Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.
Log in Create free account100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.
Summary
If you’ve followed LinkedIn of late, it’s clear that UX researchers are frustrated. They feel their work is undervalued, their strategic contributions are marginalized, and their jobs have been made redundant. Multiple fingers have been pointed in multiple directions, and—as you’d expect from social media—the discussion has often ended up in a decidedly sour place. In light of The big design freakout and the UX research reckoning, there is an important conversation to be had about the changing roles of research, design, and product, and where we go from here. In light of this, Rosenfeld’s Advancing Research community is hosting a panel of respected, collaborative, and opinionated experts from the disciplines/functions at the core of this changing dynamic: Jamika Burge, Teresa Torres, Robert Fabricant, Noam Segal, and Peter Merholz—to stop litigating the past, and engage in a positive, constructive conversation about the future of UX research. Panelists: Jamika Burge, Robert Fabricant, Noam Segal, Teresa Torres Moderated by: Peter Merholz
Key Insights
-
•
Aligning user research outcomes with business goals is critical for demonstrating research value.
-
•
AI offers opportunities for continuous discovery but raises concerns over bias and ethical transparency.
-
•
Democratizing research involves enabling non-researchers to conduct basic studies, freeing skilled researchers for complex tasks.
-
•
A mature organizational environment is necessary to successfully democratize research without sacrificing quality.
-
•
Research quality can be evaluated using reliability and validity concepts adapted from academia.
-
•
Not all research activities require advanced skills; even product managers can be trained in targeted, simple research types.
-
•
Organizational change management is as important as research execution for advancing user-focused practices.
-
•
The UX research community debates moving past the term 'democratization' to focus on evolving roles amidst technological change.
-
•
Measuring UX research value is complex because impact permeates across teams and is less quantifiable than engineering outputs.
-
•
Despite evolving roles and tools, there will always be a need for specialized, skilled researchers for longitudinal and rigorous studies.
Notable Quotes
"How do we show the value of the work that enables us to really advocate for the humans whom we are serving?"
"Building for humans is a huge challenge because humans are multi-layered, weird, and wonderful irrational creatures."
"If we are truly going to create customer-centric organizations, every single person needs firsthand exposure to customers."
"Democratization has been happening for over 20 years and it’s only going to keep happening."
"User research itself is not a single function but many disciplines that require integrity and stewardship."
"We need to move past the point of who does what and into how our roles are changing with technology."
"We know what is not good research, but defining and communicating what good research looks like is more challenging."
"The ultimate measure of our research is its impact—did we build the right thing and did it have the expected effect?"
"Organizational change management requires as much care and effort as executing good research."
"There is always more work to be done than we will ever be able to do, so enabling others to participate is beneficial."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"We had no budget, we had no backing, and it was a huge success."
Jennifer KanyamibwaCreating the Blueprint: Growing and Building Design Teams
November 8, 2018
"Responsible systems are systems that keep humans in control."
Carol SmithOperationalizing Responsible, Human-Centered AI
June 7, 2023
"Position research as strategic partners early in the process, not as work to be done at the end of the production line."
Megan Blocker Marieke McCloskey Renee ReidPositioning insight: Structuring teams, roles and careers for a changing research landscape
March 13, 2025
"We helped through Homestat last year to move 690 people into housing."
Ariel KennanBuilding a Design Culture
June 9, 2017
"Let's keep up those discussions in Slack—there's some really good stuff going on today."
Uday GajendarTheme Four Intro
June 6, 2023
"The linguistic shift from we have AI to we’re redesigning how we work signals maturity."
Bethany BrownRewiring operations with service design and AI
November 20, 2025
"Sponsors make this conference possible, without them we wouldn't be here talking about some incredibly interesting things."
Bria AlexanderOpening Remarks
September 30, 2021
"The Gender Shades project exposed how facial recognition algorithms had up to a 33% error rate disparity between demographic groups."
Joel BranchHumanizing AI: Filling the Gaps with Multi-faceted Research
March 11, 2021
"A design system is never a done thing, it’s a continuous evolution of best practices."
Dan DonaldDesign Systems as a Vehicle for Systemic Change
June 1, 2023
