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
Dan Mall
“Ask Me Anything” with Dan Mall, Author of Upcoming Rosenfeld Title, Design that Scales
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Anupama Dhareshwar
From blueprint to bot: Designing resilient AI-powered services
2025 • Advancing Service Design 2025
Gold
Sam Ladner
How Research Can Drive Strategic Foresight
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Josh Clark
Sentient Design, AI, and the Radically Adaptive Experience (1st of 3 seminars)
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Dr. Jamika D. Burge
The Future of Research: Bridging the Gaps
2021 • Advancing Research Community
Bria Alexander
Opening Remarks
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Veevi Rosenstein
Building for Scale: Creating the Zendesk UX Research Practice
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Anna Poznyakov
Get The Most Out Of Stakeholder Collaboration—and Maximize Your Research Impact
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
David Cronin
Discussion
2015 • Enterprise UX 2015
Gold
Eric Shumake
Diagnosis UX: Building Influence in Healthcare Design
2026 • Rosenfeld Community
Jorge Arango
Exploding the Notebook: How to Unlock the Power of Linked Notes (2nd of 3 seminars)
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Peter Merholz
The Mysterious Case of the Missing UX Career Path
2022 • DesignOps Community
Lada Gorlenko
Theme 1: Discussion
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Kate Towsey
Participant Recruitment and Management Tools
2026 • Advancing Research 2026
Gold
Luca Rager
Empowering Gaming at Scale: How Xbox Builds Powerful, Automated, and Distributed Design Systems with Sketch
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Alexandra Schmidt
Enterprise UX Playbook
2022 • Enterprise Community

More Videos

Chris Geison

"We need more governance and rigor around methodologies rather than just democratization."

Chris Geison Dr. Jamika D. Burge Jemma Ahmed

What's Next for Research?

June 17, 2021

Noz Urbina

"Every AI conversation thread is important; mixing contexts confuses the AI."

Noz Urbina

Rapid AI-powered UX (RAUX): A framework for empowering human designers

May 1, 2025

Greg Petroff

"Compass is a pretty frank place where people feel safe to speak their minds, even at leadership levels."

Greg Petroff

The Compass Mission

March 10, 2021

Dave Gray

"Beliefs are habits of action; they are the rules that guide how we decide to act."

Dave Gray

Liminal Thinking: Sense-making for systems in large organizations

May 14, 2015

Yalenka Mariën

"Digital exclusion is not a fixed status and can affect anyone at different points in life."

Yalenka Mariën Marie Mervaillie

Designing for Digital Inclusion in the Belgian Government

December 8, 2021

Anupama Dhareshwar

"Frontline staff should feel ownership, not fear, around AI implementation."

Anupama Dhareshwar

From blueprint to bot: Designing resilient AI-powered services

November 19, 2025

Saara Kamppari-Miller

"Duplicating the map lets me answer ops questions like who are our UX domain experts or how design ops is structured."

Saara Kamppari-Miller

Cartography for Design Communities

September 10, 2025

Taylor Klassman

"In a remote environment, building authentic, deep relationships with stakeholders is a key skill for researchers."

Taylor Klassman

Shaping the Next Era of UX Research: Collaborative Forum

March 11, 2025

Laura Gatewood

"You can have the greatest idea in the world, but if you can't connect with other people, nothing will come of it."

Laura Gatewood Laine Prokay

Beyond Buzzwords: Adding Heart to Effective Slack Communication

September 23, 2024