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

Awkward Silences

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:

• http://userinterviews.com/awkward
• https://www.linkedin.com/company/klaviyo

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.