Curio Research Quarterly Vol. 17

Hello Curio Research friends! I had to skip last quarter’s newsletter because I was busy working on paid and unpaid projects. Since then, things have slowed down enough for me to get back into old habits.

I remain in high demand, so I encourage anyone reading this to reach out to me early if they have a research project for me. Even if it’s early stage, get it on my radar. I’m booked through mid-August and going on holiday from September 10th to the 25th. If you can work around that, maybe we can work together.

Business

Work

Since our last installment, I finished the evaluative work for the California transit website on behalf of Kalamuna. I like making myself available for civic and non-profit projects. It felt good to advise the stakeholders on communicating massive infrastructure projects' benefits and realities to constituents without losing their interest and support. Public transit is a significant part of mitigating the climate crisis, which requires a lot of government investment and public patience, neither of which is abundant.

While tying that up, I started working on the QRCA Qually Award project with Cherri Christiansen for the Agua Hedionda Lagoon Foundation. We had a deadline to complete the work before the in-person conference in May, and we both had to find ways to balance those requirements with the demands of our paying clients. It all worked out. Cherri and I were able to deliver the report on the findings from our nonprofit expert and AHLF patron interviews to the staff and board of directors at their annual general meeting and then present the case study at the QRCA Annual Conference a few weeks later. The only part we had left to complete was the in-person workshop to turn the findings into actionable next steps, which we did the week after the conference.

I’m glad I did it, but I’m not sure I would ever do it again. It stretched me thin.

While I was working on the AHLF project I started ramping up on work on a series of B2B personas for a computer hardware manufacturer on behalf of a new client, Project202. The personas required a pretty intense amount of work, but the most challenging part was the recruiting. We needed seasoned professionals with specific job titles, which wasn’t easy. Professional recruiters were only mildly successful at finding the right people, so we had to step in and go the DIY route. We used a LinkedIn Sales Navigator to identify the right people, and then we invited them to fill out the screener survey on UserInterviews. If they qualified, we used UI to schedule their interviews and pay them after. This DIY approach worked better for some profiles over others, but we got enough good interviews to satisfy the clients' and our own standards.

Now I’m starting another project for a social media company on behalf of Spatial, and if all goes well, I’ll be ready to take on another project in late August or September.

Leadership

Last issue, I announced that I was co-chairing the QRCA marketing committee. Since then, much has changed. The QRCA invited me to join the board of directors. One of the members had to step down for health reasons, so the next person with the most votes from the previous election was in line to take their place, which was me.

Joining the board means I’m now the board liaison for the marketing committee, sitting on the sponsorship committee, and transitioning someone to take my place as PNW chapter co-chair.

I also revived the Vancouver Research Professionals MeetUp again. We took a break during the pandemic because I didn’t want to gather a bunch of strangers in a bar while health measures were in place, but it’s time to move forward, so we had our first meeting last month. Many new people showed up to our first event last month, and I hope to see more pre-pandemic regulars at next month’s event.

Conferences

The QRCA Annual Conference finally happened in May, and it was so fun. It was great seeing everyone and reestablishing the in-person connections we’ve missed since 2020. So much great content was shared from various members on bringing outsider empathy to our work, with one presenter sharing her experience as an undocumented immigrant fleeing El Salvador, and the audience moved through the stages of empathy while listening to her story. Another presenter shared his use of morality frameworks to help analyze people’s mental models around specific decisions. I love learning new frameworks, and morality was a lens I hadn’t considered before.

And then there was networking and friend-making galore! Meeting other researchers is one of my favorite past-times.

As always, I’m so glad I went to research camp and am already preparing for next year’s conference in March 2023.

Public Speaking

At the QRCA in-person conference, I repeated my round table discussion and demonstration on fake-it-till-you-make-it presentation deck design skills and tools from the virtual conference. It was easier to do online with screen sharing rather than have everyone gather around my computer to see what I was doing on a tiny laptop screen. However, I was still able to communicate the necessary information.

I also presented the Qually Award Project case study with my research partner, Cherri. We walked through our methodology step by step - from recruiting to analysis to reporting. I covered the expert interviews we did online, and Cherri went over the in-person patron interviews she did on-site. A lot of what we shared involved executing on a shoestring budget. How do you do well-paced, quality, ethical research within a $2700USD budget? (btw - we only spent $1100. The Foundation kept the rest. Why? How? Because we were just that good.)

I’ll write a proper case study and post it on my blog. I just have to find the time.

Personal

Home

The house is still slowly coming along. We have a kitchen table and chairs now, so we can finally have people over for dinner. Soon our new mattress will arrive, which means we can finally put together and use the West Elm bed frame we found on Craigslist.

There’s still much more to go - nightstands, rugs, mirrors, art, etc. But we’re making progress.

Travel

Traveling to the QRCA conference in San Diego, California, was my first big trip in over 2-years, and I made the most of it. I went to LA first to visit my parents first. While there, my dad got COVID. So I had to wear a mask around the house and hope for the best. Then I arrived in San Diego before the conference to attend leadership meetings, but I ended up attending the meetings I could from my hotel room because I didn’t want to expose myself to anyone while I was still in the incubation window.

I let myself join the conference in person after I tested negative for two days in a row.

My husband joined me in San Diego but had a different goal than mine. Instead of professional development and networking, he went out to find the best tacos in San Diego. Fifty-three tacos and many e-scooter miles later, he has a very well-researched opinion on the matter.

After the conference, we rented a car and spent a couple of days driving around Baja, Mexico, with stops in Tijuana, Ensenada, and Valle de Guadalupe. We enjoyed the Valle de Guadalupe wine region. Gorgeous low desert landscapes with prominent and boutique wineries everywhere. We found two little hole-in-the-wall breweries and had a farm/sea-to-table dinner at one of the organic wineries before returning to Ensenada. Dave wants to go back to explore the region for more than the few hours we had.

Next is that trip to the Maritimes I’ve been talking about for over a year! We have a road trip booked for two weeks in September, going through Halifax, Lunenberg, Saint John, Moncton, Charlottetown, North Cape PEI, Cape Bretton, and back to Halifax before flying home. I have many Victorian B&B rooms booked, one at a geodesic dome campsite off the water and another at a lighthouse. We’re looking forward to adventuring again.

Media

This issue it’s going to be all about the Cage. Nick Cage that is. First is a relative oldie but goodie, Pig. Pig is a beautiful movie about grief, attachment, loss, and the weird world of people who make the food business their lives. It’s also the movie that gave me a definitive answer to the unanswerable question of “Is Nick Cage a good actor or a bad actor?” The answer is - GOOD. Nick Cage even looks back on it as his best work.

Make it a double feature and watch The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent if you get a kick out of character and narrative whiplash. Cage delivers the hammed-up over the top performance we know and (reluctantly) love. It’s predictable, but Cage does an excellent job of making fun of himself, and there are lots of WTF moments to make it worth watching.

Giving Back

I haven’t made many monetary donations this year because I donated over 100 hours of free work to fulfill the Qually Award project. The Agua Hedionda Lagoon Foundation gave me an in-kind donation receipt for the value of my work, and I’m using that to fulfill my 1% for the Planet obligations this year.

Good to be back. Until next time and you can always sign up to receive these newsletters directly in your inbox.