Melissa Schmidt and Adam Menter: "How UX Research Hit It Big in Las Vegas" Enterprise Experience 2019 • June 3-4, 2019 • San Francisco, CA, USA http://www.enterpriseexperience.net

1. Melissa Schmidt & Adam Menter
How to create a thriving research practice at your customer
conference and bring insights back into your org
How Research Hit it Big in Las Vegas

2. Director of Research
Melissa Schmidt

3. Learning & Community
Innovations
Adam Menter

12. Understanding gives
focus
Empathy gives purpose

13. Autodesk University (customer conference)
Autodesk as a company
One Autodesk
Customer
Company

17. Early days of
research at AU

18. Talk to me!

19. Autodesk University (AU) in the past
Primary focus: Customers learn new products and features
Research at AU
Team A Team B Team C
AU (Autodesk University) 2013 - AutoCAD participatory design research workshop

20. Connecting efforts

21. Voice of Customer (VOC) at AU

22. AU 2014 – Researcher atVOC AU 2015 – Marketer atVOC

23. Maria Giudice
First VP of Design at
Autodesk

25. How might we make research
at AU a
highly-visible celebration
of how we partner
with our customers
to create amazing products?

26. Create a brain trust!
Product Manager
Designer
Researcher
Marketer, AU Team
Designer, AU Team

28. AU 2016 – Birth of the Idea Exchange

29. 40+ teams, 70 studies, 500 customer sessions

31. What’s most
important to
customers in a
specific
product’s
backlog for next
release
Understand how
customers currently
use visualization
and graphics for
civil infrastructure
projects
Get feedback from
architects on
concepts on
generative design
Understand biggest
challenges when
using Revit as a
platform for HVAC
systems design
Understand the
strengths and
frustrations of cloud
data storage that
customers are using
today
Co-create an
interactive
sustainability
assistant for design
projects
Partner with
customers to
co-design
improvements to our
business model
Research Insights from Across the Company

32. Will anyone
synthesize?
How will
we share
back?

34. Tracks
Collaboration & Cross-Platform Workflows
Fusion, Simulation & The Future of Making Things
Learning
Making Products & Autodesk Lovable
Modernizing Our Products
Subscription, Purchasing & Upgrades
Trends in BIM & Infrastructure

36. Tracks Track Lead
Collaboration & Cross-Platform Workflows
Fusion, Simulation & The Future of Making Things
Learning
Making Products & Autodesk Lovable
Modernizing Our Products
Subscription, Purchasing & Upgrades
Trends in BIM & Infrastructure

37. Study Title Research Goals
Research Method
& Participants
1 2 3
Key Findings (1-3)
4
Impact for your
Team
5
Broader Impact
6
6-slide template, 5 minute spotlight

41. 70 studies
2016
500 customer sessions
105 studies
650 customer sessions
140 studies
2017
1,000 customer sessions
2018

49. Impact at Autodesk

50. Idea Exchange was the most
valuable part of AU for me… it
yielded insights that will directly
impact product development.
Better Products & Services Break Down Silos
The Idea Exchange unexpectedly
became a great avenue for us to align
our research with the initiatives of our
colleagues across Autodesk.

51. Deepen Customer Empathy

52. Understanding gives
focus
Empathy gives purpose

53. Your Path to Success

54. SixTips for Success
1. Start Small & Grow Organically

55. SixTips for Success
2. Build an Inclusive Program

56. SixTips for Success
3. Find Executive Sponsors to Create Momentum

57. SixTips for Success
4. Add Structure withThemes &Tracks

58. SixTips for Success
5. IdentifyTrack Leads to Organize & Synthesize

59. SixTips for Success
6. Make it Easy to Share Learnings

60. Start Small & Grow Organically
Build an Inclusive Program
Find Executive Sponsors to Create
Momentum
Add Structure withThemes andTracks
IdentifyTrack Leads to Organize &
Synthesize
Make it Easy to Share Learnings
Dynamics of Communities & Movements

61. What’s Next

62. On-going Conversations and Learning!

63. AU 2019 – Continued Evolution
Closing the feedback loop?

65. Autodesk and the Autodesk logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders.
Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document.
© 2019 Autodesk. All rights reserved.

67. Autodesk and the Autodesk logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders.
Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document.
© 2019 Autodesk. All rights reserved.