E005 - Vanessa Wiegel, Sr Director of UX and Human Factors Research at Motional

Grammarly is one of the early adopters of AI technology, and Jenny Lo spent years leading research there.In this episode of the UX Research Rundown podcast, Jenny shares many of her insights on working directly with engineering teams building AI/ML applications in a research role, and what you can take away from her experiences.Take a listen, and don't forget to hit the subscribe button!

In this episode Henrik chats with former researcher and current founder Savina Hawkins. Savina is a UX Researcher who worked closely with generative AI R&D teams at Meta, evaluating and ideating around experiences that leverage new language models and other generative AI applications.Today, Savina is building something new at the intersection of AI and UXR, and is one of the leading voices in the space.

While many researchers are only now dipping their toes into the world of AI, Jessa Anderson has been doing UXR on the technology for half a decade.At ServiceNow she leads up a team focused on how to appropriately integrate AI technologies into the workflow tools that ServiceNow builds for it's many large customers like Lowe's, KraftHeinz, and Siemens.Tune in to this episode and don't forget to give it a rating and review wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts!

The 3rd season of the UX Research Rundown is all about the intersection of AI and UX Research. With that in mind, there's no better person to kick off the season with than Jess Holbrook, who's the Director of UXR for AI at Meta. Meta is one of the top companies when it comes to AI development and adoption which gives Jess a unique lens into how AI will shape the future of our field.Take a listen, and don't forget to subscribe for more AI and UXR episodes!

In the latest rounds of layoffs and force reductions it feels like research has been disproportionately affected. Why is that the case? Claudia is Director of Research at Highspot, and her ability to mix research and business acumen has led her leadership team to see research as a critical asset, rather than a liability. If you're looking to reposition your team as critical to the organization's success, don't miss this episode!

In this episode, Henrik interviews Josh Williams, one of the research leaders at Indeed. Josh talks about differences in team culture between places like Bose and Indeed, and how that affects your strategy for engaging stakeholders in research. Developing trust between research and other teams is key to success, and Josh breaks down why in this conversation.

How are insights teams created, and is there more than one right way to get a research practice started? In this conversation, Henrik Mattsson is joined by two research leaders from Thinkific: Jeremy Bailey and Nadya Calderon. Together, they talk about the evolution of the research practice at Thinkific and previous roles and their strategies to engage their teammates.

John Cutler, renowned product leader and persona on Twitter, joins Henrik on the UX Research Rundown podcast for the first episode of season 2. In this episode John and Henrik talk about how research has evolved over the past 10+ years, and what the future holds for product-research collaboration.

In this episode Henrik chats with A’verria Martin, Chief of Staff and Head of Research Operations and Strategy at ServiceNow. They talk about her journey into leading research operations as well as the unique challenges of serving the research needs of a large enterprise. Scaling research impact, advice for up and coming researchers, and much more in the latest episode of the UX Research Rundown podcast.

In this episode Henrik interviews Vanessa Wiegel, Sr Director of UX and Human Factors Research at Motional. Vanessa has a unique background working on autonomous hardware products, currently and motional and previously at iRobot. Vanessa and Henrik talk about the challenges of working on hardware products, growing research teams, and why it’s important to remember to be kind to yourself as you try grow your impact as a researcher.