So long, and thanks for all the fish.
They say that all good things must come to an end. Today we’re announcing that after six wonderful years, Jam is closing down.
To this day, we have thoroughly enjoyed everything we’ve done together. Our events were fun, different, and a pleasure to organise and run. You brought them to life and we couldn't be more grateful for all the great moments we enjoyed in your company.
In this announcement, we’d like to share the rationale behind this decision.
2020 has had a disastrous impact on society and the economy as a whole. From a business standpoint, companies operating in the events industry have been hit particularly hard.
Our revenues crashed, and we lost a considerable amount of money in deposits paid to venues – including Hawker House, who we were saddened to hear, are also in the process of closing down.
We successfully ran several online events throughout the year, but it quickly became clear to us that it was going to be impossible to recreate the experiences we'd created in the past, online.
But we didn't throw in the towel. At the end of the year, we attempted a pivot, and launched – Jam Club – an online community for our most committed members.
Our vision was to build a thriving space for growth-minded product leaders, offering intimate virtual workshops every month.
Pivoting from an in-person events company to an online community has proven significantly harder than we’d originally hoped, and the losses we accumulated in 2020 have proven too significant for us to overcome. And so now we’d rather stop here, celebrate the journey, and say a proper goodbye.
What now?
We’ll keep Jam Club open for the next six months. We won’t be moderating it or running any workshops, but you'll be able to access all workshop recordings, discussions, and member profiles. We hope you’ll be able to use it to reconnect with friends made at past events.
To claim your free invite just drop us a note at hello@makingjam.io.
You can also find all past talk videos on our YouTube channel.
Thank you
A huge thank you to our amazing team of staff and volunteers; Marta, Sunil, Jessie, Maria, Francesca, Stephen, Joan, Monica, Ecem, Steve, David, Michael, Mahtab, Eva, Gizem, Antoine, Jeff and all those that helped run our events every year. We’re deeply grateful for the friendship, shared memories, and support you’ve shown us over the years. We couldn’t have achieved everything we did without you.
Thank you to Doug and Chris at Intelligent People. You supported us from day one, and have always been a pleasure to work with.
Thank you to all our speakers and workshop instructors for all the brilliant content you’ve delivered over the years.
And thank you, for the good times we created together.
Seb & Mathilde
About
Blog
Supercharge Your User Research Skills
Enhance your skills in conducting the three main roles of user research: discovery, validation, and usability.
Summary
Summary
We all know that user research is a massively important part of creating a successful product. Without assessing your ideas and work against real users you can’t know whether you’re making the right thing.
However do you feel out of your depth when being required to talk to users? Are you unsure whether you’re doing the right thing?
In this workshop, Matt will help enhance your skills in conducting the three main roles of user research: discovery, validation, and usability. With plenty of practical exercises and learning, he’ll pass on a decade of experience in UX and evidence-based design.
Who is it for?
Product managers, designers, marketers, and developers who want to build their skills and confidence in talking to and testing with their users and customers. Great for those who are less experienced in this side of product creation.
Key takeaways
- Know how to prepare for discovery interviews with customers.
- Learn how to dig for insights in your interviews.
- Understand when and how to use validation testing.
- How to run a great usability tests (including remotely).
- Learn effective analysis and reporting on the results of your testing.
On the day
What we’ll cover:
- Using and adapting a template for a good interview
- Tips on interviewing in-person and over the phone
- How to carry out quick guerrilla validation tests
- The components of a good usability test task
- Explaining a lightweight template for a user testing report
Exercises will include:
- Drafting interview questions
- Practicing effective interviews
- Running a quick mobile app validation test
- Quick post-it note analysis
- Practice writing user testing tasks
- Spotting usability issues in a user test
About the instructor
Matt is a UX consultant with over 10 years experience, starting at the BBC and now specialising in working with growing startups. He promotes working in a lean way and with low budget tools.
He created the The Evidence-Based Redesign course and is the writer of the Designing Ecommerce Websites book. He has taught UX workshops and courses to various audiences for over four years.