The User Research Workshops You’ve Always Wanted — Announcing our Research Lineup at Front 2018
8–9 November 2018 • Salt Lake City, Utah
If you attended the Front Conference last June and found yourself wishing you could practice some of the methods shared in their case studies now is your chance. Come join us this November in a more intimate setting that allows you to interact in more detail with some of the top User Research professionals in our industry.
In these amazing workshops you’ll learn how to create a culture of curiosity and to uncover insights without losing your sanity. You’ll learn how to better understand the voice of your data just as much as the voice of your customer. Whether you’re a research team of one or fifty, these workshops will help you do just enough research.
Check out the workshops below and grab yourself a ticket.
Limited seats available.
Qualitative Interviewing: Uncovering insights while maintaining your sanity
Friday, 9 November 2018, at 8:30 AM
Grounded in ethnographic field methods, critical medical anthropology, human centered design, and design thinking, Danyel Rios Printz & Becca Danna share their methods for uncovering valuable insights while preventing burnout in this workshop on Qualitative Interview Methods. Learn from things that have worked and things that didn’t go quite so well from their combined 18 years of experience in research. Participants will have the opportunity to participate in discussions and exercises on empathy, physical and psychological safety; and, of course, practice those interviewing methodologies both in the classroom and outside with real humans!
About Danyel
Danyel is an anthropologist and user researcher who is passionate about bringing empathy, understanding, and action to product and design strategy. She is currently a Senior User Experience Researcher at Google working on enterprise and account management products. Prior to joining Google, Danyel lead UX Research at Ancestry and AncestryDNA exploring the intersection between technology, biology, family history, and identity.
Danyel has a background in Applied Medical Anthropology from The University of North Texas. She currently lives in Redmond, WA with her family where they enjoy hiking with the dogs, playing outside in the rain, and generally being nerdy together.
About Becca
Becca is a designer and researcher dedicated to infusing human-centered practices into product strategy. She is currently a User Experience Researcher at Google working on products that help users contact and connect with people in their lives. Prior to joining Google, Becca lead a multi-disciplinary UX team at IBM focusing on building machine learning data visualizations and analytics based reporting solutions for Enterprise customers.
Becca has an Industrial Design background from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia. She currently lives in San Francisco where she enjoys hiking, yoga, and walking along the Bay.
A Culture of Curiosity: How to Create a Cadence and Culture of Research On Your Team
Thursday, 8 November 2018, at 1:30 PM
Teams talk about doing research, but don’t actually DO it until it becomes a “crisis moment” — a launch doesn’t go as planned, a stakeholder demands it, or users reject a new feature. And then … research to the rescue!!
Everyone gets excited, the research is done, there’s a nice research findings presentation and some of the insights are integrated into the product. And then two weeks later, it’s as though the research never happened.
Too often research is a one-hit wonder. To make smart product decisions, you team must immerse themselves in research throughout the entire product development process.
Creating a consistent cadence of research helps equip your team to always be informed with the most recent insights they need to design the right solution, so you can avoid launching features people don’t use and the weeks of “re-work” that normally follow a flawed.
In order to create a cadence of research, it must be a part of your culture. And that can’t just be the job of someone with “UX Researcher” in their job title.
In this workshop, you will learn how everyone on a product team can contribute to creating a culture of research, the types of research you can do each quarter, how to conduct smart usability tests, and what you can do to evangelize research on your team.
About Sarah
Sarah Doody is a user experience designer and product consultant based in New York City. She helps teams create products people need and love. She does this through user research, prototyping, and user experience design. Sarah also created her own course, User Research Mastery to help teams understand their users and make smarter UX decisions. Previously, Sarah created General Assembly’s first 12-week UX immersive program in 2011. Sarah is also the founder of the popular UX newsletter, The UX Notebook . Sarah is available for consulting and speaking worldwide.
UX & The Power of One
Thursday, 8 November 2018, at 8:30 AM
This workshop is a structured session to review an experience that supports the growth of a UX department within an organization through quantitative validation. This approach demonstrates an approach that can build a department into a holistic Experience Design Team that can support across many divisions within a company
About Amanda
Life is an experience and through all my experiences beginning in medical school, then design school and on into my career in UX, I finally found my purpose and place. Being able to listen, observe, gain understanding, and empathy for people takes time. There are so many challenges in this world that can be easily solved just by identifying with a person, and with ourselves. Whether the solution is small or great, to create memorable experiences is to create something that will have an impact on peoples lives and the world they live in everyday. My purpose and pursuit in this field is to create solutions and experiences that make a difference in peoples lives. Driven by curiosity, executed through creativity, and held together by collaboration. I am drawn towards meaningful and impactful design-thinking and strategies that work to solve problems and create change. My favorite place is in the space of ambiguity where exploring with my eyes wide open allows me to uncover any and all possibilities.
Voice of the Data
Thursday, 8 November 2018, at 3:45 PM
How can we use data to keep us grounded in a sea of shifting priorities and plans? How do we make sure we keep track of the customer while still building scalable internal processes? How do we focus on profit without destroying our people?
We will investigate the different voices in the data and apply tools and frameworks that can help you build amazing experiences. Will investigate the voice of the business, process, customer, and even some of the voices in our heads that make even smart people do dumb things.
About Jeff
Jeff is a Utah-born and Texas-raised software engineer who loves solving hard problems with technology, with business, and most importantly with data. He strives to learn ferociously, reorganize bits, and build people. Jeff is the Director of Analytics at Jane.com, an Inc 500 boutique marketplace. Along with an incredible team, he oriented the business with evidence, built personalization algorithms, democratized data, and drove accountability to outcomes. Before working at Jane, Jeff worked as a software consultant building applications for social networks, startups, and even CBS. In his off hours, he enjoys spending time with his family, laughing at dad jokes, playing guitar, and thinking big thoughts.
Researching as a facilitator
Friday, 9 November 2018, at 1:30 PM
Great research happens when you know why you’re doing it and what you’re getting out of it. You can lead stellar interviews, but if your findings can’t be translated into actions your efforts will lie fallow.
This workshop focuses on the entire arc of a qualitative research effort. It will cover how to identify a need for research, what questions to ask to refine your goals, how to design activities, run sessions, synthesize findings, and apply them to your team’s next steps.
About Rayna
Rayna is a designer-researcher by trade and facilitator at heart. As co-founder of the studio This That & the Other Thing, she advises leadership and production teams, providing visual synthesis, process development, and strategic experience design.
She previously led groups at the San Francisco offices of frog Design & Westfield Labs. Her multi-disciplinary teams uncover needs and drive product strategy using an empathy driven design research process. She is a proud alumna of Stanford University and currently resides in Salt Lake City.
Check out our highlight video from last year. We had 160+ attendees from 5 countries and 28 states across the US.
Don’t miss our team discounts: 10% off groups of 3–5, 15% off groups of 6–7, and 20% off 8 or more. These workshops are great for teams and we want as many team members to be able to attend.
