Shows
Awkward Silences#184 - Use Context For More Influence with Kristen DeLap of EconifyBen talks with Kristen DeLap, fractional COO at Econify, to explore how UX'ers can build influence without formal authority. Kristen brings a unique perspective, having evolved from interior design to leading product teams at Herman Miller and now working as an operations executive. She shares practical strategies for understanding decision-making processes, translating design work into business impact, and creating the conditions where teams do their best work.They also cover essential skills for today's design professionals, including decision literacy, stakeholder translation, and the art of challenging assumptions diplomatically. Kristen emphasizes that while AI can generate design artifacts...
2026-03-0339 min
Awkward Silences#183 - The Best Ways to Use AI in UX Research with Laura Klein of NN/gErin and Ben chat with Laura Klein, Principal Experience Specialist at Nielsen Norman Group, about the practical realities of AI in user research. Laura teaches a class on AI for researchers and brings a refreshingly balanced perspective to cut through the hype. She explains why those "five simple prompts that will change your life" are mostly nonsense and shares where AI actually works well versus where researchers need to proceed with extreme caution.Laura also shares her green, yellow, and red light framework for AI adoption. She champions AI for tasks like transcription and meta-analysis of old...
2026-02-1748 min
Awkward Silences#182 - The Future of Research (In a Moment of Change)Ben sits down with Basel Fakhoury, CEO and Co-founder of User Interviews, and Baran Erkel, Chief Strategy Officer at UserTesting, for a conversation about the research industry's evolution. With AI reshaping customer behaviors and business decisions, both executives emphasize how the need for customer insights has never been greater, even as budget pressures mount across organizations.Basek and Baran share frameworks for executive decision making, explore how AI tools are moving beyond simply replacing human moderators toward creating entirely new research methodologies, and stress that as AI transforms products and experiences over the next few years, customer...
2026-02-0340 min
Awkward Silences#181 - Why We Need Design Now More Than Ever with Karl Randay of 383Ben Wiedmaier sits with Karl Randay, Experience Director at 383, to explore how designers can stay relevant in an increasingly automated world. Karl shares insights from working with major brands like Hilton and Jaguar on digital innovation projects that blend strategy, research, and rapid prototyping.They also talk about the "beige-ification" of design, where templated systems and AI tools risk creating homogeneous experiences across brands. Karl explains how his team uses AI as a research copilot while maintaining human craft and creativity. He also breaks down the skills modern designers need beyond visual craft, including business acumen, stakeholder...
2026-01-2051 min
Awkward Silences#180 - What to Fix in '26 with Maria Rosala of NN/g & John Whalen of Brilliant ExperienceBen is joined by Maria Rosala from Nielsen Norman Group and John Whalen from Brilliant Experience to wrap up 2025 and make some predictions for 2026. Maria and John share practical insights on everything from AI moderation tools to synthetic users, offering a balanced view of where these technologies excel and where human researchers remain irreplaceable.Maria and John also dig into the democratization of research across product teams, the importance of governance and strategy when implementing AI tools, and how researchers can position themselves as orchestrators of both human and artificial intelligence. Highlights08:22 AI t...
2026-01-0655 min
Awkward Silences#178 - How to Measure What Matters with Lyndsi Lee of TurnitinBen talks with Lyndsi Lee, UX Manager at Turnitin, about moving beyond traditional metrics like NPS and CSAT to measure user experiences more effectively. The conversation centers on outcome-based assessment, a framework that breaks user experiences into atomic outcomes. Rather than asking broad satisfaction questions, this approach focuses on specific user goals like "users can complete repetitive tasks without friction." Lyndsi explains how teams can identify these outcomes through existing research and customer feedback, then prioritize them using methods like card sorting with actual users. The framework helps product teams move away from vague directives an...
2025-12-0947 min
Awkward Silences#177 - From Informing to Influencing with Shalin Pei & Natalie Golub of CoinbaseBen is joined by Shalin Pei, Head of Design and Research and Natalie Golub, Head of UXR , both from Coinbase's Base product. Base is part of the crypto space, functioning as a network that offers secure and low cost ways to build decentralized apps, essentially helping create what they call the new internet.The conversation reveals how their small but mighty teams operate in one of the fastest moving industries. Shalin and Natalie share how they've weaved internal stakeholders with customers, played with their structure to maximize visibility and effectiveness, and enabled partners to get more involved...
2025-11-2552 min
Awkward Silences#175 - The Scourge of Wasted Research with Jake Burghardt of Integrating ResearchBen sits down with Jake Burghardt from Integrating Research to discuss his new book Stop Wasting Research and how organizations can maximize the product impact of their customer insights. Jake breaks down the critical problem of research waste, where valuable insights from studies get left behind instead of informing future decisions and planning cycles.Jake introduces his framework of three root causes driving research waste: preparation, motivation, and integration. He emphasizes practical solutions like creating insight summaries with stakeholders, building cross-silo research communities, and establishing recurring touchpoints beyond traditional study deliverables. The conversation covers actionable strategies for...
2025-10-2850 min
Awkward Silences# 174 - Qualitative Research's Enduring Impact with Nancy Baum of C+R Research LIVEThe popularity of AI moderation tools, increased attention on "big" data sets (and streams), and the ongoing uncertainty in the research job market have (understandably) led some to wonder about the future of qualitative research. Our guest today, however, is bullish, and explains why.Nancy Baum leads the qualitative research practice at C+R Research. She has nearly 20 years' experience in the field, exposing her to many ebbs and flows. Nancy believes that qualitative practitioners are vital to sifting through the mounds of data, information, and competing interests flooding many companies' attention. Focusing on and uncovering the "...
2025-10-2350 min
Awkward Silences#165 - High Impact Research on Embedded Teams with Hannah Ghidey of EtsyEmbedded research teams—where UXRs are dedicated to a single product area—are popular. The proximity to design, product, and engineering stakeholders increases subject-matter expertise and user insight integration. But how can those working in this structure balance deep diving product-specific work with longer-term strategic opportunities?Hannah Ghidey, Senior Research Manager at Etsy has successfully navigated this balance, finding big, strategy-setting questions while maintaining product-specific influence and know-how. It’s a great conversation for anyone working as a UXR on a product team or searching for a scaleable way to build a responsive team that’s...
2025-04-2335 min
Awkward Silences#164 - UX Lessons from a Decade Researching AI with Jess Holbrook of MicrosoftMuch of the conversation around AI in UX involves how it will shape and change researchers' work. Today's guest, Jess Holbrook, who leads UX research for Microsoft AI, has been thinking a lot about how this technology can be improved with design and UX best practices. Jess has spent over a decade working on the UX of AI at companies like Meta and Google. He's also helped develop foundational principles for the ethical use of LLMs.Jess joins Erin and Ben to reframe the AI conversation, focusing on how UXRs can and should adapt, what working on...
2025-04-0949 min
Awkward Silences#163 - Creating Mindful Product Experiences with Jay Vidyarthi of Still ApeIn this episode, Erin and Ben chat with Jay Vidyarthi, designer, author, and founder at Still Ape. Jay is a leading thinker around designing mindful product experiences. He's also published a new book, RECLAIM YOUR MIND, which examines the balance of technology use and mindfulness in our everyday lives.Jay shares his journey to working in the mindful technology space, how we can shift our frame from "user" to "life" experience design, and the benefits companies see when their products consider the whole person on the "other end." Jay also shares strategies for maintaining mindfulness during our...
2025-03-2648 min
Awkward Silences#146 - Building a UX Research Team From Scratch with Julian Della Mattia of the180Erin and special co-host Ben Wiedmaier are joined by Julian Della Mattia of the180 for a deep dive into being UX team-of-one. Julian has been the first user researcher at a number of companies and shares his top to-dos, milestones, and things to consider before accepting such a role.The episode digs into the ways a solo UXR can start making an impact, but in a strategic, sustainable way. Julian identifies questions to ask stakeholder teams, processes to consider standing up, and the tools to consider investing in from the start. We also discuss the dual hat-wearing...
2024-04-1649 min
People Nerds by DscoutEmerging UX Trends (w/ Ben from People Nerds)We’ve made it to the end of Season 1 of the People Nerds Podcast! To celebrate, we’re turning the spotlight on one of our own.That’s right—this week we’re talking to the one and only Ben from People Nerds. You might know Dr. Ben Wiedmaier from your People Nerds Newsletter each week, or as your dulcet co-host of this very podcast. But what you might now know is that Ben, in addition to being our most public (and popular) People Nerd, is also dscout’s Lead Content Strategist and an Assistant Professor of Communicatio...
2022-09-1557 min