#40 - Dream Stack: ROI-Driving Research Toolsets with Daniel Loewus-Deitch and Leo Smith

With so many research tools on the market, it can be hard to nail down exactly which ones are right for your team. This week on the pod, Erin and JH chatted with Daniel Loewus-Deitch and Leo Smith, who are the Directors of User Experience and Research, respectively, at a large insurance company. They wanted to learn more about how Daniel and Leo choose the tools with the best ROI for their team.

Daniel and Leo have spent a lot of time building out their tool stack. Since they have a lot of experience working for large organizations with many people conducting research and even more consuming it, it was important to them to get it right. In this episode, they talked about how they evaluate the ROI of tools, the summit they assembled to identify the tools their team could and would use, and how important it is to leave your assumptions at the door when tool-hunting.

Highlights

• [10:15] Leo used to spend 20-30 hours just on recruiting.
• [12:53] Sometimes the simplest tool is the most effective.
• [14:23] It's important to consider how accessible the tools you're using are to everyone on your team. Even if you choose the best tools, your team won't use them if it's not easy to do so.
• [16:23] How the team defined their user-centered design process, mapped tools to the right parts of it, and moved forward from there.
• [20:43] Why Leo and Daniel's team prefer a customized toolset over an all-in-one solution.
• [24:07] Applying the thinking behind design systems to a larger ecosystem is helping the team build a better toolkit.
• [33:56] The shiny new tools everyone is eager to try.
• [38:58] Usability test the tools your team will be using.
• [42:09] Going for an all in one tool is like going to the Cheesecake Factory, lots of choices, all pretty mediocre. Choosing a few specialized tools is like going to a farmer's market, less choice from each vendor, but better results.

Tools mentioned in the episode

• Loom is great for recording your screen and sharing it with your team. It can also be used for usability testing.
• Dovetail is a research repository tool that makes it easy to organize and analyze your insights.
• Lookback is a great tool for conducting usability tests and taking notes live.
• Descript is a video, audio, and text editor. We’ve recently switched to it for editing the podcast, and I am absolutely in love. It does really good automatic transcription and makes pulling clips incredibly easy.
• Rev is a transcription tool that provides really accurate, done-by-a-human transcription.
• Zapier is a workflow automation tool that helps us make connections between apps that don’t naturally talk to each other.
• Userbit is a research repository tool that makes it easy to code your analysis into deliverables. ‍
• Dedoose is a research repository tool that makes the academic process of analyzing research more collaborative.

About our guests

Daniel Loewus-Deitch is the Assistant VP, User Experience at Unum. He has over 20 years of experience in UX, and has worked at companies like IBM and Microsoft. Daniel is interested in holistic wellness and technological harmony. 💻🎵.

Leo Smith is the Director of UX Research at SS&C Technologies. He has over 20 years of experience in UXR, and has worked for companies of all shapes and sizes in roles ranging from research to design. Leo is also a certified Hatha Yoga Instructor 🧘.