Rosenverse
A Genuine Conversation about the Future of UX 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.

A Genuine Conversation about the Future of UX Research

Wednesday, March 20, 2024 • Advancing Research Community
Share the love for this talk
A Genuine Conversation about the Future of UX Research
Speakers: Robert Fabricant , Peter Merholz , Noam Segal and Teresa Torres
Link:

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."

Ask the Rosenbot
Bria Alexander
Opening Remarks
2024 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Jennifer Strickland
Adopting a "Design By" Method
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Jorge Arango
Exploding the Notebook: How to Unlock the Power of Linked Notes (2nd of 3 seminars)
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Satyam Kantamneni
Do You Have an Experience Vision?
2023 • Enterprise Community
Sean Baker
Weaving Knowledge Management into the Fabric of Our Design Practice
2025 • DesignOps Summit 2025
Gold
Peter Boersma
How to Define and Maintain a DesignOps Roadmap
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Frances Yllana
Theme 2 Intro
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Joerg Beringer
Scaling User Research with AI: Continuous Discovery of User Needs in Minutes
2025 • DesignOps Summit 2025
Gold
Kristin Wisnewski
Measuring What Matters
2019 • DesignOps Summit 2019
Gold
Davis Neable
How to Drive a Design Project When you Don’t Have a Design Team
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Ren Pope
Building Experiences for Knowledge Systems
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Dalia El-Shimy
So You've Got a Seat at the Table. Now What?
2020 • Advancing Research 2020
Gold
Amy Brana Stuart
Rest in Peace Fly-in-fly-out Design
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Mujtaba Hameed
The new horizon of ethnography: using AI to unlock the full potential of in-person research
2026 • Advancing Research 2026
Gold
Rittika Basu
Age and Interfaces: Equipping Older Adults with Technological Tools
2023 • Advancing Research Community
Smitha Papolu
Theme 3 Discussion
2019 • Enterprise Experience 2019
Gold

More Videos

Laura Schaefer

"It helps to find shared goals, areas that both groups feel passionate about and where they can make a big difference."

Laura Schaefer

DesignOps: A Conduit for Inclusion

September 9, 2022

Jacqui Frey

"Scale is social work because it’s about creating relationships and reducing friction."

Jacqui Frey

Scale is Social Work

March 19, 2020

Ana Maria Montero Barrantes

"UX should be a critical dependency, not an afterthought or checkbox on the to-do list."

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

The Authentic UX Talent Show

January 8, 2024

Sharbani Dhar

"SAFE is essentially a software development methodology, and fitting experience design into it has been a constant trial and error."

Sharbani Dhar

Breathing Room for Delight

January 8, 2024

Raven Veal

"An AI algorithm that didn’t explicitly consider race still produced racial disparities by using healthcare costs as a proxy."

Raven Veal

Dark Metrics: Illuminating the Negative Impact of Digital Health Design

March 12, 2021

Tatyana Mamut

"Everyone has a different perspective and partial knowledge, and all are right—but that creates silos."

Tatyana Mamut

Opening Keynote: Breaking Conway's Law--or How to Work Differently and Not Ship Your Org Chart

June 3, 2019

Emily Danielson

"Most services were being used by people not directly impacted by the storm but by construction workers and volunteers."

Emily Danielson

“I mean, I can lift a shovel”: Design Skills in Disaster Response

June 9, 2022

Denise Jacobs

"I appreciate your allyship when I'm in the room, but I appreciate it more when I'm not in the room."

Denise Jacobs Nancy Douyon Renee Reid Lisa Welchman

Interactive Keynote: Social Change by Design

January 8, 2024

Niko Laitinen

"It was not the remote tools that were the challenge, but getting people to focus."

Niko Laitinen

Adaptable Org Design for Resilient Times

June 10, 2021