Awkward Silences

In this episode, Erin and Ben chat with Jay Vidyarthi, designer, author, and founder at Still Ape. Jay is a leading thinker around designing mindful product experiences. He's also published a new book, RECLAIM YOUR MIND, which examines the balance of technology use and mindfulness in our everyday lives. Jay shares his

Many research activities are completed by non-researchers, but whose work is benefited from user insights. Generally, these folks—designers, PMs, developers, among others—are called "PwDR" or "people who do research." In addition to their own work, many UX researchers and operations specialists are focusing on educatin

This episode is all about learning from customers...early and often. Our guest, Michael Margolis, UX Research Partner at GV (formerly Google Ventures), has made a career of helping teams do this successfully. He joins to share his Bullseye Customer Method, which is the result of his experience (it's also the subject of

In 2022, the UX community experienced a series of convulsions: layoffs, reorgs, and reduced budgets. A common thread throughout was accountability: user researchers faced frequent questions about their direct impact on and importance for the business. "Doing" UX research and "being" a design thinker was no longer enoug

Creating strong stakeholder relationships is important for UX researchers at any company. Doing this at "enterprise" companies—large organizations with many products and an international footprint—can feel daunting. Our guest, Judy Xu, has successfully navigated the scale of enterprises like Hubspot, Meta, and Salesfor

Erin and Carol are joined by Emily Wurgler, Global Director of Experience Design at McDonald's, whose journey has had many moments of evolution and iteration. She started as an academic researcher in sociology, transitioned to innovation research at growth stage companies, and ultimately to her leading enterprise resea