Rosenverse

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.

The Intersection of Design and ResearchOps
Gold
Tuesday, September 24, 2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Share the love for this talk
The Intersection of Design and ResearchOps
Speakers: Ned Dwyer , Emily Stewart and James Wallis
Link:

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

  • TravelPerk’s research ops team existed before dedicated researchers and primarily supported designers initially.

  • Brex transitioned from a dedicated research team to integrating research operations within design ops to democratize research.

  • 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.

  • Company culture and leadership backgrounds strongly influence whether organizations emphasize design ops or research ops first.

  • Democratizing research across functions like marketing and product management requires tailored education and clear guidance on risks and decision impacts.

  • Sharing customer insights effectively demands tools that meet people where they work, such as Slack integrations, rather than relying on standalone repositories.

  • Measuring ROI for research and design ops is complex but can be linked to how insights inform decisions and product roadmaps.

  • Non-specialists conducting research benefit significantly from operational support, which improves research rigor and reduces bias.

  • Future trends include convergence of design ops and research ops roles as organizations mature and use of AI to enhance operational efficiency.

  • 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."

Ask the Rosenbot
Zariah Cameron
Streamlining an Inclusive Design Practice
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Bianca Jefferson
From Sprints to Systems: Operationalizing Continuous Discovery Through DesignOps
2025 • DesignOps Summit 2025
Gold
Noel Lamb
Cultivating Business Partnerships to Grow Research Ops
2022 • Advancing Research Community
Alla Weinberg
Cross-Functional Relationship Design
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Peter Levin
Solve a Problem Here, Transform a Strategy There: Research as an Occasion for Expanding Organizational Possibility
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Gold
Iain McMaster
Design and Product: from Frenemy to Harmony
2023 • Design in Product 2023
Gold
Frank Duran
Partnership Playbook: Lessons Learned in Effective Partnership
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Ivana Ng
Level Up Your Program with ProductOps
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Sam Proulx
Understanding Screen Readers on Mobile: How And Why to Learn from Native Users
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Jerome “Axle” Brown
How to Use Self-Directed Learning to Ensure Your Research Insights are Heard and Acted Upon
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Sam Proulx
Online Shopping: Designing an Accessible Experience
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Dan Willis
Filling the Void
2018 • DesignOps Summit 2018
Gold
Julie Gitlin
Design as an Agent of Digital Transformation at JPMC
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Jorge Arango
[Demo] How to re-categorize content at scale using LLMs
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold
Mansi Gupta
Drawing from Feminist Practice to Make Inclusive Design Operational
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Husani Oakley
Bias Towards Action: Building Teams that Build Work
2018 • Enterprise Experience 2018
Gold

More Videos

Ned Dwyer

"Non-researchers running their own research can produce mediocre results if they lack operational support and guidance."

Ned Dwyer Emily Stewart James Wallis

The Intersection of Design and ResearchOps

September 24, 2024

Michael Land

"The biggest bottleneck is the bureaucracy, like the Paperwork Reduction Act, we have to creatively navigate that."

Michael Land

Establishing Design Operations in Government

February 18, 2021

Sam Proulx

"It took competitors over seven years to catch up to where Apple is with voice dictation and accessibility."

Sam Proulx

To Boldly Go: The New Frontiers of Accessibility

November 18, 2022

Vasileios Xanthopoulos

"We run our UX department as a business, with responsibilities, requirements, and expectations."

Vasileios Xanthopoulos

A Top-Down and Bottom-Up Approach to User-Centric Maturity at Scale

January 8, 2024

Andrew Custage

"A thousand paper cuts add up: many small frustrations can lead to someone leaving your digital experience."

Andrew Custage Michael Mallett

The Digital Journey: Research on Consumer Frustration and Loyalty

March 29, 2023

Marjorie Stainback

"Some teams were going rogue or skipping research altogether."

Marjorie Stainback Kelsey Kingman

Transforming Strategic Research Capacity through Democratization

October 24, 2019

Alla Weinberg

"A relationship cycles through connection, disconnection, and repair, just like breathing has an inhale and an exhale."

Alla Weinberg

Cross-Functional Relationship Design

December 6, 2022

Jerome “Axle” Brown

"Sometimes the loudest voices dominate, but asynchronous collaboration helps give quieter voices a chance to speak."

Jerome “Axle” Brown

How to Use Self-Directed Learning to Ensure Your Research Insights are Heard and Acted Upon

March 11, 2021

Jen Crim

"The hiring process typically includes two manager screens and a final interview with project presentations."

Jen Crim Jess Quittner Saritha Kattekola Alex Karr Gurbani Pahwa

Culture, DIBS & Recruiting

June 11, 2021