Rosenverse
Research at an inflection point: Adapting to a new era of collaboration, equity, and innovation

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 at an inflection point: Adapting to a new era of collaboration, equity, and innovation

Gold
Tuesday, March 11, 2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Share the love for this talk
Research at an inflection point: Adapting to a new era of collaboration, equity, and innovation
Speakers: Jemma Ahmed
Link:

Summary

Shifting dynamics among researchers, participants, and organizational systems are creating a profound transformation in research methods, impact, and function. At its heart this shift encompasses five core tenets, which emphasize collaboration, equity, and networked knowledge creation and curation. This talk will provide an overview of these changes, which will be explored in depth during the conference, and how our field can prepare.

Key Insights

  • Research is at an innovate-or-die moment due to sweeping industry changes like layoffs and declining engagement.

  • Researchers serve as a crucial check and balance, holding power accountable through objective knowledge.

  • Telling the stories of people with compassion is a fundamental and increasing research responsibility.

  • Societal shifts have transformed knowledge dynamics from hierarchical/linear to relational and plural.

  • This shift demands researchers build and curate knowledge collaboratively within networks.

  • Ignoring the bigger picture of these changes will risk the extinction of research in its current form.

  • The metaphor of a mink taking on a swan illustrates the courage researchers need despite overwhelming challenges.

  • New research roles are emerging, like unicorn generalists, research ops, and more inclusive participant engagement.

  • Disinformation culture and intersectionality are key external factors that deeply affect research practices.

  • Embracing and owning authentic researcher identity is vital for thriving amid change.

Notable Quotes

"Where quite long your life? Bit glossy and a bit punchy. Kiss, kiss."

"That mink showed up and it took on a fight that felt more enormous than it was."

"Research is too important to fail."

"Researchers hold objective knowledge which holds power to account."

"People deserve to have their stories heard and held compassionately for no other reason than by virtue of the fact that they exist."

"The relational dynamics of knowledge are shifting from hierarchical and linear to relational and plural."

"We adapt, we innovate, or we no longer exist."

"If we don’t find our courage and take on the fight, our field dies."

"We have two choices: find our teeth and our courage and take on the fight or our field dies."

"Our best selves hold and hear stories and hold power to account."

Ask the Rosenbot
Charles Lee
Building a New Home for the Atlassian Design System
2020 • Enterprise Community
Anupama Dhareshwar
From blueprint to bot: Designing resilient AI-powered services
2025 • Advancing Service Design 2025
Gold
Allan Lowson
Rehashing the Double Diamond: Collaborating across functions with AI-assisted prototyping
2026 • Designing with AI 2026
Conference
Courtney Kaplan
Taking it to the next level: Career paths in DesignOps
2018 • DesignOps Summit 2018
Gold
Snehal Pendharkar
Conducting pre-research with AI agent personas: Pressure-testing concepts for expert workflows
2026 • Designing with AI 2026
Conference
Joseph Meersman
Sweating the Pixel: Scaling Quality through Critique
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Dan Willis
Theme 3: Intro
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Kara Kane
Communities of Practice for Civic Design
2022 • Civic Design Community
Luke Roberts
Panel Discussion
2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
Gold
Patrick Boehler
Fishing for Real Needs: Reimagining Journalism Needs with AI
2025 • Designing with AI 2025
Gold
Michelle Chin
The DesignOps Starter Kit
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Sam Proulx
Mobile Accessibility and You
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Dave Malouf
Theme 3: Introduction and Provocation
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Llewyn Paine
Coexisting with AI: A practical guide for researchers to navigate tools, ethics, and integration
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Sam Ladner
Data Exhaust and Personal Data: Learning from Consumer Products to Enhance Enterprise UX
2016 • Enterprise UX 2016
Gold
Iram Shah
Closing Keynote: The View from the Top
2019 • Enterprise Experience 2019
Gold

More Videos

Sam Proulx

"Consistency means the same interactions always do the same things; buttons are in the same place, and flows don’t change suddenly."

Sam Proulx

Online Shopping: Designing an Accessible Experience

November 29, 2023

Jen van der Meer

"Don’t wait for the brief. Go out there and make some waves."

Jen van der Meer

Service design performs value

November 19, 2025

Nicole Aleong

"Hope generates optimistic momentum towards a possibility becoming real."

Nicole Aleong

Future Orientations to Everyday Life: Futures Anthropology as a Methodology

March 26, 2024

Christian Crumlish

"You can build your strategy into eight pages, five, three, one, half a page, then a sentence to adapt to your audience."

Christian Crumlish Wendy Johansson Rich Mironov Aditi Ruiz Adam Thomas

Afternoon Insights Panel

December 6, 2022

Alexandra Schmidt

"Users creatively circumvent broken enterprise systems, which traditional metrics often miss."

Alexandra Schmidt

Enterprise UX Playbook

December 1, 2022

Catherine Courage

"Having unbookable, configurable spaces for real-time collaboration is crucial for creativity."

Catherine Courage

The Enterprise UX Journey: Lessons From the Voyage & The Opportunity Ahead

May 13, 2015

Sean Dolan

"We made our journeys interactive to solve the problem of overwhelming detail in static journey maps."

Sean Dolan

A Practical Look at Creating More Usable Enterprise Customer Journeys

October 31, 2019

Jon Fukuda

"Where else are you gonna hear these stories and learn from all the various corners of our practice?"

Jon Fukuda

Theme 3 Intro

September 25, 2024

Tony Turner

"Stakeholders can do their own searching at a high-level label level, while researchers dive deeper into nuanced tags."

Tony Turner

Capturing Deep Insights

September 30, 2021