Decoding Culture: A Lens for Research Breakthroughs with Neil Barrie
In the latest episode of the Rosenfeld Review, Lou sits down with Neil Barrie, the co-founder and CEO of TwentyFirstCenturyBrand, to delve into the intriguing intersection of brand building, culture, and user experience research. Neil, an outsider in the realm of user research, brings a fresh perspective from the world of brand research; you can hear more from him at the Advancing Research 2024 conference in New York City, March 25-26.
Neil emphasizes the need for researchers to adopt a cultural lens when designing product experiences. Drawing from his extensive experience working with influential brands like Airbnb, Bumble, Headspace, and others, Neil suggests that by understanding and leveraging wider cultural factors, researchers can break free from the incremental nature of product development and create more memorable, distinctive, and influential brands.
The conversation touches upon the “wind tunnel effect,” where products and services, much like cars in the 90s, risk becoming efficient but less distinctive. Neil argues that by paying attention to cultural factors and experiences, researchers can uncover breakthroughs that go beyond the interchangeable norms of the industry.
Neil’s insights highlight the transformative potential of cultural understanding in user research, offering researchers a valuable lens to navigate the ever-evolving landscape of product experiences.
What You’ll Learn from this Episode:
– The importance of adopting a cultural lens in user research to achieve breakthroughs
– The concept of the “wind tunnel effect” and its impact on product development
– Examples from brands like Pinterest, showcasing the power of cultural understanding in shaping user experiences
– The dialogue mapping technique for evaluating how brands communicate certain themes and how people perceive them
Quick Reference Guide:
[0:11] – Lou’s introduction of Neil Barrie
[3:03] – A discussion on the wind tunnel effect in research
[4:24] – Frameworks for understanding culture
[5:41] – Examples from Pinterest
[11:29] – Plug for Advancing Research 2024
[13:23] – The tools of a brand strategy expert
[17:18] – One challenge, multiple perspectives
[19:29] – Reconciling disconnects in research
[22:00] – The qualities needed for this type of research
[24:13] – Neil’s gift for the audience
Unleashing Swarm Creativity to Solve Enterprise Challenges
Enterprises, even those with mature design practices, find it difficult to tap into the creativity of all of its workforce. Yet unleashing that broad creativity is now needed more than ever as success of teams depends on having the nimbleness of an ant farm to adapt and find their way around obstacles. Enterprise design processes, systems and ops are often tied to old top-down command/control organizational models. Design Swarms is an approach that has been used and adopted by teams within companies like Amazon, Amgen, Autodesk, Callison, Deutsche Bank, Lilly, T-Mobile, Microsoft, and REI to unleash swarm creativity at scale.
What emerging methods are advancing UX research [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series] (Videoconference)
Four of your research colleagues discussed and defended their respective positions on what emerging methods are advancing UX research. Participants engaged with them in a discussion and Q&A, facilitated by Victor Udoewa.
“Thanks to online culture, we have all become savvy content creators, alert to meanings. But while the user can tell you what they like, semiotics unlocks the system of imagery, narratives and environments that makes them think that way, showing brands how to be distinctive and credible.”
– Soma Ghosh & Rob Thomas
“Using AI for the “science” of user research (data collection, analysis) leaves you with more time to devote to the “art” of it—drawing connections only you could draw, telling stories that resonate in a way only you can.”
– Savina Hawkins
“The value of User Research is easily missed (dismissed) if our colleagues don’t come out from behind their computers or down from their 47th-floor office, and join us in talking to the people using their products or experiencing their services. There is no such thing as second-hand empathy.”
– Dave Hoffer
2022: The Year UX Demonstrates its Business Impact
UX professionals have seen the demand for research rise in the last year, but demonstrating the business value of UX remains a challenge because organizations aren’t using the right success metrics.
In this session, we’ll reveal how the mindset around measuring UX has evolved, how innovative UX teams solve the challenge, and what you can do to evolve your own measurement strategy.
The Business Model Canvas – The Human-Centered Way
The business model canvas is a classic tool for organizing the various aspects of your product or solution. We want to share how we use this tool in a human-centered way at Nationwide to generate research plans that lead us to creating delightful solutions for our users.
AI as Infrastructure
Dan Hill is the director of the Melbourne School of Design at the University of Melbourne, and author of Dark Matter and Trojan Horses: A Strategic Design Vocabulary and Designing Missions. And he’s the opening speaker at the inaugural Designing with AI 2024 conference, where he’ll be presenting “Designing for the Infrastructures of Everyday Life”.
Like it or not, AI is a growing part of our infrastructure—not just the infrastructure of our phones, our computers, and the internet—but that of our physical world. It’s increasingly used to support the very fundamental systems that maintain our cities, hospitals, utilities, and educational systems. On some levels, this is cause for concern. After all, we’ve seen other implementations of AI (think riding-sharing services) that have not lived up to their promise but have instead aggravated some of the problems they sought to address.
Dan is a big-picture guy with an ability to draw principles from history and other sectors. He understands that utilizing AI is inevitable. The challenge is recognizing the interconnectedness of our various systems and working together to build infrastructures that truly create better life experiences for all.
What You’ll Learn from this Episode:
- The many facets of infrastructures
- How AI is currently being used and how it might be used in the future to support our infrastructures
- Why ride-sharing is not exactly an AI model worth repeating
- Why the Japanese and Finnish models work well in those environments but aren’t necessarily transferable to more diverse cultures
- Why quality of life will only improve with a more holistic, integrated design approach
Quick Reference Guide
0:37 – Introduction of Dan
3:49 – AI as infrastructure
8:30 – How AI might be used to further support infrastructure systems
12:09 – Will the impact of AI actually make life better?
18:59 – Plug for Managing Priorities by Harry Max. Get 15% off!
20:15 – The metaphor of designing looking through a lens and technology’s impact on the material world
26:16 – Helpful models – the Japanese and Finnish cultures
31:52 – Dan’s gift to the audience
What UX research can learn from other research practices [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series] (Videoconference)
Three of your research colleagues discussed and defended their respective positions (below) on what UX research can learn from other research practices. Participants engaged with them in a discussion and Q&A, facilitated by Brianna Sylver.
“UX research is inherently future-oriented. An anthropology of the future can offer more distinguished and nuanced ways to explore the meaning of users’ expectations, anticipations, hopes, and speculations.”
– Nicole Aleong
“UX research should learn more from market research, a larger and more mature field in which it has roots. Market research is a multidisciplinary field with an extensive collection of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies that have been used to support product development decisions to deliver business outcomes for decades—no need to reinvent the wheel.”
– Michaela Mora
“UX research is often viewed as cute, charming and ‘nice to have.’ For that perception to change in the market, we need to learn from those charging millions of dollars for their strategic research skills: management consultants.”
– Prayag Narula
Donna Lichaw on Leadership Superpowers and Kryptonite
Not too long ago, Donna Lichaw, author of The User’s Journey, was helping companies solve product problems by organizing the experience of a product or service into a narrative arc where the user is the hero.
Then she ran into a question that she couldn’t shake — a question that, once answered, would morph her business from product development to leadership development. The question unveiled a people problem rather than a product problem.
“We don’t have problems bringing products into the world. We have problems getting along with everyone, feeling good about our work, building team morale, dealing with internal fighting. We’ve been helping our customers be heroes. How can I be a hero?”
Over seven years of researching how to help leaders be heroes, she found inspiration in a variety of places, including Gestalt therapy, narrative therapy, and executive and somatic coaching.
Her conclusion can be found in her new book, The Leaders Journey: Transforming Your Leadership to Achieve the Extraordinary. Think of the book as a map for people to become the natural leaders they already are and can be through a process of radical acceptance that leads to real, lasting change. People grow into superhero leaders when they fully embrace themselves — strengths and weaknesses.
Donna’s approach to leadership is a refreshing departure from the typical advice of talk louder, take up more space, and listen more. This is a different — a journey that is unique to each individual.
• Discover your superpowers. When you’re not leveraging your superpowers at work, you’re not as powerful as you could be. When you contain your superpowers, you’ll feel sad, depressed, and restricted.
• Know your kryptonite too. When you understand the “why” behind your weaknesses, you’ll often find a superpower underneath. By embracing your quirks and appreciating how they serve you, you’ll open yourself to insights about how to move forward.
What you’ll learn from this episode:
• Why Donna felt compelled to transition her business into leadership coaching
• About the two books Donna has written for Rosenfeld Media
• Why one-size-fits-all leadership programs are a dead end
• How appreciating your weaknesses can lead to self-discovery and growth
Quick Reference Guide
[0:00:51] Introduction of Donna Lichaw and a brief summary of her book The User’s Journey
[0:02:23] About the origins of The Leader’s Journey: Transforming Your Leadership to Achieve the Extraordinary, Donna’s new book
[0:03:10] Donna recalls leading a workshop that raised an important question
[0:07:44] Looking for inspiration and resources to answer the question, “How can I be a hero?”
[0:11:24] Finding value in everything, yet recognizing what is less helpful
[0:13:57] Dealing with leadership stereotypes and churn
[0:19:10] Enterprise UX 2023
[0:21:15] All leaders have superpowers and kryptonite
[0:26:06] Leaning into your personal kryptonite
[0:30:25] How the adult film industry and literary smut fit into all of this
[0:35:06] Donna’s gift for listeners – access to her work!
Figure It Out: Getting from Information to Understanding
Authors Stephen P. Anderson and Karl Fast discuss the complex world of information (think incomprehensible tax policies to confusing medical explanations) we are faced with, and the ways in which information can be transformed into better presentations, better meetings, better software, and better decisions. Stephen also shares a personal anecdote about part of the inspiration for the book.
Closing Keynote: Getting giants to dance – what can we learn from designing large and complex public infrastructure?
Airports are vital pieces of national infrastructure. They cost billions, and can take decades to design and deliver. We expect them to meet the day to day needs of millions of users, operate totally reliably, survive changing climate conditions, whilst providing a return on investment for their owners and operators. Stephen Pollard from Arup will explore the past present and future of a major airport in London, looking at challenges and successes to understand how best to manage design at the nexus of people, process, technology, and large complex assets.
