Scaling ResearchOps: Helping Researchers do Their Best Work
This video is featured in the Knowledge Management playlist.
Summary
Research in many organizations has become all about speed and efficiency, making contextual research difficult. The solution for some is to introduce a ResearchOps layer. Brigette will introduce you to the Eight Pillars – the broad areas that researchers care about. These pillars remain the same, whether you’re just ‘getting organized’ or are doing research at scale. From here, you can start to think about operationalizing research in your organization. Drawing on her experience as a Research Ops specialist, Brigette will outline the journey- from organized to operationalized. Whatever the scale, Ops’ mission is to help researchers do their best work.
Key Insights
-
•
The eight pillars framework maps key research ops areas like environment, people, governance, and research libraries as foundational to scaling research.
-
•
Pace layers illustrate how research methods vary in speed and depth, with fast, noisy research at the top and slow, strategic research at the bottom.
-
•
Conflicts between fast and slow research layers create constructive turbulence that keeps organizational research resilient and balanced.
-
•
Most organizations experience tension between research speed demands and the need for rigorous, slower methods like ethnography.
-
•
Research ops functions act as a vital connective tissue that lifts operational burdens from researchers, enabling them to focus on impact.
-
•
Scaling research successfully requires strategies tailored to an organization's existing maturity, research method mix, and infrastructure.
-
•
In high maturity orgs, expansive research libraries and panel management help bridge long-term generative research to faster methods.
-
•
Tech companies often focus on fast evaluative research with decentralized researchers but can scale downward by investing in more skilled researchers and ops.
-
•
Measuring research ops impact by connections, usage, and feedback loops is more meaningful than focusing solely on cost savings.
-
•
Recognizing researchers' own agency and power within organizations is key to intentionally shaping research realities and strategy.
Notable Quotes
"You already have everything you need to advance your research, to move beyond reactive to the space you’re into being."
"Fast learns, slow remembers. Fast gets all the attention, and slow has all the power."
"Conflicts caused by layers moving at different speeds actually keep things balanced and resilient."
"Ops gives you the capacity to see your research within the whole system and all the moving parts that make it up."
"Lifting your game above the day to day is impossible without ops."
"What extent do our organizations become who they are because of the stories we tell them about who they could be?"
"One ops person to five researchers seems pretty legit, according to Kate Towsie."
"Measuring ops impact by how much people are using the research and embedding feedback loops is much more valuable than just looking at money saved."
"Researchers are trained to see power and power imbalances, but seeing our own agency is uncomfortable because it infers responsibility."
"Research ops is not just about delivering efficiency; it’s about creating a map and a vision of research across the whole organization."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Whiteness isn’t about color; people of all colors can reinforce white supremacy."
Victor UdoewaBeyond Methods and Diversity: The Roots of Inclusion
March 26, 2024
"Information architects use nodes and links to create environments for understanding."
Peter MorvilleThe Architecture of Understanding
May 13, 2015
"This talk is more than anything else, it’s about confidence."
Sam LadnerHow Research Can Drive Strategic Foresight
March 9, 2022
"The feedback culture in our company means there’s transparent discussion if conclusions aren’t clear or agreed upon."
Michelle Bejian Lotia Anne-Marie MorellRolling Out a Repository: How Zapier Centralizes Insights from Across their Organization
March 28, 2023
"One researcher per team for at least three days a week was considered an outrageous luxury at GDS in 2013."
Leisa ReicheltOpening Keynote: Operating in Context
November 7, 2018
"Every parent we talked to had some variation of the question: this exists, can I use it right now? Where was this when I needed to apply?"
Sarah GallimoreInspire Progress with Artifacts from the Future
November 18, 2022
"The task objects are central to a popular conceptual design approach called OOUX."
Joerg Beringer Thomas GeisScaling User Research with AI: Continuous Discovery of User Needs in Minutes
September 10, 2025
"If you want your teams to be bold, you need explicit quality standards and the courage to say no."
Peter MerholzCustomer-Centered Design Organizations
June 8, 2017
"Stakeholders aren’t leaving us out on purpose; they make reasonable decisions with imperfect information."
Dalia El-ShimySo You've Got a Seat at the Table. Now What?
March 31, 2020
