big your team is. Highlights[5:47] How do you decide between what to do long-term and short-term?[7:49] Do research your team is ready to listen to[17:16] Always plan on learning from your research[20:05]

en

192 results

Similar Podcasts

Lead With AI

Tamara Nall

Linux in the Ham Shack

Black Sparrow Media

Data Engineering Podcast

Tobias Macey

Eye On A.I.

Craig S. Smith

Reflections

Livewire Labs