How to Empower Your Designers to Do Good Research – And Why You Want To
Summary
Key Insights
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Design and research need each other and produce better outcomes when working closely together.
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Good designers and researchers want to collaborate, but need organizational culture and practical systems to make it effective.
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Many organizations fit into a maturity model from isolated design or research to research-driven product strategy.
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There are not enough researchers to do all research; researchers must teach and enable designers and PMs to conduct research themselves.
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Research teams should shift from reactive service providers to proactive culture builders, leading strategic projects ahead of the product roadmap.
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Designers need support scaffolding from research teams such as recruitment, research plans, interview guides, and feedback loops.
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Bias in qualitative research cannot be eliminated but should be acknowledged openly and questioned collaboratively.
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Designers can and should do foundational research and usability testing; roles between design and research overlap more than commonly assumed.
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Researchers as note takers and facilitators in design-led research sessions help provide feedback and embed collaboration.
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Timely, incremental sharing of research insights (e.g. quotes, video clips) is more effective than large final reports.
Notable Quotes
"Design research—they need each other. They are much, much better together."
"Good designers understand you can’t design what you don’t understand."
"Researchers want designers to help them with the research because there aren’t enough researchers in the world."
"Your primary function as a research team is to build a culture of research, not just react to project requests."
"The best teams I know are a quarter ahead of the product roadmap, seeking out impactful strategic research projects themselves."
"You should not be struggling with best practices, recruitment, or documentation when conducting your own research as a designer."
"Unbiased qualitative research does not exist. The best we can do is acknowledge and minimize biases."
"Bring your research team as note takers and facilitators—they make excellent collaborators and help build feedback loops."
"Share your learning quickly and often—don’t wait for big reports. Your deliverable as a designer doing research is the design itself."
"There is overlap between design and research when it comes to different types of research; it’s not a strict divide."
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