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.

Inviting the Whole Org to Come See For Yourself

Gold
Monday, March 30, 2020 • Advancing Research 2020
Share the love for this talk
Inviting the Whole Org to Come See For Yourself
Speakers: Jesse Zolna
Link:

Summary

So all of a sudden, everyone at your company is interested in going into the field, meeting with clients, and “building empathy.” What could possibly go wrong? At ADP we created a program of ethnographic (lite) research designed to harness this excitement for exploratory research, enable anyone in the org to participate in conducting research, and help stakeholders think outside of their own product or screens. Secretly, our program was carefully designed to also teach our partners what it means to do Research: listen thoughtfully, analyze holistically, and truly understand client feedback before jumping to solutions.

Key Insights

  • A large appetite for research in an organization is a good problem and can be harnessed through democratization rather than only growing a large professional research team.

  • Democratization has two parts: exposing non-researchers to research work and upskilling them to do better research themselves.

  • Non-researchers often jump prematurely to solutions or insufficient research practices without guided structure.

  • Breaking research into three clear phases—planning, data collection, and analysis—helps non-researchers understand and participate effectively.

  • Exposure hours and programs like 'Come See For Yourself' increase empathy by allowing diverse teams to observe real user interactions.

  • Empathy training for non-researchers before user visits teaches critical listening skills, managing power dynamics, and the importance of silence.

  • Strict roles during interviews help maintain data quality and allow observers to focus on specific research questions with dedicated note-taking.

  • Synthesis sessions use unstructured discussions focused on observed facts, helping identify themes and consider outliers collaboratively.

  • Analyzing insights into user needs and framing problem statements supports user-centered solution workshops aligning teams on priorities.

  • Involving non-researchers deeply in the entire research process changes organizational culture from guessing to evidence-based understanding.

Notable Quotes

"Having a huge appetite for research and a huge manner for research is a good problem to have. So let's lean into it."

"Doing research is not always the most natural transition for people who don't really care about research."

"Anybody making decisions about products should have regular exposure to researchers — Jared Spool’s exposure hours."

"We called it 'Come See For Yourself' — kind of like following me home, but slightly less creepy."

"There’s no half-assing it. If you want to be involved in developing solutions, you better have significant client exposure."

"Non-researchers often think you can just jump in and start asking questions, but that can be inefficient or risky."

"Listening is different than conversation, even though it looks and feels similar."

"We view ourselves as Sherpas on the adventure. We do the work, they get the experience."

"In synthesis sessions, it’s a pretty unstructured discussion focused on facts rather than interpretation."

"It’s important for us all to experiment with ways to harness the excitement for research as it grows beyond our own teams."

Ask the Rosenbot
Silke Bochat
5 Antifragile Strategies for a DesignOps 2.0
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Jeff Gothelf
The Intersection of Lean and Design
2019 • Enterprise Community
Jess Greco
Creating a Basis for Change: Scaling Design Maturity
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Angelos Arnis
State of DesignOps: Learnings from the 2021 Global Report
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Sam Proulx
Mobile Accessibility: Why Moving Accessibility Beyond the Desktop is Critical in a Mobile-first World
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Sabrina Mach
How to Design Your Design Operating Model
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Christopher Noessel
AI of the now: Designing for Agents
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Dana Chisnell
The Sensemaking Business
2026 • Advancing Research 2026
Gold
Neil Barrie
Widening the Aperture: The Case for Taking a Broader Lens to the Dialogue between Products and Culture
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Gold
Sam Proulx
Online Shopping: Designing an Accessible Experience
2023 • Design in Product 2023
Gold
Prayag Narula
HCI 2.0: Humanity Deserves the Attention that UX Research has to Offer
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Katie Johnson
Disrupting generative AI products with just-in-time consumer insights
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold
Kim Lenox
Leading Distributed Global Teams
2019 • Enterprise Community
Uday Gajendar
Theme 1: Introduction
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Clara Kliman-Silver
UX Futures: The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Design
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Scott Jensen
Short Take #2: UX/Product Lessons from Your Industry Peers
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold

More Videos

Yunyan Li

"Experience Design Methods is tailored for our organization to align research, design, engineering, and product management."

Yunyan Li Anna Le Jen Kim

UX Best Practices

June 11, 2021

Allan Lowson

"This is the biggest change I've seen in my 30-year career making digital products."

Allan Lowson

Rehashing the Double Diamond: Collaborating across functions with AI-assisted prototyping

June 9, 2026

Denise Jacobs

"Designers are change agents. This is part of your passion and what gets you up in the morning."

Denise Jacobs Nancy Douyon Renee Reid Lisa Welchman

Interactive Keynote: Social Change by Design

January 8, 2024

Renee Bouwens

"Product managers are often prioritization focused, so they can bias themselves in research decisions."

Renee Bouwens

Landing Product Impact: Aligning Research as a Foundational Driver for Delivering the World’s Best Products

December 15, 2023

Jemma Ahmed

"It’s not about power, it’s about guidance—helping people collect and use good data, even in qualitative settings."

Jemma Ahmed Steve Carrod Chris Geison Dr. Shadi Janansefat Christopher Nash

Democratization: Working with it, not against it [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]

July 24, 2024

Sam Ladner

"When you mix trends together, you will see where change is likely to occur."

Sam Ladner

How Research Can Drive Strategic Foresight

March 9, 2022

Yoel Sumitro

"Researchers were obsessed with scientific rigor while designers used balance, feelings, or intuition as their rigor."

Yoel Sumitro

Actions and Reflections: Bridging the Skills Gap among Researchers

March 9, 2022

Dave Hora

"Introducing insights into a system is just adding a new actor; without managing interactions, nothing changes."

Dave Hora

Research in the Face of Complexity: New Sensibility for New Situations

August 27, 2025

Daniel J. Rosenberg

"Human beings understand graphical user interfaces as composed of objects and actions—this grammar is key to AI design."

Daniel J. Rosenberg

Designing with and for Artificial Intelligence

August 11, 2022