#120- Building a Healthy Research Culture with Mike Oren of Klaviyo

#120- Building a Healthy Research Culture with Mike Oren of Klaviyo

Author: User Interviews March 15, 2023 Duration: 41:20

Whether you are a team of one or one hundred, cultivating a healthy research culture starts with strong leadership. Strong leadership encourages UXR teams to promote better research practices across teams and manage healthy conflict. But what does a healthy company culture look like IRL? And how do you promote best practices throughout the organization to help scale your research?

Mike Oren, Head of Design Research at Klaviyo, has built and scaled several thriving research teams from scratch throughout his career. In this episode, he discusses the power of company culture and shares advice on culture building.

In this episode, we discuss:

  • The overall impact of research culture on companies’ bottom-line goals
  • The anatomy of a “healthy” company culture
  • Establishing cultural norms in your organization
  • Dealing with challenges and avoiding mistakes
  • Tips and tricks for nurturing and developing a research-focused company culture

Highlights:

  • [00:01:11] Planting the seeds of research culture
  • [00:03:18] The importance of psychological safety for UXR teams
  • [00:06:04] Maintaining healthy conflict and avoiding cognitive bias
  • [00:12:21] Attributes of a healthy research culture
  • [00:21:45] How research culture fits in with the rest of the organization
  • [00:28:39] Tips on how to build research awareness and educate stakeholders

Sources mentioned in the episode:

About Our Guest

Mike Oren, Head of Design Research at Klaviyo, a technology company that provides an automated email marketing and SMS marketing platform. He is also the Founder of Societech, an Adjunct Professor at Illinois Institute of Technology’s Institute of Design, and an independent UX Research Consultant. Mike holds a Ph.D. and a Master’s degree in Human-Computer Interaction and Sociology from Iowa State University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and English Writing from DePauw University


Awkward Silences is a conversation about the human side of building things. Hosts Erin May and Carol Guest, both VPs at User Interviews, don't just talk about theory-they get into the messy, real-world practice of talking to users and making sense of what they say. Each episode pulls back the curtain on the craft of user research, featuring candid chats with the practitioners who do this work every day. You'll hear stories about navigating tricky interviews, the weight of interpreting qualitative data, and how genuine understanding directly shapes better products and smarter business decisions. This isn't a dry lecture; it's a geeky, relatable dive into the questions and quiet moments that define UX research. The Awkward Silences podcast lives in the intersection of technology and business, focusing on the people and processes that connect them. Listen for practical insights, empathetic strategies, and the occasional shared laugh about the inevitable fumbles that come with trying to understand anyone. It’s for anyone who believes that building effectively starts with listening well.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

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