#UXRConf Preview: Meet Kristina Rostorotsky
A Q&A with Kristina Rostorotsky of Loblaw Digital who shares some sneak peeks about her talk in the Research Through Design track
As we gear up for the 2019 UXR Conference in June, we are super excited to share some pre-conference conversations with our speakers! The first speaker preview is with Kristina Rostorotsky of Loblaw Digital.
Kristina is a Senior Product Designer at Loblaw, where she helps build digital products and services used by millions of Canadians every day. Her current focus is a prescription management application for Shoppers Drug Mart. Kristina’s practice covers the full arc of the product design process, from generative research to design solutions.
Here’s what Kristina had to say. 👇
Tell me about your background as a Product Designer.
It’s funny you ask, because around 5 years ago I was googling to find out what product design was. I come from a visual design background and I’ve always focused on digital design (as opposed to print). Over time, I moved from designing and coding simple websites to diving deeper into information architecture for more complex sites, and then learning other skills around UX and product design. I have done consulting-type roles, and hands-in-the-mud-focusing-on-the-craft-type roles. I seem to always oscillate between the two.
Tell me about your role at Loblaw Digital
I lead the Shoppers Drug Mart Online Pharmacy portfolio at Loblaw Digital. It’s a digital product that lets customers manage their prescriptions and request refills online. It also includes an application used by pharmacy teams in stores. I conduct generative research to validate what problem we’re trying to solve, then design the experiences and run usability testing sessions to focus on solving the problem effectively. I also use service design techniques to explore the experience more holistically. I learn something new every day and get to collaborate with smart, driven and interesting people. That’s what I really love about my job.
I learn something new every day and get to collaborate with smart, driven and interesting people.
You’ll be talking in the Research Through Design track. When did you first begin to consider yourself a Researcher as well as a Designer?
Before my current job, I’ve always gotten research findings through agencies and consultants. I would be involved to discuss the research objectives at the onset, and then to receive the final report. What attracted me to Loblaw Digital was that qualitative research was embedded in the design practice. As excited as I was to dive in, I felt very shaky and unsure about conducting research for a long time. The first time it really hit me that I’m a Designer and a Researcher was during a meeting in the summer of last year, where I was sharing research findings from an in-depth inquiry with a big group. The research I conducted ended up influencing the business priorities and the roadmap for our product, and triggered changes for an application that was managed by an entirely different team. In the weeks and months following that presentation, I watched my research findings make their way to other teams, get quoted and repeated in meetings. I suddenly realized that I can make impact as a Researcher as much as a Designer.
I suddenly realized that I can make impact as a Researcher as much as a Designer.
How do you think the role of designer has changed in the industry as a whole to include more research?
I think it comes down to two things: support from the business and shortage of dedicated research roles.
The biggest shift underway over the last decade is around getting as close as possible to the human beings at the other end of our products and services. Companies understand that it’s essential to their very survival. The appetite for customer insights is huge. Many cohorts of grads from top business schools, like Rotman, have now been taught the value of human-centered design so there is a lot more support and understanding of the value of research, especially in larger B2C organizations.
Designers are trained to consider the end user, so it makes sense that we take on hands-on research too. One trend that I see is the rise of in-house product design teams. In a lot of organizations, those teams are still very new, and often there could be many disconnected small design teams within a larger company. In those situations, the design practice is not mature enough yet to include a dedicated researcher on every product. In Toronto, there is also a startup boom. Small startups can’t afford a UX researcher, but the cost of ignoring the customer perspective is too high. Both in startups and early-stage design teams in larger orgs, a designer starts to wear two hats at once.
What do you think is the biggest challenge for designers who want to learn more about research?
I can think of plenty, and you’ll hear about that in my conference talk! I’d say the biggest challenge is to maintain high quality output as you are learning and trying new methods for the first time. It’s easy to start cutting corners during the synthesis stage, if you are a designer, because you have a lot of design work on your plate on top of research. And the wider team is likely thinking: “We talked to customers, so the research part is done. Let’s keep moving”. In reality, the synthesis stage may take twice as long as your field work — and if you’re just starting out, it could be even longer.
I’d say the biggest challenge is to maintain high quality of output as you are learning and trying new methods for the first time.
What is your favourite part of the research and design process?
My favourite part is the moment I experience a change in perspective after hearing from customers in whatever shape or form they provide input in any given research project. I also love when I’m taking the whole team on this journey with me, and we experience those changes in perspective together.
What do you hope people take away from your talk in June at the Conference?
I’m hoping that other designers who practice research can relate to some of the fears and challenges I’ll be discussing. Juggling research and design can be a bumpy ride. I also hope they will walk away feeling empowered. Designers who practice research have an enormous potential to add a new perspective to this constantly evolving field, and I think we will all be better off for it.
Join Kristina at Strive: The 2019 UX Research Conference
Purchase tickets here
📅 June 6–7
📍 Roy Thomson Hall, 60 Simcoe St, Toronto, ON, M5J 2H5
