Meet the Instructors: Dennis Lagman
Dennis, Lead Researcher at ecobee, shares how he discovered the world of UX Research and what he has planned for our Intro to UXR course
This spring, UX Research TO launched our first ever course, Intro to UX Research, here in Toronto. In our Meet the Instructors article series, we’re introducing you to all of our wonderful teachers.
Dennis Lagman is the Lead Researcher at ecobee, a home automation company that produces both hardware and software products.
In my conversation with him, Dennis shared his experience in managing small User Research teams, talked about what he has planned for the “Intro to UXR” course and gave key tips on how to break into the UXR community.
Read all about it and more below!
DZ: What drew you into the world of UX Research? How did you get to where you are now?
DL: You’ve probably heard this before, but I didn’t find UX research, UX research found me. Before becoming a UX researcher, I worked at a small startup where I was responsible for building and managing an online community website for individuals working in Toronto and Waterloo’s tech sector.
As the only resource in the company to be building and managing this online community, I had to continuously switch hats between being a Product Manager, Graphic Designer, Front-end Developer, Marketer and Content Creator.
After working for this startup for a number of years, a recruiter reached out to me to see if I’d be interested in exploring UX opportunities with LoyaltyOne, which is the company behind the AIR MILES program. The company was going through an agile transformation and therefore was looking to bring UX design in-house. When the recruiter contacted me, she didn’t actually have a specific role in mind. She just said that they’re looking to build a UX team and if I’d be open to interviewing with the CTO to learn more about what he had in mind.
Well, imagine walking into an interview without actually knowing what role you’re interviewing for! That was what I experienced and to this day that was probably the most interesting interview I’ve ever been in. Because there was no defined roles or job descriptions posted, I ended up taking control of the interview and began asking a ton of questions to better understand what problems the company was trying to solve by having UX in-house.
I didn’t realize it at the time but I essentially conducted a Jobs to Be Done user interview with the CTO to assess if I was someone that he wanted to hire. I learned about the different roles he was looking to bring into the UX team and based on how inquisitive I was, he thought that I would be a good fit for the user research role and the rest is history!
Looking back, what drew me into the user research role was how much problem solving there was. 💭
I loved that I could be in a role where I could spend my days meeting and chatting with people to understand their behaviours, needs and motivations in order to help create meaningful experiences for them.
We hear that you’re the Lead Researcher at ecobee. What does a day at work look like for you?
ecobee is a unique environment in that we produce both hardware and software products. As the Lead User Researcher, I manage a small team of two user researchers and together we ensure we’re embedding the voice of our users in every step of our product development process. Each researcher is embedded on a specific product team and so they help guide the research for their product.
Every Monday morning, we’ll meet together for an hour to go over the different research initiatives we’re working on. For the two user researchers, it’s typically where they ask for feedback and support on a study they’re working on, and for myself, I usually take the time to talk through a new framework or process that we should be trying as a team.
After meeting, we break off to start our day, and that might mean meeting with users to conduct in-person or remote user testing, getting on the phones to conduct user interviews, attending stand-ups, or proactively meeting with various stakeholders to understand what their needs are in order to start planning for future research.
Closer to the end of the day, we then meet again along with other members of our product teams to synthesize any data we’ve captured and ensure that we’re documenting the main insights before we head home.
Then the cycle repeats itself again the following day!
Could you give us a sneak peek into what you have planned for the Intro to UXR course?
For sure! In the Research Operations class, students will be learning how to operationalize research and build infrastructure so that the research itself can occur and impact design and product decisions at scale.
By optimizing the operational details of research, they’ll be learning how to boost the speed, reach, impact and quality of their work.
We’re growing a strong, worldwide community of UXRs here at UX Research Toronto. Could you give any tips for people looking to break into the UXR community?
Network, network, network! I love that there is a growing UXR community in Toronto as it will make it easier for anyone wanting a career in user research to meet with others already in the field.
Whether it’s from organized meetups or informal coffee chats, reach out to someone every week to learn more about how they approach user research in their workplace. This will ensure that you’re top of mind when an opportunity presents itself. 💪
I would also try to learn as much about field as possible — before becoming a user researcher and during your career as one. There’s always something new to learn and being able to apply these learnings in your work will go a long way in ensuring success as a user researcher
As UX Researcher, we are constantly learning. What are some of your favourite tools or resources you like to use to keep your mind fresh and running?
I always love learning about what other user researchers are doing and so will read up on Medium and engage in conversation through the various slack communities (e.g. UXRTO, ResearchOps).
Often times, someone will ask for an opinion on a specific tool and resource and the rest of the community will jump in with their point of view. Even just seeing what other people are saying has helped me vet whether or not a tool or resource is worth investigating further.
At the beginning of every month, my team and I will also pick one research method, framework or process to become subject matter experts in. At the end of the month, we’ll run a workshop to educate others on what we’ve learned and how it applies to their work. This has also been a great way to continuously learn something new.
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