Talk given by Jennifer Fraser and Scott Plewes at the Quant UX Con 2023.

1. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Trash talkin’
How Qual UX can be Quant UX's best friend
QuantUX Con 2023
Scott Plewes & Jennifer Fraser

2. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Garbage results
Image Source: https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Oscar_the_Grouch
If you feed Quant UX
garbage data then…

3. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Insights, predictions,
patterns… value!
Photo Credit: Sesame Workshop
But if Quant UX has Qual UX
as a best friend…

4. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.
4

5. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.
In physics, conceptual
thinking is often used
to get your head
around a problem.
QUALITATIVE NOTIONS

6. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.
So… Albert Einstein says that space-time is a four dimensional Hausdorf
differential manifold, on which a metric tensor is imposed that solves the
Einstein Field Equation. And that metric tensor gives rise to geodesics and
objects that are not experiencing any other force, that move along the
geodesics described by that metric.
Source: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jjFjC30-4A

7. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Image: Spacetime and Geometry: An Introduction to General Relativity. Sean Carrol

8. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Image: twitter.com/bgreene/status/1199099584255012864

9. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.
9
Pairings that help reinforce understanding of systems
Qual or Qual Aspect Quant
Newton’s 1st Law Newton’s Second Law
Faraday’s Iron Filings Maxwell’s Equations
Refraction Snell’s Law
EXAMPLES IN PHYSICS

10. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.
10
Understanding qual and quant in different fields
FIELDS & VARIABLES
Image: xkcd.com/435/

11. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Image: wikihow.com/Drunk-Text-a-Guy-You-Like
Qual doesn’t let Quant
post drunk…
11

12. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Image: pinterest.ca/pin/75153887504881908/#:~:text=25.media.-,tumblr,-.com
12

13. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Remember, always, that everything you know,
and everything everyone knows, is only a model.
Get your model out there where it can be viewed.
Invite others to challenge your assumptions and
add their own.
DONELLA MEADOWS

14. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.
How we understand
The world from qual
and/or quant data has
same basic structure
and approach
Predict, Insights
Analyze & Synthesize
Choose & Extract
Data Model
Real World
(System)
14

15. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.
3 common areas where Qual can help
CLASSIFICATION
One of these things
is not like the other
DATA
Sorry, that’s
not my table
SCOPE
Uh, over here, you
forgot about me!
15

16. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.
CLASSIFICATION
One of these things
is not like the other
DATA
Sorry, that’s
not my table
SCOPE
Uh, over here, you
forgot about me!
1
16

17. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.
That assumption still permeates through
the cardiovascular research community
that women are small men…
Dr. Thais Coutinho
Cardiologist and Chair of the Canadian Women's
Heart Health Centre, University of Ottawa Heart Institute
“
Source: CBC.ca – Every 22 minutes a Canadian woman dies of a heart attack

18. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.
18

19. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.
CLASSIFICATION
One of these things
is not like the other
DATA
Sorry, that’s
not my table
SCOPE
Uh, over here, you
forgot about me!
2
19

20. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Orgs are collecting quant data
about what happened, but not why…
Indi Young
Researcher, Author, Speaker and Coach
Source: Interaction Design Foundation – How To Remove Bias From Your Products
“

21. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.
21

22. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.
22

23. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.

24. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.
CLASSIFICATION
One of these things
is not like the other
DATA
Sorry, that’s
not my table
SCOPE
Uh, over here, you
forgot about me!
3
24

25. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.
25
10001010101100101001010100100101000100100100101010
010010100101001001010101000000110101001010011110

26. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.
26
Client

27. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.
27
Client
Existing Program

28. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.
28
Youth Entrepreneur
Client
Existing Program
Technology
Business
$

29. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.
29
Youth Entrepreneur
Client
Existing Program
Technology
Funding Partners
$$$
Business
$
Support Network
Social Media &
Communications
Platform

30. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.
30
Youth Entrepreneur
Client
Existing Program
Technology
Funding Partners
$$$
Business
$
Support Network
Social Media &
Communications
Platform
Mentor

31. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.
31
Youth Entrepreneur
Client
Existing Program
Technology
Funding Partners
$$$
Business
$
Support Network
Social Media &
Communications
Platform
Mentor

32. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.
3 common areas where Qual can help
CLASSIFICATION
One of these things
is not like the other
DATA
Sorry, that’s
not my table
SCOPE
Uh, over here, you
forgot about me!
32

33. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.
33
From trash to treasure
• Qual helps quant by upping the odds of
…
• Getting the appropriate classification of
objects
• Choosing relevant data for the problem
being investigated
• Ensuring the scope is sufficiently broad
(or appropriately narrow)
SUMMARY

34. Company Confidential. © Akendi Inc./Akendi UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Thank you!
Scott Plewes
scott@akendi.com
Jennifer Fraser
jfraser.xd@gmail.com
#opentowork
#lookingforanewleadershiprole