Session: The most important tool in a researcher’s toolkit: Listening skills
More often than not, we listen just enough to go by in the conversations. Just heard enough to find a pointer so we could speak in meetings. Just heard enough to find a commonality so we could share our stories in friendships. Just heard enough to get a signal to get our work done. As a user experience researcher for top companies, namely Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn and Intuit, I’ve spent a decade moderating hundreds of interviews with participants to uncover how people think about a product and how their real-life context impacts how they use a product. Listening skills have formed 90% of those moderations.
Bio
Anshul is a UXR manager at Intuit. She developed a background in psychology and behavioral science during her Masters at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Over the last decade and a half, she has helped shape product strategies for fintech firms in emerging and international markets, namely Google Pay, Flipkart, Franklin Templeton Investments and LinkedIn. She is convinced that listening well can address users’ unsaid needs and it is undoubtedly the most important tool in a researcher's toolkit. Apart from being a strong voice for user-centricity, she believes in a person’s inherent capabilities and potential and has written a book on overcoming the fear of failure. She mentors women on career empowerment on Quora.