Expert Panel: Leading in and with Research
Summary
What does it take to become a great research leader? What are the different types of leaders in research? How do you grow a team from a solo researcher to a successful research team? Growing research teams show a company’s commitment to user-centered and insight-driven decision-making. With growing teams, research leadership becomes a central topic. With user research often having the most comprehensive picture of the user, we will explore what this means for the collaboration with or leadership of other disciplines in the organization. Today we have the chance to learn from three research leaders who share their personal perspectives on research leadership and various facets of it. Get to know our panelists: Anna Avrekh, UX Research Manager at Meta Dr. John Pagonis, Principal UX Researcher at Zanshin Labs Klara Pelcl, Senior Design Research Manager at ebay Join us live as we have plenty of room for your questions during the panel.
Key Insights
-
•
Great UX research leaders aspire to become obsolete by building strong, empowered teams.
-
•
Effective research leadership requires advocacy to move research from reactive ticket-taking to strategic influence.
-
•
Transitioning from hands-on researcher to manager involves a mindset shift from delivering insights personally to enabling others to do so.
-
•
Preparing research that can withstand organizational scrutiny is key to defending evidence without defensiveness.
-
•
Building stakeholder involvement early reduces resistance and fosters a shared quest for truth.
-
•
Research leadership is not one-size-fits-all; there are valid paths as senior individual contributor or manager.
-
•
Managing a team remotely and during crises requires extra emphasis on communication, trust, and vulnerability.
-
•
Communicating research value is a gradual process requiring one-on-one relationship building and demonstrating impact over time.
-
•
Measuring and closing the loop on research impact helps justify research investment and drives continuous improvement.
-
•
Balancing 'player-coach' roles is challenging; leaders must manage bandwidth, expectations, and onboarding carefully.
Notable Quotes
"One of the amazing things about becoming very successful leaders is eventually becoming obsolete."
"You have to prepare research to withstand scrutiny by anyone so your team can go forward confidently."
"Leadership is enabling people to become empowered to achieve what they are set to achieve."
"The transition from hands-on research to managing is a big mind shift where outcomes become more intangible."
"Don’t position yourself as the research expert; you are the expert in facilitating the quest for knowledge."
"By the time the report comes out, your immediate team should have already moved on with implementing feedback."
"Trust with your team needs to be established and continuously nurtured because tough situations arise quickly."
"Time is the only resource we cannot replenish. Make sure you don’t spend it doing what’s not meaningful."
"Being human, authentic, humble, and showing vulnerability can take you a long way as a research leader."
"There is no certainty ever in research; qualitative and quantitative approaches complement each other for different purposes."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Tactical empathy is critical—it takes time and effort, but it’s always worth it."
Meredith Black Elyse HornbacherBuilding Community and Common Trends to Look for in 2021
December 17, 2020
"Values conversation is less threatening when framed as wanting to understand why we're doing this project or why we're here."
Tricia WangThe most popular design thinking strategy is BS
January 27, 2022
"You don’t want so much governance that people can’t be creative, but you need just enough to help their process."
Michael LandEstablishing Design Operations in Government
February 18, 2021
"Leading indicators help you be on the front foot and act before a risk becomes a crisis."
Bassel Deeb Will OsbornDo More With Less: Equip and Lead Design Orgs Through Adversity
October 2, 2023
"The project was staffed through a revolving door of panic hires who were expected to run from day one."
Tanya SnookDesigning the team experience: Building culture through onboarding
November 4, 2021
"You can’t just grab everything—you have to refine the content to avoid irrelevant or contradictory information."
Allan LowsonRehashing the Double Diamond: Collaborating across functions with AI-assisted prototyping
June 9, 2026
"We can make this thing go faster, more people can access it, but we can have benefits for the planet as well."
James ChudleyDecarbonising User Journeys: How minimising enables us to do more with less
February 19, 2025
"It became less important to keep doing fresh research and more important to grow the collective team knowledge."
Scott Jensen Sarah Delaney Carmen LiuShort Take #2: UX/Product Lessons from Your Industry Peers
December 6, 2022
"Instead of adding more tools, we focused on removing unnecessary ones to reduce overhead."
Brennan HartichCommunicating and Establishing DesignOps as a New Function
November 7, 2018
