Sam Ladner
Sociologist and Researcher
Sam Ladner (she/her) is a sociologist who helps teams innovate, design, and learn. She is the author of Practical Ethnography: A Guide to Doing Ethnography in The Private Sector and Mixed Methods: A Short Guide to Applied Mixed Methods Research. She has worked on dozens of software projects at Microsoft, Amazon, and many other client companies. She recently retired from Workday, an enterprise software company, as a Senior Principal Researcher studying the future of work. She received her PhD in sociology from York University and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Rosenverse talks by Sam:
" The moments when things 'click' often come during shower thoughts or while doing dishes — those reflective pauses matter. "
Methodological toolkit for unique research impact
March 11, 2026
" People generally want to help and tell what they genuinely believe; they’re just terrible at accurate recall. "
Methodologies: Beyond the interview [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
September 4, 2024
" Rigour really is just a method; it’s knowing why you made the choices and tradeoffs you did. "
How Research Can Drive Strategic Foresight
March 9, 2022
" Organizations are racialized and systematically exclude qualified researchers of color. "
The Future of Research: Bridging the Gaps
July 29, 2021
" Enterprise user experiences are often customer experiences, not user experiences. "
Data Exhaust and Personal Data: Learning from Consumer Products to Enhance Enterprise UX
June 8, 2016
" Building a distribution list of user-centered design success stories created a groundswell with 1,200 subscribers hungry for more. "
Discussion
June 8, 2016
