Labs Life: Getting to Know Melanie Wadey

Can you explain your job to me like I’m a 5 year old?

I solve problems. Companies come to us to find out what their customers like and dislike, what works and what doesn’t and what we can do to improve their products or services. That can be anything from play-testing a computer game, to observing a traveler’s journey from reserving their ticket online, to arriving at their destination, and examining every touchpoint along the way. What I enjoy about my job is finding patterns in the data, seeing solutions or stumbling upon those glorious “ah-ha” moments that make all the puzzle pieces fall into place.

What did you do before you came to Sutherland?

I’ve had an unusual path to UX. For a large part of my career I worked as live agent for bands in London. I was in charge of 100+ band’s live careers, touring them in clubs and festivals all over the world. I eventually became jaded with the music business and ran away with the circus, or more specifically Cirque Du Soleil, which saw me move to Montreal, Canada, Cirque’s worldwide headquarters. There I was in charge of the arena tours for a few years, before the world shut down.

Lockdown gave me an opportunity to re-examine what I wanted to do with my life. One of my family members had worked in UX for a long time, and it had always been something I found fascinating, so I took online courses to learn more and eventually qualified as a researcher through the UX Alliance. After working for a leading UX company in Canada, I moved back to the UK and joined Sutherland Labs.

What would the 10 year old you say that they wanted to be when they grew up?

As far back as I can remember, I had always wanted to be a professional musician. I was in bands from the age of 14 and pursued that dream relentlessly, with a decent level of success: I released an album, toured the UK with some of my favourite bands, graced the pages of rock magazines and MTV2. But I always had a business brain. I negotiated our record deal, dealt with agents, lawyers, managers etc, and eventually I realised my musical talent had taken me as far as it could, so I moved behind the scenes to support the careers of individuals far more talented than me.

What is the unique talent that you bring to Sutherland?

Planning several international tours simultaneously requires a huge amount of organisation. The ability to see all the moving pieces and the bigger picture, as well as identify patterns, recognise gaps and opportunities, is something I bring when analysing data. During my time living in Canada I had the privilege of collaborating with indigenous communities, and to learn about their history and the process of reconciliation, which instilled in me a commitment towards inclusion. I have a degree in socio-linguistics and a life-long passion for language, which has always led me to question meaning behind words and to question motivation. This coupled with my ability to see patterns in a sea of data as well as my interest in design for all, gives me a unique vision as a UX design researcher.

What is your average working day like?

One of the aspects I enjoy the most about being a researcher is that no two days are alike. Even if you are doing three days of in depth interviews, asking the same questions, each interview will be different. But let’s say it’s Day 1 of a usability testing  phase. In order to conduct a good interview, as a moderator you have to be well prepared. We use discussion guides but in order to ad-lib and have a natural conversation, you need to know your guide and your research objectives intimately. With that in mind, I’ll spend some time reading the questions out-loud to myself, then do a tech-check to make sure everything is working well, including our live stream. Depending on the length of the interviews, we will sometimes conduct 5 or 6 sessions in one day. At the end of the sessions myself and my colleague will discuss our initial thoughts and any high-level findings from the first day’s research. These will then be passed on to the client in the form of a daily debrief either via email or on the phone.

What existing product, process, service or institution do you think would benefit the most from the application of some “design thinking?”

Anything that involves 2-factor authentication, specially on government and childcare services.