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How This Works

How This Works

Written by: Skipper Chong Warson
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 This is for your curious inner child. You can also think of this show as a deep dive into a wide variety of subject matters with 100 experts. On the first season, we had 23 guests from a variety of backgrounds — creative director, infectious disease expert, actor, recruiter, cannabis expert, chef, musician, film director, architect, permaculturist, runner, meditation teacher, chef, sex educator, and mastering engineer among others. Some are old friends, some are people we've just met, but all are human beings in the world who've agreed to have a conversation with us about the things that they know well. The second season is in progress now. Episodes drop every third Wed. Please follow/subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you for joining us.© 2022 Octopus Pants Self-Help Social Sciences Success
Episodes
  • Jen Blatz

    Jen Blatz
    May 29 2025
    Jen Blatz, principal UX researcher at Boeing Employees' Credit Union (BECU), takes us on a journey from journalism to UX design, sharing practical insights from the trenches of financial institutions and animal hospitals. With experience spanning VCA animal hospitals to Capital One to Rocket Mortgage, Jen brings a refreshingly honest perspective on the evolving UX landscape—including what's broken with personas and why the future might look different than we think. Her background in journalism shapes how she approaches ethnographic observation, whether she's watching veterinarians work with anxious pets or understanding how credit union members navigate digital banking. Jen doesn't shy away from tough conversations about AI's role in research, the limitations of traditional UX methods, or the reality of today's competitive job market. Currently at BECU, Jen navigates the unique challenge of conducting remote research for a Washington State credit union while being based in Texas herself, highlighting how smaller financial institutions operate differently from big banks with vendor constraints and community-focused approach. You can listen here or wherever you get your podcasts: https://www.howthisworks.show/035-jen-blatz (https://www.howthisworks.show/035-jen-blatz) Or watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/B-uMrQ4d4RQ (https://youtu.be/B-uMrQ4d4RQ) Key points: * Ethnographic observation in unexpected places - Jen shares her early UX experience at VCA animal hospitals, including watching a dog undergo anesthesia for dental cleaning. This field work taught her the importance of understanding real working conditions rather than making assumptions about user needs. * Financial institutions aren't all the same - Drawing from her experience across banks, credit unions, and FinTech companies, Jen explains how resource constraints and third-party vendor dependencies create unique challenges for smaller financial institutions compared to tech giants. * The consultancy model reality - Working within Boeing Employees' Credit Union's distributed research team structure, Jen discusses the trade-offs between learning about different business aspects versus sustained project influence — and why this model might be more common than we think. * AI as assistant, not replacement - From her experiments with ChatGPT and Adobe Firefly, Jen shares practical insights about using AI tools for desk research and image generation while emphasizing the critical need to double-check AI outputs for accuracy. * Why personas miss the mark - Jen critiques traditional personas for focusing on irrelevant demographic information instead of actionable insights, introducing the Scenario Alignment Canvas (SAC) framework as a more effective alternative that focuses on specific scenarios, goals, and pain points. * The changing UX job market - Predicting that design system roles may become obsolete as AI tools advance, Jen discusses the trend of UX researchers moving into product owner roles and shares honest advice about building real-world experience in a competitive market. * Personal branding as differentiation - Currently exploring how to define and build personal brands, Jen emphasizes networking and practical experience over theoretical knowledge as keys to standing out in today's UX landscape. Jen also touches on the challenges of remote research when you're not physically located where your users are, and how the pandemic shifted both researcher capabilities and user expectations around digital experiences. The audio and video for this episode has been edited by Gideon Kroutil (https://www.gideonkroutil.com/). Special Guest: Jen Blatz.
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    1 hr and 13 mins
  • Dr. Chui Chui Tan

    Dr. Chui Chui Tan
    Mar 11 2025
    Dr. Chui Chui Tan, cultural strategist and author, shares her journey helping businesses navigate cultural nuances for global growth. With over 16 years of experience in user experience internationally, she has orchestrated successful market launches for companies like Spotify, Netflix, and Bumble across 50 countries. Her approach goes beyond user research and experience to incorporate a holistic understanding of market ecosystems, helping businesses avoid cultural stereotyping while making informed strategic decisions. Born in Malaysia to Chinese parents, Chui Chui moved to the UK over 20 years ago. Her unique background and global experience inform her approach to cultural strategy. Beginning with mechanical engineering and an unexpected transition through music technology to human-computer interaction, she eventually specialized in international research after conducting user interviews in Beijing for a hotel client. Over time, her work evolved from pure user experience research to a more holistic approach that considers history, infrastructure, politics, and economic factors when helping businesses enter new markets. You can listen here or wherever you get your podcasts: https://www.howthisworks.show/034-dr-chui-chui-tan (https://www.howthisworks.show/034-dr-chui-chui-tan) Or watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Q9mC2bykxuo (https://youtu.be/Q9mC2bykxuo) Key points from the conversation: * Four-bucket methodology - Chui Chui shares her framework for organizing market knowledge into known facts, strong hypotheses, weak hypotheses, and unknowns when entering new markets. This approach helps align teams and identify critical knowledge gaps. * Context-specific cultural adaptation - She explains how cultural manifestations differ depending on product context, using her contrasting work with Asana and Spotify in Japan to illustrate how the same users interact differently with different products based on cultural values. * Cultural frameworks in practice - Chui Chui discusses the strengths and limitations of popular frameworks like Erin Meyer's "Culture Map" and Hofstede's cultural dimensions, emphasizing the importance of practical application over theoretical models. * Future of AI in cultural strategy - Drawing from her experiments with ChatGPT, Baidu's Ernie, and Inception's Jais (Arabic) to analyze cultural insights, she predicts AI will complement but not replace human understanding of cultural nuances. * Cross-cultural identity - Reflecting on her own bicultural experience, Chui Chui discusses how individuals navigate multiple cultural identities, noting she can "be more British in certain aspects of my life, and then when it comes to certain things, I'm quite Malaysian or quite Asian." * Personal philosophy - "Care less about things that are not as important" – Chui Chui's evolving perspective on focusing energy on what truly matters, both personally and professionally. Chui Chui also shares her fascination with understanding the origins of cultural differences, currently exploring this through reading "Sapiens" by Yuval Noah Harari among others. You can find Chui Chui at: * Website: beyo.global (https://beyo.global/) * LinkedIn: Chui Chui Tan (https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuichuitan/) * YouTube: @chuichuitan (https://www.youtube.com/@chuichuitan) The audio and video for this episode has been edited by Gideon Kroutil (https://www.gideonkroutil.com/). Special Guest: Dr. Chui Chui Tan.
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    1 hr and 13 mins
  • Drew Burdick

    Drew Burdick
    Jan 29 2025
    Drew Burdick, founder and managing partner of StealthX, shares his unconventional journey into design and entrepreneurship. After growing up in the Philippines (age 4-18) and studying political science and communications in college, a chance internship introduced him to graphic design — beginning with a bootleg copy of Illustrator/Photoshop CS2. During the 2009 recession, Drew scrapped his way forward, balancing freelance design work with jobs like valet parking at the Ritz Carlton and window washing. His path included founding a successful clothing brand for the electronic music scene (complete with 163 street team members) before transitioning into corporate roles and eventually launching StealthX, a consultancy focused on customer strategy, product design, and software engineering. * You can listen here or wherever you get your podcasts: https://www.howthisworks.show/033-drew-burdick (https://www.howthisworks.show/033-drew-burdick) * Or watch on Youtube: https://youtu.be/mxyRWsKJEDg?si=5EmG0VKhiA99US5m (https://youtu.be/mxyRWsKJEDg?si=5EmG0VKhiA99US5m) Key points from the conversation: * What's next for customer experience: Drew emphasizes moving beyond "fast, easy, and cheap" to create memorable moments that build brand loyalty. He applies this philosophy both to client work and to StealthX itself, crafting thoughtful touchpoints throughout the client journey. * The future of design teams: Drawing from his experience leading both large and small teams, Drew predicts a shift away from traditional large design organizations toward nimble, high-velocity small teams augmented by AI capabilities. * Industry specialization: Drew advocates for designers to develop deep industry expertise rather than remaining discipline-generalists, suggesting that understanding specific sectors like manufacturing or insurance will become increasingly valuable. * Community and connection: Despite the rise of remote work, Drew emphasizes the growing importance of local, in-person relationships and community building, particularly in regional tech hubs like Charlotte, North Carolina. * AI Inflection Point: Drew likens the current state of AI to the "256MB era" of computing, predicting rapid acceleration in capabilities and encouraging designers to embrace these tools as augmentation rather than threat. * Personal philosophy: "Do the next right thing" – tattooed on Drew's arm, this mantra emerged during COVID as a reminder to focus on immediate, actionable steps rather than getting overwhelmed by uncertainty. Drew also predicts that within a year, solopreneurs will increasingly build and launch products independently using AI tools, potentially challenging traditional team structures in larger organizations. He encourages experimenting with these tools, seeing them as opportunities to augment human creativity rather than as threats. * You can find Drew on social media as @drewhburdick and at drewburdick.com (https://drewburdick.com/) * Learn more about StealthX at stealthx.co (https://www.stealthx.co/) Listen to the second part of our conversation over at Drew's podcast, "Building Great Experiences" — • On Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/future-of-cx-beyond-product-into-ecosystems/id1776618976?i=1000686740180 (https://podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/future-of-cx-beyond-product-into-ecosystems/id1776618976?i=1000686740180) • On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/329mlkTWefrP7nQr8KMRV5?si=doVa-TrxS52MyNIjGHDDCA (https://open.spotify.com/episode/329mlkTWefrP7nQr8KMRV5?si=doVa-TrxS52MyNIjGHDDCA) • Or watch it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/RShAkpaXRwU?si=KX9sgbXRQDABmL_Z (https://youtu.be/RShAkpaXRwU?si=KX9sgbXRQDABmL_Z) Special Guest: Drew Burdick.
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    45 mins
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