Summary
Megan Blocker will talk about how to decide where to invest your precious time and attention for maximum impact. In other words, where is it most important for your team to get serious about ResearchOps, and where is it okay to stay scrappy? How can you grow sustainably by picking and choosing your battles? It all depends on your goals, your context, and your priorities. We’ll talk about a framework for making those decisions, and about how applying it worked for our growing team.
Key Insights
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The scaling of user research requires prioritization of actions based on skill, scale, culture, and buy-in.
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Organizations can start small with scrappy, cost-effective research strategies before investing more resources.
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Cross-disciplinary collaboration enhances research capabilities; not only designated researchers contribute to research.
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Continuous communication and visibility with leadership can enhance buy-in for research operations.
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Training and empowering non-researchers can strengthen overall organizational research maturity.
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Creating a global testbed of users can facilitate easier access to research participants and generate advocates for research initiatives.
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Establishing a consistent research framework allows for repeatable and structured research processes.
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A culture that supports experimentation and entrepreneurial initiatives fosters better research adoption and implementation.
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Assessment of skill maturity helps identify areas for training and improvement within teams.
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Leveraging existing resources effectively can lead to significant growth in user research without major resource investments.
Notable Quotes
"I have been focused exclusively on user research for the last four years."
"You are not alone; we are all doing this and hopefully inspiring each other."
"The first time I got really angry in the workplace was when recommendations weren’t put into action."
"This is not sustainable: dedicating time to something not being used is not a good use of my time."
"You don’t need a research title to do research; talent can exist in many people."
"If you want access to our user testbed, you need to come through us."
"A strong buy-in from leaders is a great sign; you want them coming to you for help."
"The buzz is there: when leaders from other functions come to you, it’s a sign of value recognition."
"Cultural changes are continuous; regularly check where you are in terms of maturity and buy-in."
"The stuff that works is what we focus on for scaling up."
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