Curio Research quarterly Vol. 13
Business
Work
Work has been busy. I did a staff augmentation stint for a medical software company with a severely understaffed and resourced research department, trying to keep up an agile process running full speed ahead and always behind at the time. I did what I could to help.
When that ended, I sent up my availability flare, and BlinkUX got to me first. I'm currently ramping up on a 4-day diary study on wearable technology with 18 participants and 1.5 hour-long exit interviews the week after. It's a lot of work but highly stimulating.
I'll be available again starting roughly the week of the 17th, and as I tell everyone I work with, I am strictly first-come, first-serve. If you have something on the horizon, let me know, and hopefully, we can work together.
Leadership
I'm proud of the recruiting effort BEST's board put forward to find new board members. If all goes as expected, we will be welcoming four new members to the board at the AGM on April 28th.
I'm still working with the QRCA as a co-chair of the Pacific Northwest chapter and as a sponsorship committee member. As a chapter co-chair, I organized a training workshop featuring Susan Fader on how to think differently about approaching studies. Her presentation helped set the bar for me not to reach for the obvious participant recruit and methodology. Sometimes putting in the extra effort to find the less trodden path can pay off tenfold.
For the sponsorship committee, we have Demo Days coming up. Demo Days is something the QRCA started last year to help members get to know all the options available for doing successful remote qualitative research. It's 1-2 hours over a series of days where platform and service providers do a 10-minute presentation on what they do and why they're awesome, then do a 5-minute Q&A. I love it because I get a quick understanding of what's out there and what might be an excellent tool for my next project.
Public Speaking
I've been so busy with public speaking. Too busy. I shouldn't have said yes to so many things, but they were all worthwhile opportunities. Since last quarter, I've spoken at the following online events:
NewMR (this one was a bit of a bucket list opportunity, it's one of the top places to go next level thinking on the practice of research)
Design Research Australia (had to do that one from a hotel room because I was in the middle of moving house)
UX Copenhagen (presented a short talk and led a round table discussion)
QRCA Eastern Canada Chapter (I revived the two-hour workshop I did with Mary Elizabeth Sullivan on making research accessible to people with disabilities for that one)
Soon I'll be delivering a brand new talk intended for product managers at Productized Masterclass on how to make research-informed decisions. Then I'll be giving an address to the Canadian Research Insights Council in honor of Global Accessibility Awareness Day.
After that, who knows? I'll probably take a break and apply to speak at other conferences.
Other
Gregg Bernstein's book featuring a wealth of information and advice from an army of researchers (myself included) is now available. Don't miss out on getting your copy.
Personal
Home
Ack! We moved. We found a place less than ten blocks away with only two weeks before we had to transfer possession of our loft. We now live in an even smaller building in a quieter part of our neighborhood. While the building may be smaller, the space we have to work with is larger. My husband can set up his workstation in part of the dining area, and my workspace will be in the spare bedroom, where I can close the door during research sessions.
The previous owners did significant renovations to the space but didn't infuse it with much personality. It's a blank canvas. So I've been cracking my knuckles and flexing my skills at copying and pasting images from the internet into Keynote to create mood boards for each room.
One thing I didn't like about our old place was how white it was, and now I get to play with color in all kinds of ways. Dark teal accent wall in the living room! Olive and terra cotta color blocking in the spare bedroom! Wallpaper for some lively patterns in other areas. I'm definitely more concerned with overdoing it than being too subtle.
Media
Recently I was charmed by the Worn Stories series on Netflix. As a certified vintage clothing collector and someone who dominated the available closet space with said collection (apologies to my love), how could I not identify with and enjoy a little show and tell on clothes?
Ordinary people show off their favorite articles of clothing, from designer coats to thrift store finds, and regaling the bit of personal history and emotions the pieces carry for them. Plus, I'm a sucker for creative animation elements.
On the weird side of things, which I prefer, I burned through The Way of the House Husband, a Japanese anime series about a retired Yakuza enforcer who traded in his nefarious ways to be a cold yet highly supportive and detail-oriented domestic partner and home maintainer. The charm is that the same intensity you would expect a successful organized criminal to apply to a bank robbery or an assassination, he applies to cleaning the apartment before his partner's boss arrives for dinner. Netflix, five episodes, you can binge it in a weekend.
Giving Back
While I'll be donating to the Sierra Club to maintain my 1% for the Planet compliance, it's impossible to look at the situation in India and not feel like you should do something. In response, I will be giving additional money to UNICEF to aid in their COVID response.
Play nice. Stay safe. Try to help where you can. Talk to you next quarter.
