What Stakeholders Really Want (And How to Find Out)

Hosted by Amanda Gelb and Anna Avrekh

409 students

What you'll learn

Strategic questions to drive clarity

How to uncover stakeholders’ true goals, motivations, and concerns through strategic questioning.

Uncover hidden priorities

Techniques to decode unspoken priorities and avoid misalignment.

Position your research as a strategic solution

How to position your research to address their biggest questions and challenges.

Why this topic matters

Understanding what your stakeholders really need is the difference between research that gets ignored and research that drives strategic decisions. Mastering this skill will help you deliver work that matters and earn their trust.

You'll learn from

Amanda Gelb

Founder & Principal, Aha Studio (ex-Asana, Lyft, Google, HUGE)

Amanda Gelb is an independent UX researcher and strategist with over a decade of experience at companies like Google, Lyft, and HUGE. She partners with startups and established organizations to conduct end-to-end research, lead strategy projects, and design bespoke workshops and training that drive clarity and alignment.


Amanda is passionate about asking great questions and making meaningful connections. She is currently working on a visual book that explores how thoughtful inquiry can unlock impactful conversations.



Anna Avrekh

Senior UX Research Manager, Zillow (ex-Google, Betterment, Compass, Meta)

Anna is a UX Research leader with 20 years of experience in the field, currently a Senior User Research Manager at Zillow. In addition to working as a hands-on researcher at Google for over 10 years, Anna has build, grew and led diverse UXR teams at Betterment, Compass, and Meta.


Anna has a deep passion for mentoring and coaching and has been teaching a User Research class as an adjunct professor for the Cornell Tech Studio master program for the last three years. Anna is also an active mentor with Tech Stars accelerator, advising start-up founders on user needs discovery.


Anna's goal is to help researchers at any level realize their full potential, especially when it comes to skills rarely taught in HCI programs: stakeholder management, storytelling, and growing and developing their influence within the organization. Anna believes that above and beyond methods and interview facilitation, knowing how to ask the right questions, especially at the beginning of a research project is the key to unlocking full potential of user research.

Previously at

Zillow
Google
Lyft
Meta
Betterment
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