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.

Design Research Strategy & Strategic Design Research
Thursday, February 3, 2022 • Advancing Research Community
Share the love for this talk
Design Research Strategy & Strategic Design Research
Speakers: Mike Oren and Janice Wiitala
Link:

Summary

When scaling and democratizing research practices, how can you help ensure higher levels of value are delivered? In this interactive session, we discuss different items we can leverage to ensure design research is providing value to an organization by driving strategic decisions. Areas we cover include: Utilizing research repositories as strategic assets; Leveraging quant + quo data to track success; and Ensuring research can focus on the highest value work.

Key Insights

  • Research repositories should be designed like design systems—organized, accessible, and enabling holistic storytelling rather than just storing final reports.

  • Atomic insights or research nuggets capture rich, verbatim customer feedback that enhances empathy and informs design decisions more effectively.

  • Democratizing research to teams increases insight ownership but risks duplication and inconsistent results if not strategically managed.

  • Effective research strategy involves deciding what not to do to maintain organizational focus, echoing Michael Porter's definition of strategy.

  • Most organizations struggle to fully integrate user-centered research into decision-making despite having talent and data available, causing researcher frustration and turnover.

  • Combining deep usability study insights with broader, real-time listening posts enables a richer understanding of user pain points across contexts.

  • Qualitative UX research faces challenges in measurement and aligning results with business metrics, requiring new approaches beyond standard quantitative data.

  • Video and multimedia summaries of research insights can personalize findings and improve engagement across teams.

  • Building trust and relationships across departments (UX, strategy, marketing) maximizes the value of research data collected through various channels.

  • Investing time upfront in organizing and tagging research insights can save teams significant time searching and accelerate impactful outcomes.

Notable Quotes

"Strategy is telling organizations what not to do, not just generating new ideas."

"Research repositories often get a bad rap because people just dump final reports without thinking about how they'll be used."

"Atomic insights are nuggets that tag what customers actually said, including their sentiments and sometimes swearing."

"On average we spend 20% of our time just looking for things, which is not the best use of resources."

"Democratizing research can lead to duplication and even conflicting results if we’re not careful."

"I want to look at the discussion guides or listen to recordings to really get the emotional context."

"Organizations are slow to adopt the practice of making every decision from the voice of the customer, despite having talented people and data."

"Combining deep usability studies with site intercepts gives you both step-by-step insights and a moment-in-time view of user pain."

"Using video clips of insights creates a more personal connection and helps teams engage with the data."

"Building relationships with other departments helps us leverage information collected for different purposes in a structured way."

Ask the Rosenbot
Mac Smith
Measuring Up: Using Product Research for Organizational Impact
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Christian Crumlish
AMA with Christian Crumlish, author of Product Management for UX People
2022 • Enterprise Community
Dominique Ward
The Most Exciting Time for DesignOps is Now
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Darian Davis
Lessons from a Toxic Work Relationship
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Julie Norvaisas
Back to basics, or start from scratch?
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Jen Briselli
Learning Is The Engine: Designing & Adapting in a World We Can’t Predict
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Matt Duignan
HITS, Microsoft's internal human insight system: From research library to living body of knowledge
2019 • Advancing Research Community
Florence Okoye
AfroFuturism and UX Research
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Lisa Welchman
Cleaning Up Our Mess: Digital Governance for Designers
2018 • Enterprise Experience 2018
Gold
Marc Fonteijn
First Insights from the 2025 Service Design Salary(+) Report
2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
Gold
Maria Skaaden
Panel Discussion: Methodologies and Work Environments
2018 • DesignOps Summit 2018
Gold
Sam Proulx
Understanding Screen Readers on Mobile: How And Why to Learn from Native Users
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Bria Alexander
Opening Remarks
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Sam Proulx
Accessibility: An Opportunity to Innovate
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Louis Rosenfeld
Founder’s Welcome
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Bria Alexander
Opening Remarks
2024 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold

More Videos

Ben Reason

"Scaffolding is about hacking and doing things differently, not lowering the bar but delivering value continuously."

Ben Reason Aline Horta Majid Iqbal Fabiano Leoni

Making the system visible: The fastest path to better decisions

November 20, 2025

Sam Proulx

"For many users, mobile is their first choice because it offers less distraction and simplifies interactions."

Sam Proulx

Mobile Accessibility: Why Moving Accessibility Beyond the Desktop is Critical in a Mobile-first World

March 10, 2022

Anna Nguyen

"We want this process to be collaborative and cross-functional, involving engineering, design, sales, marketing, and customer success."

Anna Nguyen Emily Brogan

Why Our Voice of the Customer is Better Than Yours

March 10, 2022

Abby Covert

"Design is not only limited to designers. Business analysts and engineers can design too, supported by designers."

Abby Covert Tomer Sharon

Panel: Collaboration Tools

November 6, 2017

Phil Hesketh

"The web content accessibility guidelines emphasize thinking about different ways people interact with our content."

Phil Hesketh

Designing Accessible Research Workflows

September 29, 2021

Irina Tikhonova

"Granicus is like Lego blocks — you can create any type of engagement and experience you want."

Irina Tikhonova Kari Dietrich

Small Wins, Big Impact: Leveraging and Elevating User Engagement

December 9, 2021

Tim Frick

"Education and awareness had to be core parts of what we were doing in this shift."

Tim Frick

The journey of building a sustainable design practice

April 23, 2025

Catherine Dubut

"The store mobile device is the indispensable silent partner enabling store employees to balance task productivity and customer engagement."

Catherine Dubut

Bridging Physical and Digital Spaces: Approaches to Retail Service Design

March 18, 2021

Justin Entzminger

"In Guatemala City, we tropicalize design methods—doing things à la tortres—to fit our unique languages and cultures."

Justin Entzminger Terrance Smith Tracy M. Colunga Mai-Ling Garcia

Risk and Reward: How to Diversify the Field of Civic Innovators and Designers

November 17, 2022