Alicia Quan chats with two members from the Khanmigo team at Khan Academy: Karen Shapiro, Sr. UX Researcher, former teacher of 16 years Jonah Goldsaito, Principal Product Designer They discuss: The story of how Khanmigo was developed and their early partnership with OpenAI on its GPT4 LLM launch The most challenging parts of the journey so far Balancing excitement and optimism with caution and foresight when it comes to AI developments What’s next for Khanmigo ——  ? Resources: UX of EdTech Newsletter UX Job Openings in EdTech ——  ? Show Mentions: Khanmigo ——  Music ..read more

Alicia Quan chats with several members from the team at ETS AI Labs: Lisa Ferrara, Sr. Director, Product Development  Narmeen Makhani, Executive Director of Technology  Erin Scully, Sr. Director of Learning Science and Design  They discuss: 1. Cross-functional approaches to product development  2. The role of LX Design 3. Educational contexts and use cases for AI 4. Designing with explainable AI in mind ——  ? Resources: UX of EdTech Newsletter UX Job Openings in EdTech ——  ? Show Mentions: ETS AI Labs ——  Music by Sleep Still --- Send in a voi ..read more

Alicia Quan chats with Dr. Rachel Schechter, who founded Learning Experience Design (LXD) Research at Charles River Media Group, acting as Principal Investigator and Chief Research Advisor to companies large and small. Rachel helps guide the use of data and evaluation to support product improvements, build evidence of efficacy, and strengthen customer implementations. They discuss: Ensuring educator-leaders choose literacy programs that work LXD Research Research certifications of products and why is it important The relationship between UX research and these certifications Advice for educa ..read more

Alicia Quan chats with two members from Duolingo about their work as an early launch partner with OpenAI’s GPT-4 model: Edwin Bodge, Principal Product Manager Megan Bednarczyk, Senior Product Designer  They discuss how they launched Duolingo Max, including: The story of how Duolingo Max came to be Biggest challenges of that journey and process Balancing optimism with caution when it comes to recent developments in AI Advice for teams currently exploring and building with GPT4 and generative AI ——  ? Connect:  Edwin Bodge Megan Bednarczyk Alicia Quan ——  ? Resource ..read more

Alicia Quan chats with Yuan Wang, the Head of Design at Maven, aka the university of the future. She is also a leadership coach (CPC) and an adjunct professor at California College of the Arts. She previously led design at Airbnb, Twitter, and Mozilla. They discuss: Maven’s mission How the Founding Product Designer role influenced the business Best timing for hiring design support at a startup What’s next for leading design at Maven Maven is currently hiring a product designer Advice for those working in UX and also education Learning communities  ——  ? Connect:  Yuan Wang ..read more

Alicia Quan chats with the team at Backpack Interactive. Backpack is a strategy, UX and design company focused on the EdTech space. On this episode, we hear from: - Principal and Creative Director, Sean Oakes - Director of Creative Operations, Milagros Montalvo They discuss the benefits of when companies design to outsource their UX design work and also the flip side when there would be factors that could make this route challenging. ——  ? Connect:  Backpack Interactive  Alicia Quan  ——  ? Resources:  UX of EdTech Newsletter  LinkedIn Page + UX Job Opportun ..read more

Alicia Quan chats with Nicole Gallardo, Founder and UX/UI Director of the program, Founders Who UX. They discuss why UX work is important and valuable for EdTech and education companies. They talk about the biggest barriers startups face in hiring UX support, the options they have, and what their next steps should be. They also touch on what’s next for UX of EdTech this year. —— ? Connect: Nicole Gallardo Alicia Quan —— ? Resources: UX of EdTech Newsletter LinkedIn Page + UX Job Opportunities —— ? Show Mentions: Founders Who UX Nicole on Medium and Twitter  —— Music by Sleep Still ..read more

Alicia Quan chats with Jessica Millstone, a venture capitalist, angel investor, and co-founder and managing director of Copper Wire Ventures, an early-stage fund focused on investing in women-led technology companies, primarily in the education space. Prior to the investing world, Jessica’s career spans deep and wide in EdTech and UX. She now brings her growing UX mindset to her current work with startups in the future of learning and work. They cover several topics, including: Why UX work is important for EdTech and education startups (including success stories) The biggest barriers to start ..read more

Alicia Quan chats with a former educator and principal, and now UX Writer at BrainPOP, Sarah Mondestin. Sarah has served as the Editorial lead at UX of EdTech and has helped build an amazing mound of written resources to support UX practitioners in our industry. Be sure to check out the publication that she has been leading. They talk about going from the classroom to an EdTech role and the transferrable skills and circumstances Sarah has leaned on. They also discuss the tricky question of differences between UX Writing and Content Design. Sarah digs into her 3-Part blog series on UX Writing i ..read more

Alicia Quan chats with a Senior Product Design Manager at Coursera, Justin Morken. They discuss how to approach moving the needle from design as a service to design as a thought partner. Justin explains in very practical ways how to shift people’s perception of what a designer does for the organization and the people it serves. This is Part 7 and the final episode of the Design Maturity Series (2022). How do leaders build design maturity in their teams and across their EdTech company? What are the challenges and what benefits are in store? Be sure to check out our previous episodes. —— ? Conne ..read more