Erin and Carol are joined by Emily Wurgler, Global Director of Experience Design at McDonald's, whose journey has had many moments of evolution and iteration. She started as an academic researcher in sociology, transitioned to innovation research at growth stage companies, and ultimately to her leading enterprise research and design teams.

Emily talks about the unique value researchers bring to design leadership, how she's had to adapt her approach, and explains how product experiences are iterated and improved at large companies with a strong design-research partnership. Emily also shares how she's preparing her team of designers for the future of UX work and the characteristics she looks for in a new hire.

Highlights

• 07:30 Essential User Understanding for Product Success
• 13:50 Identifying Users for McDonald's Enterprise Products
• 24:38 Developing Innovative Product Solutions for Shift Leadership
• 30:46 Balancing Innovation with Existing Workflow Challenges
• 34:56 Cultivating Patience and Persistence for Organizational Change
• 39:05 Ranking Four Attributes: A Favorite Interview Question

About Emily
Emily Wurgler is the Global Director, Experience Design at McDonald's. She has over a decade of research experience at places like PeaPod Labs, dscout, and Over the Shoulder. She has a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Indiana.

Resources

• UX Designer's Guide to Research
• Working in Design Research Consulting
• Design Thinking for Better Partnerships

Few companies are most closely associated with UX design right now than Figma, which not only helps designers get their work done, but serves as a bridge for others to get more involved in the process. Erin and Carol are joined by Andrew Hogan, Figma's Head of Insights, to explore the nature of collaboration today and how the structure of that collaboration can impact our ability to effect UX change.

Andrew shares some of his team's own research on design collaboration, from how it's changed, what still needs improving, and how UX professionals can collaborate better. This includes the growing and evolving impact of AI. He also talks about what he learned during his recent parental leave—including the pervasiveness of screens—and how he's applying that learning to his own team.

Highlights

• 11:13 Design's Role in Software and Team Collaboration
• 18:01 Diverse Methods for Sharing Research Insights
• 20:46 Uncertain Future of AI: Expectations Reset
• 24:34 AI's Impact on Productivity and Team Collaboration
• 29:49 Overcoming Challenges: Standing Out in Content Saturation
• 33:05 Perceptions of Change: Exploring Role Spikiness

About Andrew
Andrew Hogan conducts research on the design industry and design practices to figure out what’s happening. He love anecdotes, anecdata and data. He also likes to write and speak about what he finds, sometimes in the form of jokes and is occasionally quoted by places like Fast Company, WSJ, Forbes, CNN, Business Insider, AdAge, CIO.com and Tech Republic. In the past he authored/co-authored 50+ Forrester reports about design, UX, CX and the design industry, and created CX certification training modules on journey mapping and data/AI + design.

Resources

• A Designer's Guide to UX Research
• Product x Research Collaboration Report
• The 2024 AI in UX Research Report

Change is an important and inevitable part of developing as a user experience professional. But what does change look like when it happens at the organizational level? That is the focus of this episode, featuring Graham Gardner, VP of UX Design Research Operations at U.S. Bank. He joins Erin and Carol to talk about change management, which is the practice and process of evolving and adapting a company's approach to something.

Graham takes us inside his strategy for this, including how team structures can affect change (and their impact on research tooling). He also unpacks just how important Research Operations (ReOps) is to planning, executing, and managing change at an organizational level. Finally, Graham looks ahead to the impacts of AI and how he believes it might help teams like CX, analytics, and marketing work together better.

If you've ever wondered about how companies grow and develop, and how these developments can impact user insights, check it out.

Highlights

• 08:16 Enhancing Collaboration through Transparent Tool Mapping
• 14:37 Harmonizing AI and Human Roles for Success
• 20:44 From Projects to Service Design: A Strategic Shift
• 23:46 Research Insights: Steering Through Complexity for Success
• 28:40 Integrating Research into Client Relationship Strategies
• 31:37 Insights from Backgrounds: Decoding Environmental Cues

About Graham
Graham Gardner, VP of UX Design Research Operations at U.S. Bank, is a researcher, designer, strategist, and maker. He brings a human-centered design lens to research ops (thanks to a long stint at IDEO and a background in inclusive education research). He works to collaboratively and iteratively understand and design research and design ecosystems that grow and evolve with the changing contexts of our beautifully messy world and the people that live in it. Conversations with Graham usually involve dad jokes, dog cameos, and snack breaks.

More Resources

• Guide to UX Research Strategy
• AI in UX Research Report
• The Importance of Research Operations