Design Talk 27. Alex Genov, Head of UX Research, Zappos

Alex Genov, head of UX Research at Zappos, talks to Marek Pawlowski, founder of MEX, about designing retail experiences, understanding users as people and emerging user research methods.  The conversation covers Genov’s early interest in experimental social psychology and expands into a discussion of how he has applied his knowledge in both financial services and retailers.  Genov and Pawlowski also talk about Zappos’ core commitment to customer service and how its adoption of the holocracy organisational principles influence its ability to conduct user research without silos.

On this edition

• Marek Pawlowski, co-host & founder of MEX (@marekpawlowski)
• Alex Genov, Head of UX Research, Zappos
• With thanks to Patrizia Bertini, co-host, & Senior Strategy Consultant, Lithium (@legoviews) for setting up the interview. Patrizia returns in future shows.
• Alex Guest, co-host & CEO of Zingy.life (@alexguest) returns in future shows.

Links

• Zappos, the Amazon-owned online retailer where Alex works
• Holocracy, the self organisation system adopted by Zappos
• Alex’s article explaining the difference between transactional segmentation and psychographic segmentation
• Eyeworks, used by Zappos for eye tracking research
• Affectiva, which Zappos partnered with for facial expression tracking
• Episode 9 of MEX Design Talk, on trust, with Richard Lewis
• Episode 18 of MEX Design Talk, on microexpressions, with Aaron Garner
• MEX principles for trusted digital experiences
• Volvo In-Car Delivery, the example mentioned by Marek

About MEX Design Talk & how to get in touch

The podcast for the MEX community, interviewing UX pioneers, exploring emerging technologies, user behaviour and how to design better digital experiences.

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Thanks

• Jukedeck, for the artificial intelligence engine which provided the music