Rosenverse

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

Insights-Driven Product Strategy: Get your Research to Count

Gold
Tuesday, December 6, 2022 • Design in Product 2022
Share the love for this talk
Insights-Driven Product Strategy: Get your Research to Count
Speakers: Johanna Kollmann
Link:

Summary

In this talk, Johanna Kollmann will discuss how true insights can inform product strategy, with direct impact on the roadmap and metrics. Drawing on her experience as a research lead and product manager, Johanna will share case studies and tools that are relevant for researchers, designers, and product leaders. Stick around to join the conversation and ask Johanna your questions during our post-session Q+A, moderated by Christian Crumlish.

Key Insights

  • Research that only validates design artifacts risks being undervalued by product leadership focused on broader strategic outcomes.

  • Separating research questions from interview questions improves research clarity, collaboration, and outcome relevance.

  • Insights must go beyond facts to explain why something happens and its meaning for product or business strategy.

  • Confirmation bias from domain experts turned product managers can hinder objective interpretation of research data.

  • A simple collaborative analysis tool mapping observations, meanings, and business relevance facilitates insight development and shared understanding.

  • Framing insight headlines in terms of strategic goals like adoption garners more leadership attention than tactical usability language.

  • Strategic insights can reveal systemic blockers outside the immediate product team’s control but crucial for impact, requiring escalation.

  • Visual tools like quadrant diagrams enable non-traditional product managers to communicate research-based priorities effectively with leadership.

  • Human-centric metrics such as employee well-being and client relationships complement business metrics and support successful digital transformation adoption.

  • Performance forums that integrate research, design, product management, and analytics facilitate alignment on mission-level goals and coordinated action.

Notable Quotes

"The product leadership really doesn’t see the value in research and they’re thinking about shutting the research team down."

"Research was completely evaluative and tactical, positioned as serving design by validating wireframes and high fidelity prototypes."

"Design strategy focuses on providing a framework for developing design solutions that support a given product strategy, whereas product strategy addresses the business model, the roadmap, and prioritizing requirements - Frank Guo."

"The most significant source of confusion is the difference between research questions and interview questions - Erica Hall."

"Insights are unexpected discoveries about how things work and how to make them work better - Gary Klein."

"Confirmation bias is when we ignore or explain away data that doesn’t support what we already believe - Nina Belk."

"If you frame it as poor first experience risks a negative impact on adoption, you get way more eyeballs and attention."

"The service wasn’t achieving the impact it was set out to have because the regulations governing everything else were not fit for purpose."

"A simple quadrant diagram helped our product manager tell the story to leadership and made him look good."

"What we measure is super important because it determines what people pay attention to. Without governance, priorities and ratings become outdated."

Ask the Rosenbot
Anne Mamaghani
How Your Organization's Generative Workshops Are Probably Going Wrong and How to Get Them Right
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Denise Jacobs
Interactive Keynote: Social Change by Design
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Tricia Wang
From Users to Shapers of AI: The Future of Research
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Gold
Erin Hauber
Design is Not the Frosting on the Scaled Agile Layer Cake
2019 • DesignOps Summit 2019
Gold
Sofia Quintero
The Product Philosophy Behind EnjoyHQ
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Louis Rosenfeld
GenAI for UXers: A Rosenbot Demo and Discussion
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Melinda Belcher
Insider preview of Enterprise Experience 2020
2020 • Enterprise Community
Patrick Boehler
Fishing for Real Needs: Reimagining Journalism Needs with AI
2025 • Designing with AI 2025
Gold
Lais de Almeida
Designing Data Services
2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
Gold
Yolanda Rankin
Black Feminist Epistemology as a Critical Framework for Equitable Design
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Sharon Bautista
Time to Make the Donuts: How User Research Helped Bridge Disparate Teams
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Brian T. O’Neill
Does Designing and Researching Data Products Powered by ML/AI and Analytics Call for New UX Methods?
2022 • QuantQual Interest Group
Charlotte Lee
Theme 1 Intro
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Christopher Taylor Edwards
Design as a Team Practice, A Practical Guide to Cross-functional Collaboration
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Chris Geison
What is Research Strategy?: A Panel of Research Leaders Discuss this Emergent Question
2021 • Advancing Research Community
Taiye Akin-Akinyosoye
Amplifying voices and enhancing user research through group interviews
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold

More Videos

Victor Udoewa

"Community-rooted wisdom like the Mexican 'guana' practice reduces postpartum depression without traditional research."

Victor Udoewa

Beyond Methods and Diversity: The Roots of Inclusion

March 26, 2024

Peter Morville

"Changing culture is hard because we’re willing to change actions but resistant to changing beliefs."

Peter Morville

The Architecture of Understanding

May 13, 2015

Sam Ladner

"You have to have a point of view, and you have to lead in order to get that impact in strategic foresight."

Sam Ladner

How Research Can Drive Strategic Foresight

March 9, 2022

Michelle Bejian Lotia

"Show don’t tell is really critical for getting stakeholder buy-in on a new tool like this."

Michelle Bejian Lotia Anne-Marie Morell

Rolling Out a Repository: How Zapier Centralizes Insights from Across their Organization

March 28, 2023

Leisa Reichelt

"At Atlassian, many confident non-researchers were already doing lots of research, which was an opportunity and a challenge."

Leisa Reichelt

Opening Keynote: Operating in Context

November 7, 2018

Sarah Gallimore

"Signals are something that’s happening at the horizon, percolating at the fringes of society or in a narrow subset of the population."

Sarah Gallimore

Inspire Progress with Artifacts from the Future

November 18, 2022

Joerg Beringer

"Our product simply sucks everything out of the open AI system and processes it with a knowledge graph based on ISO standards."

Joerg Beringer Thomas Geis

Scaling User Research with AI: Continuous Discovery of User Needs in Minutes

September 10, 2025

Peter Merholz

"Team leadership means managing down to empower your team, managing across to build stakeholder relationships, and managing up with executives."

Peter Merholz

Customer-Centered Design Organizations

June 8, 2017

Dalia El-Shimy

"Different people communicate in different ways, and understanding those ways gives you the key to convincing them."

Dalia El-Shimy

So You've Got a Seat at the Table. Now What?

March 31, 2020