#UXRConf Preview: Meet Alison Post and Rubén Pérez-Huidobro
A Q&A on finding their way to Shopify, collaboration within the organization, and building connections with Shopify merchants
Here’s another installment of our pre-conference conversations with our speakers, Alison Post and Rubén Pérez-Huidobro of Shopify.
Alison and Rubén are both Senior UX Researchers at Shopify. You can catch them in the Advancing Your Practice track at Strive, where they’ll give a talk about their 3-month diary study. They’ll share how they coordinated this study, how they maintained a very low dropout rate, and how results were communicated to the product team throughout the study.
I had the opportunity to sit down with them to ask a few questions about what it’s like working among a big UX Research team at Shopify, why they chose to do a diary study for their project, and how they level up as Senior UX Researchers. Catch what they had to say below. 👇
To start, tell me about yourselves and how you ended up at Shopify?
Alison: I started out my career in market research. In 2015, my partner and I spent a few months based out of Switzerland and we fell in love with the idea of always living near mountains. When our time in Switzerland came to an end, we made a decision to move to Vancouver because we thought it would offer a good mix of job opportunity and proximity to mountains. I started looking for work and stumbled upon a job posting for a UX Research Specialist. When I read the job description, I thought “I feel like I can do this. It’s a little different, but let’s give it a try.” That’s how I discovered the world of User Research and I’ve been in this space ever since. I learned a lot from that job and when I was ready to move on, I ended up in this role at Shopify.
Rubén: I studied Psychology as my Bachelor’s Degree but I was always interested in mixing it with technology. In Spain, where I’m from, there used to be no possibilities in that space so I went to the UK to study.
After doing my Master’s, I found a job in Spain and moved back. I worked there for a few years but wasn’t excited about the projects I had during that time. I also missed working with people from different countries, which I got to do when I was studying in the UK. I found a position and moved to London, UK.
I worked both in the private and public sector there. I had the great opportunity of working in Government Digital Service (GDS) and the Ministry of Justice for four years, which allowed me to work on services for citizens in the UK.
Then the Brexit option won the referendum and we started thinking about what to do next. The same day we were discussing moving to Australia or Canada, nearly as a joke, I received a message from Shopify asking if I was interested in a position in Canada. I was like “Wow, are they listening to us?” We moved here around a year ago.
How do you like Shopify so far?
Rubén: Shopify is an interesting place. You have a lot of possibilities. My lead is always comparing Shopify to a buffet. If you have any question or interest, someone in Shopify is either working or will work on it. There are a lot of choices, so you can do things that interest you but you also need to focus on what is expected of you, so you have to balance the two.
It’s an interesting space because we’re helping small to big merchants and the kind of challenges and needs they have are very different. You never get bored.
Alison: I agree with everything Rubén just said. I would add that another thing I like about Shopify is that I’m connected to a team of researchers that I can bounce ideas off of and learn from. At my previous job, I was the only researcher there. Being the only researcher in a company kept me very busy, but I reached a point where I felt like I wasn’t growing as much as I wanted to.
Here at Shopify, I’m part of a much larger group of researchers which has really accelerated my growth. The scope of problems I get to explore are vast and always expanding — like Rubén mentioned, it’s like eating at a buffet.
Shopify has 55 UX Researchers right now. How has being part of such a large research team helped you grow?
Alison: I think having a network of people with varying strengths and levels of experience to learn from and bounce ideas off of has been really helpful for me. I think there are a lot of similarities between the way you’d approach market research vs UX research, but at the end of the day, there was a lot of additional context I had to gain and being at Shopify helped me with that. Feeling like I could reach out to this whole team of people was really helpful and a big change from trying to learn on my own by reading blog posts or attending conferences (not that that’s not a good approach — I learned a lot that way), but being at Shopify helped continue my growth. As a group of researchers, we have a few rituals that allow us to spend time sharing context and developing our craft together.
Rubén: It is very motivating as well because there’s buy-in. The company already understands the value of research and that gives us possibilities to do more things. Having researchers with different backgrounds also gives us different perspectives on how to approach research. Some people are experts in areas that I am not that comfortable with, so it’s interesting to learn about those things.
Also, the research team shares a lot of information, like articles, book recommendations, documentaries, and more on Slack. There’s a lot of different interests from everyone.
We have a weekly UXR digital standup as well. One of the questions asked in that standup is “Is there anything new you learned?” The answers are not always related with findings in research but are always building up our “hive of knowledge.”
Having researchers with different backgrounds also gives us different perspectives on how to approach research. Some people are experts in areas that I am not that comfortable with, so it’s interesting to learn about those things.
What kind of opportunities have you had to work with other Shopify researchers?
Alison: There are a few opportunities to collaborate with other researchers across different teams and offices. Every few months, everyone in the company has the option to step away from their regular project work and participate in Hack Days, which is a company-wide experiment that allows you to jump into projects that inspire you and helps improve Shopify. It can also be a time to work with other researchers that you might not normally have the opportunity to work with. Sometimes researchers will also team up with each other to run educational workshops to help level up their peers who are interested in learning more about research.
Rubén: It’s usually a challenge to identify what everyone is working on. We are too many for that. However, we have some team stand ups that helps identify when some of the projects overlap or we have common questions to answer. Finding that connection allows you to work with other researchers.
Another opportunity is through mentorship or collaborating in side projects. I have worked with researchers from other offices on research ops, on findings related with the diary study or through the internal hackathon that we host at Shopify. These types of collaborations are great to get to know the people in other offices and are opportunities to incorporate other research expertise in the work that we do.
At the conference, you’ll be talking about your massive diary study that you conducted. Why did you choose to do a diary study for your Marketing Section study?
Rubén: We decided on the diary study because some of our objectives were only possible to learn through time. We had the possibility of doing multiple check-ins and interviews with people at different stages but we wanted to have direct feedback on the things that were happening when they were happening.
Alison: I would add that sometimes when you complete a task, the end is when the user completes it and they move on. For example, if you’re uploading a photo, you upload it and it’s done. With marketing however, you may create a marketing activity, but the success can be determined after seeing how that activity impacted your business over time. That’s the kind of thing that would be richer to look at across multiple points as opposed to one moment in time. Success can actually mean multiple things over a period of time, so that was one of the main reasons why the diary study was the methodology we chose.
Who are some of the most memorable merchants you’ve met during this diary study or maybe even during your time at Shopify?
Alison: Part of the diary study involved us travelling to a different city and actually visiting a lot of merchants in their workspace (which happened to be their homes as well). The sheer amount of context we gained from actually visiting them (as opposed to onboarding them to the study online and perhaps never meeting them in person) was one of the most memorable things for me.
Rubén: During the diary study, you start creating a connection with your participants. There are hundred of entries that you read about what they are doing, the problems they’re facing, and how they’re trying to fix them. When we were having our check-in interviews during the study, we were not only having work-related conversations, but suddenly there was more. They started sharing more personal experiences like that they were going to become parents or when they were moving to another place. You get very happy when they are telling you that they are doing well or concerned if they are not.
In the last check in, a merchant shared a story about how a video game was going to feature some of their products, which was amazing. It was a huge thing for them and was also related to marketing. That was very memorable. We can actually tell a story about every merchant we visited.
Alison: I think you touched on something that I really agree with — that personal connection we developed with the participants. We spent so much time with the data they provided us throughout the study, that that we really wanted to see them succeed. It was a good reminder of why we were doing what we were doing. Marketing is such a challenge, and if we can make it a little easier for them, then people like the merchants we met, can live their dreams.
Rubén: Yeah, you’re building empathy and it’s a constant reminder that what you’re doing is impacting real people and their lives — and you want them to succeed. In terms of stories, we actually did a presentation with one story per merchant because it was difficult to choose just one.
Marketing is such a challenge, and if we can make it a little easier for them, then people like the merchants we met, can live their dreams.
At the conference, you’ll be speaking in the “Advancing Your Practice” track. As Senior UXRs, how do you work on “advancing your practice”? 😜
Alison: We recognize that it’s not always possible for two researchers to collaborate. So the fact that we were able to do that — challenge each other, and push each other in different things that we may not be comfortable with — really helped advance my practice.
We split the participants we interviewed and took turns shadowing and facilitating sessions. Regardless of what stage I’m at in my career, I find there’s always something I can learn from other researchers. Whenever I collaborate with other researchers like this, I end up learning how to do what I already do in different ways.
Rubén: With this particular project, I think it was key having two researchers with different points of views and strengths. That made the project and the findings richer.
Also, having 60 researchers around you who are experts in different aspects of research helps a lot with leveling up. We share the work that we do with other researchers to get feedback, which helps to improve our work. This can be anything from the goals that we want to achieve, to the methodology that we want to use.
We also grow from the collaboration and relationship we have with other disciplines like designers, content strategist, and data scientists. We also work closely with PMs, allowing us to understand the business challenges we have, so we know how to support them better.
Alison: In general, Shopify has a growth mindset. I used to have a mindset that work needed to be almost perfect before sharing it with people and not wanting to put work in progress out there.
I think putting yourself out there and being open to feedback, and the fact that everyone is open to sharing that feedback — researcher, designer, or whomever you share with — really pushes you to learn faster and advance your practice.
To learn more about a new research method, join Alison and Rubén at Strive: The 2019 UX Research Conference.
Tickets are still available for the Main Stage on June 7th and the Research Foundations & Advancing Your Practice tracks on June 6th! Purchase tickets here.
📅 June 6–7
📍 Roy Thomson Hall, 60 Simcoe St, Toronto, ON, M5J 2H5
