Uncovering & Identifying User Needs to Improve Retention Featuring Megan Kierstead
Startup Insights
Megan Kierstead is a certified coach for forward-thinking leaders with ADHD brains. Her coaching incorporates over a decade of experience of advising tech executives in strategy and human behavior, as well as deep expertise in user experience and market research. She long struggled with feeling like a fraud, even with over a decade of experience, prestigious degrees, and brand-name recognition. Once she started working with a coach EVERYTHING changed. Not only did she start showing up as a confident leader, she also built the most amazing, happy, fulfilling life for herself (bunnies!...
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How User Research Is Helping a Food Startup Thrive Featuring Claire Schlemme
Startup Insights
Claire Schlemme is an ardent environmentalist who saw a need to fix a broken food system in order to protect the planet. Her lifelong interest in food and nature began to intertwine when she was diagnosed with cancer in her early 20s. This experience made her passionate about understanding the links between food and health, both of our environment and our own bodies. She co-founded Boston’s first organic juice company with the aim to connect local farmers and city-dwellers through nutritious and delicious foods. This experience exposed her to two primary challenges: food waste and the lack...
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How Customer Research Fosters Sustainable Startups Featuring Steve Sanderson
Startup Insights
Steve is a hands-on product development executive, with a passionate focus on startups and creating products that make a measurable difference. For most of his career, he has worked in early stage startups, with a strong emphasis on Lean Startup and Customer Development for the last six years. Currently he is the Resident Lean Startup Expert at Rackspace, where he is focused on applying Lean Startup and Customer Development into larger environments with high degrees of uncertainty. Prior to Rackspace, he was the VP of Product Development for Food on the Table, an early-stage venture funded...
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Qualitative Research for Startup Insights and Strategy Featuring Miriam Alexander
Startup Insights
Miriam Alexander founded and runs Go Deep Strategy, a qualitative boutique specializing in hard questions. Her 20+ year career spans work for both client and research agencies and for startups as well as Fortune100 corporations. Trained as a robust researcher — she’s done her share of segmentations — she loves the human connection found in qualitative work and works in both B2B and B2C. In the past she built and ran insights for the Yahoo Media Group, built and ran Insights and Analytics for a women’s Lifestage media company and doubled revenues while leading Qualitative for a major...
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Research that Crescendos Featuring Chris Beaman
Startup Insights
In today's episode, we talk with Chris Beaman about how he approaches user research with senior citizens for the startup, Rehab2Fit. Chris Beaman is an entrepreneur and technologist with specialties in product and growth. Chris grew up in Boston and worked as a software engineer before becoming a user experience designer, a digital marketer, and eventually a startup founder. Today, Chris lives in Austin and leads user research efforts at Rehab2Fit, a fitness company based in Boulder, Colorado. On the side, Chris builds products and offers services to startups and startup founders through his...
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A Product the Market Wants Featuring Melinda Hwang
Startup Insights
In today's episode, we talk with Melinda Hwang about how she found her market through spreadsheets, Facebook groups, and customer service questions. Melinda Hwang is the founder of Happy Masks, a company whose mission is to provide masks that combine breathability and comfort without compromising on protection. Melinda grew up in Taiwan, a country where wearing masks to help prevent diseases ranging from SARS to the common cold has been commonplace for decades, and also where Happy Masks are made. Melinda is proud to utilize the technology and resources there to bring Happy Masks to the US...
info_outlineMelinda Hwang is the founder of Happy Masks, a company whose mission is to provide masks that combine breathability and comfort without compromising on protection. Melinda grew up in Taiwan, a country where wearing masks to help prevent diseases ranging from SARS to the common cold has been commonplace for decades, and also where Happy Masks are made. Melinda is proud to utilize the technology and resources there to bring Happy Masks to the US market. Prior to founding Happy Masks, Melinda worked in Marketing at a number of Fortune 500 companies for over 15 years.
Melinda is also the mother of 3 young children, ages 4, 6, and 7. As a mother to young children and the daughter of parents in their late 60s and 70s, Melinda understands at a very personal level the need to provide masks to keep her family safe and healthy.
Show Notes
Melinda has graciously offered free shipping to our audience with the code "startupinsights".