“One Knight in Product” Podcast: Standing Up For Research and Researchers

I was on a podcast in Feb 2024, and it turned out so well that I want to recommend a listen to all of you. But please also share it to Product Managers, Product Leadership, and other leaders. (audio only link)

Jason described the episode with these key highlights:

1. User Experience and Customer Experience used to be the same thing, and they can be again. In these digital days, it seems like most people think UX people are just there in the corner to color in people’s ideas, but UX should be a strategic role that enables user and customer-focused decision-making and makes sure we always balance our business’s needs with those of our users.
2. We prize and prioritise speed over quality?—?we just have to get it done. We’ve been moving fast and breaking things for long enough now to realize how often it doesn’t work. User research feels unconscionably slow to some people, but it doesn’t have to be slow, and doing good user research (whoever does it) is an investment in trying to get things right.
3. No matter how much product managers feel they’re disempowered, they’re still the Golden Children of the company. Back in the old days, product managers were hiding in the corner with the UX people, as Agilists and Engineers rode through the company calling all the shots. Now the UX people are hiding with the Engineers whilst the PM makes all of the decisions. There’s a power imbalance, and it’s not a true “trio”.
4. User researchers are getting laid off, some of the jobs are gone for good and, at least in some cases, this is because leaders think they can just hand the work off to PMs. It’s not fair or reasonable to lay all of this at the doors of PM thought leaders championing certain approaches. There are plenty of UX thought leaders who champion them too. But, people are getting laid off and at least some of them are blaming PM-led product discovery as the root cause.
5. We should be able to look at books and take what works from them, but apply critical thinking and ensure that we don’t follow any message blindly. Most books have something useful in them, and all approaches can work in some contexts. Debbie has her approach, others have their approaches, and there’s no one “right way”. But, it’s important to make sure that approaches can be challenged, expanded upon, and that the approaches and techniques are described clearly and without room for interpretation.

Connect with us or learn more:

• CustomerCentricity.com?—?our website
• youtube.com/@cx-cc ? —?YouTube channel
• patreon.com/cxcc ? —?online community and free mailing list
• cxcc.to/events?—?calendar of mostly free webinars and live streams
• Articles on Medium or LinkedIn
• cxcc.to/ckys?—?“Customers Know You Suck,” my recent book on improving customer adoption, satisfaction, and retention