Edward Stojakovic

Join Jared Spool for tomorrow’s Talk UX Strategy live discussion: Justifying UX Research: The Costs of Guessing Wrong Tuesday, May 28 at 2pm ET (18.00 GMT) How do you get executives to value UX research? That question is as old as the UX field itself. Your executives have seemingly infinite reasons why they don’t want UX research. They say it takes too long, or the results will come too late. They tell you it’s expensive or that talking to customers will cause political problems. Whatever their reason, it’s clear they don’t see the value that comes from UX research. Finding a rebuttal is hard. Many UX folks have tried presenting case studies, business magazine articles, or other organizations’ success stories — all without success. When they explain that understanding users is essential or that “we should be customer-centric,” their arguments are dismissed. However, one approach has a much higher success record: identifying and reporting the costs of not conducting research. When we don’t know what our users and customers need, we must guess what will make them happy. All too often, those guesses turn out to be costly mistakes. In this lively session, Jared Spool will explore several ways that UX leaders have successfully justified the value of UX research to overcome executive resistance. You’ll discover techniques that show how your organization is already spending too much and incurring delivery delays because of wrong guesses and how to show research as a beneficial alternative. Uncover how you’ll… 👉 Uncover long-term hidden costs when poor assumptions and guesses hurt sales or increase support, and nobody even realizes it. 👉 Boost the team’s confidence in what customers need, which will speed up design, development, and delivery and stop those never-ending debates. 👉 Perform your best work every day because you now have detailed information about who your users are and what they need. RSVP & Connection instructions: https://lnkd.in/eZTxb3B

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You don’t need a formal UX title to showcase your content design chops. Emily Wachowiak shares tips on how to put together a standout portfolio. Read more on the Button blog: https://lnkd.in/gdmvUcRD #UX #ContentDesign #UXPortfolio #UserExperience #UXWriting

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What are the qualities that make for a good UX leader? 💡 Comment below to join the conversation, and learn from UX pioneer Heidi Munc on the next episode of Lextant’s Seriously Curious podcast, hosted by Chris Rockwell. 🎙️

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Struggling to find clarity during design workshops? 🤔 Discover how design primers could be your problem: https://lnkd.in/gNmuWA8e #ElementDigital

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Did you know there is a difference between Human-Centered Design and User-Centered Design? User-centered design focuses on individual users, producing user-friendly designs and outcomes. Human-centered design, however, takes “humans” as its central focus, lending itself more to “social problem-solving.” Find more about this fascinating conversation here:   https://lnkd.in/eT2wat2B #UX #UserExperience #ProductDesign #UXArchitect

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Explore the future of UX research with us! Our latest blog dives into AI, strategic thinking, and the evolving methodologies shaping user experience. Read it here: https://bit.ly/3VZqp4t.

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If you're solving complex problems in the product or marketing space, there are benefits to taking a step back and beginning with a truly low-fi approach. See how this approach can align teams around a vision while still encouraging creativity. #digitaldesign #wireframe #designkit

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Bias in product research: Why user researchers matter https://lnkd.in/gVuthXnH #productdiscovery #productmanagement #uxdesign #userexperience #customerexperience #userresearch #uxresearch #productdesign

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If we're not talking about design maturity, agile process, or craft, then us designers are probably talking about ✨quality.✨ I certainly see my interviewer's eyes light up when I mention this magical word. "Design is the one that has to hold the quality bar," I tell them. But what if that didn't have to be true? For a truly high-quality product, I don't think it should be design holding the line. It has to be something baked into the organization - everyone holds the quality bar. Even though "quality" is a slippery thing to define, if we can define it and hold ourselves to it, we can reduce the tension in the org and start to think less about the mere baseline quality for the product and more about raising that bar - delighting the user. I very much enjoyed Luke Anthony Firth's take on how they folded quality into their product building process. Have a read! https://lnkd.in/g4SenmYZ #designleadership #productprocess #productdesign #productquality #designquality #opentowork

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Research is a function of strategy.  "According to CB Insights, over 90% of all products fail, most commonly due to no market need." Leave yourself time to ask big questions about whether any actually needs your product or service before you decide to launch it. #UXstrategy #UXresearch #Marketresearch

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We asked industry leaders their book recommendations for new and experienced UX professionals. Check out our article for 10 books every UX leader should add to their summer reading list! ☀ 📚 ➡ https://lnkd.in/gkb7t8FS #summerreading #readinglist #UXleaders #UXprofessionals #BlinkUX #UX #leaders

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How to track UX research impact?   Mapping the impact of UXR on product development provides insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the UXR team. What is the state of the UXR practice in the organization? Jake Burghardt shares in his article a viewpoint in which he maps the impact on product development by identifying three levels of impact*:  𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 – providing new understanding that could shape multiple product decisions  𝗦𝘆𝗺𝗯𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 – providing data to support a decision in flight  𝗜𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹 – providing data that leads to an improvement of a concrete product/service     All three levels have their value. Examples Jake provides to clarify:  𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 - “After watching the overview on that customer type, I brought a different perspective to every meeting.” Or “That model and the insights behind it give us a lot to think about as we’re going into our next planning session.”    𝗦𝘆𝗺𝗯𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰 - “This research illustrates why our current plan addresses a real customer unmet need.” Or “We were planning on updating how we track beta feedback. Post-launch research also confirmed the need to revisit our process.”    𝗜𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹 - “Based on research insight X, we are designing and creating a plan for feature Y.” Or “We heard from customers that X was a real challenge. With feature Y, we’ve got you covered.”  How does this help?   By examining the product development cycle from foundation to validation, the UXR team can map the type of impact they have on each of the stages. Is there mainly symbolic justification at the start of a product? Or does the team impact conceptual knowledge that leads to strategic decisions?  Does validation lead to instrumental changes? Or mere symbolic justification? And what happens with the conceptual insights? Etc.   The different levels of impact can be matrixed to the basic stages of the product development process. This gives you an overview of where UX research impacts the process and where you should make adjustments to steer towards the desired situation.    Check out the full article for more details on how to map, the stages of product development, and the opportunities this can bring: https://lnkd.in/eS67gNGA   Thanks to Carol Rossi for sharing the article  #UserResearch #UXResearch #Impact #MeasuringImpact #UXR   *These categories are defined by a group of authors whose focus was on the impact of research on health policy. However, we can also apply these categories to product development. The full article contains more about the authors and links to their study. 

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🔍 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐲 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐬?   Dive into these 20 essential UX research methods to unlock deeper insights and create products that resonate! 🌟   From surveys and usability testing to eye tracking and field studies, this comprehensive guide covers everything you need to know. Start making data-driven design decisions today! 📈   Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/gemrckZw   #UXDesign #UserResearch #ProductDesign #CustomerExperience #Innovation #DesignThinking

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