Beth

Life of a ux researcher, take 27.

@TedGoas Yeah, that never happens. I see designers doing verbose walkthroughs of designs, responding to any attempt to comment, and desperately hoping the critique ends without any real feedback. For the entire time I've been in tech except for when @kristinalustig ran critiques.

Design critique is to hear feedback, not defend your design. It’s for the audience to talk, not the presenter.

@AmandaMGoetz @thenorthface She's in New Zealand.

Another day, another viral TikTok with incredible brand response. This woman bought a rain jacket from @thenorthface and was hiking in the rain in Australia where she complained she was absolutely soaked despite the rain jacket saying it was waterproof. Her request? Meet me at the top of the mountain and bring me a new coat. The video got 10.3M views. The team at North Face quickly replied with a video showing a guy grabbing a new jacket at the North Face store, jumping on a helicopter and bringing it to Jenn. Another example of great social listening + speed to response! This is a masterclass in turning a unsatisfied customer into millions of impressions with positive brand sentiment. Bravo @thenorthface 👏

'Tis the season of unsolicited marketing emails, including those I've definitely unsubscribed from in the past

@ludwiczakpawel People want predictable income and buyers tend to forget to unsubscribe. So they often get paid whether work was done or not.

Explain me the Design *Subscription* agencies phenomenon… I mean it’s been there for a while and I thought it’s just another short trend. But few months later I still read about it and learn about another “unique” design subscription agency (of usually one-person)…?!

Meanwhile, the US @forestservice has literal poets writing the best website copy out there

Time Spent With Coworkers Steady during the prime working years from age 20-60. Key Lessons: • You'll spend a lot of time at work. • Who you choose to work with is one of the most important decisions you'll make. Find work—and coworkers—that create energy in your life.

@jshardison That’s what generative user research is for. Bridging talking to people + bird’s eye view of the data.

Temperament-wise, sales and customer-success people are probably the best suited to talk with these customers from different walks of life, but teaching them how to package up their customer findings as trends and reports — instead of drive-by mentions — is often difficult.

Talking to customers involves letting go of one’s ego and listening to someone who differs from you (e.g., academically, politically, socioeconomically, etc.). This is difficult for everyone, but particularly for those startup employees who revere their own monocultures.

Best predictors of mate satisfaction: appreciation, sex, conflict, and perception of partner's commitment/satisfaction. Top individual-difference predictors: life satisfaction, negativity, depression, attachment avoidance, anxiety. #MachineLearning pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn…

Suicide comes from deep pain, agony, and despair where one knows no other way but to end their own life. The idea that it's selfish creates so much stigma. We need to stop judging and start understanding how people get to this emotional rock bottom.

@amyjccuddy Reviving Ophelia, by Mary Pipher

Ready for today

Guilty as charged @TedGoas

In a new @SAGEManagement @ASQJournal article, @acfeldberg identifies “The Task Bind” when threats of gender stereotypes undermine women’s management ability. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00…

@datingdecisions Lol cc @juliasilge

Thinking about how much I wanted to study @AmyCEdmondson 's psychological safety while a PhD student, being told it was passé, and now discussing the concept in every management training or general executive conversation in tech

@aimeehossler I heard them too.

Ultimately user research is one input among many that drive business needs and realities in software. It's not the most important. But sometimes I wish it were more respected.

While also juggling the other hats of research teacher, operations guru, GDPR expert, cross-functional relationship builder, product strategy studier, company culture and process ethnographer, and more.

Not that you asked, but it is deeply stressful to be the only UX researcher at a fast-moving startup.