Ampersand

Ampersand is a design studio that partners with businesses to create experiences that work. 

Specialising in Design, Research and Strategy, we rethink what it means to design for users.  

Here's how:

We identify and balance risk. We design for the whole system rather than individual screens. We design for behaviour and context. But most importantly, we consider how products and services make people feel. Why? Because that's how to create experiences that people believe in.

Whether you're starting from 0, looking for strategic direction, or need extra pair of hands, we'd love to talk you!

Please DM, or email: hello@ampersandco.studio

(website launching soon)

Founder

birdie

Birdie is a B2B SaaS shaking up the Social Care space. Birdie's mission is to reinvent care through technology and enable older adults to age in their homes.

My role is responsible for the care management domain which spans from Care Managers assessing care needs, to Carers delivering care. 

The care ecosystem is complex:
→ Different care types, i.e hourly care vs Live in care vs complex care
→ Market segments, i.e VSB and SMBS vs Enterprise
→ Multiple persona types, i.e Care Manager vs Carer vs Regulatory bodies 

Above all else, the most important part of my job is thinking critically. Always. 

Why? Because medication schedules cannot be misinterpreted, or mistakes made.
It needs to be easy to use, but enough friction to reduce mistakes. It needs to be understood by people whose first language might not be English, and people that are time poor during a care visit.


Other key responsibilities:
- Lead full the end-to-end process , from discovery to design in my squad
- Work with the PM to shape the strategic vision for my squad, and wider product
- Conduct in-person field research with multiple user types to understand their needs
- Analyse insights from inbound and outbound data to identify both tactical and strategic opportunities across the ecosystem

Senior Product Designer

rehab_agency

rehab_agency is an innovation agency working with clients including: Google, Nike, Spotify, Disney and Meta across projects specialising in web3, AI, voice and AR.

Key highlight:
Leading a strategic discovery project for Google focussed on Generative AI.

Worked alongside creative strategists and technologists to understand how we could utilise emerging technology with Google's platform and technology

Blue Ocean strategy project. Undertook thorough desk research, qualitative research and facilitated workshops to uncover greenfield opportunity areas.

Senior UX Designer

SPARCK

SPARCK is a design services consultancy. 

Proudest projects:
- NHS Covid-19 Clinical tool that won a gold standard award 
- Led designer for a 4 month strategic vision project for a Tier 1 Bank


Wider responsibilities:
- Stepped into multiple roles as client's needs evolved, i.e Service Design, Research, PM.

- Facilitated workshops to uncover opportunities that aligned to tactical and strategic goals
- Mentored junior product designers, and helped to train 5 junior designers in the Sparck academy. 

- Defined and led culture initiatives that shaped the Product Design Practice and wider SPARCK.

Product Designer

Flutter Entertainment Plc

It's no secret that there's an ethical debate when talking about gambling. However, it was my role, and the other designer's around me to represent the user and understand the line between what's engaging and what's addictive. Honestly, this role emphasised the importance of design to advocate for users within a business. How are user's feeling? How can we provide trust and safety to them?

Key responsibilities:
- Challenge briefs and uncover the problem areas. Articulate findings through journey maps, wireframes and advanced prototypes that highlight user-needs.
- Understand behavioural design and cognitive biases, in addition to conducting research to uncover user behaviours and motivations.
- Collaborate with UI Designers, Product Managers and Developers to ensure solutions are technically feasible, creative, and answer user and business problems.
- Work closely with content design to ensure "betslips" were understood. Create visuals to breakdown complex terms and conditions
- Lead workshops with key stakeholders across the business to understand, define and ideate on the business and user problem areas.

Key achievements:
- Altered the trajectory of a project to focus on user needs by finding areas of opportunity through analysing and presenting research to directors.

User Experience Architect 

Numberfit

Key responsibilities:
1. Analyse existing websites by conducting UX audits, and deliver suggested designs based on UX best practices.
2. Advise on current design mockups, content hierarchy and understanding

UX Designer - Volunteer

DePuy Synthes Companies

Depuy Synthes, a company of J&J,  specialises in orthopaedics for joint replacement and surgical tools. I put people at the heart of engineering to design ergonomic tools and understand surgical needs and workflows.

Key responsibilities:
1. Thoroughly researched knee surgery - including on cadavers to understand surgeon’s workflow - for example, how much space/access they have to knee joints, where extra grip is needed. This greatly informed the physicals designs I created.

2. Produced design visuals, storyboards, graphics and CAD, and physical 3D models to communicate design ideas to the team and answer set briefs. 

Key achievements: 
1. Designed a surgical tool that would help to improve surgeon's workflow and was consequently taken to a usability lab
2. Designed and carried out user testing protocols with “voice of consumers” including specialist surgeons in usability labs to identify pain points.

Industrial Design and Human Factors FTC

At the beginning of the year, I embarked on the adventure of a lifetime and took 5 months to travel Southeast Asia and Australasia.

Travelling - 5 months

Oxford International Education Group

Summer school role.
- Promoted to senior management team following a successful year as an Activity Leader the summer previously
- Managed a team, including a Welfare Assistant to ensure the well-being and involvement of students- Responsible for handling dietary requirements for meal times and liaised with catering staff to ensure these were met

Welfare Manager  at a Summer School

Loughborough University

The Epi-pen redesign (named Totem), reduces both primary and secondary users anxiety before and during an anaphylaxis reaction. I completely redesigned and design engineered the mechanism to have a less aggressive form of actuation, a discrete form (especially to allow men to carry it in their pockets) Additionally the device incorporated electronics to aid with administering the injection as well as temperature tracking and reaction tracking.

**Key responsibilities: **

Concept generation and brief creation.
In depth research including interviewing users, reading journals and medical data to identify pain points and ultimately define the user needs.
Extensive sketching, iterative prototypes (digital and physical), journey maps, users flows, moodboards, user testing, mechanical analysis, and documentation. 
Key achievements:

Successfully created a fully functioning physical prototype that can administer a dose of epinephrine, an aesthetic prototype, in addition to designing a clickable app prototype.

Epi-pen. Patent Pending 

Hey, hello, hi!
I'm Emily, and I put people back into the heart of designing experiences.

Somewhere along the way we got swept up in only designing MVPs, only considering ideal users, and leaving people feeling like edge-cases. I'm here to change that.

I design experiences by thinking of the overall system, and considering people's behaviours, emotions and context. Most importantly, I help you think about risk; aka thinking about what can go wrong, so we can design against it.

Here's how I can help you:
- Design solutions with impact
- Identify tactical vs strategic bets 
- Uncover areas of opportunity and growth
- Design for context, behaviour and emotions
- Connect design outcomes <> business outcomes
- Uncover risks in your service and process
- Consider the overall system experience - not just the screens

Design isn't just about how it works, or how it looks. It's about how it makes people feel.

I'd love to hear about how I can help you. Drop me a message on LinkedIn, or send an email to: hello@ampersandco.studio

And if you don't have a project, I'm always down for a coffee chat!

Emily Anderson

I use this table on almost every project

It depends what I’m working on, but whenever I start something (whether it’s with a new client or a new project), I use this to help keep us honest about what we actually know vs when we’re building on assumptions

Otherwise, context and decisions get scattered, or lost when people leave 

It’s a working doc that evolves as we learn more and prove / disprove things, but it helps to understand:

→ What’s actually true vs what’s an assumption?
→ What’s the risk or impact of it?
→ What questions do we have?
→ How could we find the answer?
→ What do we need to prioritise?
→ What evidence do we have to support it?

I’ve found it really helps to encourage teams to step back and keep aligned so thought I’d share. It can also be used alongside things like assumption mapping workshops

It should be pretty straightforward to recreate, but shout in the comments if you want the Notion link to start making it your own

Designer | Reducing risks to users and businesses | Founder, Ampersand | Speaker

Screenshot of an assumptions tracking table with multiple columns. 

The table has multiple columns to track project assumptions. Each row includes the assumption type (Assumption or Question), current status (True, False, Unknown, or Answered), risk level (High, Medium, or Low with rationale), research methods, priority level (P1, P2, or P3), and supporting evidence. 


Strategic is a funny word. It gets dropped into a conversation, everyone nods and agrees we need to “be more” of it, but it gets thrown around so much that it’s hard to understand what it actually means

I’ve had this same conversation many times:
A: “The designers need to be more strategic”
B: “Ok, what do you mean by that?”
A: “Well, they just need to be less tactical”
B: “Right, so what do you expect to change?”
A: “They just need to think more … strategically”

It’s hard to grasp exactly what people expect sometimes, but it’s often easier to understand through actions. So if you want show you think strategically, or you need a way to explain what you mean, here’s a few things you can start doing:

→ Frame root causes
Don’t take the problem at the surface level - uncover if we’re solving the real problem, and why it matters

→ Understand the broader context
Think in systems, and consider the wider experience - not just the screen you’re designing (e.g map the overall experience including internal teams like support, onboarding, etc)

→ Consider the risks, constraints, and trade-offs
Identify what will happen if we do this, or don’t do this. When you explore designs, show the benefits and drawbacks of options and why. Challenge if we’re making long-term trade-offs for short term gains

→ Use “which means” in your mindset
Whether it’s making decisions, or framing research, talk about the impact. Thinking “which means that” will help you to start considering the knock-on effect (e.g instead of: “users clicked this”, say: “users did XX which means YY which impacts ZZ)

→ Dig into outcomes and metrics
Not everything can be measured, but spend time to understand how the problem and solution ties to product metrics and business outcomes. Use evidence to inform decisions rather than opinions

You essentially want to be seen as helping to shape direction rather than just execution. That means digging into root causes, influencing what's built, and tying to impact

BUT, the big caveat is that the right conditions need to be created for designers to be strategic in the first place. Designers need to be invited into conversations early, given space for strategic thinking, and empowered to actually influence decisions

At what point does “helpful” actually become harmful?

Everything is trying to predict what we want, what we’ll do next, or say next. But what happens when the predictions are wrong? Or they’re actually triggering?

I was sending a message recently and started typing “I’m so sorry for…”
The next word I was going to type was “forgetting” but instead, the words “for your loss” popped up. It might look like a minor thing (it’s just words… right?). But if you’ve experienced a loss, this could be the reminder that sends you into a spiral

We’re moving deeper into an automated world where we’re encouraged to design solutions to make things faster, more efficient, and “optimised” for users. But where can we design guardrails to ensure we’re not actually causing harm? Especially as AI is embedded into more and more features which means a heap of bias and assumptions baked in

For “smart” solutions that look for patterns and make predictions, we need to ensure we’re not just building for the average, and instead we still create experiences that have nuance, understand people’s context, and emotional state. I’m not just talking about loss either - every product has the potential to cause a negative impact in *some* way

So whatever we design, we need to keep asking:

→ What could go wrong? How could we be causing harm, even if unintentionally? And how can we mitigate it.

→ How can automation be brought together with thoughtful, responsible design?

→ How might people’s situations change, and how can it adapt to that?

→ Do we understand people’s emotions and context?

And, just because we can build something, should we?

The worst workshops are the ones where you spend the whole time panicking about if your ideas are “good enough” rather than being able to focus on coming up with ideas 

The ones where people talk through their ideas and say: “Ignore how bad it looks” or “I didn’t have anything different to other people, so stopped”, or worse, when people drop in the chat: “brb, door” *turns camera off* just as a way to get out of it

I’ve been there, and to be honest, I’ve probably facilitated a few workshops like that before too

Workshops can be BRILLIANT, but they can also create unnecessary pressure and anxiety - especially if we don’t recognise that not everyone’s brains work the same way. Some people are super confident to draw their ideas, but others might be a lot less visual and prefer to write things down

After running countless workshops, I’ve found that the best way to make them better is to encourage people to ideate in whatever format is best for them. It might seem obvious, but giving people more flexibility will absolutely lead to better ideas

So here's what I do. Before starting, I briefly walk through examples of different ways to explore their ideas:

→ Draw on paper and upload a photo
→ Write it down 
→ Create scrappy wireframes 
→ Use screenshots of other products as references
→ Prompt using your AI tool of choice

It doesn’t matter how ideas look, what matters is creating a space for people to do their best thinking. That way, the focus changes from “ahhh how do I make it look less bad” to actually letting the ideas flow

So the next time you’re prepping a workshop, try adding a section to encourage different ways of thinking. Anything we can do to create a safe, judge-free environment is always a win

When was the last time you asked: “what’s *stopping* users from using it?” 

When we’re trying to alter user behaviour, it’s really easy to ask: “how can we get users to do [this thing]” 

(Things like: how can we encourage them to sign-up, make playlists, log workouts, delete emails, etc)

But if we reframe our thinking to consider the barriers, it can help us uncover angles we might not have considered before

We might realise that users actually *want* to do it, but they can’t - there’s something in their way

Maybe it’s effort (e.g if switching energy providers feels like a faff, they won’t - even if it’s cheaper). Maybe your product doesn’t integrate with their systems. Maybe they can’t use it because it’s not accessible. Or maybe the barrier in their way is emotion

Facebook Marketplace is a good example of considering barriers ↓

Imagine you’ve had a clear out and want to sell a bunch of things. But, the items were gifts from friends and you’re worried they’ll see it

No matter how easy it is to sell with FB, you don’t want to - you don’t want to upset them, or feel caught out. Those emotions stop you from using it - they’re a barrier

But that’s why FB is a great example:
They’ve created a setting that lets you hide sale items from your contacts

That setting helps to remove the emotional barrier. It might look small, but it could be the difference between selling with FB Marketplace vs elsewhere
— 

I find that a small shift in thinking (particularly in early conversations) can really help to open-up different conversations with the team

So, the next time you’re thinking about user behaviour, try asking:
→ What’s stopping them from [doing the thing]?
→ What barriers could exist?
--

p.s I’ve been selling a bunch of things to desperately try and make space for when baby arrives, and it’s been interesting to compare the selling experience between different platforms (FB Marketplace, eBay, Vinted)

UX Research subscriptions so you can get the insights you need every month. 
www.rexhq.io

Founder & CEO

One of a kind

Founder and community builder 

Grab

- Led the ~20 person Women at Grab committee across 6 international markets. Committee management included designing and executing recruitment, managing turn over, setting performance expectations. 
- Increased the quantity of events ~4x while maintaining consistently excellent feedback (satisfaction ~9/10)
- Led Grab’s largest ever International Women’s Day program which included~2000 attendees across 3 continents and events with multiple external companies
- Facilitated panels to promote conversation on gender equity topics including allyship, experiences of non-inclusive behaviour in the workplace, digital inclusion, career advancement. Panel participants included C-suite.
- Led benchmarking of employee benefits across international offices and compared to industry. Work led to the identification of key benefits to improve.

Women @ Grab Co-chair

Lead UX Researcher (Design Strategy and Research)

RMIT Online

Facilitated Service Design Research, part of the Graduate Certificate in Service Design.

Online facilitator 

Boston Consulting Group (BCG)

Senior Strategic Designer

At BCG I worked on strategy and transformation projects across Asia. I have worked as part of BCG and BCG Digital Ventures teams.

Strategic Designer

Nous Group

While my work was varied, my focus was on customer experience, tech and digital strategy. As a Manager, I was often the Project Manger on my teams.  This meant I had to manage the team to meet our project objective, engage with clients and manage our time and budget effectively. I loved work that combined Human Centred Design and traditional consulting methods to reach creative yet implementable solutions. I worked across sectors but with greater emphasis on work in health and human services. 

Nous Group is Australia's largest privately owned management consulting firm with over 700 staff in Australia, UK and Canada.

Manager

Consultant

Forethought

I worked in qualitative and quantitative market research consulting with clients in the private sector. I worked on project and wrote proposals for clients in retail, consumer products, telecommunications and logistics.

I am on a mission to have every organisation regularly complete UX Research. 

In 2023 I founded rex to live this mission. 

I love speaking at events about Design, UX Research and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Shoot me a message if you'd like me to join your event. 

www.rubypryor.com

Examples of my speaking:
•	UXcon (Vienna) UX Marks the Spot: Adapting UX practice to Southeast Asia (2023)
•	UX Strat Asia (Bangkok) Frameworks to increase the impact of UX Research (2023)
•	NUS-ISS Education Festival (Singapore) Outside-in organisations (2023)
•	Tech week @ General Assembly event (virtual) Championing Women in Tech panel (2023)
•	UXVN Fest (Ho Chi Minh City) Delivering more business impact with UX Research (2022)
•	UX Strat Asia (Singapore) Amping up the business impact of UX Research (2022)
•	Deakin University (Australia) Careers in UX Research (2022, 2023)

Ruby Pryor

One of the many things I love about Thailand is the embrace of all things cute.

My favourite word in Thai is หมั่นเขี้ยว (man kiiao)

My dictionary defines it as: 

‘the term used when you see something so cute you want to sink your fingers into it like putty and squeeze it until it bursts’ 

(this is how I feel about Moo Deng)

I love the way that Thai companies use cute (and international companies localise their branding by leveraging cute!)

Check out my carousel for 4 examples of brands that get cute just right: 

- Butterbear
- Lineman
- Subway
- KFC

Have you seen any brand using cute in a way that resonates?


PS check out my fave 🦛  at the end of the carousel.

Founder @ rex | Your UX research partner in Southeast Asia | Featured on CNA | Keynote speaker

Celebrating cute in Thaiand

The last thing I want in a UX research interview is to leave a respondent feeling uncomfortable. 

Unfortunately this is exactly what happened in one of our tests of AI moderators recently. 

It was a classic case of someone asking for help in an indirect way. 

That the AI moderator just couldn't pick up on it. 

(and in fact the AI came across as quite rude to the respondent 😣)

For me it highlighted a risk with these tools - it's not just that they can miss context, it's that they can create a negative experience for respondents. 

And that's a big deal. 

What's your experience been with Ai moderation tools?

AI moderation in Indonesia 

It's 1am and I just wrapped up my last B2B training session in 2025 (so wild that we are so close to the end of the year!)

Q4 has been a massive one at Rex and we still have a bunch of amazing projects to deliver. 

By the end of this quarter we will have: 

- Run 2 x  B2B training sessions on using AI tools to ideate and prototype (as well as help get stakeholder buy in for ideas)
- Delivered 3 x consulting projects including a pure strategy piece that has the ex-management consultant in me so excited
- Written a whole bunch of proposals for exciting work to happen in 2026
- Developed the outline of our brand new training offer (watch this space for more details - it's been on my mind for so long and see it come to life is just *chef's kiss*)
- Written a whole bunch more LinkedIn content
- Finished our tax return (it can't all be fun I guess)
- Run 4 x iterations of The UX Research Impact Masterclass (last sessions happening next week!!)

One last push to the end of the year 🚀

It's been over 2 years since I started sharing my thoughts on UX research impact on LinkedIn. 

And once I started writing about it I found I couldn't stop. 

Across the world I would encounter researcher after researcher running into the same challenges: 

"I know I'm making impact but my stakeholder dismiss my work"
"I can't seem to articulate my impact in a way that gets attention"
"I need to make a case for myself or my team but I don't know how I can do that best"
"How do I measure what is even changing based on my work"

These conversations continue to influence my work and my writing. 

And I've brought together all of my most important work into an action packed 2 hour session running just 2 more times this year. 

In this masterclass I do everything I can to address the thoughts above. 

We cover a variety of really important topics in just 2 hours: 
- the kinds of metrics we should be using to show UXR impact. This includes *non product metrics* - yep there are lots of others we can influence!
- The levels of impact we create inside organisations - it's well beyond just influencing design
- how to put a dollar value on your impact. Yep, an actual $ amount ( or €,  £, ¥, ฿!). We go through the calcs step by step so you can see exactly the kind of impact UXR makes. This is a super useful skill for anyone looking to show the impact of their work (design, product and more!!). 

I offer discounts on my course for anyone experience layoffs, unemployment or from a country with lower PPP. Just shot me a message and we will make it happen! 

Link to final sessions of the masterclass until April 2026: https://lnkd.in/gjsEHEGw

The classic questions UX researchers ask me: 

How do I work out what 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 changed based on my insights? 

Showing UX impact is a team sport. 

To truly understand the impact UX research has made, you need to build a close relationship with your stakeholders and understand how they have acted on the results of your research. 

These are 8 questions you can ask stakeholders to understand the impact of your work: 

🎯 Strategy and Prioritisation:

➡️ What did you decide to do that you would not have done without these insights? e.g build a feature that would not have been prioritised otherwise.

➡️ What did you decide NOT to do that you would have done if not for these insights? e.g. decided not to build something we would have built otherwise.

➡️ How and where are you using insights to justify your decisions? e.g. in strategy or roadmap documents. 

🛠️ Optimisation:

➡️ How many flows, screens or lines of content were updated based on this research?

➡️ How much did product metrics shift after implementing the recommendations of the research? For example task completion rate, dwell time etc 

💡 Insights:

➡️ What do you know now that you didn't know before the research? 

➡️ Which insights were the newest or most surprising?

➡️ On a scale of 0-10, how satisfied are you that the research achieved it’s objectives?

The more specific the answers to each of these questions, the easier it will be for you to track the impact you’ve made.

Creating impact from UX research is a team sport. The closer you can work with stakeholders, the greater the impact is like to be. 

What else could we add to this list?

---------------
🙋‍♀️I'm Ruby and I love talking about the impact UX creates in organisations.
🚀Join my masterclass on Maven all about UXR impact and value - link on my profile - currently 25% off!! 
♻️Found this useful? Repost!

UX impact

I have deep conviction about the value that UX research creates.

I've had it since the moment I was exposed to the discipline of research.

But so often I hear the value of it questioned:

Teams skipping research because they don't see how it will add value

Organisations laying off researchers in record numbers because the value wasn't clear

Researchers questioning their own impact in the wake of these two phenomena.

I get it. I've been there.

Over the past few years my thinking on the value of research evolved sharply.

And since 2023 I've been sharing my thinking online.

All the best bits of that thinking are what forms my course ⚡️ The UX research Impact Masterclass ⚡️.

It's designed to be short, actionable and leave you with the skills you need to communicate the impact of research.

I've iterated this content based on:

- 10 sessions of my impact sizing masterclasses
- 5 cohorts of my longer 3 week course,
- Multiple in house engagements with clients
- Conference presentations across 4 countries
- and of course all the feedback I get on LinkedIn.

I'm running just two more sessions of this masterclass in December (with no more scheduled until at least Q2 2026). In the course I share:

- Actual hands on, worked examples, where you calculate the dollar value impact of UX research. Yep, not product metrics - $$$$$ metrics. We get a spreadsheet and do the calculations in real time together.
- A spreadsheet of 45+ metrics with examples you can use to level up your own writing.
- The 5 categories of metrics that show UXR impact including some hard truths about metrics in organisations (and what this means for how you talk about them).
- Unpacking different writing samples to explore why some are more compelling than others for showing impact.
- A four level framework to describe UXR impact that goes beyond 'insights'.

Feedback has been phenomenal so far: 4.8/5 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Last sessions will be held:

December 8th:

New York 7:00am // London 12:00pm // Amsterdam 1:00pm // Buenos Aires 3:00pm // India 5:30pm // Bangkok 7:00pm // Singapore 8:00pm

December 9th/10th (will vary according to time zone!)

Los Angeles 5:30pm (Dec 9) // New York 8:30pm (Dec 9) // Buenos Aires 10:30pm (Dec 9) // India 7:00am (Dec 10) // Bangkok 8:30am (Dec 10) // Singapore 9:30am (Dec 10) // Melbourne 12:30pm (Dec 10)

It is 25% off a super limited time - grab the discount on Maven (link in my profile!)

Joining my first tech company was an eye opening experience 👀

Before working in tech I had spent my whole career in consulting with 5+ years working in management consulting firms. 

This meant I was primed to work with business stakeholders. 

In consulting I was more likely to be working with folks from strategy, operations, policy and senior leaders rather than folks in product and engineering. 

I realised that this ability to work with business stakeholders was something special. 

And that it would help me add loads of value even when I was in a tech role. 

Check out my carousel for my guide on building better relationships with business stakeholders. 

How do you build relationships across your org?

---------------
🙋‍♀️I'm Ruby and I love talking about the impact UX creates in organisations.
🚀Join my masterclass on Maven all about UXR impact and value - last sessions next week - link on my profile!
♻️Found this useful? Repost!

Top tips on working with business stakeholders 

'This feature risks USD 160 million in annual revenue.'

UXR is the best placed discipline to see risks before a feature launches. 

By putting features in front of customers we get the best sense of what is likely to succeed and what is likely to fail. 

We just need to get better at framing our insights in language that cuts through. 

Have you ever heard a research participant say something like this?

'I don’t want this feature. I’d seriously consider leaving.'

Or even more pointed:

'I will cancel my plan if you launch that.'

In my UXR career I've definitely come across this kind of strident feedback when testing ambitious features. 

And the way that we share the risk of these kind of decisions matters. 

Quotes are good. 
Clips can be better. 
Stories can be powerful. 

But the best way to share the risk of launching features like this is by sharing the potential dollar value impact on churn. 

Check our the carousel for a breakdown of the 160 million dollar calculation. 

------
🙋‍♀️I'm Ruby and I love talking about the impact UX creates in organisations.
🚀Join my masterclass on Maven all about UXR impact and value - link on my profile - currently 25% off!! 
♻️Found this useful? Repost!

Connecting insights to $$$

In less than a week I’m heading on maternity leave.

There are so many unknowns taking maternity leave as a business owner. 

A lot of things are going on in my head right now:

- I’m not sure exactly how long before I come back to work full time. I don’t have a mandated period of leave. Upside, easy to take longer if I feel like it. Downside, no structure to speak of.
- I don’t know what my compensation will look like when I return. Revenue is always unpredictable. I don’t come back to a set salary like I would as a salaried employee. I’ll have to start up the business from standstill.
- I don’t have any scaffolding to return to work. No ‘keeping in touch’ days. No structure. No buddy system. It’s on me to work out how it works.
- I can’t really handover while I’m away. If a RFP or a student enquiry comes in… honestly I haven’t fully figured out how I’ll deal with it. An out of office on my email? Responding to each one?
- My business is part of my identity. For 2 years I’ve poured so much into building rex. The idea of stepping back from that, even for a short while, is kind of wild? I am excited to think about my identity outside of the context of work though. Family is really important to me. I’m excited to lean into that.

And like any parent-to-be I spend my time grappling with the big questions:
- Who will I be after becoming a parent?
- How will work fit with that?
- What supports will I have, what will I need?
- Who will my baby be?
- How chubby will their cheeks be?!

I debated a lot about whether I wanted to share my pregnancy professionally. As someone who works 99% remotely I realised that I had the strange opportunity to just… kinda vanish for a few months, telling clients I was booked out. Ultimately some important conversations with amazing women made me realise it was worth sharing. 

We need to talk more about the reality of family planning and careers. We especially need more of that from women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs to be.  I’m a little bit apprehensive about sharing this, but ultimately I want to be vulnerable and share this huge thing that’s going on for me.


PS I have no idea what this means for my LinkedIn presence.
I might delete the app.
I might keep up similar content.
I might post about totally different stuff.
I might become a lurker only.
I guess stay tuned to find out?

Cultural nuance trips up even the best human moderators, and AI moderators struggle with it even more.

At Rex we've been testing different AI moderators in Bahasa Indonesia. 

And the results have been... mixed. 

One thing we have found is that AI misses context that is critical in high context cultures. 

High context cultures are those where indirect answers carry the real meaning.

 For example:

 - “We’ll see” can mean “unlikely”.
 - Silence is a response.
 - A polite yes may actually be a soft no.

It takes a great deal of context to read between the lines. 

And we are finding AI isn't up to the challenge (yet?)

It's probably unsurprising given so many of the models are built and trained on western centric data. 

But still super interesting to watch it play out in real time. 

Check the carousel for an example from our research work. 

Anyone experimenting with AI research tools in Southeast Asia?

AI missing cultural nuance 

Have you ever felt like:

🤔 My insights lead to a product team building a winner instead of something that would have flopped. What's that worth?

😕I know my research insights are valuable, but I don't know how to communicate HOW valuable.

🤨I'm not sure how to connect my work to $$ metrics that organisations care about.

If these sound like you my UX Research Impact Masterclass is the perfect fit (and these are the LAST sessions until Q2 2026!!)

Prior students say that it's helped them:

- Better articulate their impact
- Feel more confident going into their performance reviews
- Communicate better with business and product stakeholders.

And they started using the techniques the very next day 💥

The masterclasses will take place on:

Tomorrow, December 8th!

Los Angeles 4:00am // New York 7:00am // London 12:00pm // Amsterdam 1:00pm // Buenos Aires 3:00pm // India 5:30pm // Bangkok 7:00pm // Singapore 8:00pm // Melbourne 11:00pm

December 9th/10th (will vary according to time zone!)

Los Angeles 5:30pm (Dec 9) // New York 8:30pm (Dec 9) // Buenos Aires 10:30pm (Dec 9) // London 1:30am (Dec 10) // Amsterdam 2:30am (Dec 10) // India 7:00am (Dec 10) // Bangkok 8:30am (Dec 10) // Singapore 9:30am (Dec 10) // Melbourne 12:30pm (Dec 10)

Students have found this experience extremely valuable and the course is currently rated at 4.8/5 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Last opportunity to hang out and learn all things research impact until least March 2026!! Let's finish the year strong!

Link to course: https://lnkd.in/gjsEHEGw

taplio

The Battle

Emily Anderson

Ruby Pryor

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreEmily Anderson's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreRuby Pryor's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Emily Anderson

Ruby Pryor

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Emily Anderson's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreRuby Pryor's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreEmily Anderson's LinkedIn Performance