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.

One Research Team for All - Influence Without Authority
Gold
Wednesday, March 9, 2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Share the love for this talk
One Research Team for All - Influence Without Authority
Speakers: Joanna Vodopivec and Prabhas Pokharel
Link:

Summary

Research teams are at the frontier of uncovering valuable insights that can inform products, services, and strategy choices. Few researchers in large organizations have the visibility and buy-in to exert influence across all of product, engineering, customer success, marketing, and overall organizational direction. How do you break down silos and maximize the impact of your research? Join us in conversation with Joanna Vodopivec, Principal Design Researcher at Intuit, to learn how she makes her team’s research relevant to colleagues in product, marketing, and services, and the latest initiatives she has led to enable the research team to be truly seen in a large organization. You will also hear the creative approaches Joanna and her team take to engage and influence, even when working remotely.

Key Insights

  • Cross-team collaboration is easier when researchers share methods and goals, allowing complementary study roles and co-creation of outputs.

  • Partnering with market research unlocks access to broader data like long-running surveys and helps interpret gaps in customer insights.

  • Inviting non-research teams into studies, such as customer success and business process teams, deepens findings through triangulation of multiple perspectives.

  • Early involvement of stakeholders including product managers, content creators, and tax experts leads to better buy-in and reduces handoff friction.

  • Proactively proposing new research initiatives can uncover insights stakeholders hadn’t requested but that drive innovation.

  • Using video presentations and video parties makes research findings more accessible and engaging across organizational silos than traditional slide decks.

  • Slack threads and tagging enable lightweight, asynchronous sharing of research insights to busy development teams.

  • Building trust across departments requires consistent relationship-building, respect for others’ expertise, and time investment.

  • Researchers must carefully balance uncovering pain points and acknowledging strengths to align sensitivities with teams that hide weaknesses.

  • Service design thinking gains traction when service delivery teams are involved from the research inception stage, avoiding silos.

Notable Quotes

"Customer obsession is actually one of our key values, which makes my job as a researcher a little bit easier."

"Collaboration with another researcher was seamless because we speak the same methodology language and aligned on goals."

"Partnering with market researchers allowed us to ask specific product questions within their long-running exit survey."

"Inviting other teams into research sessions lets us triangulate findings by combining interviews, observations, and focus groups."

"Bringing stakeholders into the kitchen early helped us learn even before sessions started and adjust designs accordingly."

"We should feel empowered to propose research initiatives that stakeholders aren’t explicitly asking for."

"Video parties allow many teams to engage and observe learnings in a more compelling and digestible way than slides."

"Slack channels with live feeds and tagging let busy developers catch key observations asynchronously."

"Building strong relationships with marketing requires mutual respect and regularly following up on their insights."

"Starting with positives and acknowledging good work helps break down resistance when sharing findings that reveal weak points."

Ask the Rosenbot
Kat Vellos
Opener: The Other L Word
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Dr. Nikki Smith
Research Strategy: Connecting Insights to Outcomes
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Maria Giudice
Becoming a Changemaker by Leading with Design
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Bria Alexander
Theme Two Intro
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Ren Pope
Building Experiences for Knowledge Systems
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Kristen Honey
"Let’s Talk About Data and Crisis”: Public Digital Service Delivery = Open Data + Human Centered Design
2021 • Civic Design Community
Gabriela Barneva
Operationalizing Inclusive Design in Design Ops
2025 • DesignOps Summit 2025
Gold
Maish Nichani
Sparking a Service Excellence Mindset at a Government Agency
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Ivana Ng
Level Up Your Program with ProductOps
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Robin Beers
Beyond Insights: Researchers as Organizational Change Catalysts
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Gold
Josh Clark
Sentient Design, AI, and the Radically Adaptive Experience (1st of 3 seminars)
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Russell Blair
Killing the blank page
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold
Sam Proulx
Online Shopping: Designing an Accessible Experience
2023 • Design in Product 2023
Gold
George Zhang
UX Research Excellence Framework
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Sam Proulx
To Boldly Go: The New Frontiers of Accessibility
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Brigette Metzler
Research Repositories: A global project by the ResearchOps Community
2020 • Advancing Research Community

More Videos

Doug Powell

"Diversity is beyond just the right thing to do. Our teams must reflect the world we’re designing for."

Doug Powell

Closing Keynote: Design at Scale

November 8, 2018

Mila Kuznetsova

"Kids are not little adults. You can’t just simplify the text and call it for kids."

Mila Kuznetsova Lucy Denton

How Lessons Learned from Our Youngest Users Can Help Us Evolve our Practices

March 9, 2022

Sarah Gallimore

"Backcast from preferred or risky futures to start thinking about what we need to do today to get there or avoid that outcome."

Sarah Gallimore

Inspire Progress with Artifacts from the Future

November 18, 2022

Lada Gorlenko

"Stakeholders start demanding better digital experiences at work because they expect the same quality they have at home."

Lada Gorlenko Sharbani Dhar Sébastien Malo Rob Mitzel Ivana Ng Michal Anne Rogondino

Theme 1: Discussion

January 8, 2024

Alnie Figueroa

"Nobody can predict where we’re going, but we can choose to shape the future."

Alnie Figueroa

The Future of Design Operations: Transforming Our Craft

September 10, 2025

Landon Barnes

"Meaningfulness is linked directly to what your organization cares about in terms of goals and priorities."

Landon Barnes

Are My Research Findings Actually Meaningful?

March 10, 2022

Emily Eagle

"When you’re talking, it’s easier to learn something new, but if you’re shy and don’t talk, you don’t learn anything."

Emily Eagle

Can't Rewind: Radio and Retail

June 3, 2019

Malini Rao

"Re-platforming is transformative not just for the product but also for the people, teams, and organization."

Malini Rao

Lessons Learned from a 4-year Product Re-platforming Journey

June 9, 2021

Asia Hoe

"Project management was focused on outputs, assuming the correct feature was already defined."

Asia Hoe

Partnering with Product: A Journey from Junior to Senior Design

November 29, 2023