Transcription
[Music] welcome to snaper shots conversations with professional practicing and applied anthropologists. I'm Sonia Hodson. I am a practicing Anthropologist currently working as a user experienced researcher, um, with legal research technologies. So I would say that I've always been interested in learning more about, um, what makes people different. Um, partially, I think it's because I kind of grew up feeling a little bit different myself and and wanted to learn more about why it is that I do the things that I do. And, um, wanting to learn about, um, how different people, groups, different cultures, um, you know, different societies interact and see the world. The more I learned through anthropology coursework and undergrad, the more I realized that through that education, um, I could expand my own perspective and better offer that perspective to the world and and continuing to grow again, even understanding my own practices and questioning those practices, questioning my biases, and continuing to grow as a person as much as a, um, contributor to to my society and, um, the world around me.
I would say that through applying critical theory to everyday challenges, whether big or small, um, has really helped to, um, to contribute to my workplace, um, as well as to my job and my role. Um, particularly, what this has looked like, uh, in my current role is through, um, examining organizational culture and acknowledging the delicate balance of critiquing the the policies or practices and power dynamics that undermine the goals and values of our organization and trying to keep that, um, that North Star, uh, and continuing to track against that, as well as, um, balancing that with understanding, um, the the impact on on users and and how this might change the the outputs that we have as an organization and, um, towards those who would eventually use our software.
So with, uh, with an anthropological perspective, I, um, of course, as a, as a user experience researcher, a lot of what I'm looking at on a daily daily basis are understanding the pain points and needs of users who are coming to, um, the software that my company makes. And that software is legal research, uh, tools. So a lot of what I do is I sit with very specialized professionals, such as, uh, lawyers or legal librarians or paralegals, um, and really find out what they do. Um, so a lot of, a lot of my job involves understanding not only their their jobs and what their particular job flow looks like, um, in a way, there's definitely ethnography involved, um, in understanding their workflow and how, um, how they use the tools that my company makes, as well as when they come to those tools and the the pain points that they have using this technology and the areas for, um, for that technology to change or adapt. Um, and a lot of that looks like accessibility concerns and and meeting those accessibility concerns.
And anthropological background has been foundational, um, for really, uh, preparing me to not only study those accessibility concerns and understand the different layers that impact it, more more so than just, um, does it meet ADA requirements, um, but better being able to advocate for those needs and concerns to stakeholders. Um, this also, in terms of stakeholder relationships, um, and relations, it also goes hand in hand with, um, meeting the user needs and addressing all of those factors that I just mentioned, while, you know, being attuned to what the stakeholders are looking for and what and what they need, um, which can often times come with the restrictions of budget or, um, maybe their their goals, um, might have some conflict with what's come out of the research. And so, um, being able to broker those those relationships, um, to better meet the different needs is something that I feel is, um, maybe not unique to anthropologists, but it's something that we're we're trained, um, we're trained to do. And we're trained to listen with, um, not only keen interest but also, um, empathy and really putting our our own needs and desires on on the back burner to, um, to build those those, uh, strong outcomes that that benefit all parties.
It's not always going to be, um, as cut and dry as it might seem in terms of application of methods, but also in terms of, um, being able to advocate for, uh, end users or patients or whoever the the community of interest is that, uh, you're working in. As, um, especially as an applied Anthropologist, and just realizing that there's, in order to do the work of, um, applied anthropology in an a community or organization that is not, um, grounded in anthropological theory, or maybe you're the only Anthropologist or one of a small handful of anthropologists, it can be a challenge to again, broker those relations. And so there's there's an amount of give and take, um, that I've learned is is really important. And there's a a strong dose of humility, um, that needs to come with the work that we do. Um, and that that empathy that we show the the end users or the community of interest also needs to apply to the stakeholders, um, because there's a lot of, a lot of dynamics that play. And, um, it's, I have found that the best outcomes happen whenever it's more of a dance, um, rather than, um, transactional.
I think my the biggest thing is, um, just encouraging, um, anthropologists that the education that you have, um, is preparation enough. Um, you're most of the way there in terms of implied career. Um, I like to think of the industry-specific, uh, language or methodologies as, um, getting into the mindset of being in a new field site. So there's there's new vocabulary that we have to learn. There's new, um, techniques that we have to try that better apply. And, um, not being intimidated by language that seems maybe too jargony or that is outside of your wheelhouse, because again, um, there's always going to be something that you need to learn, um, whether it's specific to anthropological methods or more industry, uh, aligned methods. Um, again, the the tools from anthropology that I've learned, being interviewing, conducting surveys, um, and definitely that that empathy with with the community of interest, those are backbone of what I do, um, and those are the really the, the main foundational tools that you need. So everything on top of that is just, um, extra. So encouraging folks and then just, um, realizing that, you know, uh, being tenacious is, uh, can go a long way. Um, and it might take some time, um, but that it is well worth it, in my opinion, um, to to branch out and to, um, do something that that really excites you.
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[Music] Snapper shots.