Awkward Silences

Erin and Ben chat with Laura Klein, Principal Experience Specialist at Nielsen Norman Group, about the practical realities of AI in user research. Laura teaches a class on AI for researchers and brings a refreshingly balanced perspective to cut through the hype. She explains why those "five simple prompts that will change your life" are mostly nonsense and shares where AI actually works well versus where researchers need to proceed with extreme caution.
Laura also shares her green, yellow, and red light framework for AI adoption. She champions AI for tasks like transcription and meta-analysis of old research data, while warning against using it for synthesis and insights generation without serious human oversight. The conversation explores how AI can help teams move faster without sacrificing quality, the importance of collaborative analysis sessions, and why junior researchers need extra guidance when using these tools.
This episode offers practical guidance for any researcher trying to separate AI reality from the marketing promises flooding their inbox.
Highlights
07:07 Green light, yellow light, red light framework
11:59 Framework for deciding when to use AI
21:06 Will AI change the researcher role
31:23 Focus on what AI makes possible
35:17 Skills for advocating against AI hype
42:07 AI makes things that look like insights
Resources
Laura's NN/g AI Course
The AI in UX Research Report
Using AI Moderation for Research

Ben sits down with Basel Fakhoury, CEO and Co-founder of User Interviews, and Baran Erkel, Chief Strategy Officer at UserTesting, for a conversation about the research industry's evolution. With AI reshaping customer behaviors and business decisions, both executives emphasize how the need for customer insights has never been greater, even as budget pressures mount across organizations.
Basek and Baran share frameworks for executive decision making, explore how AI tools are moving beyond simply replacing human moderators toward creating entirely new research methodologies, and stress that as AI transforms products and experiences over the next few years, customer insights will be fundamental to shaping organizational cultures that keep customers at the center.
Highlights
05:15 How research influences corporate strategy
12:25 Building effective decision making cultures
19:07 Data formats that drive executive decisions
26:28 AI everywhere in research tooling landscape
29:30 Consolidating insights across teams and tools
36:45 Customer centric approach during acquisition integration
Resources
Read more about the acquisition
The State of User Research Report
Visual Design for Research Workshop

Ben Wiedmaier sits with Karl Randay, Experience Director at 383, to explore how designers can stay relevant in an increasingly automated world. Karl shares insights from working with major brands like Hilton and Jaguar on digital innovation projects that blend strategy, research, and rapid prototyping.
They also talk about the "beige-ification" of design, where templated systems and AI tools risk creating homogeneous experiences across brands. Karl explains how his team uses AI as a research copilot while maintaining human craft and creativity. He also breaks down the skills modern designers need beyond visual craft, including business acumen, stakeholder communication, and the ability to translate design impact into executive language.
Highlights
06:26 Design challenges across multiple touchpoints
19:04 Simple questions unlock stakeholder priorities
25:31 Multi-skilled designers beyond specialization
32:23 Career growth through T-shaped skill development
36:53 The beige-ification of modern design
42:44 AI as creative exploration partner
Resources
Designer's Guide to UX Research
The 4 Steps to Redesigning Sites
Connecting Research & Design Leadership

Ben is joined by Maria Rosala from Nielsen Norman Group and John Whalen from Brilliant Experience to wrap up 2025 and make some predictions for 2026. Maria and John share practical insights on everything from AI moderation tools to synthetic users, offering a balanced view of where these technologies excel and where human researchers remain irreplaceable.

Maria and John also dig into the democratization of research across product teams, the importance of governance and strategy when implementing AI tools, and how researchers can position themselves as orchestrators of both human and artificial intelligence. 
Highlights
08:22 AI tools creating pressure for faster delivery
17:18 Governance and oversight for AI implementation
24:55 Composite and synthetic users explained
41:56 Hiring advice for new researchers
44:27 Demonstrating AI proficiency in job applications
49:25 Research industry predictions for 2026
Resources
Research Wrapped 2025
The State of User Research
Ultimate UX Jobs Board

Erin May sits down with Kate Towsey, founder of Cha Cha Club and author of Research That Scales, for Research Ops Appreciation Week. Kate shares insights from producing an audio documentary series on the future of research ops, including her fascinating experience co-creating content with AI. She reveals how research ops teams are increasingly surviving layoffs while research teams are cut, explaining that ops professionals focus on unblocking systems and delivering measurable business value rather than gatekeeping processes.
Kate emphasizes the critical shift happening in research ops from administrative firefighting to strategic systems design. She discusses the importance of discovery over knee-jerk solutions when building research ops from scratch, advocating for focused problem-solving rather than generic panel and library building. The conversation covers the newly released research ops career ladder, the growing need for strategy skills in the field, and how to effectively communicate value to executives by aligning with existing business priorities and measuring concrete outcomes.
Highlights
03:54 Bringing past skills to research ops
17:45 AI context and memory limitations
26:37 Future vision for strategic research positioning
36:28 Quality governance in AI era
44:21 Strategy skills gap in research teams
50:27 Translating research value to executives
Resources
Strategy References
Kate's Masterclass
Research That Scales (Book)
Kate's Substack
The ResearchOps Review