💬  Q&A Featuring Jill Larson and Karen Goldstein | Q&A | XM Community
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Q&A July 19 - August 2 Featuring Karen Goldstein (Principal XM Scientist) & Jill Larson (XM Platform Product Manager)


The Most Unique Q&A Yet


From July 19th to August 2nd, you will have the incredible opportunity to ask Karen Goldstein, Principal XM Scientist of PX, and Jill Larson, XM Platform Product Manager, about product design, experience, innovation, and development, as well as their careers, interests, best practices, and more.  
Meet Jill
Jill Larson, a Washington native, began her graduate career in sales and marketing at companies like The Transpo Group and Neptune Society. By 2008, Larson co-founded Smart Cremation, a $20,000,000 business that enables families to efficiently plan and fund cremations. Larson transitioned to Microsoft in 2013, where she took on a variety of roles, including Director of Marketing and Principal Program Manager. After five years at Microsoft, Larson joined Qualtrics as an XM Platform Product Manager, overseeing product design and growth. Over the last 20 years, she has developed a deep understanding of product creation, marketing, and consumption across numerous industries.
Meet Karen
Karen Goldstein, a Minnesota native, began her postgraduate career understanding consumer needs and behaviors at companies such as The NPD Group and Synovate. By 2012, Goldstein transitioned towards consumer and customer research, specializing in Segmentation and Innovation research methods at GFK as the Vice President of Market Opportunities and Innovation, as well as the Senior Vice President of Consumer Insights. In 2019, Goldstein joined Qualtrics as an XM Scientist in Research Services. Today, she is a Principal XM Scientist with a focus on PX and DesignXM. Over the last 25 years, she has built deep expertise in Innovation Research methods across numerous categories and industries.

How It Works


During the Q&A, you will be able to unlock prizes, including a Razer keyboard, Razer gaming chair, Airpods Pro, a Nespresso Machine, and more by completing tasks (in any order you choose). For each task completed by 11:59 PM MST on August 2nd, unless otherwise specified, a new prize will be unlocked. The majority of these tasks will require a team effort from multiple members. Those who have commented their thoughtful questions for Jill and Karen on this post will earn a badge and be entered into a raffle for a chance to win an unlocked prize. Winners will be contacted by an Admin to choose their prize.
  1. EXPIRED | Apple Airpods Pro with 5 thoughtful questions on this post by 11:59 PM, July 20th.

  2. EXPIRED | Razer Iskur X Ergonomic Gaming Chair with 15 thoughtful questions on this post by 11:59 PM, July 26th.

  3. UNLOCKED | Razer BlackWidow with 10 thoughtful questions on this post.

  4. EXPIRED | $100 Amazon Gift Card with 4 thoughtful questions about Jill’s and/or Karen’s career path.

  5. UNLOCKED |  Nespresso Vertuo Machine with 2,000 views of this post, (the one you're currently reading).

  6. UNLOCKED | $75 Postmates or GrubHub Gift Card with 10 upvotes on this post, (yep, still this one).

  7. UNLOCKED | Electric Standing Desk with 20 total upvotes on comments on this post, (mhmm...same one)!

  8. UNLOCKED | Razer Anzu Smart Glasses with 60 likes on this LinkedIn Post.

  9. EXPIRED | $50 Uber or Lyft Gift Card with 2 questions from users native to Minnesota or Washington. Be sure to note where you are from in your comment, if you are completing this task.

  10. EXPIRED | $50 Starbucks or Peets Coffee Gift Card with 4 questions from users with “K” or “J” in their first or last name. Be sure to note your name in your comment, if you are completing this task.


** There may be slight modifications to prizes depending on location. Admin reserve the right to determine what qualifies as a thoughtful question.**

As always, please direct support questions to our support team or post elsewhere in the community! 

Adam [k]orengold here: A question for both JillKLarson and KarenG : Both of you have worked for a varied set of industries and are now at Qualtrics working to show the value of tracking customer experience and using that insight to improve a company's products and services.
In many organizations, moving from a project management-focused mindset to a product ownership mindset requires embracing a new philosophy of continuous improvement and constantly seeking feedback and insight, which is difficult. What, in your experience, do you find most helpful in enabling an organization to make that change?
Thanks very much for the discussion!

Karen Capen here... A question for both JillKLarson and KarenG regarding Reports - Advanced Reports... The alternate row highlighter is too light for a majority of my report readers. I've looked online in the community and the Qualtrics Help section. Alas nothing to be found...
I find I like this tool for some of my shorter surveys and several repetitive surveys as well. Is anyone else having the same issue or am I the only person not finding the answer?
Please help

https://community.qualtrics.com/XMcommunity/discussion/comment/39175#Comment_39175Hi KarenCapen. Thank you for sharing your question. However, our Q&As are for asking questions tailored to Jill and Karen's work, research, and careers, instead of support questions. If you contact our Support team they will be able to dive deeper into your highlighter inquiry!

If it's ok (not intending to monopolize the discussion), I have another question for JillKLarson and KarenG, which has emerged as we've seen the spaceflights by Richard Branson and, more recently, Jeff Bezos. These privileged "experiences" tend to give an elitist slant to the idea of experience: specifically the idea that experiences are limited to the small group of people who can access them. Many observers found Bezos's statement thanking Amazon employees and customers for paying for his experience to be incredibly insulting, particularly since Amazon has been rightfully criticized for its treatment of workers.
In this context, how do you think of "experience" as most people relate to the companies or organizations that you work with? I wonder if the unvoiced response to our talking about "experience" is "please stop talking to me about experiences-I'm just trying to get my oil changed/buy a pair of jeans/pay my taxes", and so on.
I look forward to your thoughts on this!

Hi JillKLarson and KarenG , My first question is how we can combine PX with CX, do we really need PX specific surveys. We have transactional surveys where we have O Data as product our customer hold. Based on Text IQ topics we are creating product specific topics and than checking sentiment for that product and reaching to product team to improve products, This is all based on CX transactional daily surveys. Do we really need separate PX surveys specifically for product feedback?

Hi Karen and Jill,
I'm wondering how you approach adoption of a new product. My instinct is that a good product will be easy to use and will demonstrate immediate value to adopters, and then, you don't have to try as hard to get people to adopt. But I think in practice it may be more complicated than that. People get used to old systems and approaches. So, how do you promote adoption? How and when do you know if a product isn't being adopted because it's a bad product? How do you know if it's just about the way you promoted it?
Thank you!
Clair [j]ohnson

Hello. My question is about the relationship of UX, PX and CX. It happens that in some surveys the objective seems to be confused and we end up doing long surveys that look like ux investigations, there is a key or good practice that can be shared with the teams so that they keep these objectives separate.

https://community.qualtrics.com/XMcommunity/discussion/comment/39152#Comment_39152Adam, you're right that moving from management mindset to ownership mindset (or from rentors to owners, as our founder would say) is a culture shift. Like anything else, it starts with measurable goals and incentives. I've found that for product work, the company goals must be centered around CSAT and usage. If people don't use what you've built and love what you've built, they won't come back. When organizations choose software for their employees that isn't loved, there's room for disruption. IT decision-makers care more about what their constituents think than ever before. Second, it requires leadership empowering their employees to make decisions. Nobody feels like an owner if they don't feel in control.

https://community.qualtrics.com/XMcommunity/discussion/comment/39216#Comment_39216Timely point. While expensive and elite experiences do get a lot more press than those which are more mundane and less tied to wealth, the organizations we work with are clear that they do need to provide positive perceptions and touchpoints and ultimately positive sentiment around the experiences they deliver or their customers and employees just won't return. So while there could be some risk in individuals thinking that "experiences" are for the wealthy, I think those delivering services, products and experiences understand they occur every day and often go unnoticed when done well. (I barely thought about the Costco delivery I received from Instacart yesterday while I was on a Zoom call, but had it gone poorly I would have been frustrated and may have even influenced others to not use Instacart.)


https://community.qualtrics.com/XMcommunity/discussion/comment/39152#Comment_39152Great questions, Adam!
Moving from a project management mindset to a product ownership mindset is a big culture shift and at the broader organization level, really needs Executive buy-in, support, and championship. Tactically, ensuring that there are closed-loop feedback mechanisms for employees to make product, employee, and/or CX improvement suggestions is important to having a product-ownership mindset. [The closed-loop piece is key -- to enable that product-ownership mindset, you can't just have employees provide feedback into a black hole!]
However, that mindset shift can start at a team level -- providing support and for team members' suggestions and recommendations and championing those recommendations with your leadership is a great place to start. Looking for opportunities to beta test new products/services is another way to get involved and feel some ownership over products.

Thanks, KarenG ! I appreciate it, especially the insight about the closed-loop portion. I'd like to explore that further!

https://community.qualtrics.com/XMcommunity/discussion/comment/39216#Comment_39216I would add, per your comment about "please stop talking to me about experiences".... I believe it's important to use the language that your consumers/customers use....talking about "experiences" may be the language that is used internally, but a different vernacular in marketing messages may be more appropriate

https://community.qualtrics.com/XMcommunity/discussion/comment/39245#Comment_39245Great question! The product-related signal that you are collecting via your CX transactional daily surveys is great, but you may be missing quite a lot of optimization or net new innovation intel! Understanding Product Market Fit on a regular basis will enable you to have an earlier signal on stagnating or waning product satisfaction, which will enable you to take action (optimize or innovate) sooner. Also, Competitive Benchmarking (the measurement of Product Satisfaction for your products and the key competitive set) will let you know if your PSAT is lagging your key competitors --- intel that might not surface in daily CX transactional surveys. Customers might be happy enough with your product to not call out an issue in the CX survey, but there might be lots of room to improve your offering.


https://community.qualtrics.com/XMcommunity/discussion/comment/39247#Comment_39247I love this question. Lack of adoption can be due to several factors, including does the new product satisfy an unmet market need, does the product deliver on its intent/purpose, and, was it marketed effectively?
Ensuring that there is some evidence of market need (via whitespace, concept testing), and then prototype product testing (via UXR and other Use Tests), and then beta testing/product preview/test marketing/launch, will allow you to fully launch/GA the product with more confidence.
Testing product marketing messages will enable you to go to market with the most motivational messaging to drive adoption. Finally, understanding which marketing vehicles perform best for your products/services, will enable you to maximize the effectiveness of your marketing plan to drive awareness and ultimately, adoption.
Essentially, having a Product Lifecycle Management process that includes customer/market feedback is a great way to ensure that the products/services that you are launching have the greatest chance of success!


https://community.qualtrics.com/XMcommunity/discussion/comment/39254#Comment_39254Ah....the Kitchen Sink Conundrum! The key is to ensure that the research objectives are focused. It's hard not to fall into the trap of "we have a captive respondent, let's get every nugget of intel out of them".
It's well documented that short, focused surveys yield higher response rates and better data quality. If you do have more territory that you need to cover, after asking the handful of most important, highest priority questions, consider asking if the respondent is willing to answer a few more questions --- this might keep engagements levels from plummeting ...but, keep the second part of that survey short, as well.

Hi Karen and Jill!
My first question is: Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give your 18-year-old self?

JillKLarson i have question for you on your career path, as per description you have great experience from Sales to Marketing and now to Product (including design, growth..). What best advice you can give on how to do role changes?

Hello Jill and Karen!
Thanks for opening this space, here is my question:
What would you advise in terms of specific activities, so that innovation and customer experience teams in organizations are not seen as teams that are pursuing different objectives?

Hello (again) Jill and Karen 😊
I thought of a couple other questions for you!
What do you find to be the most challenging and most rewarding thing about your job?
Also (because it's on my mind right now) what is your favorite summer Olympic sport to watch?
Thanks!

Hi!! my second question is for JillKLarson

I am currently taking a course for becoming a product owner, and they started showing us the path from Business analyst to CPO. Can you share a little bit of you own expertise on this topic, how was ipath for you and which are the clues to keep learning and growing in the area.

Thanks!

https://community.qualtrics.com/XMcommunity/discussion/comment/39291#Comment_39291Role change can be challenging, but rewarding. My advice is to find a role that leverages as many other superpowers that you have. It's hard to change everything and ramp on new taxonomy, culture, people, product AND new job function. If you can change roles but work on the same product or with people you know, it's a major advantage.

https://community.qualtrics.com/XMcommunity/discussion/comment/39321#Comment_39321Really good question, Isabel. You're right that often customer experience teams provide feedback about fixing things that already exist. They are most often incremental improvements, while innovation is generally more strategic with revolutionary changes. I try to strike a balance that tips a bit more toward medium to long-term vision work, then work back to see if the customer experience input is aligned to that or is at odds. If it's at odds, I'm unlikely to prioritize the work.

https://community.qualtrics.com/XMcommunity/discussion/comment/39321#Comment_39321CX surveys can yield great insights -- not just on how to optimize existing products/services, but also by shedding light on potential white space opportunities for net new innovations. Sharing product/service signals that surface in these surveys across the organization -- but particularly with the Innovation team, will help to ensure that the organization keeps the customer at the center of the organization.

There is also an opportunity for the CX team to close the feedback loop with customers, by soliciting specific feedback on the new product/services on which the Innovation team is focused.

https://community.qualtrics.com/XMcommunity/discussion/comment/39328#Comment_39328Most Challenging: Given that I am fairly new to this type of role, estimating the tech/engineering lift needed to make tweaks to solutions
Most Rewarding: Seeing the first demo of the solutions I've designed;
Fav Olympic sport: I'm typically OBSESSED with the Olympics, though I am very behind on my viewing. Will likely binge this coming weekend. Love swimming, diving, skateboarding, volleyball, archery.....

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