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 State of ResearchOps: More Than Just Theory

Thursday, June 20, 2019 • DesignOps Community
Share the love for this talk
The State of ResearchOps: More Than Just Theory
Speakers: Kate Towsey
Link:

Summary

Over the past decade, user research has matured significantly. It’s increasingly more common for large organizations to have dozens of people doing user research, whether as part of a dedicated team of researchers or other design roles. Growing team sizes and increasing organizational demand has meant that the pressures placed on people doing research have grown too. To meet demand and be efficient, impactful, compliant (and happy, lest we forget), researchers need more rigorous operational support. In 2018, through the work of the ResearchOps Community and its #WhatisResearchOps initiative, the nascent practice of ResearchOps was given shape: via a series of global workshops by researchers and for researchers, the Community explored what ResearchOps should look like and produced a framework to map its various parts. But what’s behind the theory? What does ResearchOps actually look like in the world today? And who are the people leading the way? In this talk, Kate shared insight into the state of ResearchOps today, talked about current and potential ResearchOps opportunities and challenges, and shared what she thinks the future holds for this emerging practice.

Key Insights

  • Research operations teams have grown from lone practitioners to multi-person, multi-skilled teams typically scaling around one ops person to five researchers.

  • It is crucial to design processes into research ops rather than simply shifting researcher inefficiency onto ops teams.

  • Research ops supports the research function but is distinct from research leadership, which defines strategy and prioritization.

  • Scaling research ops teams early, as soon as you have five researchers, helps demonstrate value and manage workload effectively.

  • Effective research ops include managing participant recruitment, vendor relationships, tooling, knowledge management, and researcher experience.

  • Research ops roles often suit people with service industry backgrounds due to the service-oriented nature of the work.

  • Engagement and impact roles within research ops bring creative opportunities, such as branding, event production, and making research tangible in physical spaces.

  • Close collaboration across functions—legal, privacy, procurement, estates—is vital for a successful research ops practice.

  • Supporting not just researchers but also the broader group of people conducting research (e.g., product managers, designers) increases workload and requires clear prioritization.

  • Community building and sharing frameworks globally have helped research ops mature from theoretical concepts into practical and scalable practices.

Notable Quotes

"Research ops provides the roles, tools, and processes needed to support researchers — that’s as concise as it gets."

"It’s challenging scaling a team with limited resources to provide comprehensive coverage to a fast-growing research function — Tim Toy, Airbnb."

"Research ops allows me to indulge my geeky planning spreadsheety side as well as my people-loving supportive side — Saskia, Delivery."

"The longer you take to recognize research ops and scale your team, the harder it becomes to amplify the value of your research investment — Carrie, Booking.com."

"You cannot provide end-to-end service for every researcher, but you can deliver highly supported self-service — Kate Towsey."

"The issue is not research ops being more organized researchers — the problems and scale are very different."

"Managing vendors is a full-time job, and research ops teams often coordinate numerous vendors for tools and recruitment."

"Research ops is heavily reliant on clear and consistent research leadership to define strategy and priorities."

"Designing the service so the team can be efficient and impactful is essential — otherwise you just move the inefficiency around."

"Engagement and impact roles bring creativity and help maintain team morale in otherwise dry operations work."

Ask the Rosenbot
Sheryl Cababa
Living in the Clouds: Adopting a Systems Thinking Mindset
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Ned Gartside
Navigating accessibility and climate
2024 • Climate UX Interest Group
Adam Thomas
Survival Metrics – Making Change in a Fast, Data-Informed, and Politically Safe Way
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Leah Buley
Ask Me Anything with Leah Buley and Joe Natoli, co-authors of The User Experience Team of One (2nd edition)
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Robert Fabricant
Shifting dynamics: The evolving relationship between researchers, participants, and organizational systems
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Alan Williams
Designing essential financial services for those in need
2022 • Civic Design Community
Lada Gorlenko
Theme 2 Intro
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Sarah Williams
Verizon_A Framework for CX Transformation
2024 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Sam Proulx
Accessibility: An Opportunity to Innovate
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Bill Scott
Lean Engineering: Engineering for Learning and Experimentation in the Enterprise
2015 • Enterprise UX 2015
Gold
Robin Beers
How to create actionable insight in the face of politics and silos [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
2023 • Advancing Research Community
Joshua Graves
We Need To Talk: Addressing Unmet Expectations (Part 2 of 3)
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Ana Ferreira
Designing Distributed: Leading Doist’s Fully Remote Design Team in Six Countries
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Jodi Forlizzi
Design and AI innovation
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold
Catt Small
Craft a Vision that Actually Gets Shipped
2026 • Rosenfeld Community
Chris Govias
Perspectives on Civic Design
2021 • Civic Design Community

More Videos

Caroline Vize

"Designers are becoming increasingly interested in doing their own tactical user research within sprint cycles."

Caroline Vize

The State of UX: Five Lessons from 2021 to Accelerate Digital Experience in 2022

March 9, 2022

Kara Kane

"There is no such thing as a self-organized community; they just don’t work and fall apart without leadership."

Kara Kane

Communities of Practice for Civic Design

April 7, 2022

Jon Fukuda

"Design teams face challenges because inputs live in PDFs, Figma files, Slack messages, spreadsheets, and more."

Jon Fukuda Ellie Krysl

Design Planning and Management Support

October 3, 2023

Mark Templeton

"Culture plus empathy equals pride—and pride powers the most successful organizations."

Mark Templeton

Creating a Legacy: the ultimate experience

June 9, 2017

Jim Kalbach

"Experience mapping brought a new understanding that helped us draw former extremists into peace efforts."

Jim Kalbach

Peace is waged with sticky notes: Mapping Real-World Experiences

June 14, 2018

Scott Stephens

"Excel is a little bit outdated; more advanced cloud tools help us co-create and collaborate in real time."

Scott Stephens

The Next Generation in DesignOps Toolsets

July 28, 2022

Cheryl Platz

"If you’re not the solution, you’re the problem."

Cheryl Platz

Collaborative Creativity through Improv

November 7, 2018

Jen Briselli

"Learning unfolds through encounters that disrupt our existing frames and invite transformation."

Jen Briselli

Learning Is The Engine: Designing & Adapting in a World We Can’t Predict

April 16, 2025

Mac Smith

"User research excels at explaining why things happen; data science explains what and how; together they build trusted insight."

Mac Smith

Measuring Up: Using Product Research for Organizational Impact

March 12, 2021