Great design and research leader articles from the summer
For some of you out there, you may have noticed it's been summer and we've taken a break.
Right now we're working on a guest list for season 2 of The UX Coach podcast. If you'd like to share your experiences and be a guest on the show get in touch with andy@theuxcoach.com.
In season 2 we want to explore the challenges with hiring the right people, getting hired, and what everyone is looking for in the important work-life balance.
Until then, here's some reading to get your eyes around, see you in a few weeks!
Creating the space for other people to do something useful
I have a little disliking for the term statistical significance. This article is reflecting on the futility that can come from the blind drive for evidencing your work.
https://complexwales.com/2015/01/11/creating-the-space-for-other-people-to-do-something-useful
The Power of Insights: A behind-the-scenes look at the new insights platform at Uber
Uber have gone and built their own research repository (because Uber) and are eager to boast about it. Etienne Fang details the process that resulted in Kaleidoscope. I promise you will be interested to read this, and sick of hearing about it by Christmas.
https://medium.com/uber-design/the-power-of-insights-a-behind-the-scenes-look-at-the-new-insights-platform-at-uber-26f85becc2e6
Building a Research Repo when you don’t know how
Hugo Froes has been working super hard for the ReOps community lately and put out this killer post on how to he got started on building a research repo that's going to last more than one project and shares things to keep in mind and look out for 🙏
https://medium.com/researchops-community/building-a-research-repo-when-you-dont-know-how-83f40d67d294
Why everyone does user research at Monzo
I was fortunate enough to meet Samantha Davies, User Research Lead last year as she was starting growth of the User Research capacity at the challenger bank Monzo. This story was great to read and the table of what they do during Discover, Design and Build Vs Optimisation is just fab.
https://monzo.com/blog/2019/05/30/everyone-does-user-research-at-monzo/
What do we mean by service design at Barnardo's?
This post comes from the fantastic duo of Davey and Amy have just embarked on some big things, introducing service design to one of the UK's longest running charities, in this post they explain the importance of communicating to the people who are delivering services how they are there to help them - not design them out of existence.
https://blog.barnar.do/what-do-we-mean-by-service-design-at-barnardos-c4b3db3caf5c
Content is service, service is content
If anyone can make me smile, it's Gerry McGovern. If you've had the pleasure of listening to him at a conference what you'll know is that Gerry has a way of saying how it is with mirth and candour. You are not alone.
http://gerrymcgovern.com/content-is-service-service-is-content/