Rosenverse

Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.

Log in Create free account

100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.

The Problem Space
Thursday, May 16, 2019 • Advancing Research Community
Share the love for this talk
The Problem Space
Speakers: Andrea Gallagher
Link:

Summary

Over 3 decades of software design and development, we have seen the creation and proliferation of tools that help our teams be great at the solution space - diagramming, sketching, prototyping, tracking, measuring.  How might we make ourselves better at working in the problem space?  In this videoconference, we brainstorm and explore the topic, and maybe even inspire someone to build that perfect tool.

Key Insights

  • There is a wide variety of prototyping tools, but tooling for early problem space research is underdeveloped.

  • UX researchers spend significant time manual coding and synthesizing interview transcripts without much tool automation.

  • Language mapping using natural language processing could help extract user narratives and keywords to better understand user thinking.

  • Data repositories across organizations often fail due to tool complexity and lack of cross-disciplinary accessibility.

  • Collaborative tools like Mural facilitate real-time brainstorming and affinity mapping in remote teams.

  • Hypothesis definition is a largely social and iterative process, reliant on team communication rather than technical tooling.

  • Mapping assumptions from user and business outcomes supports prioritizing testable prototypes early.

  • Tooling that connects research questions, assumptions, tests, and outcomes could provide critical ‘glue’ for the research process.

  • Research approaches differ greatly depending on context, from startups to established enterprises requiring flexible tooling.

  • Remote work increases reliance on digital collaborative tools but also surfaces challenges in managing distributed inputs and synthesis.

Notable Quotes

"We have eight million prototyping tools but not many tools that help us spend more time in the problem space."

"I suspect there are specific tasks we could support more effectively with dedicated tools."

"Langauge is what shapes us, and extracting keywords helps us create narratives to understand how people think."

"Data repositories often fail because of the complexity in cataloging and who can access the information."

"We still do a lot of coding transcripts by hand, and I’m not sure where the ideal digital intersection is."

"The hardest thing with hypotheses is looking for the disconfirming evidence, not just the confirmatory."

"I’d love a tool that combines research questions, assumptions, tests, and outcomes all in one place."

"Different organizations need different approaches; it’s hard to generalize research tooling needs."

"Tools like Mural are great for remote real-time sticky note brainstorming and affinity mapping."

"Once you have a testable prototype, you can validate and iterate quickly, which makes a broad early approach useful."

Ask the Rosenbot
Louis Rosenfeld
Founder’s Welcome
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Gonzalo Goyanes
Design ROI: Cover a Little, Get a Lot
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
John Maeda
About Design Organizations
2019 • DesignOps Community
Jennifer Strickland
Fireside Chat: How Design Addresses a World on Fire
2022 • Civic Design Community
JD Buckley
COMMUNICATE: Discussion
2018 • Enterprise Experience 2018
Gold
Angy Peterson
More Than Technology: Personalized Public Sector Experiences
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Devon Powers
Imagining Better Futures
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Gordon Ross
12 Months of COVID-19 Design and Digital Response with the British Columbia Government
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Carol Massa
Designing Health: Integrating Service Design, Technology, and Strategy to Transform Patient and Clinician Experiences
2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
Gold
Maish Nichani
Sparking a Service Excellence Mindset at a Government Agency
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Nova Wehman-Brown
We've Never Done This Before
2019 • Enterprise Experience 2019
Gold
Lija Hogan
Doing more with more: Lessons from the Front Lines of Democratization
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Frances Yllana
DesignOps–Leading the Path to Parity
2023 • DesignOps Community
Amahra Spence
Designing for Liberation, Rehearsing Freedom
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Ren Pope
Building Experiences for Knowledge Systems
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Steve Turbek
Designing Interactive Graphics with AI Code Help
2026 • Rosenfeld Community

More Videos

Molly Fargotstein

"We give out stickers for research participation, and people get really eager to collect them all and promote research to their teams."

Molly Fargotstein

Multipurpose Communication & UX Research Marketing

September 12, 2019

Dave Malouf

"We gather on the traditional land of the Karnasi and the Lonepe peoples, honoring with gratitude those who stewarded this land."

Dave Malouf

Closing Keynote: Amplify. Not Optimize.

October 24, 2019

Jorge Arango

"The ultimate purpose with AI-augmented note-taking is to think more effectively, not to outsource thought."

Jorge Arango

AI as Thought Partner: How to Use LLMs to Transform Your Notes (3rd of 3 seminars)

May 3, 2024

Daniel J. Rosenberg

"Garbage in, garbage out—if the requirements are wrong, the AI will instantly create a useless UX."

Daniel J. Rosenberg

Designing with and for Artificial Intelligence

August 11, 2022

Alexis Lucio

"Accessibility is a key component of user experience that has been neglected and requires specialists to close the gap."

Alexis Lucio

Scaling Accessibility Through Design Systems

June 9, 2022

Peter Boersma

"You want to write a brief for each initiative and confirm it with your stakeholders before putting a team together to execute it."

Peter Boersma

How to Define and Maintain a DesignOps Roadmap

October 3, 2023

Ben Reason

"Service blueprint is a knowledge graph – it gives AI intent and helps AI be more useful."

Ben Reason Aline Horta Majid Iqbal Fabiano Leoni

Making the system visible: The fastest path to better decisions

November 20, 2025

Peter Van Dijck

"We devote 30 to 50 percent of the project time just on evaluation with real users and experts to ensure quality and safety."

Peter Van Dijck Louis Rosenfeld

Coffee with Lou #4: Taking a Peek Under the Rosenbot's Hood

June 14, 2024

Taylor Klassman

"We often adapt within imperfect systems rather than fight them outright, aiming for longer-term change."

Taylor Klassman

Shaping the Next Era of UX Research: Collaborative Forum

March 11, 2025