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.

Research After UX
Gold
Monday, March 25, 2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Share the love for this talk
Research After UX
Speakers: Nalini Kotamraju
Link:

Summary

Moving the research function out from UX can transform how insights influence product-making in an organization. In this talk, Nalini explains how and why she led this shift for her team at Salesforce, as well as the move’s effect on their work and impact. Nalini will also share lessons learned in the process - “the how to’s” and the “absolutely how not to’s” - that may inspire and guide leaders and individual contributors alike.

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."

Ask the Rosenbot
Nicole Aleong
Future Orientations to Everyday Life: Futures Anthropology as a Methodology
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Gold
Edgar Anzaldua Moreno
Using Research to Determine Unique Value Proposition
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Alla Weinberg
Design Teams Need Psychological Safety: Here’s How to Create It
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Kaitlin Tasker
Fast and Fearless Inclusive Research
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Kritika Yadav
Optimizing AI Conversations: A Case Study on Personalized Shopping Assistance Frameworks
2025 • Designing with AI 2025
Gold
Catherine Courage
The Enterprise UX Journey: Lessons From the Voyage & The Opportunity Ahead
2015 • Enterprise UX 2015
Gold
Andy Barraclough
From Costly Complexity to Efficient Insights: Why UX Teams Are Switching To Voxpopme
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Product and Design at Bloomberg: A 15-year Evolution
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Alberto Ferreira
Making it Count: Developing a custom digital metric framework that works
2021 • QuantQual Interest Group
Bria Alexander
Opening Remarks
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Chelsea Mauldin
Let's Talk About Money
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Dante Guintu
How to Crush the Talent Crunch
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Bria Alexander
Opening Remarks
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Maria Skaaden
Panel Discussion: Methodologies and Work Environments
2018 • DesignOps Summit 2018
Gold
Daniel Gloyd
Designing From the Inside Out: How Method Acting Can Inspire Design Research
2026 • Rosenfeld Community
Marjorie Stainback
Transforming Strategic Research Capacity through Democratization
2019 • DesignOps Summit 2019
Gold

More Videos

Llewyn Paine

"We should think of AI as something that amplifies what we already are: if we think research is about impact, AI will help us understand and track it."

Llewyn Paine

Coexisting with AI: A practical guide for researchers to navigate tools, ethics, and integration

March 11, 2025

Steve Portigal

"We all stand on the shoulders of giants."

Steve Portigal

Looking Back…to Look Ahead

March 26, 2024

Alba Villamil

"Using the umbrella term 'people of color' erases the most disadvantaged and privileges the least burdened."

Alba Villamil

Stereotyped by Design: Pitfalls in Cross-Cultural User Research

March 30, 2020

Dave Malouf

"There aren't learned enough experts; we are still in that nebula trying to figure out how to become a star."

Dave Malouf Meredith Black Farid Sabitov

The Past, Present, and Future of DesignOps: a 2-part DesignOps Community Call (Part 1)

February 17, 2022

Joanna Vodopivec

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

Joanna Vodopivec Prabhas Pokharel

One Research Team for All - Influence Without Authority

March 9, 2022

Soma Ghosh

"Giving ChatGPT custom instructions is like training your alien."

Soma Ghosh Savina Hawkins Dave Hoffer Rob Thomas Victor Udoewa

What emerging methods are advancing UX research [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]

September 28, 2023

Dean Broadley

"Care less about being certain and more about being effective."

Dean Broadley

Not Black Enough to be White

January 8, 2024

Rusha Sopariwala

"The coffee chat bot pairs two people every two weeks with no agenda, just like a kitchen chat that wouldn’t happen in remote life."

Rusha Sopariwala

Remote, Together: Craft and Collaboration Across Disciplines, Borders, Time Zones, and a Design Org of 170+

June 9, 2022

"Investors invest in the dream, not in the fix."

How to Identify and Increase your "Experience Quotient"

June 15, 2018