Anthropology in Praxis: A Conversation with Kat Hutton

This interview explores the intersection of anthropological theory and industrial practice. CASCA Communications Officer Sarah Yems sits down with Anthropologist Kat Hutton to discuss her journey from seasonal agricultural labour to high-level UX research at Meta, Microsoft, and the Canadian Federal Government. The interview delves deeply into the workshops Kat runs for graduate students, exploring how to apply anthropological methods outside academia. It covers professional challenges and the unique "punk" mindset required to carve a niche in the private sector.

I. From the Field to the Screen

Sarah Yems: To get us started, could you walk us through those early years? It seems like quite a jump from agricultural labour to the corporate tech world. How did that transition happen?

Kat Hutton: At the time, I was still in school. I had been working in agriculture while finishing my master’s, primarily to support myself. I was living on a farm in an RV, and my day-to-day reality was seasonal labour. It was a very different environment from where I am now.

The shift started when I began speaking with friends who were already in the private sector—people working at Deloitte or in digital marketing. I started reading a lot about the roles anthropologists could play in those spaces. That was when I first encountered the term "UX research." It’s interesting because I never actually learned about UX in school; it was something I had to discover through my own networks and reading.

Once I decided I wanted to try it, I landed my first gig with a start-up consultancy. We conducted a quick business ethnography to identify opportunity areas for them as they built their strategy. Their clients were pension companies, so they needed a foundational "temperature check" on how Canadians were thinking about retirement. It was fascinating because it was my first time working directly with company founders in a startup environment.

Sarah Yems: And from there, you moved into more established corporate research?

Kat Hutton: Yes, my next major role was with 7-Eleven, working through an agency. This was discovery research centered on a very broad question: "What does convenience mean to Americans?"

That project was intense. I was on the road for a full month, flying to five different cities. Unlike the scrappy startup work, this project had significant funding. I was working alongside videographers to deliver a high-production business ethnography report. We were doing "customer intercepts"—interviews on the fly in 7-Eleven stores—and even visiting competitive spaces like Amazon Go buildings to see how they operated. We also interviewed the franchisees to get the internal perspective.

It culminated in a massive synthesis session in Austin, Texas. I had been handling the Western cities, while another researcher and videographer covered the Eastern side. Seeing all that data come together from across the country was an incredible experience.

II. Navigating Big Tech: Meta and Microsoft

Sarah Yems: You eventually moved into the "Big Tech" at Meta and then Microsoft. How did those roles differ from the agency and startup work?

Kat Hutton:  At Meta, I was on the Facebook app strategy team. I wasn’t conducting original research in that specific role. Instead, I was building a research repository—a hot topic at the time. These companies have done massive amounts of real ethnography all over the world, looking at user preferences and perceptions of their apps.

My job was essentially to act as an institutional librarian. My manager would give me a topic, and I would dive into existing research to perform what were essentially literature reviews. We used these to develop strategies to pitch to leadership, recommending what the company should focus on next based on the internal data we already had. It was eye-opening to see the scale of research they maintain.

Sarah Yems: And did that continue at Microsoft?

Kat Hutton: Microsoft was a bit of a mix. I started by building a research repository for the Microsoft Design Studio team, in addition to conducting some UX studies on various features of the Teams app. The following year, I moved into Microsoft AI, which involved way more usability research. This was a massive shift from discovery-based ethnography or literature reviews.

This was all about "quick turnarounds." In that world, a turnaround means two or three weeks to complete a study on how a specific design feature is landing with users. You then have to immediately provide actionable recommendations to the designers on what to change to make it better. It’s a very fast-paced, iterative cycle.

III. Public Sector and Modern Usability

Sarah Yems: And that brings us to your current role at the Canadian Digital Service. How does the public sector compare to working in Big Tech?

Kat Hutton: The public sector is another entirely new field for me. At the Canadian Digital Service (CDS), I’m embedded on a product team and work with developers and designers. We work on a product that allows federal government organisations to send notifications to each other and to the public.

Even though it’s government work, it’s still very much about usability research. We are constantly testing how our products function and how they can better serve the public. It’s a different kind of pressure than the private sector, but the goal of making technology work for people remains the same.

IV. Teaching the "Workplace" Mindset

Sarah Yems: I'd love to hear more about the workshops you teach. You're trying to bridge the gap for students who might only know the academic side of qualitative research. How do you structure that?

Kat Hutton: The goal of my workshops is to help students lay a foundation for the workplace, regardless of their previous training. I don't focus on resume building or job hunting per se. Instead, I focus on the "calibration" needed for professional research.

We talk about how to scope a project properly and the key contrasts between academic qualitative research and research for an organisation. There are major differences in how you work on a team, how you recruit participants, and whether or not you’ll be dealing with a formal ethics board.

I also show them what actual research deliverables look like. It’s not always a 50-page white paper. It could be a slideshow, a brief Word document, diagrams, or data visualisations. If we're doing service design, I teach them methods like customer journey mapping and service blueprinting.

Sarah Yems: What advice do you have for students thinking about careers outside academia?

Kat Hutton: My advice is to stop seeing anthropology as just a degree you get before looking for a "job." It’s a multidisciplinary practice. If you love art, bring anthropology into your art. Write zines, build communities, and lean into extracurriculars. All of those things bolster your practice and expand your network. Fortune favours the bold. I've always found that having "out there" ideas and approaches has been rewarded in the long run. I feel like I’m carving out my own niche, without having to worry about typical funding and success structures. There’s something kind of punk about it.