As UX researchers, we're often doing work on new features. New additions to the product, new products for new users... new, new, new, and add, add, add.But, what if we could make our products better by taking things away? That'd be a novel idea. Here to explore that idea with you, is Emily.

When dealing with individuals from marginalized or disadvantaged communities, it's important to be extra cautious with how you recruit, look, and behave. Not just for the benefit of the participant, but also to make sure you limit the bias you introduce into your research.If you're not from a low-income community yourself, understanding the right way to interact with low-income folks might feel a bit foreign. Luckily, Daniela is here to share her advice for doing research with low-income communities.

More than ever before, humans are going to be interacting with robots and AIs in a human-like way. As researchers, now is the time to start thinking about how it feels to interact with these machines.Lauren leads research at iRobot, where she thinks a lot about how humans interact with machines. Join her as she explores how to research the personalities of machines in automated experiences.

There has never been more choice for researchers when it comes to tooling than there is today. Tools are more powerful, convenient, and cost-effective than ever before.But, that leads us to some important questions: are we too dependent on tools, and could we do our work without them? In this talk, Josh is here to ask the question, do we have too many tools?

For UX researchers, our work can be an emotional sink. That makes career planning extra hard, when you're constantly worrying about relationships with managers, stakeholders, and the customers you work with.Heather has dealt with this first-hand. Today, she's here to help you reflect and reorient towards building a values-aligned career in research.

Often, when it comes to executive stakeholder relationships, we feel like we're speaking a different language. And most of the time, we are.Executives love to talk numbers. But how do we do that, when our qualitative work has little that's quantitatively measured? Hannah from AWS is here to unpack how to use metadata from your qualitative research to speak the language of executives.

One of the greatest levers for impact within a company is making improvements to monetization. Updating pricing, repackaging the product, etc. But, where does research fit in to this conversation?In this talk, join Jordan as she shares her learnings from her time doing monetization research at Adobe.

AI is going to change the research game, there's no doubt about that. The questions we have on the forefront are now: how will research change, and where will our careers end up?Savina is a UXR at Meta working directly with AI engineers, and she's here to tell you what to expect from new AI tooling and how research will change in the coming years.

Tensions still run high when it comes to discussing 'research democratization'. Should we let our teammates do research, or not?Lauren argues that the real question is: can we actually prevent our teammates from doing research? And if the answer is no, how do we support them in doing it the right way?

There are few research executives that are as experienced as Christina Janzer. Christina was tasked with building the original Facebook research team, before moving on to do the same at Slack a few years later.Christina is here to share her lessons from building up the research function in two very different environments.

Relationships are key to research impact, mostly because, as researchers, we're used to influencing decision making, not necessarily making decisions ourselves.Join Janna as she shares her view on building and maintaining relationships with our stakeholders, managers, partners, and other colleagues.

There are few people who've built a research practice from scratch, and even fewer who've done it at a company as iconic as Figma. But, that's exactly what Cristen did.She's here to share her experience and learnings from building the research practice at Figma, and what she thinks you should do, as you build yours.

As a former ReOps leader at Slack, and having worked with dozens of tech executives, Behzod has developed a strong taste for research. How should it work? What does it feel like when it's successful? What is good research?In this talk, join Behzod as he explores these questions to help us figure out what "good research" actually looks like.

At the end of the day, it's the leader of the company, often the CEO, who holds the power in the organizations we work in. That means all of our work ultimately flows from initiatives and directives set from the top.What do leaders think about research? How has it helped, how has it hindered, and where do they see the most value? Evan, CEO of Getro, joins us to share his point of view.

If you're like most UX researchers, you like words much more than numbers. But understanding numbers, particularly how to use them in a research context, is an extremely valuable skill to have.In this talk, Colette makes the case for why we all need to embrace quantitative research.

Let's face it, most UX researchers got into the field because we're great with people, not math. But often, numbers is the language of our partners and stakeholders, and having a base knowledge of how to handle quant research is extremely helpful.In this talk, join Alex and Marina as they walk you through the basics of what you need to know to get started with quant methods as a UX researcher.

Research doesn't matter if it doesn't change or influence decisions. But, how do we develop the skills to influence, when it's so different from the research ones we use in our day-to-day.Join Colette as she shares her point of view on how to think about research impact.

Doing the research is only part of the work. Planning the research... well that's a whole other ballgame altogether, and one you deeply need to understand to be effective as a researcher.In this talk, join Raz as he outlines the key things you need to know to effectively plan and execute quality UX research projects.

How do you know that you're doing the right research? What are the factors that might indicate your research is successful? What are the signals that your work matters?Before starting to do the research, it's important that you understand the context you're operating in, and how to make your work matter within it. In this talk, Justin unpacks what you need to do to prepare for successful research.

Over the past few years, a lot has changed in the world. COVID, lockdowns, economic turmoil, and more. How does research need to adapt?In this talk, Raz outlines her perspective on a changing world and the changing research practice.

The majority of the time, UX research sits within the context of a for-profit business, often a corporation. So, it stands to reason that if you want to be a good partner in your role as a researcher, you need to know a little bit about the business.In this talk, Alec shares his cheat sheet for understanding the basics of how companies are structured and what matters within them.

Most people who start off in research know how to have a conversation and ask the important questions they've prepared, so doing a user interview can feel pretty natural. But, how do we make sense of all the words we hear in those interviews?Analyzing qualitative data is a tough task. Join Emily in this talk, as she walks us through her approach.

Qualitative research is often thought of as the bedrock of the UX research field. It involves learning how to design studies, frame problems, create mental models, and so much more.Join Colette as she shares a beginner's guide to getting started with qual research, and why its such a powerful tool to add to your toolkit.

As designers, we wireframe products... but, what about wireframing companies? Can we take the same ideas we use to conceptualize new experiences for customers, and use them to design companies for growth?Join Lucy, Head of Design at Dovetail, as she talks about how they've designed both their product and company for breakout growth.

We all know that designers can make amazing founders, just look at mega-prolific companies like Airbnb. But, even though we see the archetypical design founder on the rise, the process for raising capital as a designer might feel more than a little mysterious.In this talk, join Rachel Renock, a designer turned CEO, as she sits down with investor Konval Matin to talk about the fundraising environment for designer-led companies.

As creative professionals, we're often putting a lot of ourselves into our work. And usually that's great! Until it's not.Pressure from team members, the influence of stakeholders, being pulling in many different directions at once... all of this can feel particularly overwhelming for creatives. Join Nova as she outlines how we can take better care of ourselves, so we be more successful in our work over the long term.

As far as design systems go, the Gov.UK design system is about as famous as it gets. However, the creators of this particular design system are concerned with it's popularity, and that some folks could be missing the forest for the trees.In this talk, join Tom as he explains that the real takeaway from building the Gov.UK design system is not actually the output, but the method of building it.

As designers, the "business side of things" can feel a bit arbitrary, confusing, and, sometimes, just downright unpleasant. But, having a solid understanding of your companies economics can be incredibly helpful when making design decisions.In this talk, Patrick provides a few heuristics for designers on how to understand what matters most to your business.

Often when we think of the outcomes from our work, it's focused on insights. Insights for PMs, insights for designers, insights for leadership. Danny has a different point of view.What if instead of outputting insights, we thought of ourselves as setting standards. As researchers, we have the ability to set mental models for what's 'good' or 'efficient' or any other metrics that are important to our teams. If you're interested in hearing about this major research reframe, take a listen to Danny's talk.

If you work in a large enterprise, the amount of user interaction with your product is enormous. While small sample-size qualitative research is great, we simply need ways to measure user sentiment and input at scale.That's where Jessica comes in. She's a research leader at Loblaw, one of Canada's largest grocery chains, where every day millions of people go to shop. Watch this talk to learn more about how to measure input from users when there are millions of them!

Most researchers have a keen eye and ear, able to sense how people around them feel. Those abilities are clearly a positive for our jobs, but they come with some serious drawbacks.Deirdre leads research at Toast, and is here to talk about not just how wonderful our superpowers are, but also the costs associated with having them.

Many of our research methods have roots in academic fields of social science, like ethnography, anthropology, HCI, and more. But, what about behavioural science? What can we learn from that field of research?Christelle is a behavioural scientist applying methods learned during her PhD to help design interventions in products that lead to better user choices. She's here to tell us how behavioural science methods might provide you with the next big method you add to your toolkit.

We hear a lot about population diversity across many areas: income, geography, interests, age, gender, and more. But, there's one that's rarely ever talked about: faith.Out of the 7 billion people on the planet, there are billions of people who look to religion to inform their values, key decisions and behaviours. In this talk, Zoe gives us a primer on faith and how it should be understood in the context of our UX research practices.

If you're making products for consumers, traditional methods like usability tests and concepts tests are going to work great. But what if you're working on something much more technical, much more complex? Say, oh I don't know, the robots that makes cars and heavy machinery?In this talk, watch as Katie explains a new approach to doing UX Research with highly technical users, machining engineers.

If there's any field in tech that's desperately in need of talent that understands human nature better, it's the 'web3' or crypto space. Incredible new technology is being developed, but the field is hampered by their ability to translate that technology into experiences people love.Georgia has been working in the web3 space for years, and is here to share a call-to-action: web3 needs research. Join Georgia to learn more about the key problems in the space and how you can play a part in solving them.

Surveys have a bad rap. But, if we think critically about them, is it because they're bad tools, or because we aren't using them correctly?Lucas and Ashley from Slack are here to tell us that it's the latter, and that surveys are extraordinarily powerful tools when used the right way. Tune into this talk to learn more about all the survey goodness you're missing out on.

If we're keeping it 100%, business leaders can struggle appreciating the value of UX. I mean, they sort of care, but what they really care about is something else entirely: growth.With that in mind, how can we leverage the power of research to not only make experience better, but also drive growth? Lucky for us, Kakau and Carlos are design and research leaders at Nubank, running efforts on their respective growth teams, and are here to tell us all about it.

Figuring out your career progression as a researcher is a confusing and daunting task. It often feels like the field is changing faster than we can keep up with.How do we figure out where to focus our efforts for career growth and promotion? In this talk, Brandi outlines her approach to career levelling for UX researchers.

Measuring the impact of UX research is notoriously hard. Measuring it's financial impact? Forget about it.Or maybe... not? Claudia is a UXR Director with an MBA and background in finance, and she's here to give us the missing equation we need to communicate our impact to our stakeholders, from product managers all the way up to the C-suite.

The role of the UX researcher is evolving. There's less clarity about what it takes to get to the next stage of your research career. What skills am I missing today?In this talk, Dave outlines the key skills that make up the reserach role, how to map them out, and plan to acquire the ones you need next. It's an evidence-based approach that'll help you find clarity during the murkier stages of your career.

Naturally, most of our research skills and efforts are put towards creating better products and services. However, those same skills can be put towards other, equally important initiatives as well.Taylor Kim and Lisa Madokoro are two researchers who work on employee research, leveraging research methods to create a better and more productive work environment for employees at Shopify.If you want to do this kind of research, you have to make some changes to your practice. Taylor and Lisa are here to tell us what those are.

So much about successful research work comes down to great communication. But, how often do you get the chance to level up this crucial skill?Playing off the bestseller, 'The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts', watch as Vidhika outlines what she believes are the five key tenets to successful research communication and great stakeholder partnership.

There's field research, and then there's field research. Lucky for us, Evelina is here to help us prepare for the latter.Evelina leads UX at Chai One, an agency that does research and design work with companies in the energy sector. That means much of her research has her doing field research in some truly challenging places, like oil rigs and nuclear reactors.Watch as Evelina outlines her checklist to prepare for research in the wild.

Our work as researchers is more than just a job. For many of us, it feels like a calling, work we were always supposed to be doing.But, as with everyone, sometimes we lose that feeling. Falling into a rut is easy, and finding your way out can be much harder. In this talk, Satsuko introduces us to the Japanese concept of Ikigai, and outlines how to apply it to our own work to make sure our careers leave us feeling fulfilled.

Researchers know they add value to the teams they're on. But tracking that value... can be tough. The impact of our work often doesn't show up in easily viewed metrics, but instead influence key decisions to move in one direction or another.Victoria, Director of UX Research at Verizon, has developed her own approach to help her team track the impact of their work, tying it back directly to key decisions being made by stakeholders. For step-by-step instructions, take a listen to this amazing talk.

Tactical research is important. Is it fun? Sometimes. Would we rather be doing strategic research 99% of the time? Heck yes.The path to a place where your research function is doing strategic research is murky, but lucky for us, Colette is here to demystify it for us.

Much of the research we do as UX researchers follows a fairly standard approach. Don't tell the user too much about what you're building so you don't bias them, do low fidelity research before testing engineered prototypes, etc. However, when you're working with expert users, that doesn't work anymore.Expert users are a type of user that are often highly technical and know way more about your product than you do. To do research with them, there are some key changes you need to make to get the insights you're looking for.In her talk, watch as Pacha outlines how she modified her research practice to do research with cyber security experts while working at TrendMicro.

Beta programs in product development are nothing new. Deploying new software or hardware features, and then talking to users about them, has been around for decades.But, what if instead of product managers and leaders designing beta programs, we instead took it under our purview as researchers. How would we design these programs differently?Join Abby, Director of Research at Later.com, to learn more about the magic of research-led betas.

Hardware research is infinitely more difficult to do than software research. You have a physical object to manage, that often has a digital component to it as well, which can break down and is very hard to update. But there's also another key consideration: how your hardware interacts with a diverse physical environment.Vanessa leads research for iRobot, makers of the Roomba. In her talk, Vanessa outlines how using ethnographic methods was key to the development of the Roomba, and how getting onsite to see different styles of homes helped shape the product.

There's no 'one-size-fits-all' approach to leadership roles, and that holds especially true for research. So, how do you plan for and start practicing the approach to research leadership that's right for you?Join Loi, former research leader at Facebook, Trip Advisor, and Buoy Health, to learn more about different approaches to managing a research function and how to figure out which one is meant for you.

Let's face it, UX Researchers don't do enough accessibility research. We have lots of good excuses, but now it's a legal requirement to make sure our applications are compliant with key accessibility standards.Sheri Byrne-Haber has been an accessibility advocate and expert for years, and she's here to knock one excuse off our collective lists - knowing how to get started with the work in the first place.

One major critique of UX Research is that it's often "too obscure" to tie new insights back to the bottom line. How do qualitative insights translate into more growth or revenue for the company?Molly and Lukas lead the research and experimentation teams at Booking.com, and they're here to share with you how they join forces to measure the impact of key qualitative learnings the research team uncovers.

Sourcing a tool to create a research repository is easy. Implementing a research repository in a way that's compliant with legal, is used in a consistent manner by researchers, and is accessed frequently and correctly by stakeholders... that's extremely hard.Meg knows this first hard. Join Meg as she walks you through a six month process to fully implement a research repository where team members can contribute effectively, and stakeholders get real value. It's harder than it looks!

We all know that research is an important component of a successful new product or feature, but what else can it do?Over at Brex, Nicky and Kira teamed up to find a way to leverage research for Brex's rebranding efforts. Tun into this talk to learn more about how you can use research to find success on a rebrand.

Too often, employees can be seen as just what we produce. And researchers produce research reports.But we're a lot more than just report makers, and if we dig deep into our true roles, we'll understand just how important teaching, training and more are for our success. Join Behzod as he digs into a more holistic view of our job.

Change is afoot in the research world. There's never been more researchers in the field than there are today, but, there's also never been as much research being done by non-researchers as there is today, either. What does that mean for research practitioners?Molly Stevens, Director of Research at Booking.com, joins us to share what she believes is a path forward, not just for research as an activity, but for research practitioners as well.

Are personas bad tools? Or do they just have a bad reputation because they're being built wrong?Amber and Carolina took a new approach to building personas, reimagining the data they contain, the way to build them, and the artifacts they produce. If you're looking for a better way to communicate information about your users, don't miss this step-by-step guide to persona building.

For those of us who've worked closely with engineers, we know they are of a different breed. Their tooling and workflows look unrecognizable compared to those of accounting, legal, finance, HR, or almost any other line of work.That means our approach to doing research on developer tooling needs to adapt. Watch as Atikh shares his advice for doing research on the command line.

Should research teams embed, or be centralized? What skills does a research team need? What level(s) of seniority should it have? Structuring a research team is no easy task.Monal knows this first hand, having built the research team from the bottom up at Lyft. In this talk, watch as Monal shares her advice for how best to structure a research team for success.

When doing research, it's often the case that we can just sit down or join a video call with our user, and discuss a prototype or product. But sometimes, to really evaluate a user's experience, we need to do something much more intensive.Peloton makes one of the world's most popular products, a workout bike that's paired with live classes, and is filmed in studios around the world. To better understand the experience of an in-studio Peloton user, Andrea and Beth had to invent their own method, called the Shakespeare method, to get a true evaluation of their users' experience.

Prototypes and designs are multi-faceted. As researchers, often we're looking at the experience as a whole, but sometimes we need to get extra focused on one part of the experience. And sometimes, that part is copy.In this talk, watch as Jennifer shares about why she thinks testing copy needs a new approach, and how she's been able to effectively evaluate copy in her own research.

Remembering everything you did yesterday is tough, let alone what you did last week. But often, these are the questions researchers pose to their participants during an interview. How can we overcome the fact that humans are forgetful?In this talk, Colette talks about her work leveraging triangulation, the use of multiple varied research methods, to dig deep, even when participant memory is sometimes fleeting.

There's nothing worse than doing incredible research, presenting it to stakeholders, and then having nothing happen. To avoid this, researchers need to develop a new skill: marketing!Patti Carlson is the Director of Research at Mailchimp, and she makes marketing plans for many of her team's key research initiatives, to make sure they land and have an impact. To find out how to do the same, tune into this talk.

Empathy is a word we hear a lot in research. Maybe even too much?Lucky for us, Sekai is here to question that. Is empathy an obsession that doesn't do us or our participants any good? Should we be focusing on something else entirely? Join Sekai for an unforgettable talk on the irrelevance of empathy.

Researchers see a lot of emotions when we're out in the field. But it's hard to know what to do with these emotions when it comes to translating them into insights that our teams can use. Can we measure them? Categorize them?In her talk, Lara outlines how to make sense of emotions and use that data to drive powerful research insights.

As researchers, we often feel like big decisions are constantly being handed down to us. Why aren't we in the decision making process? What's going on behind those closed doors at the big mahogany table?Eran Ben-Ari is a product exec who's here to share with you what you need to know about executives to build an efficient and effective research practice.

If you've been paying attention to the psychological sciences, you've probably heard of the replication crisis. Thousands of studies, including some seminal papers, have been unable to be replicated and the legitimacy of their findings have been called into question.What impact does this have on UX research, and what can we learn from this whole debacle? Sarah Wittman shares her takeaways.

When we do research, most of the time we use our tried and true methods: usability tests, interviews, and surveys. How about we expand our toolkit?In this talk, Yoanna teaches us about the power of ethnography. Here she explains what it is, how it helps, and a case study to tie it all together.

When it comes to doing concept tests and usability studies, sometimes a wireframe just isn't enough, while a fully engineered product is way too much. Is there something in between?In this talk, watch as Kira and Kathryn from Indeed share a new approach using 'Blueprint Fidelity' prototypes.

If you're anything like us, when we get an exciting research project thrown onto our plate, we can't wait to get started. Let's get to recruiting and talking to customers!But wait! Let's pause for a second. Have we done everything we need to do to protect the sensitive information of our users, and make sure we do no harm? Today, Alba shares her 'Ethical Researchers Checklist' to help you kick off your next project the right way.

All of us have been in situations where we've wondered if we belong. It's a natural experience.But, we don't have to feel that way in research. Many of today's leaders have felt the exact same feelings of imposter syndrome you might be feeling now, and have found ways to overcome. In this talk, watch as Noam takes us through his process for getting rid of imposter syndrome.

When you're jumping into a new job, you want to hit the ground running... especially if you're the only UX researcher on the team.But, what's realistic? How do we make sure we show steady, consistent progress, without overwhelming ourselves or missing the mark. In this talk, Snigdha shares her 30-60-90 day plan for any new research hire owning a new research practice.

How can you turn research into less of a tactical practice, and more of a strategic one? If there's one company that's figured it out, it's Slack.In this talk, Christina Janzer and Michael Massimi share their vision for research with us, and how it's allowed them to stay on the inside of the decision curve of major company initiatives at Slack.

Sometimes we need to take a step back to take a step forward. Like waaaay back.In this talk, Noam suggests we think back to when we were kids to rediscover some unwritten rules about research. To see everything with fresh eyes again, and return to our paths of growth. What do you think?

Most researchers work in the private sector, but if you've used government services lately, you know quite well that the public sector is in dire need of our skills as well.Mithula Naik, who heads up research for the Canadian Digital Service, outlines her approach to pushing for positive change in government services as a research leader.

Returning for her second year in a row, Vivianne Castillo puts out the call for UX Researchers everywhere to do some deep self-reflection. Vivianne reminds us that not only do we have the capacity to do good, but to do harm, especially to our participants.By not doing deep and thoughtful work on ourselves, we risk hurting those we're trying to help. Join Vivianne for an intense and important conversation about the work we need to do to become great researchers.

Design can be more than a tool for design. It can be a fantastic research tool, as well.If you're a designer doing research, Shruti Ramiah has some tips for you. Leverage your design superpowers to craft research experiences that only you are able to create.

As one of the faster growing fields of work, Research Ops is on the rise! But what is ReOps? Who does ReOps? Am I ReOps?Listen as Kate Towsey, founder of the ResearchOps Community, answers these questions and more.

When we're working on a research project, we're often planning for a scope of impact that's fairly local: a PM, a designer... maybe a few additional managers.But when we join large organizations with massive products, we need to think massive impact as well. How do we take the results of a small project and amplify them? Tune into this talk by Victoria Sosik, Director of Research at Verizon, to find out how.

Don't get us wrong, we love it when we're able to see ahead and prepare for our future research needs. But, in fast paced environments, the future is often uncertain, and so are the needs of our stakeholders. How can we be ready when a big research opportunity arises?Watch as Gregg Bernstein, Sr. Director of Research at Hearst Magazines, teaches us about how to step aside from planned research and make the most out of opportunistic research.

When it comes to research impact, influence is what it's all about. But, we don't learn about influence building in school, or when we onboard to a new company.Lucky for all of us, Ovetta Sampson is here to help. She's a pro at building consensus and influence in organizations like Google, Capital One, and Microsoft, and she's going to give you the rundown on how to build research influence at your organization, too.

Not all that matters can be measured, and not all that's measured, matters. In this talk, Nicole and Ling tell us about their journey to quantify something incredibly important, but equally difficult, to measure: trust.Listen as they outline the steps they took to build a reliable, repeatable system to evaluate how much Groupon customers trust the brand, and how you can do the same with any hard to measure concept you care about.

Often times, when you get promoted as a researcher, it's for being great at doing research. But, as you quickly realize, the work and skills of a manager are very different to those of an IC.In this talk, watch as Monal Chokshi, Head of Research at Lyft, gives us her advice for finding success in research management, by leveraging the research skills we already have.

When's the last time you modified your methods? Added a little spice to your research recipes?In this talk, Jing Jing Tan walks us through a new way of using interviews - not just in reports, but in charts and artifacts, too. Let's bring plotting to our interviews with Jing Jing.

Looking for work can be one of the most frustrating experiences anyone ever goes through. Why is it like that, and why don't we have the skills to fix it?Adam Mansour, UX Researcher at Google, talks about how to use our research skills to make a better, more human, hiring experience for everyone.

Figuring out what to work on as a researcher can be a daunting challenge. Even more so when so much around you is being measured.But, according to Behzod Sirjani, former Head of Research Operations at Slack, that's not the right way to find the projects that really matter.

For those entering the field, you've probably learned a lot about methods, maybe a bit about writing reports, and certainly enough about making a portfolio. But, when it comes to professional growth in this field, understanding the role you play in the bigger scheme of an organization is key.In this classic talk, watch as Dave breaks down what aspiring researchers need to know about building a successful career in UX Research.

When we do UX Research, most of the time we're talking to users who navigate the world just like we do. However, one of the most important types of research projects we can take on, are those centred around making the products and services we build accessible for all, including people with disabilities.To take on these sorts of projects, it's important you set yourself and your participants up for success. In this talk, Andrea Crofts outlines what you need to do to run a great UX Research project with people who have visual impairment.

As researchers, we're always looking for frameworks we can use to make sense of our insights and effectively communicate learnings with our colleagues.With all the frameworks out there, is there a way we can combine them to make for a more powerful artifact? In her talk, Claire Menke takes us through her experience of combining multiple frameworks to create a holistic story about her customers at Udemy.

As far as org charts go, researchers tend to not be very high up on them. But, should that really be the case?Researchers tend to have a strong understanding of the customer and their needs, a critical perspective to have at the leadership level. In this talk, Matt Gallivan shares the case for researchers in leadership roles.

Researchers need to have a wide range of skills to be truly mixed methods. On one end of the spectrum, quantitative methods like A/B testing are powerful tools to measure small differences at scale. On the other hand, ethnographic observations provide for a fully qualitative angle on research.With such different ways of studying people, there's an inherent tension in how these types of methods work together. In this talk, Sam Ladner explores that very tension.

When it comes to the intersection of business decisions and designing experiences for people, we tend to have a few general heuristics we use to guide our decisions. Faster is better. Less is more.But, what if that's not what our customers need? What if sometimes, more time is better than less time. A more convoluted path is better than a straightforward one. In her talk, Emma Craig helps us rethink our approach to designing and researching customers journeys that work for our users.

With so much focus on better understanding who our research participants are, we often forget to think about how we, as researchers, show up.With a background in counselling, Vivianne Castillo breaks down some of the important introspection we need to do as researchers, and how we might think about showing up to every participant interaction.