ReDesigning Wellbeing for Equitable Care in the Workplace

Monthly or even quarterly well-being sessions on caring for your mental heath aren’t enough to create inclusive and supporting workplace environments. In the teams that we cultivate and work with, there needs to be a foundation of care and autonomy that is integrated into the workflow. Equitable well-being should be at the core of creating an inclusive workplace and user experience for your customers and employees. In this interactive talk, we’ll explore the themes of capitalism, hierarchy, classism, and other harmful realities of inequity that hinder true equitable well-being in the workplace to better the employee experience.

We’ll dive deep into how to reimagine a workplace framework and environment that is grounded in overall well-being and inclusion. Through this, you’ll walk away with the knowledge and tools to push toward a dynamic of a more speculative and imaginative future that can be more freeing, and aligned with the well-being of people and all inhabitants, including the land, that can enable contribution to a healthier cyclical work environment.

[Demo] The AI edge: From researcher to strategist

In this talk, I’ll delve into how AI has helped to catapult me from a researcher to a strategist—a “super researcher” if you like. AI tools have streamlined my research processes, enhanced stakeholder communication, and freed up more time for strategic thinking. I’ll demonstrate how rapid data synthesis and efficient communication via AI have led to faster project turnarounds, allowing me to have better relationships with stakeholders and giving me more time to think and move more strategically in my company. We’ll illustrate the significant time-saving advantages of AI integration in UX research, positioning it as a crucial tool for staying ahead in a fast-paced tech world.

Takeaways

• Strategies for using AI to expedite UX research processes
• Techniques for leveraging AI in enhancing stakeholder communication
• Insights into transforming data analysis into strategic UX decision-making
• Demonstration of the efficiency of AI in UX project turnaround
• Understanding of AI’s role in maintaining agility in fast-paced tech environments
• Practical tips on integrating AI tools into UX research workflows

Democratization: Working with it, not against it [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]

Perhaps no word is more likely to get researchers agitated than “democratization.” The debate about democratization is vigorous, though verging on pointless: it’s here and unlikely to be dialed back. And other research functions are talking to customers, running surveys, and conducting A/B testing.

In this community workshop, we take a step back and take a broader look at the field of insight. With viewpoints honed in data analytics, market research, and user research, our panelists discuss how democratization has been made to work effectively in their fields for quite some time, and what we can do to imagine a future beyond the debate.

Attend all of our Advancing Research community workshops

Each free virtual workshop is made up of panelists who will share short provocations on engaging ideas to discuss as a group, as well as a leader in our field to moderate. If you’re looking for discussions that challenge the status quo and can truly advance research, look no further than our workshop series. (P.S. We’ll be drawing most of our Advancing Research 2025 conference speakers from those who present at upcoming workshops—so tune in for a sneak peek of what’s to come from #AR2025!)

Collaboration: learning from other fields beyond our own [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]

For the best part of 15 years, user researchers have been experimenting with how to collaborate and join up insights and practices with data analytics, market research, CX, and more.

As ad hoc and sometimes structural collaborations start to become the norm, we will be taking a step back and asking ourselves…

• As we become more joined up are there still fundamental differences between market and user researchers?
• Are we becoming people who just do research? And if we are, what does that mean for our field?
• Where should the balance lie between generalization and specialization?
• And what might happen if we look to collaborate and learn outside of our own insight-generating field, and start collaborating with communities beyond our walls?

Attend all of our Advancing Research community workshops

Each free virtual workshop is made up of panelists who will share short provocations on engaging ideas to discuss as a group, as well as a leader in our field to moderate. If you’re looking for discussions that challenge the status quo and can truly advance research, look no further than our workshop series. (P.S. We’ll be drawing most of our Advancing Research 2025 conference speakers from those who present at upcoming workshops—so tune in for a sneak peek of what’s to come from #AR2025!)

Scale Smart: AI-Powered Content Organization Strategies

Keeping large content repositories organized is an ongoing challenge. There’s always new stuff coming in, and taxonomies evolve over time. Resource-strapped teams seldom have opportunities to re-categorize older content.

It’s a task well-suited for generative AI. Large language models have powerful capabilities that can help teams keep content organized at scale. Using LLMs in this capacity can lead to better user experiences and free team members to focus on more valuable efforts.

This presentation explores two approaches for using LLMs to organize content at scale: 1) re-categorizing content using existing categories and 2) developing new categories from existing content. Both will be shown as proofs of concept alongside feasible next steps.

Communication: Innovative techniques for making your voice heard [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]

Insights wither and die when they gather dust on a shelf. Join us as we workshop innovative communication practices that ensure the voice of the user is recognized and acted upon at senior levels within the organization. In this session, our speakers explore strategies that extend beyond traditional tools like presentations, readouts, and workshops. Let’s work together to make insights meaningful and actionable!

Attend all of our Advancing Research community workshops

Each free virtual workshop is made up of panelists who will share short provocations on engaging ideas to discuss as a group, as well as a leader in our field to moderate. If you’re looking for discussions that challenge the status quo and can truly advance research, look no further than our workshop series. (P.S. We’ll be drawing most of our Advancing Research 2025 conference speakers from those who present at upcoming workshops—so tune in for a sneak peek of what’s to come from #AR2025!)

Methodologies: Beyond the interview [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]

Researchers are being asked to help address challenges that are increasingly complex, strategic, and high-stakes. Our toolkit of methods needs to keep up with those challenges, as does our confidence and comfort with choosing, using, and combining those methods. Our Methods panelists will describe some of the exciting techniques they’re applying in their work, and discuss how they’ve overcome barriers to enriching their UXR toolkits.

Attend all of our Advancing Research community workshops

Each free virtual workshop is made up of panelists who will share short provocations on engaging ideas to discuss as a group, as well as a leader in our field to moderate. If you’re looking for discussions that challenge the status quo and can truly advance research, look no further than our workshop series. (P.S. We’ll be drawing most of our Advancing Research 2025 conference speakers from those who present at upcoming workshops—so tune in for a sneak peek of what’s to come from #AR2025!)

A New Vantage Point: Building a Pipeline for Multifaceted Research(ers)

The world is evolving. By 2044 the U.S. will be a majority-minority population. Africa and India are projected to fuel the world’s population growth over the next 30 years. With demographics shifting under our feet, how will we generate accurate and relevant insight if the interpreters are not cultural natives to the new demographic mix. This presentation will explore strategies to create pipelines for the next, most diverse generation to have open pathways and onramps to the next chapter of research, insights, and innovation.

AI: Passionate defenses and reasoned critique [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]

AI adoption is rapidly accelerating in the insights space, and researchers are rushing to explore the possibilities and pitfalls it presents. Without a doubt, it will change the nature of our work, but where do we stand now? Our panelists will examine passionate defenses for the value of AI, offer reasoned critiques, discuss practical applications, and discuss how we can collectively move forward in an ethical and human-centered manner.

Attend all of our Advancing Research community workshops

Each free virtual workshop is made up of panelists who will share short provocations on engaging ideas to discuss as a group, as well as a leader in our field to moderate. If you’re looking for discussions that challenge the status quo and can truly advance research, look no further than our workshop series. (P.S. We’ll be drawing most of our Advancing Research 2025 conference speakers from those who present at upcoming workshops—so tune in for a sneak peek of what’s to come from #AR2025!)

Industry junctures: Paths forwards for UXR and the critical decisions that get us there [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]

There has been considerable discussion about impending reckonings and large-scale changes in our field. Our panelists explore what we believe to be the three most important tenets of these changes:

1. The changing power dynamics between researcher and the researched
2. What it means to expand the definition of researcher to include people who do research
3. The convergence of different insight fields

Together, let’s unpack the possible futures ahead of us and the critical decisions we, as a field, need to make in order to move forward.

Attend all of our Advancing Research community workshops

Each free virtual workshop is made up of panelists who will share short provocations on engaging ideas to discuss as a group, as well as a leader in our field to moderate. If you’re looking for discussions that challenge the status quo and can truly advance research, look no further than our workshop series. (P.S. We’ll be drawing most of our Advancing Research 2025 conference speakers from those who present at upcoming workshops—so tune in for a sneak peek of what’s to come from #AR2025!)