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.
Bridge Building across Research Disciplines
Summary
Despite all the recent focus on getting the different research disciplines to collaborate, it’s hard enough to simply get them to talk. In this Advancing Research community call, we’ve assembled an impressive group of cross-disciplinary researchers to discuss the challenges of aligning goals, language, and insight across research practices: Jamika Burge, Jem Ahmed, and Chris Geison. Collectively, they represent a variety of research perspectives, ranging from HCI and market research to UX research and data science.
Key Insights
-
•
Cross-functional research requires embracing diverse research disciplines and methodologies with a growth mindset to foster collaboration.
-
•
Organizational maturity to collaborate often matters more than whether research teams are centralized or distributed.
-
•
Clear, shared language and defined research insights facilitate alignment and business impact.
-
•
Framing research as a collaborative problem-solving effort reduces fear and territoriality among stakeholders.
-
•
Mixed-methods research often fails without explicit recognition of differing epistemologies between qualitative and quantitative approaches.
-
•
Creating shared objectives like R-OKRs centered on user behavior unites different research disciplines effectively.
-
•
Research impact is often best observed culturally, through integration into decision-making, rather than through direct measurement.
-
•
Pragmatic sharing of incomplete research results can fuel ongoing cross-team collaboration and iterative discovery.
-
•
Dedicated roles like analytics engineers in insights teams improve data accessibility and insight generation.
-
•
Democratizing research requires balancing rigor with accessibility, alongside educating stakeholders to understand and use research insights.
Notable Quotes
"I think the more that I’ve kind of been in this liminal space, the more I come to the conclusion that it’s a very human journey that people need to go on."
"If you smush all of these things together, you get the perfect whole."
"Framing research as a way for us to work collaboratively and solve problems from its department, not just the UX or design team."
"User research is unfortunately largely evaluative. It’s hard to understand how we contribute to problem solving."
"In some ways the signal of insight maturity is accepting that research needs more than two days and sometimes months to deliver."
"There has to be some connection between our results and how our partners see the value in it."
"The success in insights is when you become viral — when the C-suite claims the insight as their own."
"The storytelling is what ultimately supports actual change more than just data."
"Collaboration is great but we must support teams moving toward a goal, not just theorizing endlessly."
"We’re in the business of solving problems. It really takes a village to do it the right way for the right people at the right time."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Research’s role may shift to orchestrators of AI-synthesized insights and gap analyses rather than just primary data collectors."
Kate Towsey Basel Fakhoury Oren Friedman Graham GardnerParticipant Recruitment and Management Tools
March 12, 2026
"Healthcare is not a silver bullet for AI; a lot of context comes from non-verbal cues where generative AI doesn’t apply."
Jennifer KongJourneying toward AI-assisted documentation in healthcare
June 5, 2024
"Having a business background is almost the oldest form of product management, but great product requires balancing design and tech too."
Kevin M. HoffmanTheme 2: Enterprise Team Journey
June 3, 2019
"Show them, don’t tell them — involving stakeholders early builds skin in the game and helps control quality."
Amy MarquezINVEST: Discussion
June 15, 2018
"No wiki in the world is as good as somebody who can come and tell you how to bend the rules a little bit."
Gretchen AndersonScaling the Human Center
June 8, 2017
"AI can be a great partner to humans if trained with fair and complete data, but we must be careful not to ship biased systems."
April ReaganLook, Think, Act: The Futures-Smart Design Organization
October 1, 2021
"The hardest lesson is being comfortable when you're uncomfortable and finding the best use of your time to create impact."
Dante GuintuHow to Crush the Talent Crunch
September 8, 2022
"Iteration is the golden rule of design, including iterating on your design system rules themselves."
Jaime CreixemsBest Practices when Creating and Maintaining a Design System
June 7, 2023
"Low fidelity design lets you try things quickly and learn so much before you get too detailed."
Billy CarlsonPrinciples of Team Wireframing
October 2, 2023
