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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

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All Episodes

54:47

#151 - Improving Your UX Research Efficiency with...

Awkward Silences ·

2024/06/25

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

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50:38

#150 - The Future of UX Research with Judd Antin,...

Awkward Silences ·

2024/06/11

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

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51:26

#149 - Research Tactics for Designers & PMs with...

Awkward Silences ·

2024/06/04

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

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51:25

#148 - Connecting Research to Revenue with Claudia...

Awkward Silences ·

2024/05/14

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

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47:19

#147 - UX Research in Healthcare with Nadyne Richmond

Awkward Silences ·

2024/04/30

Erin and Carol explore the complexities of healthcare research with Nadyne Richmond, a healthcare design advisor with a background in big tech who pivoted to healthcare research a decade ago to tackle the pressing issues she saw in the system.Nadyne underscores the nuances of conducting user experience (UX) research within healthcare settings, unpacking the intersections of patients' lives, their health, financial well-being, and spiritual factors that can come with many diagnoses. She

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49:10

#146 - Building a UX Research Team From Scratch with...

Awkward Silences ·

2024/04/16

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

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39:42

#145 - Kick-Start Creativity Using Desk Research with...

Awkward Silences ·

2024/04/01

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

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46:46

144 - The Craft of Sample Sizes with Lauren Stern of...

Awkward Silences ·

2024/03/25

In this episode, Carol and Erin dive into all things research sample sizes with Lauren Stern. No matter your experience with user research, you'll need to recruit folks, making this an evergreen topic. Lauren has coached both new-to-research and junior UXRs on this critical topic and she shares some of her best advice.Lauren shares importance considerations and nuances around different types of studies and even analysis approaches. She also unpacks her approach for international samples,

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40:40

#143 - Harnessing AI For Better Insights with George...

Awkward Silences ·

2024/03/18

Carol and Erin welcome George Whitfield, an expert in applying AI to the analysis of qualitative data. George discusses the intricate challenges of leveraging language models to interpret expansive open-ended data (like interview transcripts), emphasizing the importance of context and not just keyword or topic identification.They'll dig into the crucial role of human oversight in AI, what preliminary analysis might look like using AI, how to check and refine the work of an AI assistant

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47:44

#142 - Quantifying Research Impact with Ruby Pryor of...

Awkward Silences ·

2024/03/04

In this episode Carol and Erin are joined by Ruby Pryor, founder of Rex, a consulting firm specializing in UX research and strategic design. They explore the world of measuring the impact of UX research. with Pryor introducing a four-level impact assessment framework. Ruby shares a four-level assessment framework and the conversation moves to prioritization, making "strategic" decisions, and increasing your research influence.This episode also gets into what it means to demonstrate the

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41:10

#141 - The Chaos Theory of Event Networking with...

Awkward Silences ·

2024/02/21

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

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47:00

#140 - Should You Leave Academia? Advice for...

Awkward Silences ·

2023/11/30

The decision to leave academia can be difficult. Often, it involves giving up a stable career path and a lifetime commitment to a particular field of study. But as Joe Stubenrauch explains, the move also offers researchers the opportunity to pursue new career paths, improve work-life balance and geographic flexibility, and reinvent their lives.And he should know: Formerly a professor of history, he walked away from tenure to join a big tech company as a UX Researcher at AWS. In this

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43:56

#139 - Content Design and the Power of Simple...

Awkward Silences ·

2023/11/08

How often do you think about content design? The answer, most likely, is: “not enough”.The work of a Content Designer involves fitting the right words in the right places, understanding the nuances of things log in vs. sign in, and knowing the right words to use to engage customers. Content Design is an important part of the user experience—and the ROI is high. Like, “millions of $s saved through content-testing” high.Erica Jorgensen is a Staff Content Designer at Chewy.com and the author

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43:26

#138 - Designers as Change Agents with Maria Giudice

Awkward Silences ·

2023/10/18

“I realized that design is about helping people make sense of the world. And I looked at the world differently then… treating everything like a design problem that's solvable [...] [Design leaders today] don't use the power that we have to engage people, to activate people, to help them believe in something bigger than themselves.”Maria Guidice, author of Changemakers: How Leaders Can Design Change in an Insanely Complex World, joins Erin May and Carol Guest in this episode of Awkward

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41:23

#137 - Practical Strategies to Foster Customer...

Awkward Silences ·

2023/09/27

What company isn’t “customer obsessed”? Well, a lot, as it turns out. That’s not for lack of caring—but building a customer-centric culture is easier said than done. And how you do this depends on whether you’re starting from square one or trying to change a company’s culture from the inside.According to Prayag Narula, CEO and Co-Founder of Marvin, changing a culture towards customer centricity requires starting from the bottom-up. Building something new? Leaders should be obsessing over

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45:29

#136 - Designing Generative AI at Notion with Linus Lee

Awkward Silences ·

2023/09/19

AI is a big part of Notion's strategy for the future of knowledge work, and they're exploring ways to use AI to make people's lives easier.Linus Lee, a Research Engineer at Notion, spends his time researching and learning about AI—how users interact with it, the challenges of building trustworthy AI systems, and its - potential to help people work more effectively.In this episode of Awkward Silences, he sits down with Erin and Carol to discuss Notion’s approach to designing interfaces for

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45:26

#135 - How to Influence Stakeholders with Strategic...

Awkward Silences ·

2023/08/30

“I think people really connect when you are just genuine and not transactional. I think it's much more easy to get to those kind of opportunities because they just feel genuine.”According to Andrea Amorós, Associate Principal Research at ADP, giving research a seat at the big table is all about building meaningful connections with the people you’re presenting to.Andrea joins the Awkward Silences podcast to provide insight into how she learned to make research meaningful for stakeholders at

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22:53

#134 - The End of an Era: A Fond Farewell to JH

Awkward Silences ·

2023/08/23

134 episodes. That’s how long Awkward Silences has been going with Erin and JH as hosts.But now it’s time for something new.JH says goodbye to Awkward Silences as he kicks off a new chapter in his career. Today, he and Erin reflect on the years. They share a bit of the original background to the podcast, their favorite memories, and even some behind-the-scenes aspects and outtakes that may surprise you. Tune into this episode to learn all about Awkward Silences and bid a fond farewell to JH

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47:35

#133 - Driving Actionable Decisions from Insights...

Awkward Silences ·

2023/08/16

As a researcher, you know the value of using research to drive business decisions—but other stakeholders might not. In order to drive action from research, you need to create alignment with key decision-makers and the research you do. Pejman Mirza-Babaei joins the Awkward Silences podcast to discuss how to transform research insights into actionable design decisions by collaborating with stakeholders. With over fifteen years of experience doing UXR and interaction design on various

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41:55

#132 - Unveiling UX Insights with Competitive...

Awkward Silences ·

2023/08/02

Competition can be scary. But in UX, competitive research is insightful.You don’t want to chase your competitors, but you need to know what they are doing to know how you can improve.Rachel Miles joins the Awkward Silences podcast to discuss the value of competitive research in UX and design. As the UX research lead at IBM, Rachel integrated competitive research at IBM to measure their products’ performance and to align their existing internal measures with external measures. She shares

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