UX Research Geeks

The episode contains a few genuinely interesting observations - particularly the distinction between 'performative' research and curiosity-driven research, and the idea that passion itself introduces bias - but these are heavily diluted by vague, meandering conversation about AI changing everything and roles blurring. The insight-to-filler ratio is low for a 28-minute episode.

“there is a research as a performative act, as, like, a strategic research that you're doing just to satisfy the customers you're having”

“I'm so curious that I forget about thinking through the solutions. I'm just immersed in this conversation”

There are one or two genuinely fresh framings - passion-as-bias and the personal-project vs. enterprise-project difference in research quality - but the majority of the episode covers familiar ground: AI is disrupting everything, roles are blurring, designers need to code, research mindset matters. No contrarian or first-principles argument is developed to any depth.

“I'm 100% sure that when I'm coming with so much drive and passion, quote, unquote, my favorite word, it's carrying that bias”

“when it comes to product design as an industry where I'm working within the enterprise, maybe I'm being measured. There are other enterprise layers that come into play”

Anfisa is a credible 14-year practitioner with startup and scale-up experience and a relevant education/community angle, but she is a designer speaking about research from the outside rather than a seasoned researcher or senior UX leader. She is more a peer-level community figure and podcast host than an exceptional, high-caliber industry practitioner.

“I tried to be a PM last summer by the way as well for about four months because we were missing the PM and my team”

“I have been designing for about 14 years now, starting with freelancing startups, then I was moving into corporates”

The episode is almost entirely abstract and anecdotal. The only concrete details are rough time spans ('14 years,' 'four months as PM,' 'last four years in scale-ups'), a vague company reference ('AT News'), and tool name-drops (ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor). No metrics, no named case studies, no research findings, no dollar figures or measurable outcomes are cited anywhere.

“we only had one researcher for a whole department. So maybe you have five, six, maybe 10 designers and one researcher for the department”

“last year I was using more ChatGPT. This year I'm switching to cloud”

The host is genuinely engaged and makes some decent analytical pivots - notably the B2B vs. B2C follow-up and the knowledge-management reframe - and shares her own perspective authentically. However, sweeping claims about AI and role displacement go completely unchallenged, and the episode ends with a soft 'is there anything I didn't ask you' question rather than a sharp synthesis or productive disagreement.

“Do you think it's also because of the B2B and B2C context?”

“I'm not sure if this passion is not a bias on its own”