Human Insight Podcast

Update on the show

Hi there and thank you for following UserTesting’s Human Insight Podcast.  We just launched the new Insights Unlocked podcast and will no longer be publishing the Human Insights Podcast.  If you’ve enjoyed the Human Insights Podcast, we recommend following Insights Unlocked where you can get UX tips and insights from experts behind some of the most successful digital transformations and experiences in the world. Link to the new show Insights Unlocked Thank you for listening! Follow our ...

Season 6 recap: connecting insights in a relatable way to solve problems

In this episode, Andy and Janelle recap season six of the Human Insight Podcast. Thank you to all the listeners of the podcast, wherever you may be. And thank you to all the guests for making time for us and sharing their stories. We’re currently planning Season 7. If you have an insight you want us to investigate, or a guest you recommend, please email us at [email protected].  Follow our new show: Insights Unlocked

13 episode clips that'll make you a better product leader

In this episode, we curated 13 clips from past episodes of the Human Insight Podcast to give you insights on being a better product leader.  You will hear from C. Todd Lombardo, author of several books including Product Roadmaps Relaunched; Silicon Valley Product Group’s Christian Idiodi; Product School’s Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia, Harvard Business School’s Julia B. Austin, Radhika Dutt, author of Radical Product Thinking; Teresa Torres, author of Continuous Discover Habits, Ignition...

Center for Human Insight: using human insight for business decision-making

What is Human Insight? What can you do with human insight? And how do you get started gathering human insight?  Those are the big three questions the Center for Human Insight, presented by UserTesting, hopes to answer.  “People tend to think of user tests as being something just tied to usability when in fact it's a way to get broad feedback on anything that you need to get reactions to or input on in real time,” said Michael Mace, VP of the Center for Human Insight. “And the range of thin...

Creating a great product onboarding experience

Customer onboarding is critical to the success of a business not just in activation, but in the long-term retention of those users. Typically, we think of the example of when we sign up a new customer and then onboard them on our product or service.  But onboarding is more than that. You’ll need to re-onboard a once-every-few-months user every time they log on. And you’ll need to successfully onboard a customer every time you release a new product feature.  “If you don't,” says Pulkit Agr...

Our 2nd annual book recommendations from guests

Welcome to our second annual roundup of book recommendations from guests on the Human Insight Podcast.  It is a good mix of books, covering creativity, money, innovation and product development. There is even a children’s book recommendation, as well as one for a newsletter.  And don’t forget, our own Janelle Estes and Andy MacMillan also wrote User Tested, which was published earlier this year.  Brave New Work by Aaron Dignan Gerrard: My Autobiography by Steven Gerrard Nudge: The Final...

Our 2nd annual book recommendations from guests

Welcome to our second annual roundup of book recommendations from guests on the Human Insight Podcast.  It is a good mix of books, covering creativity, money, innovation and product development. There is even a children’s book recommendation, as well as one for a newsletter.  And don’t forget, our own Janelle Estes and Andy MacMillan also wrote User Tested, which was published earlier this year.  Brave New Work by Aaron Dignan Gerrard: My Autobiography by Steven Gerrard Nudge: The Final...

When you can stop talking to your customers

Julia Austin is a strong advocate for feedback never stopping, whether she is pushing her students to get out and talk with customers or talking with business leaders.  “I'll get this question, especially from founders early on, of ‘when do I stop talking to my customers and getting feedback and start building my product?,’” said Austin, Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School’s Rock Center for Entrepreneurship where she currently teaches Startup Operations. “And I'm like, ‘Never ... You...

Digital initiatives and understanding how people work

You have to understand how people work, and why, says Kaj van de Loo, UserTesting’s Chief Technology Officer, on this week’s episode of the Human Insight Podcast.  “What do they actually want to do or need to do to reach their goals, vs. what are they doing as weird workarounds or because they are being told to do,” he said. “Look at the former, and support it. In our case, every product manager, designer, and engineer wants to understand our customers and users and they all want to hear ab...

Cultivating customer empathy in a data-driven world with Brian Solis

Producer’s note: This week’s episode is a conversation Janelle had with futurist and author Brian Solis at The Human Insight Summit held last week in New Orleans. We hope you enjoy the conversation.  Do you know how your customers experience your brand today? Do you know how they really feel? Do you know what they say when you're not around? You think you know your customers, but you really have no idea–until you talk to them! Brian Solis, author of X: The Experience When Business Meets De...

Why human-centered government matters

Amanda Renteria, the CEO of Code for America, joined the Human Insight Podcast to talk about using technology AND regularly talking with your audience to reimagine government to better serve communities.  Amanda has worked in the financial sector, been a teacher in her hometown, and spent most of her career in the public sector, from serving as Chief of Operations at the California Department of Justice to being national political director for Hilary Clinton’s 2016 US presidential campaign....

Solving business problems with big 'D' design

The digital acceleration is changing everyone’s lives, especially for designers who are more and more in demand across companies, industries and geographies.  The past decade has seen incredible changes to design, and who is a designer. In fact, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics this year officially recognized the job of “web and digital interface designer,” says Andrew Hogan, who leads insights and analysis at Figma and was this week’s guest on the Human Insight Podcast.  “And there’s al...

Helping SMBs close the customer intimacy gap

Kausamby Manjita joins the Human Insight podcast this week to discuss her work bringing the complex technologies that Walmart, Alibaba and Amazon use to the rest of the retail world. Kaus is CEO and co-founder of Mason, an all-in-one platform that helps entrepreneurs automate their online stores. Currently, she said, about 98 of every 100 people who land on any online store (that is not big tech) usually drop off before buying anything compared to the 15 of every 100 for a big retailer. ...

12 HIP guests share their tips and advice for convincing others to invest in customer feedback

In this bonus episode celebrating International Podcast Day 2022, 12 past guests on the show share their tips and advice for convincing others to invest in customer feedback. In order of appearance are:  Ep. 48: Wesley Faulkner Ep. 46: Patrick Quattlebaum Ep. 17: Christian Idiodi Ep. 47: Karthik Suresh Ep. 20: April Dunford Ep. 45: Radhika Dutt Ep. 41: Bobbie Wood Ep. 40: C. Todd Lombardo Ep. 28: Jennifer Lee Ep. 15: Susan Rice EP. 18: Catherine Richards Ep. 26: Brent Leary Follow our new...

Connecting with your audience through sponsored communities

"When you're thinking about measuring a community, usually what you measure is what you effect," said Wesley Faulkner, Senior Community Manager at Amazon’s AWS. "So, if you're not measuring the success of the people who are in the community, if that's not part of the measurements, then you're really not going to be tracking that. Thus, you may lose sight of what makes your community good." Wesley talked with Andy MacMillan, UserTesting's CEO, and Janelle Estes, UserTesting's Chief Insights ...

Creating a process for a successful product launch

This week on the Human Insight Podcast, Karthik Suresh joins Andy and Janelle to discuss just what goes into making a successful product launch. Suresh is co-founder and CPO/CTO of Ignition, a collaborative hub for product teams to plan, execute, and measure the GTM side of launching a product. In their conversation, they discuss: What are some ways to ensure you successfully launch?  Whether that changes  based on the business size (small or large), or model (B2B or B2C) What are the ...

Creating a process for a successful product launch

This week on the Human Insight Podcast, Karthik Suresh joins Andy and Janelle to discuss just what goes into making a successful product launch. Suresh is co-founder and CPO/CTO of Ignition, a collaborative hub for product teams to plan, execute, and measure the GTM side of launching a product. In their conversation, they discuss: What are some ways to ensure you successfully launch?  Whether that changes  based on the business size (small or large), or model (B2B or B2C) What are the ...

Uncovering your customers' key moments as a design target

We all have special moments. There are signature moments, critical moments, key moments, moments that matter, moments of truth and so forth. For this week's episode of the Human Insight Podcast, we talk with Patrick Quattlebaum, Co-founder and CEO of Harmonic Design and author of Orchestrating Experiences.  Quattlebaum believes moments are a powerful concept worth exploring.  "What I have been fascinated by is this concept of moment and how it can be an architectural element that we can t...

Why your organization needs a Radical Product Thinking mindset

We talked with Radhika Dutt in this week’s episode of the Human Insight Podcast. Radhika is an engineer, entrepreneur and product leader who has participated in four acquisitions, two of which were companies she founded. She has built products in industries including broadcasting, media, advertising technology, government, consumer, robotics, and wine. She is currently Advisor on Product Thinking for the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Singapore’s central bank and financial regulator.  Sh...

Season 5 Recap: The customer experience, the 'only we' strategy, sharing insights, UX writing, and web3 integrations with real life

Today we’re recapping our fifth season of the Human Insight Podcast. Maybe the biggest change to the podcast this season you’ll have noticed is we started including into episodes more clips from our opt-in contributor network. These are people from around the world, responding to questions we asked either related to that episode’s guest and topic, or to a current news event or trend. This week's insight In many episodes, as well as in our book User Tested, we’ve talked about the rising i...

Building deeper web3 relationships between creators and their fans

Ethan Song, Co-founder and CEO of RareCircles, joins the Human Insight Podcast this week.  Ethan was previously the co-founder and CEO of Frank And Oak, a leading direct-to-consumer brand, and he’s an active investor in Web3. As the RareCircle’s CEO, Ethan empowers a new generation of entrepreneurs and brands to build deeper relationships with their communities through NFTs and blockchain technology. Its intuitive platform allows anyone to make, sell and manage powerful NFT memberships unde...

The three survival metrics for building better products

Adam Thomas believes the role of a product manager is one thing only: how do you help the organization make better decisions consistently?  Part of that is knowing when to stop work on a product idea, when to pivot on a product, and when to double down on a product initiative. Adam, lead product manager at SmartRecruiters, as well as a speaker, consultant and technologist, has developed what he calls  Survival Metrics to help product managers do just that.  Adam joined Janelle Estes, UserT...

Understanding the accessibility and usability of UX writing

Good UX writing begins with usability and accessibility.  Bobbie Wood, founder and CEO of UX Content Collective, joins the Human Insight Podcast this week to discuss UX writing and the importance of making it inclusive to everyone and all abilities.  Bobbie and co-host Janelle Estes, UserTesting’s Chief Insights Officer, also discuss how Artificial Intelligence will impact UX writing. We also solicited feedback from UX writers and content writers from around the world, asking their though...

Delivering value to both your customers and your business

One of the rules of product research is “insights are best shared,” says C. Todd Lombardo. The subtext is never write a report that no one is going to read.  C. Todd is the vice president of product and design at Openly, an insurance-tech company empowering agents to deliver a higher standard of service through cutting-edge technology and comprehensive options. He joined UserTesting’s CEO Andy MacMillan and Chief Insights Officer Janelle Estes on the Human Insight Podcast to talk about al...

Growing your audience with an "Only we" strategy

What makes a podcast worth listening to? That is an overarching question we’ll be asking as we kick off Season 5 of the Human Insight Podcast. After four seasons, we're reaching out to listeners to see what's working and what needs improvement. In this episode, we interview Dan Misener, Director of Audience Development at Pacific Content. Pacific Content helps brands—such as Ford, Charles Schwab, Adobe, Mozilla and many others—develop and produce award-winning podcasts. If anyone knows wh...

Season 4 recap: keeping a human connection with your customers

In this episode, cohosts Andy MacMillan and Janelle Estes recap Season 4 and talk about what to expect in the next season. And as a listener of the show, we'd love your feedback. Please take this short survey to help us improve the show. There is also an opportunity to take a UserTesting test about the show, where we can hear about your experiences directly.   Survey: https://forms.gle/nCSTZFR5affEs2k1A Follow our new show: Insights Unlocked

The three pillars of a great customer experience

Nick Mehta, CEO at Gainsight, believes there are three pillars to a great customer experience and he points to Peloton as an example.  One thing great about Peloton is they combine human and digital, Nick said.  First, you need a human connection. That could be a customer success manager at a B2B tech company. And for Peloton, it is the relationship with a coach. Nick’s favorite instructor Cody Rigsby for example.  The second pillar is the product. Nick said Peloton’s digitally-connected ...

Understanding how your customers think and feel

If you asked someone shopping for a new truck whether they would purchase an electric truck what do you think would be the answer? Now ask those same potential customers if they want to run their power tools off the bed of the truck? Or in an emergency, would they want to be able to power their homes off their truck so the ice cream doesn’t melt? “That insight is the beauty of understanding customers in a way that isn’t just what they say and do but in what they think and feel,” said Iain ...

Building an insights engine for your organization

During the writing and editing of User Tested, coauthor Janelle Estes reached out to Jim Kalbach to review draft chapters and share his feedback.  Kalbach, the Chief Evangelist at MURAL and author of several books, loved the book but wanted more stories and proof points.  In this bonus podcast episode, a previously recorded LinkedIn Live conversation, Kalbach and Estes, UserTesting’s Chief Insights Officer, discuss the writing of User Tested and the importance of talking with your customer...

Deliver value at every stage of the customer journey

When T. Rowe Price rolled out a new process for creating an online investment account, they discovered a 37% drop off on the very first step after users opened the webpage. They needed to know “why behind the what” and for that they turned to UserTesting. Within hours they’d identified the problem and were making fix recommendations to product owners.  The T. Rowe Price story is one of many shared in User Tested and that is being featured in Season 4 of the Human Insights Podcast. The book...

The #1 key to your startup's success

Ben Hoggan's team at the Notre Dame's IDEA Center has mentored close to 200 startups and would-be startups  from concept to revenue over the last four years. The best way, he said, to know if a company will be successful is by talking with its customers and potential customers. And after more than 6,000 customer interviews on behalf of those startups, he should know. "It is very selfish to invest in customer research," said Hoggan, the Director of De-Risking at The IDEA Center. "You're s...

Powering your experience ecosystem to the next level

In this episode, Janelle Estes talks with Tom Lorusso, the Principal User Research Lead for Xbox and gaming across Windows products and devices. Tom has been working in games for over 7 years, with 15 years in the user research field on phones, operating systems and portable ultrasound. Tom and his Xbox Experiences team tackle a variety of research questions in social gaming, community, monetization, communication, cross-platform gaming, video consumption, accessibility, and inclusivity. T...

How an UX insights show is must-see programming at HelloFresh

How a UX insights show is must-see programming at HelloFresh

This week on the Human Insight Podcast, we are excited to have James Villacci joining us to discuss how HelloFresh is scaling customer insights across the organization.  As the first UX Researcher at HelloFresh, James Villacci established the value of conducting studies on the company’s online and offline projects. He is now head of Global UX Research at the company, which is the largest meal-kit provider in the world.  He evangelized the power and impact of getting fast customer feedback ...

Building a design-driven culture

In this week’s episode, James Lane shares the evolving story of how AAA is becoming a design-driven organization. James, a Senior Product Design Manager at AAA Club Alliance, joins host Janelle Estes, UserTesting’s Chief Insights Officer, and Andy MacMillan, UserTesting’s CEO, to share AAA’s story, which is one of many being shared in the upcoming User Tested and that will be featured in Season 4 of the Human Insights Podcast. The book was authored by podcast hosts Janelle Estes, UserTestin...

Building a design-driven culture

In this week’s episode, James Lane shares the evolving story of how AAA is becoming a design-driven organization. James, a Senior Product Design Manager at AAA Club Alliance, joins host Janelle Estes, UserTesting’s Chief Insights Officer, and Andy MacMillan, UserTesting’s CEO, to share AAA’s story, which is one of many being shared in the upcoming User Tested and that will be featured in Season 4 of the Human Insights Podcast. The book was authored by podcast hosts Janelle Estes, UserTestin...

Strengthening your startup with customer feedback

2022 may turn out to be the big bang of the metaverse, but no matter the reality- augmented, virtual, extended or mixed- doing business in an increasingly digital world needs to begin the human experience. This week on the Human Insight Podcast, Krikey co-founders Jhanvi Shriram and Ketaki Shriram join host Janelle Estes, UserTesting’s Chief Insights Officer, to share how they are putting customers first for their mobile augmented reality (AR) gaming app. Jhanvi, the CEO of Krikey, and Ket...

Scaling insights across your organization

In this episode, Jennifer Lee, UX Research Lead at Wise, shares her experience being the company’s first qualitative researcher to scaling insights across the company. Wise (formerly known as TransferWise) is a publicly-traded, London-based technology company founded in 2011. Wise is building the best way to move and manage money around the world, helping a community of over 10 million like-minded people and businesses. Wise’s story is one of many shared in the upcoming User Tested and tha...

The flywheel of customer feedback

Join Andy MacMillan, CEO of UserTesting, and Janelle Estes, Chief Insights Officer at UserTesting, as they recap Season 3 of the Human Insight Podcast.  And in January, Season 4 of the podcast launches with a focus on the success stories, examples and playbooks from User Tested, the new book co-authored by Janelle and Andy, now available for pre-order. Follow our new show: Insights Unlocked

What is (and isn't) customer centricity?

This week on the Human Insight Podcast, we interview Brent Leary, CRM industry observer, author and speaker.  Leary is co-founder and Managing Partner of CRM Essentials LLC, an Atlanta based CRM/CX advisory firm covering tools and strategies for improving business relationships. He writes regularly for CRM Magazine and ZDNet, and is a founding member of Newseek's Expert Forum. He hosts the weekly One on One conversation series for Small Business Trends, the A Few Good Minutes livestream ser...

Making a difference in HealthTech UX

You could design UX for a B2C to increase conversions. Or you could oversee UX for health tech company and, ultimately, save or improve lives. For Andrew Frueh it was an easy choice.  Frueh is the senior vice president of UX design at Health Catalyst, a leading provider of data and analytics technology and services to healthcare organizations.  This week, he joins Janelle Estes, UserTesting’s Chief Insights Officer, on the Human Insight Podcast where they talk about:  What metrics or KPI...

Our 2021 guest-recommended books to read

If you're a regular listener to the show, you know Janelle asks our guests about a book they’ve recently read and would recommend. In this episode, we’ve rounded up all those recommendations from the past year and share them with you, whether you are looking for a holiday gift, you’re planning your 2022 strategy and are looking for some help, or just want to get in some quality reading over the holidays. Before we jump into our guest recommendations, I should also note that five of our pas...

The three skills of successful product managers

This week on the Human Insight podcast, we interviewed Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia, Founder and CEO of Product School.  Product School is the global leader in product management training with a community of over one million product professionals. Product School instructors are real-world Product Leaders working at top companies including Google, Facebook, Netflix, Airbnb, PayPal, Uber, and Amazon. In his interview with Janelle Estes, UserTesting's Chief Information Officer, Carlos dis...

Why great product teams adopt a continuous discovery mindset

This week on the Human Insight podcast, we interviewed Teresa Torres, author of Continuous Discovery Habits.  Teresa teaches a structured and sustainable approach to continuous discovery that helps product teams infuse their daily product decisions with customer input. She’s coached hundreds of teams at companies of all sizes, from early-stage start-ups to global enterprises and has taught over 6,500 product people core discovery skills through the Product Talk Academy.  In her interview w...

Developing continuous engagement with your customers

This week on the Human Insight podcast, we interviewed Emily Carrion, VP of Marketing at Esper and veteran of the Seattle startup scene.  In her interview with Janelle Estes, UserTesting’s Chief Insights Officer, Carrion discusses: Her observations on the progress being made in getting more women startup founders, board members, and senior leaders The marketing challenges she is addressing this quarter Why it’s important to hear directly from customers, in their own voices What startups...

Developing continuous engagement with your customers

This week on the Human Insight podcast, we interviewed Emily Carrion, VP of Marketing at Esper and veteran of the Seattle startup scene.  In her interview with Janelle Estes, UserTesting’s Chief Insights Officer, Carrion discusses: Her observations on the progress being made in getting more women startup founders, board members, and senior leaders The marketing challenges she is addressing this quarter Why it’s important to hear directly from customers, in their own voices What startups...

Identifying your best fit customer

This week on the Human Insight podcast, we interview April Dunford, a tech executive, board member, CEO and founder of Ambient Strategy, and author of Obv!ously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It. In her interview with Janelle Estes, UserTesting’s Chief Insights Officer, Dunford discusses:  Is positioning just for startups How has the pandemic changed the role of positioning  How our biases inhibit our positioning efforts Who should be involved...

Season Two insights and takeaways

In this episode, Andy and Janelle recap highlights from Season 2 of the Human Insights Podcast, as well as offer a sneak peak at what’s in store for season three, which kicks off in September. Follow our new show: Insights Unlocked

Season Two insights and takeaways

In this episode, Andy and Janelle recap highlights from Season 2 of the Human Insights Podcast, as well as offer a sneak peak at what’s in store for season three, which kicks off in September. Follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter Co-host Janelle Estes | @janelle_estes Co-host Andy MacMillan | @apmacmillan Producer Nathan Isaacs...

What does it mean to be customer obsessed?

Catherine Richards said one way Tesco Bank builds a CX culture is through positive disruption. “And what I mean by that is, as leaders, you need to know when to make a call to positively disrupt how you're working,” said Richards, who is head of design at Tesco Bank.  An example was introducing Customer Wednesdays, a day dedicated in the week to spending time with the bank’s customers. They started that four years ago, bringing in customers to get feedback early in the design process. That...