Dear Nikki - A User Research Advice Podcast: Recent Episodes
Nikki Anderson-Stanier
Ever wish you could just ask a user research expert a question you were struggling with? Or share something you can't with your colleagues? In Dear Nikki, I answer all your questions and share advice on difficult situations in the user research world.
All calls are anonymized, but the advice is very real!
Please submit your questions here: https://anchor.fm/nikki-anderson-stanier/message
👋 Hey, Nikki here! Welcome to this month’s ✨free podcast ✨ of User Research Academy. Three times a month, I tackle reader questions about the ins and outs of user research through my podcast, and share super concrete tips and examples on user research methods, approaches, careers, or situations.
If you want to see everything I post, subscribe below!
Resources:
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Follow Vanessa on LinkedIn
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Evolving UXR for Greater Impact @ Great Research Event
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Join my membership!
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Submit a topic/question
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit userresearchacademy.substack.com/subscribe
Resources:
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Follow Kasia on LinkedIn
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Kasia’s recommended resources:
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Foundation Regiment that offers free online psychological consultations
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Basics of Trauma Informed Design
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Somatic Experiencing by Peter Levine
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"Deviate" by Beau Lotto
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“Stutz”
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Join my Membership!
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit userresearchacademy.substack.com/subscribe
👋 Hey, Nikki here! Welcome to this month’s ✨free podcast ✨ of User Research Academy. Three times a month, I tackle reader questions about the ins and outs of user research through my podcast, and share super concrete tips and examples on user research methods, approaches, careers, or situations.
If you want to see everything I post, subscribe below!
This is Dear Nikki’s first-ever user research membership spotlight, where I bring on user researchers from my membership to discuss their particular experiences on a given topic. For this episode, I spoke with Harmony on how to think about and choose user research tools for your team!
Resources:
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Harmony’s LinkedIn
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HUX Innovation
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Tooling Up for Success
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G2 User Research Tools
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Join my Membership!
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit userresearchacademy.substack.com/subscribe
👋 Hey, Nikki here! Welcome to this month’s ✨free podcast ✨ of User Research Academy. Three times a month, I tackle reader questions about the ins and outs of user research through my podcast, and share super concrete tips and examples on user research methods, approaches, careers, or situations.
If you want to see everything I post, subscribe below!
Resources:
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Six-month mentorship program
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User Research Membership
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Skills assessment sheet
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Failure journal
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Create a career plan
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Mistakes I’ve made as a UXR - part one & part two
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit userresearchacademy.substack.com/subscribe
👋 Hey, Nikki here! Welcome to this month’s ✨free podcast ✨ of User Research Academy. Each week I tackle reader questions about the ins and outs of user research through my podcast, and share super concrete tips and examples on user research methods, approaches, careers, or situations.
Resources:
-
Walk the store interviews
-
Continuous discovery
-
Submit a topic/question
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit userresearchacademy.substack.com/subscribe
👋 Hey, Nikki here! Welcome to this month’s ✨free podcast ✨ of User Research Academy. Three times a month, I tackle reader questions about the ins and outs of user research through my podcast and share super concrete tips and examples on user research methods, approaches, careers, or situations.
If you want to see everything I post, subscribe below!
Resources:
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Jira Product Discovery
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Six-month mentorship spots available
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Submit a topic
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit userresearchacademy.substack.com/subscribe
👋 Hey, Nikki here! Welcome to this month’s ✨free podcast ✨ of User Research Academy. Each week I tackle reader questions about the ins and outs of user research through my podcast and share super concrete tips and examples on user research methods, approaches, careers, or situations.
If you want to see everything I post, subscribe below!
Resources:
-
Submit a topic/question
-
Personal ReadMe example
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit userresearchacademy.substack.com/subscribe
👋 Hey, Nikki here! Welcome to this month’s ✨free podcast ✨ of User Research Academy. Each week I tackle reader questions about the ins and outs of user research through my podcast, and share super concrete tips and examples on user research methods, approaches, careers, or situations.
If you want to see everything I post, subscribe below!
Resources:
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2023 Salary Report
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Global UX Compensation Transparency Project
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Submit a question/topic
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit userresearchacademy.substack.com/subscribe
👋 Hey, Nikki here! Welcome to this month’s ✨free podcast ✨ of User Research Academy. Each week I tackle reader questions about the ins and outs of user research through my podcast, and share super concrete tips and examples on user research methods, approaches, careers, or situations.
If you want to see everything I post, subscribe below!
Resources:
-
Submit a topic/question
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Write a literature review
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Secondary resources list:
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Google Scholar: A great source of academic papers or reports by universities.
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ResearchGate: A handy resource for scientific or academic papers.
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ACM Digital Library: Has many scholarly peer-reviewed journals, particularly on information technology disciplines.
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Springer: Filled with scientific documents and books on many different topics.
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Wiley Online Library: Scientific and academic journals, articles, and books on a wide range of subjects.
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Forrester: Has insights on tending and essential marketing topics.
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Baymard: Filled with UX articles, UX Benchmarks, and research that helps make more informed design decisions.
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Voicebot: Trends and reports specifically on AI and Voice.
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Charity Choice: Free reports of charities in the UK.
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The Guardian's "What I'm Really Thinking" Series: Dives into the social science of what people in certain situations think or feel.
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Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) digital library: A repository of resources on computing research and practice.
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Journal of Usability Studies (JUS): A publication dedicated to exploring usability and other research-related topics
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Stanford d.school: Brings sources on a variety of topics when it comes to design and research
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MIT D-Lab: Dives into topics related to humanitarianism and other social causes
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit userresearchacademy.substack.com/subscribe
👋 Hey, Nikki here! Welcome to this month’s ✨free podcast ✨ of User Research Academy. Each week I tackle reader questions about the ins and outs of user research through my podcast, and share super concrete tips and examples on user research methods, approaches, careers, or situations.
If you want to see everything I post, subscribe below!
Resources:
-
How User Research Impacts the AARRR Metrics
-
Submit a topic/question
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit userresearchacademy.substack.com/subscribe
👋 Hey, Nikki here! Welcome to this month’s ✨free podcast ✨ of User Research Academy. Each week I tackle reader questions about the ins and outs of user research through my podcast, and share super concrete tips and examples on user research methods, approaches, careers, or situations.
Podcast resources:
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Surveys that work
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11 Usability Testing Metrics to Enrich Your Reporting
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Measure satisfaction without the NPS
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A Practical Guide to Measuring Usability
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Conduct a benchmarking study
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How to conduct a tree test
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Submit a question
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit userresearchacademy.substack.com/subscribe
👋 Hey, Nikki here! Welcome to this month’s✨free podcast✨ of User Research Academy. Each week I tackle reader questions about the ins and outs of user research through my podcast, and share super concrete tips and examples on user research methods, approaches, careers, or situations.
If you want to see everything I post, subscribe below!
Podcast resources:
-
Treat stakeholders like users
-
Submit a question
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit userresearchacademy.substack.com/subscribe
👋 Hey, Nikki here! Welcome to this month’s✨free podcast✨ of User Research Academy. Each week I tackle reader questions about the ins and outs of user research through my podcast and share super concrete tips and examples on user research methods, approaches, careers, or situations.
If you want to see everything I post, subscribe below!
In this episode, I discuss the recent posts I’ve been seeing on LinkedIn about layoffs and thinking about how we can approach some of these challenging situations together with an open, empathetic mindset
Submit a question!
Join my UXR membership
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit userresearchacademy.substack.com/subscribe
👋 Hey, Nikki here! Welcome to this month’s✨free podcast✨ of User Research Academy. Each week I tackle reader questions about the ins and outs of user research through my podcast and share super concrete tips and examples on user research methods, approaches, careers, or situations.
If you want to see everything I post, subscribe below!
In this episode, I discuss a slightly different approach to tracking impact at your organization by examining how your research can impact individual colleagues and decision-making.
Formulas I mentioned:
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(time saved) x (employee cost) x (# of employees) = cost savings
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(# of errors) x (avg. repair time) x (employee cost) x (# of employees) = cost savings
Submit a question!
Join my bi-weekly newsletter!
Join my UXR membership
Get full access to User Research Academy at userresearchacademy.substack.com/subscribe
In this episode, I talk through different approaches you can use to practice your user research skills in low-stakes environments to feel more confident using different methodologies
Resources:
Whiteboard challenge prompts
Join my UXR membership
Submit a question! (or email me at nikki@userresearchacademy.com)
Join my bi-weekly newsletter!
Get full access to User Research Academy at userresearchacademy.substack.com/subscribe
In this episode, I talk through the question of, when you are working with skilled PMs (or other stakeholders), who is meant to own discovery work?
Article with levels of support
Submit a question! (or email me at nikki@userresearchacademy.com)
Join my bi-weekly newsletter!
Join my UXR membership
In part two of this episode, I talk about the other five top mistakes I have made as a user researcher and how I shifted them into learnings
Submit a question! (or email me at nikki@userresearchacademy.com)
Join my bi-weekly newsletter!
Join my UXR membership
In part one of this episode, I talk about five (out of the ten) top mistakes I have made as a user researcher and how I shifted them into learnings
Resources:
- Treat stakeholders like users ebook
Submit a question! (or email me at nikki@userresearchacademy.com)
Join my bi-weekly newsletter!
Join my UXR membership
In this episode, I talk through how to think about creating research questions and then how that can help you choose an appropriate method!
Submit a question! (or email me at nikki@userresearchacademy.com)
Join my bi-weekly newsletter!
Join my UXR membership
In this episode, I answer a question about what to do if you need to conduct a field study in someone's home and also strategies if, for whatever reason, you aren't able to visit them in their home!
Submit a question! (or email me at nikki@userresearchacademy.com)
Join my bi-weekly newsletter!
Join my UXR membership
In this episode, I talk about recent UXR lay-offs and my recommendations for staying competitive in a tough market
Resources:
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Prioritizing user research projects
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Workshop facilitation webinar
Submit a question! (or email me at nikki@userresearchacademy.com)
Join my bi-weekly newsletter!
Join my UXR membership
In this episode, I answer a question/concern I have been hearing about a lot: will AI take over our job as user researchers? Spoiler: no :) listen to learn why!
Submit a question! (or email me at nikki@userresearchacademy.com)
Join my bi-weekly newsletter!
Join my UXR membership
In this session I talk through how I organize notetaking during research sessions and some actionable approaches you can try! I reference the affinity diagram I use during debriefing as a potential way to notetake as well!
Submit a question! (or email me at nikki@userresearchacademy.com)
Join my bi-weekly newsletter!
Join my UXR membership
In this episode, I talk through tips and best practices when you have a limited number of users you can engage with and are concerned about "UXR fatigue"
In this episode, I recommend the following resources:
- Prioritization Article + Template
- Walk the Store Interviews
- Rolling Research Programs
Submit a question! (or email me at nikki@userresearchacademy.com)
Join my bi-weekly newsletter!
Join my UXR membership
In this episode, I discuss the two main approaches to mixed methods research design and when a quantitative- versus qualitative-first approach is most applicable!
Submit a question! (or email me at nikki@userresearchacademy.com)
Join my bi-weekly newsletter!
Join my UXR membership
In this episode, I respond to a question about how to mitigate anxiety as a shy and introverted user researcher through assessing your interviews, practice, and being a research participant!
Submit a question! (or email me at nikki@userresearchacademy.com)
Join my bi-weekly newsletter!
Join my UXR membership
In this episode, I respond to a question about how to produce weekly insights and if you should really be striving to do that, as well as the difference between continuous discovery and continuous research
Submit a question! (or email me at nikki@userresearchacademy.com)
Join my bi-weekly newsletter!
Join my UXR membership
In this episode, I talk through the possibility of getting an MA (or PhD) and how to consider this for your next step. Check out the skills checklist I mention in the episode.
Submit a question! (or email me at nikki@userresearchacademy.com)
Join my bi-weekly newsletter!
Join my UXR membership
In this episode, I talk through if a research repository makes sense (and the questions to ask yourself to find this out) and, if it does, the importance of approaching a repository as a product!
Submit a question! (or email me at nikki@userresearchacademy.com)
Join my bi-weekly newsletter!
Join my UXR membership
Today I talk about how to fit user research into an agile environment (namely two-week sprints) through looking into four different research types and how they work on top of or within an agile framework
Resources:
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Join my UXR membership
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Create a user research roadmap:https://dscout.com/people-nerds/research-roadmap
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Design sprints & user research: https://dscout.com/people-nerds/design-sprints-ux-research
Submit a question! (or email me at nikki@userresearchacademy.com)
Join my bi-weekly newsletter!
I talk through some concrete tips of what you can do if you have downtime as a user researcher and still want to have impact across your teams and organization!
Resources:
- Rolling research programs
- Heuristic evaluations
- Benchmarking study
Submit a question! (or email me at nikki@userresearchacademy.com)
Join my bi-weekly newsletter!
Join my UXR membership
In this episode, I talk through the major struggles I had within my first job as a user researcher and how I overcame and worked through them
Resources:
- Join my UXR membership
- Check out my new mastermind series
- 6 Pillars of Effective Stakeholder Relationships
- Write compelling insights
- Comprehensive guide to UXR Workshops
Submit a question! (or email me at nikki@userresearchacademy.com)
Join my bi-weekly newsletter!
In this episode, I talk through my thoughts on impostor syndrome and how we can consider reframing our mindset on it.
Miroverse template -> https://miro.com/miroverse/failure-journal/?social=copy-link
Dealing with Impostor Syndrome as a UXR -> https://dovetailapp.com/blog/dealing-with-impostor-syndrome-as-a-user-researcher/
Submit a question! (or email me at nikki@userresearchacademy.com)
Join my bi-weekly newsletter!
Join my UXR membership
In this episode, I talk about the differences (or lack thereof 😉) between a UX researcher, user researcher, and design researcher
Submit a question! (or email me at nikki@userresearchacademy.com)
Join my bi-weekly newsletter!
Join my UXR membership!
In this episode, I talk through what internal testing is, when to use it, and when it might be a good idea to skip it!
Submit a question! (or email me at nikki@userresearchacademy.com)
Join my bi-weekly newsletter!
Join my UXR membership!
In this episode, I take a real-life example project about testing font styles and whether preference testing is a good fit for that particular project.
Resources
Visual testing article
Submit a question! (or email me at nikki@userresearchacademy.com)
Join my bi-weekly newsletter!
Join my UXR membership!
In this episode, I discuss my approach to service mapping (blueprint) workshops and how to run them!
Submit a question -> https://anchor.fm/nikki-anderson-stanier/message (or email: nikki@userresearchacademy.com)
Sign up for my UXR membership -> https://userresearchacademy.thrivecart.com/user-research-membership/
In this episode, I talk through my thoughts on freelancing as a UXR and how to navigate that space!
Chris Voth's Never Split the Difference
In this episode, I walk through my definition of a pure concept test, when and how I use them as well as the common misconceptions I see between concepts tests and other methodologies
Comparative usability article
In this episode, I talk through ways to approach a team who is "pre-definition" phase and really in a problem-definition space. I talk through strategies for setting yourself up for success so that you are helping to support your team and getting all the information you need to do very impactful research!
In this episode, I talk through strategies for working with colleagues who see you as an "expert" or "person with all the answers" - almost as if you are the actual "user."
Ideation workshop article
Heuristic evaluation article
Going a bit off-brand in the episode (no question, just a riff) about how important it is to own and build our research processes. You don't have to copy and paste something, you don't have to feel bad if the "ideal" research process doesn't work for you - in fact, it doesn't exist! I hope this helps and is inspiring!
Resources:
TEDW open-ended questions
Build your research process (+ template)
Feedback? nikki@userresearchacademy.com
In this episode, I tackle the question, "what do you do when you're working in a team with UX researchers who are not as competent?" and give very concrete strategies to make your team more open to feedback, as well as mechanisms to put into place for continuous feedback.
Resources:
-> Start a UXR Review
-> Start an Internal Mentorship Program
-> Interview assessment (+ template)
Hang out with me more:
Submit a question! (or email me at nikki@userresearchacademy.com)
Join my bi-weekly newsletter!
Join my UXR membership!
In this episode, I talk through strategies and tips of when and how to challenge stakeholders' plans and ideas, as well as the important difference between reactive and proactive research.
Submit a question! (or email me at nikki@userresearchacademy.com)
Join my bi-weekly newsletter!
Join my UXR membership!
In this episode I talk about tips on recruiting b2b participants and also how to utilize those participants to build a panel!
Participant calculator example -> Ethn.io
User Research Membership
Submit a question
In this episode I respond to how to answer a job interview question about working cross-departmentally as a user researcher and how to engage others in your research process.
STAR Method: https://www.themuse.com/advice/star-interview-method
Working cross-departmentally as a user researcher: https://dscout.com/people-nerds/user-research-across-departments
Intake document: https://dscout.com/people-nerds/user-research-request
Submit a question! Voice message link: https://anchor.fm/nikki-anderson-stanier/message
In this episode, I discuss how user researchers can better work with engineers/developers in a two-step process.
Resources:
User research summaries -> https://dscout.com/people-nerds/user-research-summaries
Collaborate with product teams -> https://dscout.com/people-nerds/product-team-collaboration
Submit your question! https://anchor.fm/nikki-anderson-stanier/message
In this episode, I talk through my step-by-step process in prioritizing different user research projects, especially as a user research team of one.
Resources:
User research intake document article + template: https://dscout.com/people-nerds/user-research-request
Prioritising user research projects article + template: https://dscout.com/people-nerds/prioritizing-user-research-projects
RICE model article: https://www.intercom.com/blog/rice-simple-prioritization-for-product-managers/
Submit your question! https://anchor.fm/nikki-anderson-stanier/message
Today's episode covers:
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How to get included in stakeholder rituals
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How to get UXR included in the process
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How to treat stakeholders as users
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How to know when it's time to move on
Resources:
Stakeholder negotiation tactics: https://dscout.com/people-nerds/ux-stakeholder-negotiation
Treat stakeholders as users: https://dscout.com/people-nerds/stakeholders-as-users
Improve your relationships with stakeholders: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwhcyEO9MHU
Rolling research program: https://dscout.com/people-nerds/rolling-research
Want advice? Submit your question here: https://anchor.fm/nikki-anderson-stanier/message
In this Dear Nikki episode, I introduce the concept behind the podcast, what it will look like, my goals and dreams for the podcast, and how you can be a part of it!
Submit a voice message here: https://anchor.fm/nikki-anderson-stanier/message
User Research Academy website: https://www.userresearchacademy.com/