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.

Repository Retrospective: Learnings from Introducing a Central Place for UX Research
Gold
Wednesday, March 9, 2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Share the love for this talk
Repository Retrospective: Learnings from Introducing a Central Place for UX Research
Speakers: Taylor Jennings , Joe Nelson and Alex Knoll
Link:

Summary

While many researchers see the value of a central research repository, how to introduce one in an organization is still a big question. Today we have the chance to learn from two researchers who have done it. Taylor Jennings, Senior UX Researcher at Chili Piper, and Joe Nelson, User Experience Researcher at MasterControl, will share their process and experience gained from implementing their research repository. We’ll cover how they realized the need for a repository, how they convinced stakeholders, evaluated solutions, and what they’d do differently in hindsight. Join us live as we leave plenty of opportunities for the audience to ask questions.

Key Insights

  • Building a research repository early, even as a small team, sets a scalable foundation for future growth.

  • A centralized repository drastically reduces time spent on analysis and synthesis compared to scattered document storage.

  • Including both raw data (interviews, transcripts, surveys) and polished insights enables flexible stakeholder usage.

  • Video and audio clips within repositories significantly increase stakeholder empathy and understanding of user pain points.

  • Well-designed tagging systems balance flexible project-specific tags with a controlled set of global tags for cross-project insights.

  • Stakeholders often hesitate to adopt new tools, so researchers must continuously promote and guide repository usage.

  • Implementing participant management features prevents redundantly contacting the same users and improves coordination.

  • Security, legal, and privacy considerations are critical when choosing repository software, especially for participant data.

  • Migration and implementation ease, including single sign-on and importing legacy data, are important evaluation criteria.

  • Repositories support long-term insight building by allowing retrospective access and iterative tagging of findings.

Notable Quotes

"If we wanted to scale and continue to grow, we were going to need something to help us."

"Setting up a repository as a team of one or two is actually the prime time to establish processes like that."

"Having a place for people to self-serve insights is really big, so they don’t ask us to repeat research."

"Slides are hitting a brick wall; video clips make findings much more interactive and engaging for stakeholders."

"Cutting down on the analysis time was huge for us, speeding up speed to insight significantly."

"We had to convince our director and executives by showing how the repository added real value for the product team."

"Drag and drop ease, and collaborative affinity diagramming in the tool, were unexpected but very welcome advantages."

"Seeing product managers and designers’ aha moments when they realize how impactful the tool is was great."

"Tags are a balance; project tags are wild and flexible, global tags must be controlled to avoid chaos."

"Short-term learnings kind of roll into long-term ones as you iterate and build on historical findings."

Uday Gajendar
Leading through the long tail of trauma
2022 • Advancing Research Community
Maria Giudice
Becoming a Changemaker by Leading with Design
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Karen Pascoe
Developing Experience Teams and Talent in the Enterprise
2016 • Enterprise UX 2016
Gold
Ariba Jahan
Team Resiliency Through a Pandemic
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Alexandra Schmidt
Why Ethics Can't Save Tech
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Eduardo Ortiz
Theme 3 Intro
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Julie Baher
Culture Change—My Journey
2015 • Enterprise UX 2015
Gold
Andrew Custage
The Digital Journey: Research on Consumer Frustration and Loyalty
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Devon Powers
Imagining Better Futures
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
John Cutler
Oxbows, Rivers, and Estuaries: How to navigate the currents of change (without burning out)
2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
Gold
Heidi Trost
When AI Becomes the User’s Point Person—and Point of Failure
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Lisa Gironda
Opener: Chief of Staff–An unexpected journey
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Todd Healy
Driving Change with CX Metrics
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Chris Engledowl
A Mixed Method Approach to Validity to Help Build Trust
2023 • QuantQual Interest Group
Jennifer Strickland
Fireside Chat: How Design Addresses a World on Fire
2022 • Civic Design Community
Prayag Narula
How to Empower Your Designers to Do Good Research – And Why You Want To
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold

More Videos

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

Zariah Cameron

"Your breath is the most powerful thing; it reminds us of the power and agency that we do have as individuals."

Zariah Cameron

ReDesigning Wellbeing for Equitable Care in the Workplace

September 23, 2024

Doug Powell

"Forrester found that design thinking teams move twice as fast from idea to market because they’re closer to their users."

Doug Powell

DesignOps and the Next Frontier: Leading Through Unpredictable Change

September 11, 2025

Darian Davis

"Taking responsibility for our behaviors starts with an apology and continues with regular feedback and action."

Darian Davis

Lessons from a Toxic Work Relationship

January 8, 2024

Mike Oren

"We’re not in the business to make friends, we’re in this business to help companies make better decisions—even if that means killing ideas."

Mike Oren

Why Pharmaceutical's Research Model Should Replace Design Thinking

March 28, 2023

Jacqui Frey

"If you can’t tell me your workflow, don’t talk about your tools."

Jacqui Frey

Scale is Social Work

March 19, 2020

Kim Holt

"Clear and consistent communication really keeps design leadership accountable and promotes transparency via knowledge sharing."

Kim Holt Emma Wylds Pearl Koppenhaver Maisee Xiong

A Salesforce Panel Discussion on Values-Driven DesignOps

September 8, 2022

Samuel Proulx

"If we think disability as a mismatch between user and environment rather than a medical problem, it becomes easier to understand how accessibility benefits everyone."

Samuel Proulx

From Standards to Innovation: Why Inclusive Design Wins

September 10, 2025

Laine Riley Prokay

"If something was unclear or uncomfortable to even one person, it was a sign it needed editing."

Laine Riley Prokay

How DesignOps can Drive Inclusive Career Ladders for All

September 30, 2021