Welcome to Growthmates with Kate Syuma — Growth advisor, previously Head of Growth Design at Miro. I’m building Growthmates as a place to connect with inspiring leaders to help you grow yourself and your product. Here you can learn how companies like Dropbox, Adobe, Canva, Loom, and many more are building excellent products and growth culture. Get all episodes and a free playbook for Growth teams on our brand-new website — growthamtes.club, and press follow to support us on your favorite platforms.

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In this episode, I chat with Jason Giles — a VP of Product Design at UserTesting.com. We dove into his journey, from working as an electronic musician to becoming a leader in the tech industry. Jason shares his unique story about transitioning into the UX field during his time at Microsoft, his experiences with design leadership, and how human-centered design became his foundation. We also dive into the importance of research, debunking 3 myths about its cost and time, and Jason’s insights into democratizing research within organizations.

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Key highlights from this episode 👇

- How Jason transitioned from music to UX design;- The role of human-centered design in successful products;- Revealing 3 myths about User Research and sharing actionable tips:

* Research takes a lot of time, it’s expensive, and we basically don’t have resources for that.

* Research doesn’t give any measurable impact and it’s impossible to to measure

* It’s risky to democratize research, as it can become a weapon in the “wrong” hands

- Quantifying the ROI of user experience research- Democratizing research across teams for better user insights—

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Where to find Kate Syuma, Growth Advisor (ex-Miro):

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ekaterina-syuma/

* Newsletter: katesyuma.substack.com

Where to find our guest — Jason Giles (VP of Product Design at UserTesting):

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaygiles/

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What we’ve covered in this episode:

[00:00] Introduction and welcome to the conference[00:07] Jason’s journey: From electronic musician to UX designer[00:20] Joining Microsoft and the early stages of his career in UX[03:00] Joining UserTesting and how the mission aligns with his personal goals[05:30] The myths about UX research and the challenges of starting with limited resources[09:30] Conducting research with minimal budget and engaging customers[12:41] Measuring the ROI of UX research[16:00] Case study: Saving $1.2 million by using validated designs[20:00] The role of democratizing research within teams[24:00] How leadership can support a user-centric mindset[26:30] Audience Q&A: Advice on how to involve the entire team in UX research[31:00] Final thoughts and closing remarks

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📕Useful Resources for User Research

* “The Holistic Growth Playbook" by Growthmates with insights from 100+ companies on Growth and UX: https://growthmates.club/playbook

* “The Design of Everyday Things” by Don Norman: https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Revised-Expanded/dp/0465050654

* UserTesting.com — the platform for user research to transform how you build products and experiences: https://www.usertesting.com/

* Advanced Techniques: Continuous Discovery by Aakash Gupta:

https://www.news.aakashg.com

🎙️ More Growthmates episodes on User Research

* Making Decisions with User Research from Startup to Scale-up | Behzod Sirjani (Advisor & Partner at Reforge, ex-Slack): https://katesyuma.substack.com/p/making-decisions-with-user-research

* Running UXR in Growth teams | Andrej Balaz (UXR at Miro):

https://katesyuma.substack.com/p/running-uxr-in-growth-teams-andrej-9df

* Driving a Positive Behavioural Change with Your Product | Amy Bucher (Lirio, Author of "Engaged"): https://katesyuma.substack.com/p/driving-a-positive-behavioural-change

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Revealing 3 myths about User Research and start easy | Jason Giles (VP of Product Design at UserTesting)

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