Thanks to the team from Design Bubble for having me as a guest to talk about podcasting (and less so user research or anything else). You’ll hear a bit about my experience and process and also the Design Bubble team’s perspective.
Bonus: you’ll hear me utter the phrase “Hello, bubblies” for the first, and perhaps only time.
The 20-minute episode is on Spotify, and embedded below.
Ambition Empower is a subscription service where thought-leaders in UX, service design, and product design helps you and your team to grow. I’ll be leading a design research track starting this fall. This track continually adapts to the emergent thinking in the field as well as the needs of members but includes topics such as:
The track starts on October 28th, and there’s a 20% discount with code PORTIGAL if you register by October 17th.
The other day I had a great conversation with Janelle Ward and Michele Ronsen about running our own one-person user research consulting practices. We have followed three different paths, with different durations, and different individual motivations and strengths. If you want to hear what we each had to share with each other (about unpaid work, about community building, and about thought leadership and positioning…and much much more), guess what! We recorded the discussion and it’s available on Curiosity Tank. It’ll cost you $5 USD — all proceeds are donated to the International Rescue Committee – and we’ve already donated $315.
I spoke with Vit Lyoshin about User Research in Product Development for his podcast. The one-hour episode is on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and below.
Takeaways
User research helps make informed product management and development decisions by understanding user behaviors, attitudes, and needs. Mature user research practices involve skilled researchers, infrastructure, and effective documentation and socialization of research findings. Collaborating with organizations and addressing their specific questions and concerns can promote the value of user research. Starting with small, impactful research projects can demonstrate the benefits of user research. User research techniques include watching people, asking questions, and asking people to try things. Combining qualitative and quantitative methods can provide a more comprehensive understanding of user needs and behaviors. Collaboration between qualitative and quantitative researchers is essential for a holistic understanding of users. Getting buy-in and recognition for research findings can be a challenge, but research leaders can advocate for the value of research. Conflicts between stakeholders’ expectations and user insights can be resolved by presenting research as a starting point for discussion and design opportunities.
I’m excited to be on a panel with Laura Klein and Thomas Stokes to talk about How to Use UX Research to Delight Your Users. Join us on August 27 at 9am PT/12pm ET for an exclusive live webinar featuring three industry experts who will dive deep into the nuances of UX research and design, helping you turn common pain points into opportunities for innovation. Register here.
Bonus: our moderator Hannah Clark interviewed me earlier this year for the Product Manager podcast
In this episode of Dollars to Donuts, I talk with Emily Sun, the head of Design and Research at Hipcamp. We discuss staying engaged in work, designers doing their own research, and research at a small, growing company.
There’s actually a big opportunity with smaller companies. At small startups, you are much closer to the people who are making the long term vision for what the company is going to be. Because we have access to that level of leadership, there is a lot that can be influenced through research. – Emily Sun
Help other people find Dollars to Donuts by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts.
Thank you to Elijah Woolery and Aarron Walter for having me on their Design Better podcast, for The art of interviewing users.
There’s an art to interviewing customers. It’s so much harder than just asking a few people some questions. If we’re not careful, bias can throw off our findings. And sometimes the most salient information that may inform the next generation of your products can slip by even the most seasoned researchers. Few people have mastered interviewing users as well as our guest today—author and independent research practitioner Steve Portigal.
Steve’s just released a second edition to his popular book, Interviewing Users, that expands upon the principles and techniques introduced in the first edition, and provides guidance for conducting user research remotely. It’s essential stuff for anyone in UX.
The one-hour episode is on the episode page, Spotify, YouTube, and below.
I enjoyed speaking with Yann Wermuth, Jonathan Edwards, and Scott Burleson on their Product Quest podcast.
We talked about
Our 80-minute conversation is on the episode page and embedded below.
Thanks to Andrew Skotzko for a fun conversation on the Making Things That Matter podcast where we talked about improving your user research process.
Our 75-minute conversation is on the episode page, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. You can find a transcript on this page.
Steve Portigal is a veteran user research leader and consultant who helps companies mature their research practices. He’s the author of Interviewing Users, a classic in the field, and the host of the design leadership podcast Dollars to Donuts. In this conversation, we explore:
• how to use creative practices to develop your voice as a leader and storyteller
• how to be a smart consumer of research findings when you aren’t an expert in the craft of research
• one simple question leaders can ask to set their organizations to make the most of research
• and how to create the conditions for high-impact, effective creative work in your team
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Topics discussed
(10:21) Experimenting with writing and finding one’s voice
(15:47) Feedback model: GASP – goals, attempts, successes, possibilities
(19:53) Workshops, creativity, and self-doubt
(27:06) Embrace authenticity, find your unique facilitation style
(28:10) Appreciating different approaches, understanding executives’ skepticism
(34:37) Engage with compassion
(39:29) Research is essential for informed decision-making
(49:01) Compassion and reflection are crucial for leaders
(50:48) Create a safe learning space for engagement
(56:03) Assessing code quality and marketing effectiveness
(01:00:39) Research raises questions, timing and deployment important
(01:10:31) Stay fascinated with the world around you
Save 20% on my book Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries through the Rosenfeld Media summer sale, through July 15. This book of stories from other researchers examines the bizarre, comic, tragic, and generally astonishing experiences that researchers have out in the field.
Portigal’s collection of war stories illuminates the discipline and improvisation endemic to researching people. Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries is a fitting companion to his landmark Interviewing Users. – Gregg Bernstein