Get The Most Out Of Stakeholder Collaboration—and Maximize Your Research Impact
Summary
Key Insights
-
•
Balancing generative research with usability testing is a common challenge for researchers supporting multiple product teams.
-
•
Effective stakeholder identification involves prioritizing by influence and interest using a two-by-two matrix.
-
•
Most stakeholders often perceive research narrowly as usability testing or concept evaluation rather than broader product discovery.
-
•
Regular stakeholder interviews help uncover research needs, priorities, and timelines to build trust and plan work.
-
•
A consolidated research backlog assists in prioritizing requests based on importance, urgency, complexity, and available bandwidth.
-
•
Not all research requires direct researcher involvement; enabling PMs and designers with templates and unmoderated tools scales research efforts.
-
•
Outsourcing or vendor partnerships help handle high-volume or lower complexity research tasks effectively.
-
•
Maintaining a living research findings and recommendations tracker ensures research impact persists and avoids duplication.
-
•
Collaboration with customer-facing teams like Customer Success is critical for recruiting target users efficiently.
-
•
Sustainable research practices emerge over years but traction in new frameworks can start within six months.
Notable Quotes
"I’m drowning trying to create an understanding of our target audience for a new feature, but that leaves me no time for usability updates."
"How do we continuously provide value throughout the product development cycle without overindexing on just one type of research?"
"Maybe the person who is the loudest in the room isn’t the one you should manage closely as a stakeholder."
"Research has layers like an onion; we operate at multiple layers, from discovery to concept evaluation."
"We are not just trying to get a seat at the table, we want to get a voice at the table."
"Stakeholder interviews are our way of doing research on our stakeholders to understand what keeps them up at night."
"We enable PMs and designers to conduct research rigorously because they are already in contact with customers daily."
"Unmoderated tools can achieve 100% completion rates and rapid insights if designed thoughtfully."
"Our job is to make sure research conducted by non-researchers is objective, rigorous and unbiased."
"A research findings and recommendations tracker helps us keep findings alive and prioritized throughout the Agile delivery process."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Designers are creating conditions in which systems can grow, learn, and thrive—moving beyond just solving problems to meta-design."
Hugh DubberlyProblems with Problems: Reconsidering the Frame of Designing as Problem-Solving
June 19, 2019
"Z’s approach to governing AI in design ops will give us all food for thought as we navigate the future."
Jon FukudaTheme 3 Intro
September 25, 2024
"Interoperability is frustrating by design, but FHIR is unlocking that data slowly."
Eric ShumakeAn AMA on UX's Role in Healthcare
April 22, 2026
"Mirroring engineering’s career ladder for researchers stops weird conversations about titles and pay differences."
Mike DavidsonFireside Chat
March 11, 2022
"Building follow-up into your work plans is crucial, so you're engaging users at key decision moments."
Amy Brana StuartRest in Peace Fly-in-fly-out Design
June 9, 2022
"Sometimes you just have to plant a flag and say this is what we can do, even if the math and boundaries are complicated."
Victor Lombardi Ted Booth HK Dunston Andrew OtwellBridging Design and Climate Science
February 14, 2024
"AI is a tool. It can be as powerful as the person who is wielding that tool."
Maria RosalaAI-Assisted Qualitative Analysis: What to Automate and What to Own
June 5, 2026
"You can really see how rapidly animation changed in just eight years under Walt Disney’s watch."
Leah BuleyClosing Plenary: The Crisis of Digital
March 31, 2020
"It takes patience—brick by brick—to move things forward in large organizations."
JD Buckley Margot Dear Jim Kalbach Janaki KumarCOMMUNICATE: Discussion
June 14, 2018
