February 2025
Service Design
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Awkward Silences is a podcast series hosted by Erin May (VP of Growth, Marketing) and JH Forester (VP of Product) @ User Interviews. They come together to discuss all things UX research: qualitative and quantitative data, UX research methods at specific companies, how to be ‘scrappy’ about collecting insights, etc. They usually interview an individual from a specific company and delve deeper into what their research process looks like and ask about remote research quality (User Interviews is a product for remote testing).
In early 2021, I started looking further into UX research as a career ‘pivot.’ It felt like a natural transition from what I had already started doing, but I wanted to learn more about the field, the methods and if it would be a fulfilling career.
Upon searching Google, I found hundreds of books but relatively little of other media. This podcast was then recommended by a friend who is a generalist designer and often conducts her own research.
I started listening to it and have been hooked ever since.
I listen and take notes on every episode of the podcast - for enjoyment and also to document that I have done so. Check out my notes here!
*Note: I’ve been gradually going back and re-listening to all episodes starting from when the podcast first aired in 2019 and taking notes.
I adore the honesty of this podcast - it’s such a great reality check that research rarely, if ever, turns out the way you expect it to. It emphasizes the importance of getting a good sample and how remote testing has achieved unprecedented ability to do so. I also love that the podcast talks about ‘hot topics’ in tech and keeps things modern. Lastly, the hosts often talk about the “democratization” of research and how important it can be to building good products: this is a foundational reason for making my own career pivot and one that I appreciate hearing from the hosts.
10/10.
