Rock Your Role - Issue 3

Rock Your Role - Issue 3

Rock Your Role

THE LEARNING ISSUE ISSUE 3

Rock Your Role

Starters

2 Welcome

Survey Says 3

The Learning Issue

An interview with Erica Krein- del on how we learn about our users

7

13

Drazen Ex Machina A Machine Learning Prim- er and 8 Quotes from a recent conversation with Chief Scientist, Drazen Pantic

Beautiful Stranger

What Scott Yim has learned from taking pictures of perfect strangers.

Features

Up Next in Learning 11 VP of Employee Experience Lina Stern forecasts where workplace learning is headed.

17

The Dream Academy

Shani Penn on her experience as a tutor to middle schoolers

Words Employee Experience Team Thanks

Drazen Pantic Erica Kreindel Jason Hillard

Lina Stern Scott Yim Shani Penn

Contact Us [email protected] #ex

“I come in being Switzerland because no one likes to hear their baby is ugly.” -Erica Kreindel

Issue 3

Welcome

The upcoming holiday season means explaining your job to your uncle and how, although it’s in the name, we’re more of a technology and product company, not a learning company. The proverbial uncle has a point here; helping Americans build good money habits as they make progress on their money is nothing if not learning. Like a contemplative stare into a mug of eggnog, this issue explores the first hump of our camel case name. Per- haps not surprisingly, this covers a wide swath of topics includ- ing our machine learning and user research projects, as well as learning that takes place outside work. We’re lucky enough to include protraits from Scott Yim, who has recently taken up por- trait photography, as well as an editorial from Shani Penn on her experience tutoring middle schoolers. Closing out this issue is an interview with Lina Stern, VP of Employee Experience, on the future of learning in the workplace. We hope you enjoy!

The Employee Experience Team

ERICA KREINDEL Survey Says

A thougtful product meets a user need, but how do we under- stand what those needs are? UX Researchers like Erica Krein- del ask them. We sat down with Erica to understand how she learns about our users and why it matters.

eX: What is UX research? How do you explain it to friends and family?

Erica: The way I describe it at parties to friends and family is I try to understand how users use things. So, mostly, it’s digital interfaces, but it can also be broad, like how do people identify the company ‘LearnVest’ and how would people use our services.

eX: Tell me more about the research you do?

Erica: I try to understand how people currently use different things, and what could be improved. We do all sorts of different types of methodologies incluidng usability testing — actually watch- ing someone use an interface or product and understanding how it could be better improved — as well as surveys and focus groups. There’s also card sorting, and tree testing, where we try to understand how people group things, and where they expect things to be within an information architecture. Erica: I make it a point to meet with the product owner and designers from the beginning, like at the kick off, and try to understand what their goals are in the project and what they want to ac- complish with research. And then I will kind of come up with my own goals as well and see how to design a test plan and guide for me to get at those goals. I also like to try to understand from them, ok so you want to accomplish x, y, and z. What if people are saying this. How is that going to affect your decisions? What if they’re saying that? Would you still make that change? Would you not? How would you take that? eX: When does research come in to a project map?

eX: So you also forecast potential risks or barriers that can result from research?

Erica: Yes, exactly. I don’t want them to expect that they’re going to get a yes or no. What if they get a maybe? What are they going to do with that? I want to get them what’s going to be the most usable for them too. eX: You said earlier you sometiems research new services and perspectives? Erica: Yes, that is a big part of it as well. For example, I have actually been called in to talk to LV customers and financial reps, LV planners and try to get what their impressions are of these more conceptual changes and what that would mean for them. I’m not actually watch- ing them do anything or use anything or ask them about how they use something. I’m more just understanding what their expectations are in an unbiased format. So instead of having someone who is coming up with the idea asking them, I come in, being Switzerland here, not having any stake in the game. It helps with design and product own- ers as well. Product owners and designers are really in the weeds with the concepts and their ideas, whereas I am not. It’s always a best prac- tice to not have a designer or product manager, for that matter, test what they are working on because no one likes to hear that their baby is ugly. Also, my training is in asking things in a certain way to get the answers that they need. eX: Are you always trying to make improve- ments on usability? Or at a certain point are you done? Erica: I think there’s always things that can im- prove. Right? It’s hard to have something that is perfect, but usually I’m done researching when I get answers to the product team and design team, and then when they are able to, in terms of resources, make changes.

eX: How do you find people to be testers and if there is a pool of testers, are there any that do testing often? Would that skew the results? E: Yeah, it does. It’s really important not to get people participating all the time in these types of tests, because they learn the tricks. It depends on who we’re trying to get feedback from. Is it a planner? Is it an FR? Is it a custom- er? Is it a general population person that’s not currently working with LV/NM. At different consulting firms I worked at, we also used to use screeners to try to get, like if we are work- ing with a certain bank we want to get people that have used that bank or that currently use that bank. Usually we’ll work with an outside vendor who will help. They have a panel and a screener who will ask questions like when’s the last time you participated in one of these tests. eX: Do you try to get people on the extremes? People that don’t have cell phones or people who are UX designers themselves? E: Oh, yeah. That’s another thing we screen for. I usually screen for researchers or designers, or work with that type of product, like a product manager for a fintech company, for example. eX: What if that person is super opinionated about UX or UI, but they’re not a designer. E: It happens nowadays. It’s happening more. People are becoming more savvy about design. It’s kind of a problem because you want to reflect the typical uses. Abigail actually has a great thing she says, “we design for the mass- es, but we adjust for the exceptions”. So, if you think of a bell curve, we’re designing for the general population but there are always the one offs and we’ll make tweaks.

eX: Do you have a perspective, that’s been informed by your job, on what’s the best way to learn?

Erica: Something usability-related that I’ve applied in my own life, is how to ask questions and learning how to stay silent, which are really difficult things to do for me. Sometimes I am much better at it in my work than in my personal life. I think that’s a really good way to learn from peo- ple. It’s by letting them talk and letting them express their needs. eX: It has to be tough, to listen, and then also think about what you would like to ask next that’s in the flow of the conversation, but also keep listening, but also be aware of what your overall goal of the conversation is. It’s gets kind of wabi-sabi. You have to let it go organically and naturally, because things happen, but at the same time you kind of have to direct it so that you have things that are usable, so that you make the session worthwhile. Erica: Yeah, it’s really difficult. You have to have so much on your mind. You have to listen actively, you have to think about the next questions, and sometimes you have to change your next question based on what they’re saying, but also keep in mind the goals of the project, that you’re touching upon what the other people are watching the session and getting insights that would be useful and helpful. After doing a few of them, it’s pretty tiring. Erica: I think it’s practice. It does help to not take notes while you’re recording, having people in the background taking notes is really helpful. It’s also really helpful to write down what happens in a session right after the session, because it’s fresh. Also, what does help a lot is doing a practice sessions beforehand. Grabbing a friend or colleague and having them play the role. They play the user. Get someone that’s not too close to it, but not too far from it. It helps warm you up. It’s like making pancakes. eX: Any tips for getting better at that?

Erica Kreindel is a UX Research Lead on the Design Team in NY.

Drazen Ex Machina

Answers to Novice AI Questions and 8 Quotes from Chief Scientist, Drazen Pantic

What’s the big deal?

When people generally talk about AI, they’re likely talking about strong AI, or AI that doesn’t exist yet. Strong AI is understood in contrast to Weak AI. Weak AI, or artificial nar- row intelligence, can perform a narrowly defined task, like telling you the weather or cre- ating a playlist of music you might like. Strong AI, or general artificial intelligence, can per- form broadly defined intellectual tasks that any human can do, like retrieving two locations, planning an optimal route between them, communicating your arrival, and driving a car to a destination... while playing music the passenger enjoys. Humans have a mixed track record in history, so giving a machine the autonomy of a human is concerning. Elon’s in tech. Why’s he so scared? It’s one of the big 5 emerging areas in tech (hardware, self-driving cars, cryptocurrency, and AR/VR being the debateable others). Why it’s exciting to our company is that for machine learning to be effective, you need highly talented engineers, a mountain range of good >Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19

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