Summary
For the past year, “Having a seat at the table” has been one of the most widely-discussed topics in the research community. However, what happens once that seat has been won? What we’ve typically seen is researchers struggling to discern between the specific needs and expectations of senior leadership and stakeholders, and those of the product teams they’re grown accustomed to working with. This presentation will distill, from several previous studies, lessons to guide researchers in how to go from just having a seat at the table, to actually using it towards influence strategic decision-making.
Key Insights
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Researchers often focus too much on methodologies rather than actionable insights that stakeholders care about.
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Executives usually don’t need detailed methodology; they want strong opinions and clear recommendations.
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Many researchers mistakenly believe they don't have a seat at the table, when in fact they might already have one.
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Effective communication with stakeholders involves understanding their language and priorities.
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Storytelling must be tailored to the audience; senior stakeholders may require different narratives than direct team members.
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Feedback is crucial; researchers should regularly assess how their insights are used in decision-making.
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Cultural differences impact communication expectations; adapt strategies to the context.
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Recognizing and leveraging existing influence can enhance researcher impact within organizations.
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Closing the loop on feedback helps researchers continuously improve their communication strategies.
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By adopting a research mindset towards stakeholders, researchers can better understand and address their needs.
Notable Quotes
"We are essentially talking to our leadership teams the same way that we talked to our teammates."
"What they're actually looking for is strong opinions."
"We've overlooked the fact that we've forgotten to take the time to understand what it is that they actually care about."
"Having a seat isn't just about being in the right meeting or in the right conversations."
"The moment that people see your work, they're giving you a seat."
"We didn't wait for the investment planning process to start to get involved."
"What we really want to give them is an easy way to reference our work day to day."
"We need to understand when and why those recommendations don't get adopted."
"The idea is to continue repeating these workshops in the same way that we should continue to iterate on recommendations."
"The notion of bounded rationality says that humans make perfectly reasonable decisions with whatever imperfect information they have."
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