Klub Polytama: The user in disguise

You can't serve everyone unless you serve everyone

We recently caught up with Dr. Stacey Housten II to learn more about the work of Instagram's Equity product team. He shares advice on how to navigate obstacles that come with working in this "cutting-edge" space (though unfortunate that it's still seen as such) and how to orient people to the problems you're trying to solve.

DEFINE "FAIR"

Results from last week's community poll (n = 251)

Which of the following do you use most often as part of your research practice or process?

44.2% | Miro

26.3% | FigJam

13.5% | Mural

9.6% | A collaboration tool not listed here

6.4% | I don't use tools like these as part of my practice

Whooo are u(sers)?

There's an important group of users that are often overlooked…your stakeholders. While they may not be users of your product, they are users of your research. To better collaborate and empathize with this critical group, try setting up 1:1 interviews and use their goals to inform your work.

WHO WHO?

Designers…ASSEMBLE! 📣

We're looking for folks to partner with our team to explore how we can adapt and build tools to support designers' participation in research.

You'll be at the forefront of exploration, providing intel for research processes, testing concepts, and shaping our offerings to better address the needs of designers. Want to get involved? Apply to the council!

I think we can deputize everyone we work with to be a human-centered designer; we don't have to be this specialist in the ivory tower. Everyone can do this. We can and should give them the tools to do it.

Krys Blackwood

Principal User Experience Designer

READ MORE

More we're discussing:

Let's pause, rewind, and revisit a user research staple…the usability test. Brush up on your approach to this method with this step-by-step guide.
Instead of tossing one research concept around in your head forever, start workshopping as many ideas as possible with a design sprint.

What we're hearing:

How might we make listening to users a professional standard? Maike Kip has some examples from the government and policy spaces.
Many companies are shifting to a product-led growth strategy to scale and innovate. Carlos Villaumbrosia has a breakdown of the approach.

dscout is a company composed of People Nerds working to make context-rich human insight an everyday habit across organizations.

The dscout platform—Diary, Live, Recruit, and Express—enables remote qualitative research that brings researchers into the moments experienced and shared by real people.

Curious about the platform or working with dscout? Talk to an account executive.