Research After UX
Summary
Key Insights
-
•
Decoupling research from UX can provide researchers with more agency to frame broader business problems beyond design.
-
•
Identity work is a fundamental challenge when moving research out of UX, requiring careful leadership attention.
-
•
Playing the long game through persistent business case building and internal socialization is essential for organizational change.
-
•
Research teams positioned alongside product management, engineering, and data science gain higher visibility and influence.
-
•
Measuring research impact becomes more complex but broader, shifting from simple metrics like study counts to influence and strategic involvement.
-
•
Research operations functions are crucial infrastructure that enable scalable, efficient research beyond UX.
-
•
Control over budget and headcount advocacy improves significantly when research reports outside UX.
-
•
COVID-19 amplified issues around identity and belonging for team members during organizational transitions.
-
•
In B2B companies like Salesforce, much product decision-making happens before UX, necessitating research involvement earlier in the lifecycle.
-
•
Providing reassurance and support for new research skills helps ease team anxieties during structural changes.
Notable Quotes
"What happens if research does not report into UX? What might happen if we uncouple research from UX?"
"We made this move in January 2020 — our research and insights team moved out of UX but stayed within product organizations."
"Conscious uncoupling is about identity — how one thinks of oneself defines oneself and how others define you."
"I believed we could do more — more for the company, customers, stakeholders, and ourselves if we had more agency."
"Our research practice was perceived largely as design testers, empathy vehicles, and policing functions — a narrow, reactive role."
"After the move, our work had more impact, more visibility, and we're present across the entire product life cycle."
"Research operations is the spine of any successful research and insights group."
"For the first time, I was able to advocate for funding directly for the research function at high executive levels."
"I underestimated how much identity our team tied to UX and how scary that loss felt to many of them."
"Our shift is structural, not because of personalities — it was needed to influence earlier, more business-centric decisions."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Research ops is definitely a role that handles managing the knowledge repository and taxonomy governance."
Tony TurnerCapturing Deep Insights
September 30, 2021
"Insights are unexpected discoveries about how things work and how to make them work better - Gary Klein."
Johanna KollmannInsights-Driven Product Strategy: Get your Research to Count
December 6, 2022
"Disasters aren’t just big front page events, they include minor crises like loss of a loved one or housing insecurity."
Emily Danielson“I mean, I can lift a shovel”: Design Skills in Disaster Response
June 9, 2022
"Make sure children understand they can stop the session at any time, and confirm they really get that."
Mila Kuznetsova Lucy DentonHow Lessons Learned from Our Youngest Users Can Help Us Evolve our Practices
March 9, 2022
"Feature bloat kills usability because it clouds the core value proposition."
Prayag Narula Hannah HudsonEmpowering Designers to do Good Research
March 11, 2022
"It’s funny to talk about being a research team of one, managing five product teams, and how the repository helped focus research."
Nicole Wright Ned DwyerDemocratizing Research at HoneyBook
March 9, 2022
"This moment is yours to shape. If you step up to it, you won’t just be expanding your toolkit. You’re going to be expanding your influence, your impact, and the future of our profession itself."
Megan BlockerTheme 2 Intro
March 12, 2025
"Our first day’s theme is around establishing and growing design operations."
Bria AlexanderOpening Remarks
September 29, 2021
"Once you start thinking that everything has a complex system behind it, you start seeing systems everywhere and unpacking them."
Sheryl CababaIntegrating Systems Thinking Into Your Practice as a Designer
October 1, 2025
