All Episodes
#137 - Practical Strategies to Foster Customer Obsession with Prayag Narula, CEO and Co-Founder of Marvin
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. ...
#136 - Designing Generative AI at Notion with Linus Lee
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 Engi...
#135 - How to Influence Stakeholders with Strategic Research with Andrea Amorós, Associate Principal Researcher at ADP
“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 fee...
#134 - The End of an Era: A Fond Farewell to JH
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 h...
#133 - Driving Actionable Decisions from Insights with Pejman Mirza-Babaei, UX Research Consultant
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...
#132 - Unveiling UX Insights with Competitive Research with Rachel Miles, Research Lead at IBM
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...
#131 - Designing Beyond the Product: Systems Thinking with Sheryl Cababa, Chief Strategy Officer at Substantial
In design and UX research, context is king. Your work doesn’t exist in a vacuum; it’s a part of a wider ecosystem of stakeholders, beneficiaries, and more. Sheryl Cab...
#130 - The Art of Great Facilitation for Better Collaboration with Marsha Acker, Founder and CEO of TeamCatapult
There are 6 key qualities for great facilitation: Starting with your core beliefs Maintaining neutrality Standing in the storm Honoring the wisdom of the group Upholdi...
#129 - How to Upskill Product Teams in UX Research with Helen Devine, UX Research Manager at The Economist
How can UX researchers enable other teams to do research? Show, don’t tell. According to Helen Devine, UX Research Manager at The Economist, upskilling product people ...
#128 - The Value of “Scrappy” Research with Varun Murugesan, Co-Founder of Apple and Banana
What does good “scrappy” user research look like? According to Varun Murugesan, Co-founder of Apple and Banana, “You could throw anything at Jason Bourne and he would ...
#127 - The Power of Failure with Kevin Kelly, Publisher and Founding Editor of Wired
“There’s a certain amount of forgetting that we need to do in order to learn something new.” – Kevin Kelly, Founding Editor of Wired magazine Whether you are designin...
#126 - AI Anxiety: The Dangers (and Opportunities) of AI in Research with Mike Adams of Grain
AI has recently become hugely popular with the likes of ChatGPT becoming a staple in day to day life, and it looks like it is here to stay. Could it replace the job of...
#125 - What is UX Business Coaching? with Sylvana Rochet of Elan Vital Coaching
Sylvana Rochet, Founder and Principal Coach at Elan Vital Coaching, visits the show to discuss what UX business coaching entails and how to maximize your professional ...
#124 - Defining a Research Strategy with Devin Harold of Capital One
A solid UX research strategy serves as the compass that guides research ops and helps ensure repeatable success. But how do you envision, create, and execute a strateg...
#123 - The Power of Atomic Research with Daniel Pidcock of Glean.ly
Maintaining a huge insights repository can be overwhelming. It’s even more difficult to extract the right insights from research findings. Atomic research is an approa...
#122- Exploring UX Research Career Options with Marieke McCloskey of LinkedIn
What are the best UX career options? How do you vet a potential employer to ensure it’s the right fit? Should you join a smaller firm that offers plenty of autonomy an...
#121 - The UX files: Top Moments from YouX 2023
YouX 2023 is a wrap! No big deal, just us and 3500 other UX-obsessed friends. The half-day virtual event featured breakout sessions and presentations conducted by some...
#120- Building a Healthy Research Culture with Mike Oren of Klaviyo
Whether you are a team of one or one hundred, cultivating a healthy research culture starts with strong leadership. Strong leadership encourages UXR teams to promote b...
#119 - It’s Not Research, It’s You! with Holly Hester-Reilly of H2R Product Science
In this episode of Awkward Silences, Erin May and John-Henry Forster are joined by Holly Hester-Reilly, CEO and Founder of H2R Product Science. They delve into how res...
#118- The Product Launch Playbook with Derek Osgood
According to Derek Osgood, it takes a "great product and product marketing collaboration" to get people to adopt products. But with such a small window of opportunity ...
#117 - Understanding Growth Research with Carlos Tellez of Nubank
Erin May, John Henry Forster, and Carlos Tellez, Growth Research Manager at Nubank, get to the bottom of growth research. This episode is focused on two of Erin's favo...
#116 - Emerging Trends in UX and CX with Alfonso de la Nuez and Dana Bishop of UserZoom
UX is exploding! It's tremendously exciting. But much of the technology pushing the state-of-the-art has been around for over a decade. What are the key driving factor...
#115 - Optimizing In-Product Research with Ryan Glasgow of Sprig
In this episode of Awkward Silences, hosts Erin May and John Henry Forster welcome Ryan Glasgow, CEO of Sprig, to discuss the importance of in-product research. They d...
#114 - What Does a UX Research Chief of Staff Do?
The rise of UX research was a game changer in software design and development. As UX continues to grow in nearly every industry, research ops experts with strong leade...
#113 - Tacos and Tidepods: A Very Awkward Goodbye with Roberta Dombrowski of User Interviews
Thomas Aquinas once said, “Tacos cannot exist without tide pods”. In this bittersweet edition of Tacos and Tidepods—Erin and JH say their goodbyes to Roberta and refl...
#112 - Finding Your Best Customers with Andrew Michael, CEO at Avrio
Finding your dream customers can be tricky, and knowing which customers aren’t a good fit is important. That’s where customer profiles come in handy. In this episode o...
#111 - The 2022 UX Research Tools Map with Roberta Dombrowski
If you ask Roberta Dombrowski why it's her favorite time of year, she'll probably mention the UX Research Tools Map. Why? Because it’s one of User Interviews’ most pop...
#110 - Experience Design Research in Healthcare with Tiffany Mura and Erica Devine
Healthcare organizations are responding to the UX design boom by focusing on the patient experience. What is driving this shift? Why did it take so long? How does quan...