The Intersection of Design and ResearchOps
Summary
Join Great Question CEO Ned Dwyer, Emily Stewart from TravelPerk, and James Wallis from Brex as they explore the evolving relationship between DesignOps and ResearchOps. Ned will moderate a discussion covering best practices, common challenges, key differences, and what these two disciplines can learn from one another. This session will offer valuable insights for professionals navigating the intersection of design and research, helping them better integrate these processes within their organizations.
Key Insights
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TravelPerk’s research ops team existed before dedicated researchers and primarily supported designers initially.
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Brex transitioned from a dedicated research team to integrating research operations within design ops to democratize research.
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Research ops and design ops share many overlapping goals such as empowering teams and scaling processes but also have distinct focuses like recruitment versus design systems.
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Company culture and leadership backgrounds strongly influence whether organizations emphasize design ops or research ops first.
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Democratizing research across functions like marketing and product management requires tailored education and clear guidance on risks and decision impacts.
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Sharing customer insights effectively demands tools that meet people where they work, such as Slack integrations, rather than relying on standalone repositories.
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Measuring ROI for research and design ops is complex but can be linked to how insights inform decisions and product roadmaps.
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Non-specialists conducting research benefit significantly from operational support, which improves research rigor and reduces bias.
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Future trends include convergence of design ops and research ops roles as organizations mature and use of AI to enhance operational efficiency.
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Cross-functional collaboration brings diverse perspectives that enrich research outcomes and better align with business goals.
Notable Quotes
"Research ops was actually there before research at TravelPerk, supporting designers first."
"At Brex, design ops supports a broad range of design disciplines and also partners with engineers and marketers."
"Sometimes research becomes the defacto 'talk to a customer' group, which can distance others from direct customer contact."
"There was a feeling at Brex that research was sometimes conducted for the sake of research, not resulting in impactful insights."
"Everyone in the senior leadership team at Brex participates in continuous discovery monthly to build customer empathy."
"Those roles enable others to do their best work and scale collaboration across teams."
"It’s not always a charismatic repository that people flock to, but tools that seek you out where you work are more effective."
"Non-researchers running their own research can produce mediocre results if they lack operational support and guidance."
"Breaking research down to simple plans, like a clear list of questions, helps demystify the process for new researchers."
"Measuring impact means linking research insights back to decisions and how they affect roadmaps and priorities."
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