Rosenverse

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: Dr. Jamika D. Burge , 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
Jennifer Strickland
Adopting a "Design By" Method
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Sarah Alvarado
How to make UX research leadership more effective [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
2023 • Advancing Research Community
Sam Proulx
Mobile Accessibility: Why Moving Accessibility Beyond the Desktop is Critical in a Mobile-first World
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Rachael Dietkus, LCSW
The power to heal and harm
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Fisayo Osilaja
[Demo] The AI edge: From researcher to strategist
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold
Megan Campos
What Did I Miss? The Hidden Costs of Deprioritizing Diversity in User Research
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Dave Hora
Research in the Face of Complexity: New Sensibility for New Situations
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Kathleen Asjes
Research Democratization: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Sam Proulx
Mobile Accessibility: Why Moving Accessibility Beyond the Desktop is Critical in a Mobile-first World
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Candace Myers
Standardizing Design at Scale
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Mandy Drew
What Role(s) Can Research Play in Responsible Design?
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Bria Alexander
Opening Remarks
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Patrizia Bertini
DesignOps + KPIs = Measure your Impact!
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Nick Cochran
Growing in Enterprise Design through Making Connections
2019 • Enterprise Experience 2019
Gold
Briana Thomas
When Design Ops Comes in H.O.T. : A Tale of a Transformed Design Org
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Meredith Black
Scaling Design Culture
2017 • DesignOps Summit 2017
Gold

More Videos

Tatyana Mamut

"Pipetting at a biology bench gives empathy no survey or photo can provide."

Tatyana Mamut

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

June 3, 2019

Juhan Sonin

"For every dollar spent on cancer care, roughly four are spent on administration."

Juhan Sonin

Design Now! The Agenda for Action

September 4, 2025

Amanda Kaleta-Kott

"Use tech checks before sessions to put participants at ease and build rapport early."

Amanda Kaleta-Kott Lea Martin, PhD

The Joys and Dilemmas of Conducting UX Research with Older Adults

March 11, 2022

Noel Lamb

"Our participant database has been growing for seven years, and building it has taken time and many channels."

Noel Lamb

Cultivating Business Partnerships to Grow Research Ops

March 21, 2022

Bria Alexander

"Every talk you hear today couldn’t get more personal to our community."

Bria Alexander

Theme Two Intro

October 3, 2023

Lada Gorlenko

"The ultimate measure is bringing value so people invite you back to work with them again and again."

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

Theme 1: Discussion

January 8, 2024

Ben Reason

"Art and visuals help represent what people cannot see, but only with strategic intention and understanding."

Ben Reason Aline Horta Majid Iqbal Fabiano Leoni

Making the system visible: The fastest path to better decisions

November 20, 2025

Sarah Gallimore

"In Toronto it’s now illegal to transmit a Wi-Fi signal in designated public spaces, with penalties for violations—a policy driven by people wanting to unplug from digital life."

Sarah Gallimore

Inspire Progress with Artifacts from the Future

November 18, 2022

Sam Proulx

"Every assistive technology is not one size fits all, there are thousands of options to configure."

Sam Proulx

Designing For Screen Readers: Understanding the Mental Models and Techniques of Real Users

September 30, 2021