But First, UX Research (Issue #2)

How Google, Spotify, Vodafone, Atlassian, and NN/G sharpen their UX research game—steal their best moves without spending hours combing through podcasts, reports, and books.

👋 Hey everyone, I’m trying to calculate how much time I am saving you with these summaries. Most of my time is actually spent looking through all the content and figuring out which are the most interesting to share.

If you are wondering what I found most useful of the below, I’d look at Evaluating Qual Research and Allison’s Atlassian’s Research Library talk.

⏱️ Time Saved This Issue

  • All original resources = ~8.2+ hours

  • All our summaries = ~39 minutes 🔥

Table of Contents

I’d love to know what you think!
Have any feedback on the content so far? Hit reply and let me know what you think.
You can also take the quick poll at the end 🙏🏾 - it helps me a lot 😇

🐣 For Entry Level Researchers

Mental Models and User Expectations
📝 NN/g | ⏱️ Original: ~10 mins · Summary: ~5 mins
Why users assume things about your product and how to avoid breaking their mental models (and their trust). Mental models explain more UX pain than you’d think, and confusion isn’t always a UI problem
🔗 Read summary in Notion

Why Good Design is Good for Business
🎧 Webinar with Ashton Snook (Vodafone) | ⏱️ Original: ~60 mins · Summary: ~6 mins
From order taker to strategic partner, how Vodafone’s design team earns business trust, tracks impact with the Clarity Framework, and futureproofs skills for an AI driven world.
🔗 Read summary in Notion 

🚀 For Advanced Researchers

Beyond Numbers: How to Properly Evaluate Qualitative UX Research
📄 Article by Dr Maria Panagiotidi | ⏱️ Original: ~15–20 mins · Summary: ~5 mins
How to shut down “but is this statistically significant?” like a pro. Crabtree’s 5 dimension framework gives you language and leverage to defend qualitative work on its own terms.
🔗 Read summary in Notion

Prioritising What Matters: Spotify’s Framework for Strategic Research
🎥 Talk by Megan McLean (Spotify) | ⏱️ Original: ~23 mins · Summary: ~6 mins
How 5 researchers support 1,500 people: Spotify’s “Rivers & Roads” framework helps small UX teams focus on oneway door decisions that truly shape strategy without drowning in low impact requests.
🔗 Read summary in Notion

Strategic vs Tactical Research Impact
🎧 Podcast with Javier Bargas (Google) | ⏱️ Original: ~29 mins · Summary: ~5 mins
Impact isn’t about the method it’s about the problem you solve. Learn how “Insight Primers” and a method-agnostic mindset can land you a seat at the strategy table (without abandoning tactical wins).
🔗 Read summary in Notion

Managing What We Know: Lessons from Atlassian’s Research Library
🎥 Talk by Allison Reid (Atlassian) | ⏱️ Original: ~59 mins · Summary: ~7 mins
Don’t collect dusty reports, catalog and connect them. Learn how Atlassian’s scrappy but powerful research library boosted reuse by 90% and how you can set one up without fancy tools or massive budgets.
🔗 Read summary in Notion

🕰️ One That Never Gets Old

100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People
📘 Susan M. Weinschenk | ⏱️ Original: ~6 hrs · Summary: ~6-8 mins (more like 8)
Short term memory is 4 chunks max. People read in patterns. Find out the 100 cognitive hacks that improve every design. Check out the great interview with her on the link below.
🔗 Read summary in Notion

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Thanks for reading—now go forth, be strategic, and save your brain for the work that really matters! 🧠🚀

Have a great weekend,
Christian

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