#155 - Exploratory Design Research with Will Notini of IDEO

#155 - Exploratory Design Research with Will Notini of IDEO

Author: User Interviews December 11, 2024 Duration: 40:17

The consulting firm IDEO helped pioneer "design thinking" as a way to create products that better solve customer wants and needs, creating fans. Over 30 years later, the interplay between design and research has never been more important.

Will Notini joins to dig into that interplay—how research is at the heart of design and vice versa. In particular, he thinks the best companies are using design research principles to explore new opportunities, both what they create and how those experiences function.

Will also shares a framework for researching "fast and slow," the importance of participant recruitment, and how building trust with colleagues creates more impactful, lasting user insights.

Highlights

  • 04:11 Uncovering Unbiased Insights Through Exploratory Design
  • 12:20 Finding Participants Who Truly Care and Invest
  • 19:43 Building Trust for Collaborative Design Discussions
  • 24:54 Interdisciplinary Collaboration and Expertise-Sharing at IDEO
  • 30:37 Simulated Research: Addressing Urgency and Resource Challenges
  • 34:10 Iterative Learning: Updating Assumptions and Approaches

About Will
Will Notini is a Senior Design Research Lead at IDEO, where he is a generalist —drawing on his training in social science research to execute design and innovation work for clients in a range of industries. In his role, he manages multi-disciplinary teams and leads the research.


His background is in anthropology and did mixed methods market research in the restaurant industry before transitioning to design research and has been at IDEO since. He has also recently picked up an MBA and a potentially unhealthy (unrelated) obsession with tennis.


Resources


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: 50

Awkward Silences
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