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Thursday, December 16th 2021 | 1pm PT/4pm ET

The traditional ways of hiring people into research and insight careers pose significant challenges in attracting the best industry talent. In our community survey, we heard concerns about the lack of consistent standards in user research education, unclear and unarticulated requirements for entry level roles, and lack of structured, industry-wide career progression ladders. These issues can make it hard to recruit diverse talent and ensure inclusivity of career experiences in our field. If we are to embrace the full potential of the talents available to us, we must get better at assessing, understanding, and elevating talent.

In this session, Joseph Williams, CEO of bias-mitigation technology company, Included.AI, and three recent entrants into the research and insights field will share their lived experiences of starting out in their research careers. They will discuss the current opportunities, challenges and pitfalls of seeking a job in research as well as the steps we can collectively take to improve them.

About our speakers:

Joseph Williams is a democracy campaigner and is recognized as a thought leader in the inclusion and diversity space with a focus on LGBTQ, Disability, and Social Mobility issues. For the past six years, Joseph has focused his career on creating technology to better society. So far, he has led the development of: a standardized career development framework for educators; the first early years mental health / EQ gamified learning tool for children; and is currently building an ethical and unbiased prioritization AI. He is Co-Founder of ParaPride, the LGBTQ disability charity, Founder of Included.AI, a social mobility technology disruptor, sits on the boards of Think Equal, the global early years education campaign, Chairs the Advisory Board of The Mentoring Lab, the first career exploration platform for children, and is Kings College London’s inaugural Activist-in-Residence.

Nepunnee (Neh-pun-nee) Birondo is a California native and Bay Area professional of over 15 years, evolving from design to UX research. Currently located in Istanbul, Turkey, where she has recently completed a qualitative research study for UsabilityHub, she’s enjoying long walks along the Bosphorus while discovering she cannot read children’s books despite all those hours learning the language online.

Matt Readman is a freelance user research consultant and is taking his early steps in the industry having previously worked as a project manager, business analyst, and designer in adjacent industries. Matt holds an MSC in Web Development from Edinburgh Napier University. He has a strong interest in usability research—particularly in start up and scale up technology companies—and practices both qualitative and quantitative research methods. In his free time Matt enjoys skateboarding (poorly!), video games, and sports.

Allison Ngo is a Bay Area-based design researcher with a background in product management and business analysis. She has always been passionate about human-centered design and decided to make the leap to design research so she can focus on understanding and solving human needs and pain points full-time. Outside of work, she loves dabbling in different types of crafts (currently taking pottery classes), going hiking, and spending time with her two cats.