Summary
Join the moderator, Andreas Huebner (User Research Manager), as he runs a Q&A session with Amy Takata (User Researcher), and Craig Brookes (Staff Product Designer) to discuss life at Compass, the team culture, and the reasons for joining the Compass team.
Key Insights
-
•
User research and design at Compass are deeply interwoven, resulting in stronger, user-centered products.
-
•
Generative research conducted remotely using low-fidelity sketches encourages authentic user input without pressure.
-
•
Pandemic-driven virtual collaboration tools, like InVision and Slack, enabled effective remote user research and team communication.
-
•
Research drives both discovery and validation phases, ensuring designs align with actual customer needs.
-
•
The Marketing Center team at Compass focuses on automating marketing content tailored to distinct agent personas and regional differences.
-
•
Rapid growth of the UX team at Compass has increased leadership buy-in and elevated research’s influence on product strategy.
-
•
Cross-disciplinary collaboration leads to proactive problem identification, not just reactive responses to requests.
-
•
Remote work has prompted creative social interactions, helping maintain team culture and connection.
-
•
User journeys specific to Compass’s platform are complex and require in-depth exploration rather than assumptions from general market research.
-
•
Compass operates in a 'blue ocean' space of unexplored marketing automation, making their UX work uniquely pioneering.
Notable Quotes
"Design and research at Compass have become so integrated that we are powerful partners shaping product vision together."
"We had to figure out new ways to do generative research virtually, like having users design with us over video chat."
"I work with Amy almost every day, but we’ve never met in person — all collaboration has been remote."
"Creating low-fidelity sketches allowed users to focus on their journey without feeling pressure over polished designs."
"Everyone at Compass now wants research on everything, showing increased curiosity and buy-in across teams."
"Our user base is really fun and complex; agents vary from hyper brand-specific to wanting broad automated content."
"Compass is exploring unknown territory — we don’t know what we’ll find, and that makes this work exciting."
"We moved from tactical research to addressing big open questions thanks to leadership support."
"Remote work forced us to be more intentional about communication since we lost casual walk-by chats."
"The culture at Compass made me feel like I was working with friends every day before the pandemic."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Don't be cool, be good—work hard at managing your teams because they need you to nail it."
Adam Cutler Karen Pascoe Ian Swinson Susan WorthmanDiscussion
June 8, 2016
"Many product managers got their roles because they know the business or subject matter, but they don’t know how to manage product development."
Peter MerholzThe Trials and Tribulations of Directors of UX (Videoconference)
July 13, 2023
"Everything that has been put online, someone like us made and put there; we bake our own biases into it."
Lisa WelchmanCleaning Up Our Mess: Digital Governance for Designers
June 14, 2018
"The time for action is now, and it must be collaborative."
Vincent BrathwaiteOpener: Past, Present, and Future—Closing the Racial Divide in Design Teams
October 22, 2020
"Design your processes around learning, have blameless post mortems and celebrate failures especially."
Brenna FallonLearning Over Outcomes
October 24, 2019
"It’s human infrastructure—community organizing, unions, activists—that saves the day when other infrastructures break down."
Tricia WangSpatial Collapse: Designing for Emergent Culture
January 8, 2024
"We aimed for research that is actionable, not just insightful or pretty to look at."
Edgar Anzaldua MorenoUsing Research to Determine Unique Value Proposition
March 11, 2021
"Service lines bridge the gaps between product lines through information flows to provide the right knowledge at the right time."
Designing Systems at Scale
November 7, 2018
"If my experiment made front-page news tomorrow, what would the headline be? Would my mother be proud?"
Erin WeigelGet Your Whole Team Testing to Design for Impact
July 24, 2024
