Erin: [00:00:00] hi everybody. Welcome back to awkward silences today. We're here with Harrison Wheeler. He's a UX design manager at LinkedIn. He's also the host of his own podcast, Technically Speaking. So check that out. Today we're going to talk about storytelling and user research. So thank you so much, Harrison for joining us.

Harrison: [00:00:19] Yeah, thanks for having me, Erin. I'm super stoked about this topic. to go in today. And, I think a lot of it was really inspired, just how COVID-19 and the nature of our remote work has just transformed the way that we approach problem solving.

Erin: [00:00:39] Yeah, absolutely. we've tried to keep the podcast pretty evergreen for the most part, but since COVID has hit, it's just really not made sense, to not talk about the world that we actually live in right now. So I've got James here too

JH: [00:00:53] Yeah. I'm excited to listen to some stories today that could get to be a little bit more of a background participants should be good.

Erin: [00:00:59] active

Harrison: [00:01:00] you have to let us know how our storytelling

JH: [00:01:03] Yeah. Hero's journey, right? That's something. That's the only thing I know.

Erin: [00:01:05] Yes, Joseph Campbell all the way. so Harrison, I, in my role doing content and marketing, think about storytelling a lot, in terms of. You don't want to, in the case of like content marketing, just say, "Hey, buy my product."

Tell me a story of how, why I should care about this and make me feel like the hero of my own story and that sort of thing. So how does storytelling, what does it have to do with user research and why is it so important?

Harrison: [00:01:35] Yeah. Yeah. well just kind of reflecting on things and again, just referencing where we're at in regards to the nature of work, working from home, a lot of folks have to really, Really be very, I shouldn't say for lack of a better word ruthless with their time. we've got families, we've got to live our life and forever these things, or at least right now, they're actually more interconnected than ever. And organizationally, we're starting to work more horizontally, more collaboratively than ever before. And so with that emphasis on time, when we're starting to meet with folks, we need to be as effective as possible.

And storytelling has been a tool that has been able to really allow us to develop a sort of a core understanding across the board, regardless of if you're in research, design, engineering, data, science product, to be able to really start focusing on the problems. and. I think research plays a very integral role to that, right?

Because grounding your stories, in fact, and in your users are going to be super important. And in terms of any sort of organization that you're in, people are at the center of your core business plan of, of what you're doing. It's just a a neccesary sort of fact that we need to have versus generating stories for entertainment value.

JH: [00:02:55] do you think about it within user research as like a skill people just need to have? So like when you're having conversations, you can just be a kind of natural storyteller. You can develop that and that way you're just more engaging and people remember more of what you share or is this something that like you use deliberately of okay, I have all these outputs from this research and now I'm going to go turn it into a story to share.

And it's like more of a, deliberate thing versus more of an ad hoc. I'm just having a conversation, but using storytelling techniques as a part of that?

Harrison: [00:03:22] Yeah, that's a great question. I think user research has an opportunity to really get folks in the mode of storytelling. Because while I think it's great for an individual to potentially be able to do that, I think you should empower your other partners to be able to tell stories just as effectively as you are.

I think ultimately we want to get in a situation where it's not a handoff, Where research does this thing, and then everyone relies on research to tell that story. It should be something that, ideally you're working with your product managers and you're working with your design partners to be able to actually be cohesive in terms of telling that same story.

Because again, I, I'm not a person that likes to talk about how can we be more efficient, but yeah. having to go to the researcher every single time is just not going to be effective. We want to make sure that everyone really resonates with it. You know, we can collectively have that at the forefront whenever approaching any sort of problem.

Erin: [00:04:20] So when we're talking about storytelling, we're not just talking about this kind of one way communication of, to JH's point, you listen and I'll tell you a story. It's really having those stories be understood and become sort of folklore right within the organization where everyone knows these stories and can then use them.

you know, when we talk about stories, what are we talking about? Cause we're all familiar with user stories. So that would be one kind of story, but more broadly speaking, what, how might that manifest?

Harrison: [00:04:50] Yeah. Yeah. you know, I work on an enterprise set of tools at LinkedIn. And so I think the challenge with that is. we're a pretty big organization and we're designing tools, but we're not necessarily marketers. And so I think it might manifest itself in terms of how it influences strategy.

I think storytelling is a big part in terms of your role being a strategic partner that can influence the roadmap. I think if you have a solid understanding of what that is, it actually empowers you to be able to push back. It's like, Hey, we actually threw out research. And then even if we're thinking about our story, like maybe you can say, I don't think that's a priority right now.

We can go back to sort of. looking at it from maybe, you know, an artifact, let's say you're doing some sort of journey mapping. You can say, Hey, here are the emotions that are evoked at this port. there's a ton of friction. Maybe we realize that amount of friction, if we can solve that, it can create a ton of value.

It can maybe help us stick out in the market. And so I think there's a number of research methodologies that can be applied to inform that story. and those would be like those reference points that you can always go back to. So if you're in a part of a story, you can say, look, we had a survey or we can look at some qualitative data as well as quantitative data that backs us up to really sort of, push this.

So instead of, I almost think of that story uniting a lot of the qualitative and quantitative work versus just looking at the artifacts. You're actually wrapping it up in something that is easily digestible by folks that may not necessarily be experts in some of these different sort of areas.

I know that if I'm listening to an engineer, give a speech around, their technical roadmap, it's probably gonna go over my head because I'm just not familiar with all those terms. And so I think if you can put yourself in that mindset of how can I better be able to interpret these things?

I think storytelling is really that tool that can help you become more effective in, in communicating those things.

JH: [00:06:50] You mentioned, journey maps and then like artifacts. And there's the saying right of the medium is the message. Like, how do you think of storytelling within user research in terms of like, how you're actually telling the story? Is it slides or other things are written? what forms work best as it is like around conveying stuff to other parts of the organization.

Harrison: [00:07:09] Yeah, that's a really great question. it's really interesting. I get to work with a number of researchers and I get to work with a number of designers and sort of what I've found is that it is really based on your organization, in terms of how they interpret it best.

I found in some cases, slides are a great tool to sort of go into these types of things. But I think all in all like synthesis of your research, is probably the most important thing to start to craft. Because again, I think if you start to go extremely deep, you might lose people.

So I think one part of the storytelling piece that is extremely important is understanding who your audience is. And the same sort of way that we approach design, right? Like for lack of a better term, like what are the constraints we're dealing with? Constraints could be time. It could be the types of folks that are in the room.

It could be the depth of knowledge on the subject manner. And so with that, I think it takes going back and saying, and picking and choosing, maybe comparing against what are the values of the organization? Where are the priorities. And then what are the parts of this sort of research study that we really need to convey?

I think what you really want to have is once you start to share it, that information, you want it to be actionable. You want it to have some sort of influence versus just showing the definition or the how, it thinking, how can I help influence this product? What are things that are really going to stick out?

And I also think it takes understanding. What is like the business angle on this.

Erin: [00:08:36] when you think about. knowing your audience. It's almost because I was going to ask, okay, how do you do that? And that almost it becomes its own user research question right. Of the audience that I want to convey this story to, what do they care about?

What's their motivation. And so you're dealing with emotions all around. I know one of the things you mentioned when you're telling a good story is you do want to think about that emotional component, whether it be, the motivations, the challenges of the user. as it relates to your product or whatever it might be, but the same for your audience, right?

They might be experiencing emotions, like to your point about COVID. yes. And not having a lot of time and having too much to do you are, all kinds of emotions could obviously be running through your audience's head. So how do you start to think about. I'm on as a user researcher. How do I tell a story?

That's going to resonate with my audience and if you have multiple audiences and stakeholders to tell that story to how do you do it in a way that isn't, taxing in terms of right. Having 35 versions of this story, you need to maintain, for instance,

Harrison: [00:09:42] Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a really great question. as I mentioned earlier, the contractual obligation, to everyone in the company is really making your customers happy, right. Having value in the segment that you're operating in and. What no other great way to do that than actually having people walk through the tool and then figuring out how they feel.

I would almost challenge everyone to ask if their partners have actually used the tool that they're designing. And I think there's usually a lot of effort, especially early on in companies to go to market, to reach parody. in. It tends to get taken for granted once there's, revenue coming in and then things start resulting in the growth hacking.

And, you're only looking at a limited set of features, but I would just get back down and say, how do people feel when they're using your application? And most of the folks in your organization have a connection to the work that they're doing. If they see that people.

Are dating joy or getting stressed out, using your tool that you have a difference that you see that excuse me, that you can make a difference in that'll be for sure, to capture their attention.

JH: [00:11:02] On that note, these stories can be motivating. they can draw people together. They can create catalyst for change. They create this kind of shared understanding and alignment. Do you have examples of when a story that came out of user research turned out to be really impactful and how, a team or a company was approaching or thinking about something.

Harrison: [00:11:20] Yeah. Yeah. so I think, I was actually presenting at this conference in, it was supposed to be in South Africa, but it was remotely. one of the things I talked about, my talking track was, innovation by design. And there's this sort of assumption that innovation or having that aha moment is thinking outside of the box, like something super crazy. But I think it really starts foundationally like. what are the goals of what we're trying to do and does our product really do that for us? and I can tell you time and time again, just getting back into the foundation in terms of are the fundamentals and the basics, of just like our standard offerings.

I can tell you, we've done this at base. We've done this at LinkedIn and it's uncovered just small incremental changes in some areas can make a huge impact. I think that's a big part of it. I just don't think organizations are utilizing, research as much as they should. I think research is underestimated.

In a lot of organizations, because I don't think people understand the value of what it is, Because in order to execute, research, you need time and companies want to move fast. you know, I think it's allowing the time and space to slow down on that roadmap to really start to be like, okay, let's really get a pulse check on where we are.

And maybe that can start to inform some opportunity areas for us.

Erin: [00:12:51] Yeah. So story storytelling can be really useful at the sort of product discovery and earlier on in finding new opportunity spaces, new problems to solve. Have you also seen it be effective? deeper in the product development process when trying, you're trying to find solutions to known problems or smaller feature enhancement and more granular changes.

Harrison: [00:13:16] all the time. I think we've, my team, especially we've shifted our approach, to this. we usually, we have something that we call a stakeholder review and it is more of a pulse in terms of what our product strategy looks like.

and so storytelling is research is actually really necessary to help inform what that is. And I think, as you start to have of more maturity, in your product, your user sets likely going to be a little bit more sophisticated. and with that, there might be a little bit of a Delta in terms of being knowledge partners, being knowledgeable about sort of those efforts.

And, one of, one of the ways that we look at it is, here's the current experience, right? That w we can go through. I think research plays a really big part in highlighting, the things that work and where there are opportunities. but then additionally, We also are able to do vision work, where we start to say, this is where we could be.

Like we understand this is the current experience for, customers that use our product, but here's where we could be. Now. It's also going to be important as well to level those expectations, right? Rome wasn't built in the day and we don't operate on an infinite set of, and With that the research product design combo, design at least works with research to say, okay, how can we maybe split this up into digestible chunks?

I think research will also inform what are, again, what are the. What are the features or the concepts that are going to generate the most value. So I think research also helps in terms of how we need to prioritize that again, that is something that we also want to keep in line, with our product partners as well, because we also need to think about how it's going to how to keep the business running.

But yeah, we've seen that applied early in the process from a discovery perspective, as well as looking into new frontiers for us.

JH: [00:15:18] The way you described the vision made me think of the way that like founders of startups will pitch their business almost. You know what I mean? Like telling a story about a future world and it feels like those are usually stronger when you can pull in, real examples or real quotes of someone's current frustrations of like, how do you weave in like some of the firsthand, things you heard from users into like the stories you're telling.

Harrison: [00:15:40] yeah. you know, I think there's a. I think my empathy is in terms of just going in the storytelling route is we were getting too much into the weeds of a button or a modal or the color, or how can we make a pop. and, I'd rather save those conversations in, our design critiques.

Going a little bit more high level allows me us to do that. currently we'll frame the problem. And when we're framing the problem, that's when we'll generally bring in some of those quotes, once we start to get into the story, we take, a lot of what, we've, what we've learned in our research. and we'll turn that in personified into the story. and so I think again, like those real world quotes, those are going to be the things that are gonna really evoke that emotion.

Or that empathy from the folks that you're presenting to. Because I think in the same startup sense, you're aiming for the same thing. But. I think in that sense, those folks may not necessarily be directly working directly on that product. And this case, people are likely going to be a lot more connected to their products.

So I think the quotes will resonate a lot more because they understand that they have a context on it and they've been working on these strategies. And a lot of the success of their work is attributed to a lot of this foundation of things. So I think it's really understanding.

And Hey, we're partners in this, let's walk together on this journey, in bringing them into the fold,

Erin: [00:17:11] Yeah. When I think of a story, we've talked about some different components, the emotional aspect, and then knowing your audience, we've talked a little bit about, problems a user might have, so in a good story needs conflict, do you think in terms of narrative arc or happy endings, are there other kinds of storytelling?

Devices and tropes you bring to your, your storytelling efforts when it comes to design

Harrison: [00:17:37] Yeah. Yeah. we try to stay away from protagonist and antagonist, right?

Erin: [00:17:43] Sure. Sure.

Harrison: [00:17:44] We, we,

Erin: [00:17:45] Right. We're all good guys.

JH: [00:17:47] Who's the bad guy. Yeah.

Harrison: [00:17:48] Yeah. I mean, they're there, there are workshops for that. Like we're doing red team, blue team, we always need to, we always need to understand what's going to happen if there are bad actors and create a safe space and an environment for our members.

I think in terms of a lot of, how we approach storytelling, it is sorta to evoke that emotional piece. It also is grounded in fact. And so I think. I think the story arc is a part of the potential. It's Hey, we have this potential. And that story arc is usually going to be somewhat aligned to business opportunity as well.

and balancing, the value piece. And I think understanding that one-to-one is going to be very important. So again, I think it's going to be important, for the researcher to also balance it. I think it's. I think it's a fine line. it's a tough, it's a tough line to balance.

I would almost think of it in phases. So I think beginning, you don't want to have that business influence. I think you want to take a constructive non-biased approach to research. but I do think when you are working with your designer or your product manager on building that story, I think it's going to be important to really stand firm on some of those findings that you had to make sure that you're keeping folks honest.

And I think the more that you can do that, the more you get away from that entertainment value. Cause again, I know there's a lot of storytelling. I think there's a lot of content on storytelling and I think we want to get away with, we want to get away from, generally creating too much hyperbole right in that we need to be realistic.

Because you're not going to be able to escape the problems right there. They're going to be there regardless. and so I think it takes an ally. It's a good balance, again, to understand your audience, what are the motivations and where can I be more effective in terms of really getting folks to realize that we have an opportunity to create real, meaningful impact versus just shipping things for the sake of it.

JH: [00:19:55] If I had to guess, I'd imagine most user researchers might not describe themselves as storytellers, but they are, putting together reports and summaries of the research that happened and sharing that with people. What's like an easy way for somebody who's maybe in that camp who doesn't really view or consider themselves a story teller to feel more like a storyteller, like what's something that they could do tomorrow or on their next report to like shift in that direction a little bit.

Harrison: [00:20:21] Yeah. Yeah. I think the moment I get a lot of aha moments when folks just put things down in a user journey. if you can start off by walking through a user journey, That's a great exercise to just start, w being a storyteller, you don't need to be whimsical or, super charismatic, to start with.

And I actually don't, I actually don't think it's necessary at all, but I think if you can, again, grounded in that fact, I think that's it, that's a fact that's like where you're going to get affect, be effective. I've seen some very. Charismatic. They're very charismatic people that, are con artists, And you don't want to be in that camp.

Erin: [00:21:03] Can't think of any off the top.

Harrison: [00:21:08] exactly. I think it understands, I think it's important to understand that storytelling is a tool set. It's a part of your tool set. It's just as important as executing on the research side of things, because you want people to take action on it. Why are you going to do all of that work?

with your partners, if no, one's going to take heat of it.

Erin: [00:21:26] Yeah, and I really like how you're talking about storytelling. Cause I do think you think of like whimsy and some of these sort of, charisma and some of these things you're saying, a storyteller, a good story. Doesn't have to be those things you describing the 19th century realist novel of stories.

and, I think. Facts we can think of as being bullet points and dry and data, but I also don't think that's what you're saying. You're saying that a story, doesn't have to be hyperbolic or fiction, That it can be rooted in facts, but you're contextualizing those facts, right?

You're painting a picture of what the user is experiencing and doing that in a true way that people can understand. And care about. Yeah.

Harrison: [00:22:08] exactly. And look, I would probably say most folks are, most of the anxiety that comes from storytelling is around what is the reception? Like, how are people going to receive my story? and I will say, I think if you're going in this, if you're making things up, it's a lot harder to get confidence behind it.

But I think again, like if we go about what is a mutual contract of everyone in this company, it's going to be centered around your users. And so I think there's a, there's a level of confidence that goes behind it, right? Because you're reaffirming the work that you're doing. and I think storytelling should be something that we are all in power to do.

I think researchers and all your partners should really think about storytelling as a tool because on top of it being an effective tool of communication and alignment, it's also a great litmus test to look at and do some introspective of do I really understand this?

and I think there's going to be a level of confidence that you're going to be able to exude once you can actually have an understanding. And really get people on board with it.

Erin: [00:23:20] it's like how they say, teaching is the best way to learn or a way to learn anyhow, that you really come to learn what you know, and what you don't know when you're trying to teach someone something a similar idea.

Harrison: [00:23:32] exactly. Or, it's just like when you're reading off of a PowerPoint, every single word. Yeah. Oh man. It's I find if I really only. I it's a lot different when you can confidently present that where you don't need to look at the words, It's a total different shift and it's, and people can see that, like they can see that in your body language.

So I think all of that comes at it. Once you start to gain that confidence and understanding of what you're really solving for.

JH: [00:24:01] I've been racking my brain of, when we've done research and talk to users and what we learned and it's things that get shared internally and stick with all of us is, mini little stories. And I guess what I'm starting to wonder is, do you think of like the, what you get out of a research.

Like a batch of research is actually like a collection of short stories that you like weave together, into a collection. Or is it like, or are you trying to put it all together into the one arc and the one thing? cause I feel like from the stuff that I have the most recall of are like the short little tidbits of, someone telling us once that when they have a no show from, for one of our participants, it's really stressful for them.

Cause they invite their boss and other stakeholders to the meeting and they sit in the room and they feel like it's their fault. And that little like quick antidote is something that like, I think we mentioned all the time internally, and I'm just curious anything about that, like short stories versus the larger, arc.

Harrison: [00:24:46] Yeah, I think every, any story that you can get longterm. It's going to benefit the company. I think it's going to create a, more clear and concise sort of idea of what the big picture looks like. I think again, it's going to take understanding sort of the business side of things, of what you're trying to prioritize, or what you should prioritize. and I don't think there's necessarily. A need to disregard like these smaller stories, right? Because they all play in line, but I will say the picture gets clear. The more you mature as in, as an organization, in terms of your function of research and in terms of, the maturity of your product.

And so short stories, I found that generally short stories that we may have conducted. A couple of quarters ago, those might have verbatims that, arise in something that might, that that we're focusing our strategizing on now. And so I think it's going to take, it takes a level of organizing, your research, where it's easily accessible to be able to go back, and for all parties to go back as well.

So I think all of it all, any type, any form, any type of research is actually. effective and for the greater good in the collective as the organization starts to move forward, hopefully did that answer your question?

JH: [00:26:15] yeah, totally. I think that's, I think I might be too hung up on the literal like story part of like I can read a book of short stories or I can read a novel and I think. What you're getting at is, the more important part of it in terms of knowing what stories are going to be impactful to the business.

Cause you have this broader context and you're using that in a very thoughtful way in terms of how you share and what you share and all of that.

Erin: [00:26:36] It's interesting though, there are all these vectors to stories and we've talked about there's this sort of like format and the ingredients of a story, we're doing a podcast now, right? So this isn't. Audio, medium, but there's also that aspect of telling a visual story versus an audio story versus a written story.

Is that something you think about much Harrison, and just to mix all the metaphors all up together, when you think about like short stories and long stories and visual stories and audio stories, and now I'm thinking of like a patchwork quilt. So of all these things, cause they add up together to your point.

There aren't any bad stories. If they're adding. To your understanding over time. but do you think about that much in terms of what medium or media is going to best convey this story to this audience?

Harrison: [00:27:24] Yeah, that's a really, that's a really great question. in the same way that, when we're going through generative methods from a design perspective, it is honestly a case by case situation. I think at the end of the day, when it comes to organizations, No matter what you try to do in regards to operationalizing things, people are going to interpret them totally different, People are always going to be the X factor. And I do think it takes a little bit of experimenting with your groups to understand what mediums might be more comfortable, right? some folks don't mind having Slack messages. Some folks just love having, video chats and then some folks just love email.

And I think with that being said, it's understanding on your audience, which is the most effective where people you know, living and breathing in terms of, their work. I'm always a big, I'm always a big person that, when it comes to design, you have to go to them.

And so it really takes an understanding again, of the audience of like where they're at. I think. I think the most effective storytelling in a design sense and the function of design and research is going to be visual. I think a lot of times folks are really bogged down and PRDs and reports and, emails, but I think given the limited set of time that you're going to have with your cross-functional folks.

a combination of audio visual are going to be the most effective. And that's what I've seen now in terms of how that's visualized. I think that is also going to be, incumbent on who those folks are. I like. I actually have, there's a principal designer that I work with and we were actually talking the other day around.

he was actually doing a project with a number of executives, And executives are super limited on time. And, in terms of idea, generative methods, it's not a one size fits all approach. And so he actually reshifted the way that he was working with them to get ideas out of them.

And so I think it was a journey map at first, and then it turned into sort of a connection node and then eventually it moved into something else. So he realized that the third try was a charm. And so I think with that being said, I think it's the same sort of way that we should think about it.

It's okay, let's check in after that. Or actually during it that everyone have a blank face that they even understand it and interpret, are people still asking me questions around what this means? You know what I'm saying? I think those are good sort of core sort of places to check in and just really hone in on that.

if people, if you're going in these meetings and people aren't really ingesting that in the way that you want them to, or would like them to. I think you should start to maybe ask and check in Hey, was that effective? Did I deliver my message? Okay. Like where did you get lost? I think these are great places to start.

JH: [00:30:14] Do you on that last piece? I feel like with the pandemic and everyone now being virtual. It does feel like a new challenge for folks, right? Like when you're presenting in a room, there is like literally the ability to read the room a little and you can know maybe if you need to speed up or get to it or throw in a joke or something, You can change up your communication style based on that feedback. And it's much harder to get that feedback over zoom or other video tools.

Harrison: [00:30:38] Yeah.

JH: [00:30:39] How do people approach that?

Harrison: [00:30:41] Yeah. That's Dan that's a, that's another great question. I, I think I mentioned this again, The way that we work has fundamentally shifted. and again, I think it's from a time because of a time perspective, what I would do is make sure that everyone that you feel is necessary for that meeting is in the room. And the reason that I say that is folks are going to start asking questions, right?

and I think in a group setting, it's going to be more likely that you're going to be able to get a better pulse. That's just generally what I've found. and I've also found that when you're in the room, that is probably. Your opportunity to start to gauge that. And so I think having pauses for allowing pauses for questions, in the middle of your presentation after we've actually try to get our presentations down within 10 to 15 minutes.

So we can have the remainder 15 minutes for question and answer, utilize time. Really optimal. I think optimizing on telling a story that is digestible too, and not too long is going to be extremely helpful, but create an opportunity for your audience to start asking questions, to provide that feedback.

And I think simply just ask your, I think it's okay to ask for feedback, just be like, Hey, hit me on Slack. If you have any additional feedback. we've also been doing, document as an aside, a Google doc as an OSI where people can start to ask questions or comments as well. I know it's, I know it's also extremely difficult to even look at the comment section somebody has to solve like this zoom issue.

because I think as a presenter, you are dark. other ways is too, that you can do that is also maybe even getting. Someone that can facilitate, the session for you, that can start to cue in and start to get, start to engage the audience and see if there's any sort of questions and, monitor the vibe.

Erin: [00:32:40] Have you heard any good stories recently

Harrison: [00:32:43] Haven't heard any good stories recently. Oh

Erin: [00:32:46] any.

Harrison: [00:32:48] yeah. that's it, I've. Is this in work worker in general? is this

Erin: [00:32:53] any story? We'll do

Harrison: [00:32:55] Oh man. I've been watching a bunch of terrible, Netflix movies.

Erin: [00:32:59] nice.

Harrison: [00:33:00] there's your story right there. There's stories

Erin: [00:33:02] I've been watching Cobra, Kai, which is pretty bad, but I'm enjoying it

JH: [00:33:05] Oh, that's

Harrison: [00:33:05] how do you feel about it? I just feel that like the quality of storytelling in some of these movies are just getting it out. Cause they know people have no choice.

So let's see storytelling a really good storytelling. this is, this is not a good question for me because I'm really bad at remembering

Erin: [00:33:24] stories,

tell us about the LinkedIn user, right? nothing proprietary. You can't share whatever, but what's like a story that has been interesting to learn or share in your work at LinkedIn.

Harrison: [00:33:37] Yeah. I think what's been actually pretty interesting is the fact that, that, conferences are no longer existed in person conferences are no longer in existence. And we've just seen like a resurgence in the use of our events product. I think there's a lot of really cool stories that are coming out of that because at the end of the day, people come to LinkedIn to see to network.

And, I think a lot of folks are really yearning for that connection. there's, there are some things, some instances like even presenting, right? there are some differences in terms of how we interact with folks that we just don't have any more. And how does this manifest itself?

In a digital realm. And so I think there's a lot of interesting sort of stories there. And I think too, that there's a lot of frustration and, there's a lot of opportunity because of that. So in you're seeing this across the board, I think, the growth of zoom exudes a lot of just the shift and, we're getting a lot of articles in terms of.

You know how this sort of gap in the digital presence is creating a lot of frustration for people, right? Whether it be, really being able to connect with folks or, learning from home, as a child, as a developing child and even in college. So I think there's some interesting stories there.

and I think it's interesting because. I think with the feature releases that you start to see on these different platforms, you can tell, they're there, they're clearly listening to folks. and so I think that's a great sort of, real world example of how that process really comes in the play here.

so yeah.

Erin: [00:35:11] Yeah, fantastic.