Executives at the companies we work at are under pressure to hit goals, often financial goals. That creates a challenge for the research community who often talk about the benefit of their work in terms of user experience and customer happiness. Our inability to speak the language of the c-suite makes it difficult to get headcount and influence strategy, how do we bridge this gap? In her talk, Claudia will give you a mathematical formula you can use to talk about the financial impact of your work with a CFO or anyone on the exec team.

Claudia leads UX Research at Highspot, where she is constantly finding new ways to expand the impact of research beyond Product and to the ecosystem that is the business. Prior to Highspot, she built and scaled the research team at a fintech company called Fivestars (acquired by SumUp) and has worked as a researcher for companies like Pinterest and Hulu. After being involved in investments from early in her career, she is passionate about improving the accessibility of financial literacy and is excited to start a discourse about quantifying the impact of UX investments toward a company’s valuation.

Across the research space, many practitioners are wondering not only how to level up, but what leveling up looks like. What are the key skills that differentiate between levels of seniority? How are people management and IC tracks different? In her talk, Brandi will share a leveling framework for research she's built out to help her team at Opendoor find clarity in their growth.

Brandi Luedeman leads the User Research and Consumer Insights Team at Opendoor, where they're working to modernize and simplify the process of buying and selling homes. Previously, Brandi led research at Goodreads and MyFitnessPal, and she was trained as an academic psychologist at Duke and Harvard. She can’t wait to share ideas on how we might level up our leveling frameworks to make them a true tool for growth and inspiration.

Most researchers are focused on building core products for the business they work on. But what does research look like when it's focused not on the core product, but rather on user acquisition and activation as part of a growth team? How do the practice and techniques change? In their talk, Carlos and Kakau share a new approach to finding and prioritizing growth work through a month-long research program they developed at Nubank.

Kakau works at Nubank, the biggest digital bank in the world, leading the design team at Growth business unit. Previously, she worked at iFood, the biggest food-tech in Latin America, and Vivo, the biggest telecommunication company in Brazil. Apparently, Kakau likes to say that she worked in big companies. Maybe she should take this to therapy instead of complaining about her flat-earther uncle.

Carlos is the UX Research Manager at Nubank's Growth business unit, where he has built up the research team and processes from scratch since arriving a little more than two years ago. He is a founding member of the company's affinity group for LGBTQIA+ employees, and has led several internal DEI-focused conversations, workshops and initiatives. Before joining one of the world's fastest-growing neobanks, he worked in strategic consulting as a Senior Service Designer at Fjord, part of Accenture Interactive. He is an architect by training who loves teamwork, creativity, lifelong learning, traveling, and yoga.

Many of us have found ourselves in situations where we’ve been afraid to push back on a workplace decision or advocate for ourselves. The concern about the negative impact it might have on our career progression or financial stability keeps many of us silent. But … what if we were less afraid? In this talk, we’ll be discussing what it might look like to gain a greater sense of control, confidence, and hope in our pursuit of financial health so that we feel more free from the financial insecurities that impact our ability to be more human-centered in our personal and professional lives. Let’s begin the journey of changing our relationship with money and freeing ourselves from the burdens of fear and scarcity mindsets — together.

Vivianne Castillo (she/her) is the Founder of HmntyCntrd, an award-winning organization that's committed to transforming the status quo of what it means to be human-centered in our professional and personal lives through community, courses, and consulting. She brings 8+ years of psychology and research experience spanning multiple contexts, cultures, and industries and her work and opinions have been written about in Slate, Fortune, Huffington Post, Fast Company, and ELLE Magazine. These days she's dedicating the bulk of her time helping UX & Tech professionals do the personal work required to do their best professional work, building more holistically human-centered leaders through community and courses, coaching executives and teams on how to create sustainable trauma-informed cultures, and helping professionals choose courage over comfort in the workplace.

Nate Wilson (he/him) is passionate about utilizing his skills to support people in a commonly overlooked area of their lives: their financial health. At NewRetirement he’s focused on building relationships with leaders who recognize the personal and professional impact of empowering individuals in their pursuit of financial independence through digital solutions. When he’s not on the job, he enjoys meeting new people, traveling and leaning into his curiosities around real estate and community development.

If there's one thing we can all agree on regarding crypto, DAOs, and Web3 in general, is that it's all very confusing for folks new to the space. If Web3 technologies are going to be able to scale to serve a global audience, they're going to need to get better at one thing they don't do much of today - UX research. In her talk, Georgia will teach you what you need to know to get started in Web3 from her 5 years of working in the space.

Georgia is one of the most experienced UX researchers working in the web3 and cryptocurrency space today. With a background in research at more traditional technology companies and agencies, she now strives to place the user at the heart of decision-making for teams building the next version of the internet. She does this through discovery research, training and advocacy. Georgia is here to draw back the curtain on why user researchers are needed in the web3 space, and what working in the decentralized future could look like. #web3 #cypto #daos

User research is more than just a job, it's a skillset that can be used to solve all kinds of messy and difficult challenges. In the wake of the murder of George Floyd, many companies started reevaluating long-held policies around political activism, engagement, and the impact of social events on their workforce. In this talk, Alexandra and Ashley will explain how they used user research to help guide Spotify's response in a way that supported Black Spotify employees, and how you can use your skills to create change too.

Alex leads a user research team at Spotify focused on the end-to-end Freemium funnel. Alex’s latest projects have included understanding our users across the Global South, alongside spearheading diversity initiatives. Before Spotify, Alex worked as an insights consultant for eight years, specializing in international projects across consumer-facing and nonprofit clients. She looks forward to talking through how user research can be applied to initiatives such as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in order to create lasting impact beyond the OKR board.

Ashley leads a team of user researchers at Spotify building on experiences for advertisers and publishers to meet the their audience in the right moments of listening. Previously, Ashley was a Senior User Researcher for Spotify Ad Studio and prior helped kickstart customer journey design at IBM. No matter the topic, she approaches problem solving with a transdisciplinary mindset, leveraging experience across software, fashion, food systems, and architecture. Ashley is excited to share how user research can empower human perspectives in organizations beyond the typical goals dictated by technology and business. #orgculture #inclusion #leadership #BLM

When we have a group of users or customers who are deeply technical, they are often hard to research and hard to do research with. What alternative methods can we leverage to get quality insights in a repeatable and scalable way? In her talk, Katie walks us through how she uses a technique called 'Preview Releases' to do research with an audience of automation and controls engineers.

Katie leads software UX research at Rockwell Automation, spending her time making UX research a key driver in the development of Rockwell’s industrial automation software. Prior to that, she was a UX Coordinator at Epic Systems where she focused on a Usability Toolkit tailored for Epic’s electronic health record applications. Katie believes her lessons learned from working in a highly technical industry translate well for all software offerings. She has a passion for user experience and looks forward to exchanging new ideas with some of user experience’s best.

Let's be honest - surveys are sometimes bad. Poorly designed, misleading (often intentionally), and not actionable. As a result, many in the UXR community have come to see them as a blunt research instrument that shouldn’t be relied upon in their day to day practice.  But according to Ashley and Lucas, this is underselling the value surveys can bring to your research practice. Listen in to their talk about how they used a series of big surveys to develop a deep understanding of the changes COVID brought to the workplace, and how you can better leverage surveys in your practice.

Lucas leads quant research at Slack, where he’s studies peoples' attitudes about their working lives in the "new normal" and what drives users' perceptions of Slack. Previously, Lucas led economic and policy research at Thumbtack, using surveys to better understand the local services marketplace across the US. Lucas holds a PhD in Political Science and MA in Economics from Stanford University. And he's looking forward to sharing his thoughts on how surveys can be better leveraged to answer the questions _you_ care about, ideally over the course of a casual, 10-mile run!

Ashley is a staff quantitative researcher at Slack, where she conducts survey research on the Slack brand and the future of work. Previously, Ashley worked as an applied data science manager at Civis Analytics, where she led large-scale research projects with Fortune 500 companies and one of the largest charitable organizations in the world. She is excited to share her love of quantitative research with the Learners audience.

As a relatively young institution in product, isn't it time we started thinking about what traditions and rituals we implement to set up our research practices for success? A few years back, Chelsea was working as a software engineer before transitioning to research, and she brought some key rituals from her time as an engineer with her. These new institutions have been a bedrock for her practice, and she's going to share them with the community in this talk.

Chelsea is a UX Researcher at Coinbase, where she works on providing intuitive, delightful payments experiences for crypto newcomers and experts alike. Before Coinbase, Chelsea was a software engineer at Capital One, where she built features like fraud claims and transaction alerts to help protect and secure people’s accounts. Chelsea loves to study the relationship between people and money, and she’s excited to learn about and build the future of finance.

It's no secret that researchers over-index on skills related to empathy, something we celebrate in our practice. But are there some hidden costs to this strength that we need to talk about? In her talk, Deirdre is going to cover some of the downsides to this superpower, and how we can address them to be happier and more fulfilled at work and in our personal lives.

Deirdre heads up the Insights team at Toast, where she’s grown research from a team of 1 (herself) to a team of 15 (as of writing this bio!). A librarian by training, Deirdre previously worked at EBSCO on experiences for college students searching for information and public library patrons finding their next book. At Toast, she loves the challenge of B2B2C, the pressure to move and fail fast, and that curiosity is a core value across the business. Deirdre is a Batman expert, a vegan (although she’s not, like, in your face about it), and very into talking about the intersection of work and feelings. #ResearchersHaveBigFeelings #Alfred4Eva

We've been making strides in including accessibility research as part of our practice, but according to Pia and Joel, that's only half the battle. Setting up the right systems, incentives, and accountability in the organizations we work in are just as important. In their talk, Pia and Joel are going to speak about bringing internal change to support accessibility.

Joel Isaac has a genetic disorder that has caused him to gradually lose his eyesight over many years. He has worked as a full stack developer and accessibility specialist building products for some well-known retail, non-profit, and government institutions. Focused on holistic solutions, Joel understands issues in diversity, inclusion, and accessibility at a deep level based on his personal and career journey. Currently only able to perceive shadows, Joel guides clients in understanding the impact of accessibility and inclusion while helping to guide the implementation of scalable solutions to support both customers and enterprise needs. Major focuses include accessibility compliance, design equity, and guidelines/policy development.

Pia Zaragoza, UX Mentor at Springboard and Presidential Innovation Fellow Pia Zaragoza is a UX Mentor at Springboard and a Presidential Innovation Fellow at the General Services Administration. Previously, Pia was the Vice President of Accessibility Research and Insights at JP Morgan Chase. She is looking forward to nerding out on all things diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility during the 2022 UXRCONF. #DEIA #a11y

TLDR: We need to have a conversation about how the dynamics of whiteness impact the UX community and our understanding of being human-centered — and the ways it’s led to harm within the UX Industry.  In this talk, we’ll be unpacking the impact of overlooking power and privilege in our understanding of being “human-centered,” the realities of systemic racism and silencing within the UX community, and how we might move closer to maturity and accountability as a practice. This talk will be uncomfortable but avoiding it will only reinforce a shallow point of view of our work, ourselves, and others. Let’s begin doing the work to change that.  Let’s start choosing courage over comfort together.

Vivianne Castillo (she/her) is the Founder of HmntyCntrd, an award-winning organization that's committed to transforming the status quo of what it means to be human-centered in our professional and personal lives through community, courses, and consulting. She brings 8+ years of psychology and research experience spanning multiple contexts, cultures, and industries and her work and opinions have been written about in Slate, Fortune, Huffington Post, Fast Company, and ELLE Magazine. These days she's dedicating the bulk of her time helping UX & Tech professionals do the personal work required to do their best professional work, building more holistically human-centered leaders through community and courses, coaching executives and teams on how to create sustainable trauma-informed cultures, and helping professionals choose courage over comfort in the workplace.

Sometimes traditional user interviews and surveys just don't cut it and we have to take a trip back to academia to borrow some techniques. Behavioural science is one of those fields we just don't leverage enough in our practice, and this year Christelle is going to change that. She'll be sharing some key insights from her role as Principal Behavioural Scientist at Headspace that you can use in your research practice today.

Dr. Christelle Ngnoumen is Principal Behavioral Scientist at Headspace Health where she leads internal and external research dedicated to the design of Headspace's evidence-based digital interventions. She is a mindfulness and meditation expert, has published and taught extensively on the topic, and is an editor of the Wiley Blackwell Handbook of Mindfulness. Christelle has a user research background from working with teams and organizations building B2C and B2B solutions within L&D, HealthTech, and FitTech. She is excited to talk about the intersection of behavioral science and UX, and ways behavioral science can be leveraged to build positive digital experiences.

Before we start a research project, we're mindful of important demographic data to make sure our sample is representative of the group we're trying to study. We lock in on age, gender, race, socioeconomic status... but is there something big we're missing? Zoe thinks there is, and that thing is religion. In her talk, Zoe is going to cover why it’s critical to understand the role religion plays in people's lives, as well as how specific religious beliefs can impact adoption and use of the product you're working on.

Zoe is a lead UX Researcher on rider-facing products at Lyft, where she is working on developing cross-business vision for end-to-end transportation solutions. While she started her UX career conducting research at YouTube, she previously worked in wildlife conservation, where she focused on better understanding the relationships between personal factors like religion, culture, and politics on conservation behavior. She looks forward to building a more equitable and inclusive future of research and product with you.

If you work in a large enterprise company, chances are there are massive measurement programs, market research surveys, intercept surveys, post-product use surveys, and more, that are running every single day. And there's a good chance they aren't as well designed as we'd like to think. In this talk, Jessica is going to cover how you can design, modify, and reinvent large scale quantitative research programs to transform how research is done in your organization.

Jessica leads UX Research for the PC Express online grocery platform & eComm Marketplace at Loblaw Digital; the digital arm of the 100-year-old enterprise, Loblaw Companies Ltd. Previously, Jessica led teams spanning various UX specialities and worked as an individual contributor, building meaningful human-centered products and services within global organizations. She’s developed and taught various post-secondary courses spanning the research specialities. She can’t wait to share stories about mixing ingredients and methods, in search of uncovering human behaviours across the grocery shopping journey.

Standardization is an under-discussed aspect of UX research. How do we ensure quality outputs while also encouraging curiosity and discovery? How do we make sure our process is reliable, repeatable, and worth sharing with coworkers, users, and beyond? In this talk, Danny takes us through a history of standard-setting and offers an approach for building local standards to enable collaboration that can bring about organizational change.

Danny is a UX researcher for a cooperative economy. He currently is Lead Researcher with Turning Basin Labs, a staffing and training co-op based in California, facilitating worker- and user-led studies. Previously, Danny worked with a variety of community-owned digital tools including Up & Go, a platform for booking home cleanings in NYC. He also created the Ownership Model Canvas with the co-op accelerator Start.coop, and organized with Exit to Community Collective creating resources for startups to build community leadership and ownership. Danny believes everyone can do influential, standardized, and politically imaginative research.