Twitter Internship: Wrap-Up

Well, after three-months of rigorous work, I can now say that my time as a PhD intern with Twitter Research has come to a close. For the last 12 weeks, I have designed and executed a qualitative research study (n=24) on relational and interests-based engagement on the Home timeline. I focused on in-depth interviews, and conducted them over Google Meet - a new platform for me, but it was super easy and we were able to do screensharing! I also collaborated with stakeholders in Product, Design, Eng, and Data Science on the project.

Highlight of the summer: the interviews. I absolutely love interviewing customers. It is truly a joy to talk with them, and I found that I get so much energy from conducting them. I had a structured interview guide this time around, which I have never used before having always preferred semi-structured guides. But there was a huge payoff in using the structured form when it came to analysis. I coded in two weeks, a record time for me, and found it so much easier. I will remember this in the future!

My pal made this excellent gif for me from a recording of one of the most memorable interviews I have ever done, and likely ever will do, in my entire life. It is truly a gem.

I finished the summer by translating my findings into a slide deck and reporting to 35+ cross-functional partners. We had a great session reviewing the data, and I am pleased to hear that my report informed 2022 product strategy for Home to ensure it was customer-centric.

All in all, I am really glad I did the internship. Though it was not as academic-focused in its research strategies as I expected, I learned a ton. Going forward, I also now know how much research I can truly accomplish in 12-weeks. What a whirlwind!