Podcast profile
By User Interviews
Welcome to Awkward Silences by User Interviews, where we interview the people who interview people. Listen as we geek out on all things UX research, qualitative data, and the craft of understanding people to build better products and businesses. Hosted by Erin May and Carol Guest, VPs of growth/marketing and product at User Interviews. Take this survey and let us know what topics you want to hear next! userinterviews.com/awkwardsurvey
Latest episode
57 min
Classification review pending
Topic, format, and audience-level labels are published only after a manual source review. This show remains fully discoverable by its researched technology sectors.
Listen from the original source
This directory never re-hosts or republishes podcast audio.
Official sources checked
Episode audio and show facts come from the checked-in refresh of the show’s public sources.
From the feed
Erin May talks with Jared Forney, Research Operations Principal at Okta, about how the role of research and research operations is shifting as AI accelerates product development. Jared explains why scale and rigor do not have to be opposing forces and why teams need to return to their core goals before adding new tools
This week we're revisiting one of Awkward Silences' most memorable episodes. Much of the conversation around AI in UX involves how it will shape and change researchers' work. This episodes's guest, Jess Holbrook, who leads UX research for Microsoft AI, thinks a lot about how this technology can be improved with design
Erin May sits down with Alec Levin, CEO and Co-Founder of Learners, to explore how researchers can navigate the rapid changes reshaping their field. Alec shares his vision for how AI and automation are creating unprecedented opportunities for research teams willing to step up and lead. Alec argues that while AI can han
This week we're revisiting one of Awkward Silences' most memorable episodes. This episode welcomed Ruby Pryor, founder of Rex, a consulting firm specializing in UX research and strategic design. This episode gets into what it means to demonstrate the "business value" of one's work, specifically how researchers can and
Erin May sits down with Sam Ladner, Senior Principal Researcher of Strategy at Workday, to explore the evolving role of AI in qualitative research. Sam brings a refreshingly balanced perspective on where AI can genuinely help researchers and where it fundamentally cannot replace human insight. Sam explains how AI has t
This week we're revisiting one of Awkward Silences' most memorable episodes. This episode welcomed George Whitfield, an expert in applying AI to the analysis of qualitative data. George discussed the intricate challenges of leveraging language models to interpret expansive open-ended data (like interview transcripts),
Erin May sits down with Aneta Kmiecik, founder of Be Your Own Design Team, to tackle one of the biggest questions facing designers today: how to position AI skills in portfolios and resumes. With 15 years in creative industries and a community of 200,000 followers, Aneta brings unique insights into navigating career st
Ben Wiedmaier sits down with user research consultant Nikki Anderson to explore how researchers can stay relevant when budgets are tight and stakeholders are stressed. Nikki runs Drop in Research where she helps teams conduct research, facilitate better meetings, and build research practices from the ground up. She sha
Ben 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
Erin 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 cha
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 neve
Ben 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 a
Ben 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 hu
Erin May sits down with Kate Towsey, founder of Cha Cha Club and author of Research That Scales, for Research Ops Appreciation Week. Kate shares insights from producing an audio documentary series on the future of research ops, including her fascinating experience co-creating content with AI. She reveals how research o
Ben 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,
Ben 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 conver
Erin is joined by Samira Jain, Serena Hillman, and Jackie Ianni from Microsoft Azure Data to discuss how they built the Swift Research Lab over the past two years. The team shares their systematic five-step approach for creating research programs that result in stakeholder satisfaction while delivering insights every 1
Ben 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 f
The 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
In just ten years, ResearchOps has transformed from an obscure Silicon Valley speciality into a vibrant global profession. Despite economic headwinds, ResearchOps roles are emerging across industries far beyond tech, and the field is evolving at breathtaking speed. But where have we come from, and where are we going? I
In just ten years, ResearchOps has transformed from an obscure Silicon Valley speciality into a vibrant global profession. Despite economic headwinds, ResearchOps roles are emerging across industries far beyond tech, and the field is evolving at breathtaking speed. But where have we come from, and where are we going? I
In just ten years, ResearchOps has transformed from an obscure Silicon Valley speciality into a vibrant global profession. Despite economic headwinds, ResearchOps roles are emerging across industries far beyond tech, and the field is evolving at breathtaking speed. But where have we come from, and where are we going? I
Erin May sits down with Larry Becker and Gavin Lew of Bold Insight to explore how researchers can prototype AI experiences that don't exist yet. They're joined by Katie Johnson, Global Head of Research for Panasonic Well. All share their methods for testing everything from voice interfaces for blind users to family wel
In just 10 years, ResearchOps has transformed from an obscure Silicon Valley speciality into a vibrant global profession. Despite economic headwinds, ResearchOps roles are emerging across industries far beyond tech, and the field is evolving at breathtaking speed. But where has it come from, and where is it going? In t
In just 10 years, ResearchOps has transformed from an obscure Silicon Valley speciality into a vibrant global profession. Despite economic headwinds, ResearchOps roles are emerging across industries far beyond tech, and the field is evolving at breathtaking speed. But where has it come from, and where is it going? In t