Research The Researcher S01C11 feat Daniel Klein
Name and a brief intro about yourself…
My name is Daniel Klein and I am a product designer based in San Francisco, California.
Outside of my day job I enjoy hiking, reading, and volunteering at local non-profits.
Current place of work
Collective Health
Designation/role/title
Product Designer
What you up to? (any interesting work or project you want to talk about)
Collective Health is the first integrated solution that allows self-funded employers to administer plans, control costs, and take care of their people — all in one place.
My role at Collective Health is focused solely on building internal products that enable our operations teams to effectively administer our healthcare plans and answer member inquiries.
While I can’t discuss any projects in detail, two aspects of my work that I’m particularly excited about are:
1. Co-designing healthcare administration products alongside expert users that will challenge current software that was developed in the 80s.
2. Helping to build our design team’s internal design language system and improving productivity using Sketch plugins. Sketch Runner and Anima Toolkit are two of my personal favourites.
How and Why did you get into User Research?
I was introduced to User Research in a college course taught by Erin Muntzert and Stephanie Lewis. They both taught me the importance of active listening during interviews and creating a well thought out discussion guide.
Two pieces of advice Erin and Stephanie taught me that I still use to this day are asking “why” five times to fully understand an interviewee’s answer to your question and leaving five seconds of silence before asking the participant another question.
These techniques might seem awkward at first but will help you get the most out of your research sessions.
One book recommendation for those who want to get started in User Research (can also be a book which you often refer to)
I always recommend “Just Enough Research” by Erika Hall to anyone who is interested in learning more about User Research. The book summarizes why User Research is valuable, how to get buy-in at your organization to conduct User Research and effective tools you can use during interviews.
What skills do you look for when hiring Researchers? (or what skills you think Researchers should have)
The most effective User Researchers I have worked with have a knack for telling the stories about the people they interviewed in a relatable manner and distilling down complex topics into actionable insights.
What value does User Research add to Product Design & Development? (if any examples where User Research created an impact, that would be great)
User Research helps remind teams who they are designing for and the impact their decision making will have on their day to day lives.
If User Research is not prioritized from the beginning of the design process it will be more than likely that vast amounts of time and money will be spent building something that the world does not need.
How is User Research structured at your place of work? (is it that researchers are embedded into products or called for as and when the demand arises)
At Collective Health a majority of our User Researchers are focused on products our members directly interact with such as our web portal or mobile application.
Since the people I am designing for are internal stakeholders only, I am usually playing the role of both the designer and researcher. As you might imagine, there are many more barriers to getting one of our members in the building than me walking up a flight of stairs to ask one of our operations associates a question!
How do you grow as a Researcher? (what should Researchers do to stay valuable)
As a researcher, it is always valuable to find new ways to improve how you conduct your research and communicate findings.
For example, at Collective Health, our user research team has established a practice of hosting lunch and learns to inform the larger organization about key findings from their work along with sending an executive summary via email.
What are the sources of info which you follow to stay updated in the field of User Research (can be people you follow on Medium/LinkedIn/Twitter, Websites, Publications, etc)
UX Planet, UX Collective, and Practical Service Design are three of my favourite Medium publications that publish articles about user research. I also enjoy readings Erika Hall’s articles on Medium.
Thanks, Daniel for the wonderful insights! Daniel is on LinkedIn.
Past Conversations with fellow Researchers —
