Saumya Sharma

Saumya Sharma

I am a qualitative researcher with an experience of 13 years in ethnography and other methods. I am also an educator for the above to folks in India & abroad.

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12591438/

Location India

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Activity

  • @NataliaThornberry Yes true! In terms of analysis it can either be deductive - testing the hypotheses to ratify or nullify it or inductive/grounded theory - coming with themes/insights from ground up.

  • @NataliaThornberry That's a great example about banks. I am exploring the cafes and restaurants from the perspective of UX design. If you are interested do read about design anthropology and design ethnography. This study is one of my favourites - https://www.thisishcd.com/episode/jo-anne-bichard-what-the-anthropologist-sees-public-toilets-as-cultural-spaces

  • Canva has competition!! I like how well planned and strategic you are.

  • @HeatherPegrum Thank you so much! Hope it helps :)

  • Many thanks! It was a fun and informative course.

  • 1. As a UX researcher, I now have more empathy for UX designers and understanding of the process in depth.

    2. I found the lessons on prototyping, wireframes, pilot testing really interesting. I only wish there were more videos like the wireframe one to see and learn.

    3. More on prototyping, pilots, wireframing - case studies, videos

    4. Don't want to...

  • 1. Objective is to test the new app workflow and features - fashion e-commerce app.
    2. To test if users are able to find what they need, move around with ease, finish their journey on the app as quickly as desired. Also to see their pain points and aspirations while using the app.
    3. I will do a usability study. This one I did for an e-commerce client -...

  • In addition to cost, time and resources, I guess other challenges are - volatility of the market, lack of understanding of competitors landscape and consumer JTBD, lastly bias or as we learnt in this course - soldier mindset.

  • Saumya Sharma made a comment

    1. Benefits of wireframing is to get all teams on same page when it comes to understanding user needs and pains. Initiate brainstorming if needed.

    2. From what I have understood - Wireframe is low fidelity bare bones, a structural representation, whereas a prototype is the full embodied version of product with its functionalities.

    3. Hand-drawn is...

  • Saumya Sharma made a comment

    Very interesting and helpful article and references.

  • I agree that it's good to start with low fidelity or maybe one can use an online whiteboard like Miro...low fidelity is like a skeletal structure.

  • One can do heuristic analysis.

    Also, would be good to get a feedback from -

    UX community - designers & researchers
    Fellow developers
    Internal and external stakeholders - marketing team, graphic designing team, client reps
    Friends of friends or random users - maybe social media connections
    Users of other similar product/apps

  • I have not completely stopped using a particular website however I have not had great experience when it comes to exhaustive research and refinding. The major pain points for me have been -

    1. Discoverability, like reviews
    2. Readability, the weird fonts
    3. Navigation, when going back to previous steps

    I also don't like an app whose homepage is too...

  • Saumya Sharma made a comment

    The type of card sorting to choose would depend on which stage the product is at. If you are yet to make an MVP, then an open card sorting would be more beneficial, as users can share their intuitiveness, mental models, representations with more openness.

    The challenge: users end up putting products, features under more than one category, which might make...

  • Judging ideas and being biased is definitely a big one.

  • Saumya Sharma made a comment

    The biggest challenge I feel is diversity and inclusivity, maybe you get people from different backgrounds, but its equally important for a moderator to ensure equal participation. Another challenge is avoiding biases/judgements and especially at the end of session, how do we avoid directionally motivated reasoning. Adding one more, in a culturally diverse...

  • As a qualitative researcher, I have been a part of ideation exercises to come up with meaningful insights or to design methodologies. In one of them after in-depth interviews, we swapped interview transcript and instead of the moderator(interviewer) being the one analysing, the new researcher allotted to the transcript was asked to share their thoughts based...

  • Kama Ayurveda Skin Care Night Cream

    Awareness/Discovery - pop-ups while searching for other brands on e-commerce sites and while window shopping at the brand's retail outlet

    Research/Consideration - , reading reviews on e-commerce sites & google and watching YouTube videos

    Triggers/Influencers - another product is being used by someone in family...

  • Interesting section however I suggest to add Triggers/Influencers in the crucial components of the journey maps - the situation that triggered or someone who influenced the decision made in each touchpoint/milestone

  • Empathy map for a medical aggregator app.

    What are your user’s biggest pains and gains?

    - Biggest pain is missing real time updates/push notifications - doctor's availability, appointment reminder. Another one is too many ads.

    - Biggest gain is easy sorting and filtering option based on availability, distance, fees and reviews. Another gain is user...

  • Yes, guilty as charged for practicing soldier mindset. The realisation came after a finishing a UX research project in the ed-tech space. I was over explaining the questions to research participants and not letting them share their first thoughts and then ask my question in a different way, if needed or let them say that they did not understand the question....

  • Very interesting! Scouts are exploratory in nature and also inclusive.

  • It was a very simple tool but one thing missing was the hobbies and interest section. User personas greatly help in marketing, branding and advertising to the right target group. Example, a sports goods brand would want to focus on those who actively play sports.

  • Empathy maps are also helpful in user personas - think, feel, say, do

  • WOW! This is a very real life problem. This is where UX research always helps and in this case looking at existing workarounds of people.

  • Very interesting! In the solution, you may also consider speech to text option

  • Medical Aggregator App

    1. Problem - Finding doctors nearby

    2. Problem Statement - How might we help patients and/or their caregivers to find doctors in their area, according to experience, patient reviews and ratings, fees and availability.

    3. Key Outcome - It will help patients to find a doctor for their problem at the earliest, based on distance,...

  • Nice explanation however I feel we end up becoming a little presumptuous about unmet needs or desires at times, which is why it is important to be mindful of our own biases.

  • Usefulness ties into functional, social and emotional needs - if something is not useful why would a user buy it?

  • Developing a product for the fist time - exploratory research and grounded theory analysis, which is an inductive approach. The entire process is bottom-up. It focuses more on motivations and goals. This is where one sets the value proposition based on user needs.

    Optimising a pre-existing product - descriptive research, deductive analysis (hypotheses...

  • After reading the ten commandments, I am reminded of two brands - Duo Lingo and IKEA

    Also, agreeing to what Don Norman said about the misuse of the term UX design, that's true because when we talk about design, the 'ease of use' precedes everything else. This term can be applied to both everyday analog items and digital products...from the perfect knife to...

  • Well UX probably exists as far back as Feng Shui philosophy, in which the idea is to provide comfortable and supporting environment, eventually creating relevant and meaningful experiences. Another example is Indus Valley Civilisation and it's invented sewage systems. Also, Greeks were known for their ergonomics knowledge, so their water mills are also a good...

  • Hello,

    I am Saumya (a.k.a Sam) from India. I have about 13 years of experience in qualitative research. Started my career with ethnography however from past 4 years also working in the field of UX and Market Research. Though I have some awareness about UX design, I still wish to learn more about it and add to my existing skill sets as a qualitative...

  • Another small incident, I was blamed by a project manager and strategy director for plagiarism and poor editing while adding case studies in a research report. For 1 month there was a lot of back and forth over email. Both are from United Kingdom. Finally, the strategy director and I did a google meet, where I shared my grievances and mentioned what they think...

  • I also had to let go because she had not clearly articulated what days and times would she be available. In freelance work, it is best to have as much clarity as possible, at least about the days you would not be working at all.

    I should have clearly asked her with proof, what research skills she has applied in the past. Fortunately, my new hire was...

  • I always prefer direct communication. I have tried indirect communication however have always ended up feeling confused and angry. Sharing one of the many situations life has presented so far -

    For one of my recent research projects in the education sector, I had to hire a research assistant. After speaking to a couple of candidates, I decided to go with...

  • I follow and prefer the same, in personal and professional life. I find direct communication in front of others very insulting, especially if it's not so pleasant in nature. Doing it in private means we are already empathising before talking about the person's mistakes.

  • I have had a situation where I could not clearly tell my team and other collaborators what I was not liking and what needs to improve. After few days, I ended up crying in front of everyone, a mix of anger and stress.

    Personally I do not like someone telling me about my faults in front of others but after that incident I need to be direct in private....

  • I think there are many factors that would influence the type of communication - context, age, gender, cognition, relationship between people and more.

    Most people in my culture would choose option B but I would choose A.

    When I say my culture, I refer to my ethnicity and not the majoritarian view of my country.

  • Symbolism exists in both kinds of communication, perhaps more where indirect communication is preferred. In India we mostly struggle to say 'no' and have different words and phrases for it, such as, "Dekhte Hain"(meaning: let's see).

    I have a bad habit of talking in circles, so my partner keeps checking it during our personal conversation. However, in a...

  • Really looking forward to this week's learning.

  • I prefer praising the group and then talking about individual rewards. I strongly believe in a bottom-up approach, keeping the most important stakeholder or the primary beneficiary at the bottom. In this case, the employees. Individual recognition and rewards helps to create a more inclusive atmosphere - praising releases oxytocin, making an individual happy...

  • Not surprised because I tend to weigh all options from a holistic perspective and choose the one best suited.

    Maybe I would have thought differently if I was in a similar situation - context matters. For me everything boils down to what brings me mental peace and sense of belongingness. I think age plays a major role in making such decisions, I am 39 and...

  • Definitely with Peter on this one, there is more gain than loss if they relocate to China.

  • Would you also refer to the Facebook/Discord/Reddit groups or the Twitter communities as collectivist societies? There are shared motivations and goals but every member is responsible for individual actions and aspirations.

  • Well said! We all should have our individual motivations and desired goals.

  • I would prefer to choose something in between - treating people as equals when it comes to discussing ideas or an ongoing project, not being very rigid in terms of using titles except for people who are very senior to me and keeping the dress code as business casuals/semi-formals.

  • I can't stop laughing because I was Jean-Pierre once but in early days of the pandemic when I had the opportunity to first time work remotely with colleagues from different countries the Jean-Pierre in me became more relaxed.

    I am still very confused about start-ups, there is a mix of formality and informality. In one of the companies I worked in 2018, one...

  • Incident 1: During an internship interview in 2007, a hiring manager asked me to go back and come another day because he did not approve of my dressing. The internship was in one of the 5 star properties. I was wearing business casuals, which did not match the dress code of the hotel. I think he said that if I cannot dress properly, how will I make a good...

  • After this week's learnings, I am reminded of the concept of "Inclusive Intelligence". Fair & equitable nature of inclusive intelligence makes overall growth & development of companies and employees holistic as well as sustainable.

    Key features of "Inclusive Intelligence", which are perspective taking, sharing information, leveraging individual skills &...

  • Disrupt the HiPPO - highest paid person's opinion.

  • Thank you for sharing this Birgit. I agree with what you mentioned about your Indian colleagues however its slightly different while working as freelancer. Having said that, it took me a couple of years to let go off my inhibitions and only took initiative when my boss from 2020 asked me to contact the client directly on several instances.

    I think one of...

  • Can we generalise the structure across all types of companies? In India the multinational followed hierarchical structure whereas startups follow flat structure. Would be nice to know examples of companies where the company culture was different from the traditional culture of the country?

  • Mostly seen hierarchical structure in family and professional life however from the last couple of years companies in India are embracing more flat structure and been fortunate to be a part of some. I like something of a hybrid with more inclination towards flat structure, as it makes the workplace more inclusive and disrupts the concept of HiPPO, an acronym...

  • I am now thinking about the evolution behind trust. When a tribe went for war, a strong sense of brotherhood existed that made a member trust another one for standing up & protecting, if needed. However, when there was/is a battle cry, using sounds, it seems more indicative of rules. Also, trust probably became more formalised when domestication, agriculture...

  • Attempt 1: chose most options opposite to what I would normally do and miserably failed.

    Attempt 2: chose all options similar to what I would normally do and came to a successful conclusion.

  • I would take the option 2 approach but end the meeting with option 1 because I think an existing employee's personal view about the company matters a lot. This would be followed by option 3.

  • I like to have something in between. Being relationship-based develops empathy, respect and better understanding of diverse perspectives BUT this should be clubbed with certain properly articulated rules that is different for every company.

    Example for rule-based:

    For my last freelance project, my strategy director and my project manager blamed my...

  • 3 things I have learnt -

    1. Sociocultural perspective of time
    2. CQ and how I have a lot to learn to be better at CQ - does not really matter if my professional background allows me to learn & work with different cultures.
    3. The TRAFIC model

    2 things I found interesting -

    1. Managed time vs flexible time, especially the concept of rubber time....

  • Saumya Sharma made a comment

    From what I understand about rubber time (jam karet in Indonesia), it is not taken as a sign of sign disrespect when someone is late or changes time. This seems sort of contradictory to the other cultural practices like 'menjaga muka', which translates to "keeping the face".

    Maybe I am wrong....

  • I do the same and expect the same from others. If I observe colleagues or friends don't value time, I politely but firmly let them know that I would appreciate being informed. But I guess in close personal relationships one has to occasionally give some leeway.

  • I am a strong advocate of managed time. My father was in the army and mother a teacher, which made punctuality a very important family trait. It took me 8-9 years to bring some flexibility in me with regards to time. I am still not very comfortable with people who practice flexible time, most likely if I am made to wait in a situation or a place unknown to me,...

  • This happened while trying to work on some voluntary work for Ukraine with people from different countries. I will cut the chase and straight up share what caused a bit of sourness. There are mainly two of us in the anecdote, B (keeping her identity safe) and me. B is from Latvia, living in Berlin. I am from India and also live/work here.

    Me: "B I request...

  • How do you keep your calm now?

    I used to start getting really anxious and upset earlier when people were even 10 minutes late or changed plans last minute. Now my patience limit has increased to around 30-45 minutes.

  • This reminds me of the concept of Metamodernism.

  • Reflexivity and unlearning has helped me too but I still struggle with putting my thoughts forward and sometimes end up getting defensive.

  • I guess similar to how empathy cannot be taught as a hard skill.

  • Another word for stereotyping is ethnocentrism. I will share an incident that recently happened. A research agency owner approached me for a research project, while we were discussing he happened to ask, "Can you conduct research interviews in Hindi?" I said, "Yes, I belong to Meerut and Hindi is my mother tongue". His next immediate question was, "Do you know...

  • Social etiquettes in India -

    1. In many states shoes are removed just at the entrance of the house or shop or sometimes an office.

    2. Eating or passing objects with left hand is considered inappropriate in some cultures.

    3. There are some etiquettes around gift giving too, in the sense of perfect reciprocal exchange...i gave you a gift worth 100 USD,...

  • Is CQ more of a soft skills or there are some hard skills also needed?

  • Culturally intelligent means -

    1. Being empathetic
    2. Being aware about one's own biases and making attempts to address them.
    2. Being inclusive of everyone's subjective perspectives and human intelligence.
    3. Being cautious of stereotyping and generalising.
    4. Being a good listener.
    5. Being creative and innovative.
    6. Being a good team player.
    7....

  • Cultural aspect of time can be applied when working with colleagues and clients from different countries or states. Looking forward to the course!

  • Hi from another Anthropologist.

  • Saumya Sharma made a comment

    Namaste everyone, I am Saumya (Sam for short) and I reside in Gurugram India. I am an applied anthropologist and my work diversifies into social research and qualitative market/ux research. My expertise is ethnography - traditional, visual and digital. I also teach what I practice. My work involves a lot of cross and inter cultural interaction with research...

  • Saumya Sharma made a comment

    Pardon me for sounding greedy but I wanted few more units in this course - e.g 'impact of social media on mindset' or ''social media and social causes/social work"....more. Nonetheless, this was an excellent course. Thank you for your hard work, it was truly thought provoking.

  • The sameness only exists in the type of content and the functional need to post it, like to grow followers however the social and emotional need would differ. Grow followers to create a larger cocoon, creating more solidarity for a cause or grow followers to show one's artistic skills and seek validation/out of vanity.

  • Few other examples are photos of travel, eating-out, books, art and also similar kind of events, like marriage.

  • In addition to everything mentioned in this article, I think inequality is also subjective to conditioning and is measured in retrospect.

  • Excellent snippet of Juliano's visual ethnographic research.

  • This makes me think about...

    Where we actually live? vs Where we choose to exist?

  • Wow, looking forward.

  • Personally, in the past I have shared password with my partner but in hindsight when I think, it was not a good idea.

  • People in English field-site would be most unlikely to share their passwords because of a perceived threat to their self-identity and autonomy. Right to privacy is physiological, social and self-actualisation need.

    People in rural China would be most likely to share their passwords because of their belief in Confucianism, of which benevolence, family,...

  • My thought on targeted advertising is that algorithmic bias is often fuelled by selective exposure bias.

  • Social media is one of the best ways for business to understand the buzz around their product, their competition, user needs and for other business functions (marketing, branding, advertising, recruiting). For prospective buyers, it helps to look at user generated photos, get authentic feedback about a seller and also for users to have their own community....

  • Based on my recent research on 'Future of School in India'...

    Since the advent of National Education Policy 2020, which aims to make learning experiential, personalised, multidisciplinary, inclusive and creative, the focus has also been to leverage the importance of community. Social media platforms are e-communities, where students connect with each other...

  • During my ux research study on understanding challenges students (graduate and undergraduate) face while pursuing their online course, we discovered the following -

    1. WhatsApp is used to stay connected with mates & teachers and reach out to them for doubts. To stay updated about the course.
    2. Telegram and Facebook groups are used to connect with other...

  • Very thought provoking video, "where people live?". Sensibilities of people are defined by space.

    Whenever I am in the field, I become the field, which often defines my personality and finally influencing my social media behaviour. The good thing is social media also reminds me that the new me in the offline world is not completely the original me or maybe...

  • For me traditional examples are -

    1. Staying connected with classmates
    2. Sharing photos of an event or journey
    3. Announcing major events
    4. Looking out for help, personal or professional

  • Most people have always used multiple platforms to communicate, the intent is similar across platforms but the approach can differ. Polymedia makes cross posting and cross pollination easier. Having said that, depending on the individual functional, social and personal goals, there is always a preferred platform - example, these days people into Web3, NFT are...

  • I am strangely reminded of the concept of cocoon communities. Does polymedia or rather what one chooses as preferred platform defines which cocoon community one wishes to belong to? Why the preferred choice - safety, comfort, vanity, validation, herd mentality, fear...maybe something else.

  • QQ has all accessibility under one roof, which from a user perspective is very efficient, as it saves time and maybe makes interoperability or cross posting much easier. But what it lacks is personalisation the ability to switch off a platform - if one wishes to deactivate a certain platform for a while, is that possible on QQ or you need to close your entire...

  • https://buffer.com/library/social-media-sites/

    This article might be of use. Other than the main platforms all social media are from China.

  • +1 to everything discussed in the video and similar findings would arise from other parts of India.

    It's true class, gender and factors influence the genres of political postings. I would also add caste & religion.

    I doubt how much of these nuances are taken into consideration in the sense of diversity and inclusivity of a public policy or law.

    From...

  • Keeping in mind the socio-political landscape of India and the behaviour on social media being mostly recurring and iterative, I would choose -

    1. Micro level: 'politics of everyday life' as it defines the majoritarian view and national character.

    2. Macro level: the above facilitates 'political/election campaigns and speed at which politics is done'

  • Twitter plays a major role in Indian politics.

  • Saumya Sharma made a comment

    Interesting learnings this week.

  • I think to facilitate deeper and smoother negotiations between individual identity and social norms.

  • Saumya Sharma made a comment

    I find funny moral memes really nice, especially the ones with Sponge Bob, Patrick Star and the ones from Classical Damn.

    I also enjoy creating funny moral memes.