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Summary
When everyone in an organization shares useful, insightful information, wonderful things happen: we align our company strategies and our teams toward common goals, and we make great user experiences. The job of the research leader is to unlock that information by advocating for users and soliciting insights far and wide. The research leader empowers colleagues to vocalize and share their valuable perspectives so everyone makes better decisions.
Key Insights
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Opportunistic research leaders expand impact by collaborating beyond product teams with marketing and sales.
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Including multiple organizational perspectives in research uncovers broader value and drives company-wide buy-in.
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A single well-designed survey can serve diverse internal stakeholders and inform multiple business decisions.
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There is a vast disparity between open design roles and user research roles, signaling a need for proactive advocacy.
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Relentless and strategic sharing of research findings via communication platforms raises awareness and demand.
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Centralizing research requests via intake forms helps prioritize studies that serve multiple teams and company goals.
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Researchers must actively ‘go to the mountain’ as awareness of research rarely happens organically in large organizations.
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Integrating market research data with user research can strengthen insights and foster cross-team collaboration.
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Balancing top-down (executive) priorities with grassroots demands is key for research resource allocation.
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Packaging research results with clear headlines and actionable insights increases organizational engagement.
Notable Quotes
"We know users are important, but there are very few user research roles compared to design or engineering."
"Research leaders have a superpower to connect dots between users and the entire organization."
"Relentless oversharing of research in Slack channels builds awareness and invites collaboration."
"We can’t say understanding users is someone else’s job; no white knight is coming to save us."
"Once people see the value of research, they want more of it; it becomes a habit."
"Research leadership is about adding value to the entire organization, not just your small corner."
"Every research project is a chance to serve the whole organization and bring in missing perspectives."
"You have to go to the mountain; the mountain won’t come to you."
"Packaging research with simple headlines brings people in, then we can layer on nuance and detail."
"Balancing top-down strategy and grassroots demand is essential to prioritizing research effectively."
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