Summary
Tired of juggling a dozen different tools? Join us for a live conversation about the rising trend of tool consolidation in DesignOps, led by Great Question CEO Ned Dwyer. He'll be joined by Jadyn Aguilar, Head of Design Operations and UX Research at Gusto, to discuss the benefits, challenges, and opportunities of tool consolidation in DesignOps. If you're part of a team aiming to streamline workflows and reduce overhead, this session is a must. You’ll walk away with practical insights and advice for consolidating your own toolstack.
Key Insights
-
•
Gusto reduced tool context switching from 10+ to fewer tools, streamlining research workflows.
-
•
Close partnership with IT enabled holistic visibility around tool use across teams and prevented siloed decisions.
-
•
Empathy towards IT and procurement teams facilitates smoother tool consolidation conversations.
-
•
Intentional change management including surveys and stakeholder feedback helped secure buy-in across the org.
-
•
Tool consolidation led to a cultural shift enabling greater democratization of research and customer centricity.
-
•
Trade-offs are inevitable; prioritizing optimization over perfection allows practical progress.
-
•
Piloting selected modules before full rollout reduces disruption and supports phased adoption.
-
•
Visual mapping of research journeys exposes process gaps and opportunities for automation.
-
•
Reducing manual tasks through automation (e.g. incentive processing) gave the team more time for strategic work.
-
•
Building a strong business case covering cost savings, efficiency, and participant experience eases procurement approval.
Notable Quotes
"We were using 10 different tools to do bite-size pieces of the research flow internally."
"We think holistically about the impact of introducing or removing tools across the org."
"Everybody approaches it with a lot of curiosity and empathy."
"If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word. That same idea applies to tool consolidation."
"It’s not consolidation for consolidation’s sake, it needs to be intentional and mindful of trade-offs."
"Tool consolidation opened up space for conversation and collaboration across teams."
"We mapped the process visually to see gaps and where we could reduce context switching."
"Consolidation improves participant experience by building trust through a consistent outreach process."
"Piloting modules first helps avoid rip-and-replace thrash and eases change management."
"A strong case highlighting cost savings and efficiencies makes procurement conversations easier."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"We thought she was in great shape and we were thrilled, then found out she didn’t know to BCC 500 customers—this still stresses me years later."
Elizabeth Sklar Jessica ShengCo-creating research enablement with your tech org: a case study
March 10, 2026
"If you only measure vanity metrics like downloads, you risk tracking numbers that don’t translate to real usage or value."
Saara Kamppari-Miller Nicole Bergstrom Shashi JainKey Metrics: Comparing Three Letter Acronym Metrics That Include the Word “Key”
November 13, 2024
"Pair design is about two perspectives coming together as peers to quickly try and evaluate ideas."
Gretchen AndersonScaling the Human Center
June 8, 2017
"We track every hour so the team's time is visible and understood as the collective engine of revenue and rest."
Chelsea MauldinLet's Talk About Money
November 17, 2022
"Taking care of ourselves first is essential before we can effectively care for others."
Lada GorlenkoTheme 3: Introduction
June 10, 2021
"The highest paid person’s opinion, or HIPPO, often makes decisions in the absence of principles and insights."
Craig VillamorResilient Enterprise Design
June 8, 2017
"The fundamental things do apply as time goes by."
Susan Simon-DanielsWar Stories LIVE! Susan Simon-Daniels
March 30, 2020
"Research is not just delivering insights out there in a transactional model, but in a dialogic model."
Robin BeersBeyond Insights: Researchers as Organizational Change Catalysts
March 25, 2024
"If you don't have shared language and values, you can't coordinate your actions or agree on what to do."
Paul Pangaro, PhDSystems Disciplines: Table Stakes for 21st Century Organizations
June 6, 2023
