dscout

Say hello to dscout’s AI-powered Analysis! ✨ Looking to speed up the analysis of your research, without making a quality tradeoff? Our AI Analysis generates summaries, identifies themes, and categorizes topics—so you can focus on extracting insights and driving impactful change. Learn more about it here: https://lnkd.in/g5Ped7jn

What does it look like to bring Research and Design together in a way that emphasizes collaboration and alignment across departments? Our Lauren Madura and Claire Ruggiero break it down with a discussion of PWDR (People Who Do Research).

If you've said any of these phrases this week, you might be a user researcher. Any other suggestions? Spin the playlist for your coworkers here 👉 https://lnkd.in/gntHtAbj h/t Anton Krotov for the inspo

Some of the most challenging pushback you'll experience as a researcher is emotional. If you find yourself in this situation, here's a quick tip: 💡Stick to numbers and being as rational as possible. In cases where people's emotions conflict with research results, it's usually because they're in charge of making sure the product is successful. And when insights show the opposite, defensiveness kicks in. Remind people that you're a team, and that the goal isn't to dwell on mistakes or place blame. You're doing what you're doing so everyone can learn and move forward towards a better place all together.

Everyone knows that the people you spend your time with make all the difference in how much you enjoy your (work) life. Tessa Lathrop is the best of the best when it comes to managers - empathetic, direct, supportive, and endlessly generous in sharing her product expertise to help her team members learn and grow. If you're a Senior PM with 4+ years of experience building customer-facing software for the web (B2B SaaS), check out this opportunity to join Tessa and the incomparably fun, thoughtful, and talented team at dscout in building great tools for user research. https://lnkd.in/eZHsQGKy

Some openings worth checking out. ⤵️ 🔎 WE'RE 𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐒𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐫 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐫. Remote | 🔗 https://bit.ly/3YeFSPi 🔎 SoFi 𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐒𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐫 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐟𝐟 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐞𝐫. Seattle, WA or NYC | 🔗 https://bit.ly/4cS9HtI 🔎 TikTok 𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐔𝐗 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫. Mountain View, CA | 🔗 https://bit.ly/4c3PrEk If you know of any other opportunities, link 'em in the comments.

If stakeholders keep resisting or avoiding calls for research outright, it might be worth going rogue. As long as you start small. From our experience with researchers, most organizations are tolerant enough that running an unsanctioned 10-participant project on a key issue is worth the potential blowback. There are obvious risks with this approach, and it helps to have some social capital ready for withdrawal. But if the impact of a quick and dirty research engagement speaks for itself, asking for forgiveness afterward can be a savvier play than waiting... And waiting… And waiting some more... for permission while poorly informed products keep shipping. 💡 When taking this chance, try writing questions likely to produce hyper-relevant short open-ended and selfie-style video answers. The goal with the responses isn't to create an enormous change overnight. But if they're startling enough, they can help create enough doubt in an influential assumption about customer behavior that further inquiry becomes a no-brainer.

There's TALKING about AI. And then there's USING AI. 🤖 Most people are doing the former while still trying to figure out the latter. Thankfully, Yaron Cohen isn't "most people." From designing test studies to strategic foresight and storyboarding, he broke down two tactical use cases with Nathan Reiff for applying GenAI to your own research. P.S. Our new AI analysis tools officially launched today in-platform. Just sayin'.

Imagine walking into a whiteboarding session where the board's already full. Imagine the trends in participant responses identified before ever sifting through them. Imagine making more sense of your moderated sessions with summaries automatically generated from key points in your conversations. If you're the chef, our AI functionality is your sous chef—helping you remove the busy work, keep the value work, and take your insights to the next level. Learn more about what our responsible AI brings to the table, and stay tuned for new features coming to our platform soon 👀 https://lnkd.in/g5Ped7jn

It's time to dismantle "us vs them" for researchers and designers. Here are some assumptions worth reframing: ❌ assumption: designers are a threat to researchers ✅ new perspective: designers are crucial research advocates ❌ assumption: designers need simple tools with guardrails to succeed ✅ new perspective: designers are experts at using complex tools ❌ assumption: designers only do research because it's "democratized" ✅ new perspective: research is a fundamental aspect of the design process The narratives we've constructed around researchers vs designers is that researchers are *allowing* designers to come into the fold. And this has left designers feeling like imposters who aren't trusted. It's not too late for us to question this narrative, stare our orthodoxies down, and ask ourselves: What are we trying to protect? What are we scared of losing or breaking? Taylor K. explores this idea more fully here 👉 https://bit.ly/3xOslU6