Program Themes

Three days and three themes that advance research for you,
your team, and your organization

Theme 1: Advancing our Field

Curated by Chris Geison

As research and insight functions gain influence, we challenge ourselves to ask: to what end? Where do we want to go as a discipline? How do we use human insights to imagine new futures? How do we improve the rigor of our field without resorting to gatekeeping? This theme’s speakers explore growth, evolution, and trajectory of research as a field, and how these impact our work as practitioners, teams, and organizations.

Sessions (more to come)

Theme 2: Advancing Ourselves

Curated by Jem Ahmed

Advancing research is as much about pushing the boundaries of what our discipline is and whom we collaborate with as it is about methods and practices. This theme explores what the research practice of the future could look like. How does research connect with data science, market research, and other practices centered on learning about people? What lessons can we learn from adjacent fields? And how do we grow as researchers and evolve our work through difficult new terrain, like trauma informed understanding, non-researchers conducting research, and the need to embrace fully global views?

Sessions (more to come)

Theme 3: Advancing Our Practice

Curated by Jamika Burge

Research is now omnipresent. Every modern organization has a research practice, and with increased democratization of research comes a huge level of responsibility. That means we need to evolve to include new practices, while sticking to the core pillars that define good research. But, which practices are sacred and which need to be changed? How do we stay innovation-driven, yet focused on socially-relevant experiences? And how do we ensure the kinds of insights we’re generating are at once inclusive and representative? The solution is right in front of us: by celebrating the rigorous, human-centered focus that informs research practice, we can ensure responsible research and tell a more holistic story.

Sessions (more to come)

  • The Joys and Dilemmas of Conducting UX Research with Older Adults (Amanda Kaleta-Kott)
  • The challenge of familiarity: when users prefer poorly designed experiences (Paula Bach)
  • Advanced Concept Testing Approaches To Guide Product Development and Business Decisions (Michaela Mora)
  • The Art and Science of Interrupted UX (Marc Majers and Tony Turner)