#192 - Slowing Things Down to Speed Up Research with Jared Forney of Okta

#192 - Slowing Things Down to Speed Up Research with Jared Forney of Okta

Author: User Interviews July 1, 2026 Duration: 56:33

Erin May talks with Jared Forney, Research Operations Principal at Okta, about how the role of research and research operations is shifting as AI accelerates product development. Jared explains why scale and rigor do not have to be opposing forces and why teams need to return to their core goals before adding new tools.

Jared dives into how he builds trust across legal, product, and design teams and why that trust becomes the capital you spend when driving big change. He shares why automating more work actually concentrates human attention rather than removing it, how he approaches knowledge management and orchestration across many data sources, and why written communication and technical skills now matter more than ever. Jared also answers audience questions on governance, getting buy in for research ops, working faster under compressed timelines, AI guard rails, and breaking into the field.

Highlights

  • 02:13 Upskilling for scale and rigor
  • 04:33 Balancing speed with research quality
  • 14:50 Where humans fit in AI workflows
  • 25:00 Rethinking knowledge management and MCP
  • 32:00 Best tactic for getting governance buy-in
  • 41:35 Enabling faster research under pressure

About Our Guest
Jared is a Research Operations Principal based in the San Francisco Bay Area with 8+ years building research infrastructure from the ground up. His work sits at the intersection of governance, tooling, and enablement: building systems that help research teams move faster while keeping data practices sound. He's led repository migrations, developed AI governance frameworks, consolidated tooling ecosystems, and spoken at industry conferences about how operations can amplify — not constrain — great research. Connect with Jared on LinkedIn!

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
Podcast Episodes
#156 - Change Management with Graham Gardner of U.S. Bank [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:44
Change is an important and inevitable part of developing as a user experience professional. But what does change look like when it happens at the organizational level? That is the focus of this episode, featuring Graham…
#155 - Exploratory Design Research with Will Notini of IDEO [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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 be…
#154 - Building the UX Team of Tomorrow with Brad Orego of Webflow [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 45:05
The craft of UX research is at an all-time high. How research leaders structure, staff, and scale their teams is more important than ever. Erin and Carol are joined by Brad Orego, Head of Research at Webflow, to talk all…
#153 - Security-Minded UX with Caroline Morchio of Dashlane [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 33:55
In our Season 3 finale, Erin and Carol are joined by Caroline Morchio, Head of UX at Dashlane, a credential management platform. Their conversation explores UX research best practices at a security-minded organization li…