Rosenverse
Design Research Strategy & Strategic Design Research

Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.

Log in Create free account

100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.

Design Research Strategy & Strategic Design Research

Thursday, February 3, 2022 • Advancing Research Community

This video is featured in the UX Watch Party playlist.

Share the love for this talk
Design Research Strategy & Strategic Design Research
Speakers: Mike Oren and Janice Wiitala
Link:

Summary

When scaling and democratizing research practices, how can you help ensure higher levels of value are delivered? In this interactive session, we discuss different items we can leverage to ensure design research is providing value to an organization by driving strategic decisions. Areas we cover include:
  • Utilizing research repositories as strategic assets;
  • Leveraging quant + quo data to track success; and
  • Ensuring research can focus on the highest value work.

Key Insights

  • •

    Research repositories should be designed like design systems—organized, accessible, and enabling holistic storytelling rather than just storing final reports.

  • •

    Atomic insights or research nuggets capture rich, verbatim customer feedback that enhances empathy and informs design decisions more effectively.

  • •

    Democratizing research to teams increases insight ownership but risks duplication and inconsistent results if not strategically managed.

  • •

    Effective research strategy involves deciding what not to do to maintain organizational focus, echoing Michael Porter's definition of strategy.

  • •

    Most organizations struggle to fully integrate user-centered research into decision-making despite having talent and data available, causing researcher frustration and turnover.

  • •

    Combining deep usability study insights with broader, real-time listening posts enables a richer understanding of user pain points across contexts.

  • •

    Qualitative UX research faces challenges in measurement and aligning results with business metrics, requiring new approaches beyond standard quantitative data.

  • •

    Video and multimedia summaries of research insights can personalize findings and improve engagement across teams.

  • •

    Building trust and relationships across departments (UX, strategy, marketing) maximizes the value of research data collected through various channels.

  • •

    Investing time upfront in organizing and tagging research insights can save teams significant time searching and accelerate impactful outcomes.

Notable Quotes

"Strategy is telling organizations what not to do, not just generating new ideas."

"Research repositories often get a bad rap because people just dump final reports without thinking about how they'll be used."

"Atomic insights are nuggets that tag what customers actually said, including their sentiments and sometimes swearing."

"On average we spend 20% of our time just looking for things, which is not the best use of resources."

"Democratizing research can lead to duplication and even conflicting results if we’re not careful."

"I want to look at the discussion guides or listen to recordings to really get the emotional context."

"Organizations are slow to adopt the practice of making every decision from the voice of the customer, despite having talented people and data."

"Combining deep usability studies with site intercepts gives you both step-by-step insights and a moment-in-time view of user pain."

"Using video clips of insights creates a more personal connection and helps teams engage with the data."

"Building relationships with other departments helps us leverage information collected for different purposes in a structured way."

Ask the Rosenbot
Louis Rosenfeld
Becoming a Civic Designer: Making the Move from Private to Public Sector
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Tom Armitage
Day 2 Panel: Looking ahead: Designing with AI in 2026
2025 • Designing with AI 2025
Gold
Yolanda Rankin
Black Feminist Epistemology as a Critical Framework for Equitable Design
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Amy Marquez
INVEST: Discussion
2018 • Enterprise Experience 2018
Gold
Erika Flowers
Introduction to MURAL for UX
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Kathleen Asjes
Research Democratization: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Shelby Switzer
Making Space for Community Knowledge-sharing in a Distributed World
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Frances Yllana
The Big Question about Impact: A Panel Discussion
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Sam Yen
Driving Organizational Change Through Design? Do more of this and less of that
2017 • Enterprise Experience 2017
Gold
Theme 3 Intro
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Julie Baher
Culture Change—My Journey
2015 • Enterprise UX 2015
Gold
Greg Petroff
Design is the Differentiator: Bringing New Design Innovations to a Very Antiquated and Very Large Industry
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Savannah Carlin
Don't botch the bot: Designing interactions for AI
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold
Lada Gorlenko
Theme 1: Discussion
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Saara Kamppari-Miller
Theme Three Intro
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Uday Gajendar
Theme Four Intro
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold

More Videos

Dr. Karl Jeffries

"If you said are you creative, I’m gonna say hell yeah."

Dr. Karl Jeffries

The Science of Creativity for DesignOps

January 8, 2024

Amy Marquez

"There’s been a huge convergence because everybody’s got a mobile device now and expects a certain kind of experience."

Amy Marquez

INVEST: Discussion

June 15, 2018

Steve Portigal

"The weakest insight method might win simply because of the relationship to the power structure."

Steve Portigal Chris Chapo Kelly Goto Christian Rohrer

Discussion

May 13, 2015

Alicia Mooty

"Splitting people’s allocation across different teams created work-life balance issues requiring more oversight."

Alicia Mooty

Design Staffing Models

September 30, 2021

Ana Maria Montero Barrantes

"We want to stay in the game no users cursing our name."

Ana Maria Montero Barrantes Aditi Dhar Michelle Kaplan Nate Osborne Matt Laurence

The Authentic UX Talent Show

January 8, 2024

Lada Gorlenko

"Simply asking stakeholders what success looks like for them in a project is a powerful way to start meaningful conversations."

Lada Gorlenko Sharbani Dhar Sébastien Malo Rob Mitzel Ivana Ng Michal Anne Rogondino

Theme 1: Discussion

January 8, 2024

Sofia Quintero

"Research isn’t linear; it’s messy and modular, so your tools have to reflect that fluidity."

Sofia Quintero

The Product Philosophy Behind EnjoyHQ

March 10, 2021

Laura Klein

"Nobody loves it when someone from another department shows up to tell people how to do their jobs better."

Laura Klein

Unique challenges of innovation in enterprises

April 23, 2020

Andrew Michael

"Data analysts and user researchers rarely work together effectively, which is one of the biggest missed opportunities."

Andrew Michael

Building a Product Insights Team

March 10, 2022

Latest Books All books