Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth

The UX research reckoning is here | Judd Antin (Airbnb, Meta)

January 4, 2024

AI Summary

5 min read

Judd Antin, former head of research at Airbnb and a leader at Meta, discusses why UX research faces a "reckoning" amid layoffs, arguing the discipline must adapt to deliver more business impact. Drawing from his experience building high-performing teams, he critiques common practices and offers a framework for change.

Macro, Middle-Range, and Micro Research

Antin categorizes research into three levels: macro (strategic, forward-looking work like market analysis, competitor studies, and long-term innovation); middle-range (user understanding questions like "How do Airbnb hosts feel about payments?"—interesting but often vague, hard to act on, and prone to post-hoc bias); and micro (targeted usability testing, A/B test follow-ups, and quick fixes, like Airbnb's "multimillion-dollar button" that changed seven characters to boost conversions by 1%). Most teams overdo middle-range work because it's what PMs request, yielding low business leverage despite being engaging for researchers.

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What you'll learn

1 `* (00:00) **Guest Intro: Judd Antin’s Background and Impact**`
2 `* (04:22) **Article Reaction: "The User Research Reckoning is Here"**`
3 `* (07:53) **Core Thesis: Layoffs Reveal Broken Research System**`
4 `* (08:46) **Main Framework: Macro, Middle-Range, Micro Research**`
5 `* (14:51) **Vicious Cycle and Fixes: Integrate Research Early**`
6 `* (21:25) **Business Orientation and User-Centered Performance**`
7 `* (33:04) **PM Tropes on Research and Counterarguments**`

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

Judd Antin has spent 15 years leading research and design teams at companies like Yahoo, Meta, and Airbnb. His direct reports have gone on to lead user research at Figma, Notion, Slack, Robinhood, Duolingo, AllTrails, and more. In our conversation, we unpack the transformation that the user-research field is experiencing. Specifically:

• Where user research went wrong over the past decade

• The three types of research—macro, middle-range, and micro—and the purpose of each

• How to effectively integrate researchers into the product development process

• The “user-centered performance” phenomenon and why it’s a waste of time

• Common tropes about PMs, from researchers

• The ideal ratio of researchers in a company

• Why Judd says NPS is useless, and what to use instead

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Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-ux-research-reckoning-is-here

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Where to find Judd Antin:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juddantin/

• Website: https://juddantin.com/

• Blog: https://medium.com/onebigthought

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/