Theme 2 Intro
Summary
In this talk, the speaker reflects on the insight and research community's shared hunger for evolution and improvement, especially in a world unsettled by turmoil and inequity. They emphasize how 2020, despite its challenges, has inspired renewed commitment and bravery to do things differently. The speaker introduces four key presenters: Catherine Andrew, who discusses integrating different research and analytics functions to build cohesive insight teams; a panel exploring trauma-informed practices; Zen, who shares lessons from learning science; and Kathleen, who rethinks the identity of researchers. The talk centers around two unifying themes: introspection with humility—encouraging researchers to first look inward to better serve others—and bravery in challenging conventional wisdom and embracing discomfort for meaningful change. Ultimately, the session aims to energize and inspire the audience to advance both their personal practices and the research field as a whole through shared learning and courageous adaptation.
Key Insights
-
•
The insight community feels it is at a tipping point between recognizing past progress and the vast work still ahead.
-
•
2020’s turmoil sparked renewed bravery and commitment in researchers rather than exhaustion.
-
•
Introspection and humility are critical before effectively amplifying others' stories.
-
•
Bravery includes bucking conventional wisdom and honestly confronting the world as it is.
-
•
Integrating research and analytics functions helps create stronger, unified insight teams.
-
•
Learning from adjacent fields like trauma-informed practices and learning science can advance research methods.
-
•
Redefining the identity of researchers may open new ways to connect and share stories.
-
•
Embracing discomfort in learning fosters personal and field-wide change.
-
•
The collective journey of learning from one another powers advancement in research practices.
-
•
Care, compassion, and open-heartedness are vital qualities in advancing research and sharing truths.
Notable Quotes
"The insight and research community had such a hunger to keep growing and evolving to better amplify the voices of the people we seek to understand."
"We are living in a world that for so many feels like it has been flipped on its head."
"Instead of facing 2020 with exhaustion, folks were looking at it with renewed commitment and bravery."
"How can we teach others about powerful stories without first becoming learned ourselves?"
"Bravery is having the courage to buck conventional wisdom and look at the world for how it is."
"Catherine Andrew will share her experience bringing research and analytics functions together to create integrated insight teams."
"We will learn from trauma-informed practices and learning science to advance how we do things."
"Redefining who researchers are can teach us new ways to share stories."
"At times, this day may feel uncomfortable, but embracing discomfort often leads to change."
"The journey we are on is to change and advance not just practices but the entire research field."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"You cannot be emotionally attached to whether your UX suggestions get implemented."
Leah Buley Joe NatoliAsk Me Anything with Leah Buley and Joe Natoli, co-authors of The User Experience Team of One (2nd edition)
October 8, 2024
"Threat actors can masquerade as Charlie to trick users like Alice."
Heidi TrostTo Protect People, You Have to Protect Information: A Human-Centered Design Approach to Cybersecurity
January 23, 2025
"On lower layers, research spaces are limited and focused, while at higher layers, problem spaces are ambiguous and require holistic approaches."
Cornelius RachieruHandling Complexity: Framing a Scale of Design
June 9, 2021
"We had to update our taxonomy because 'computer' was too broad; we needed to capture monitors, laptops, and other devices separately."
Michele MarutResearch Repositories Reconsidered
February 14, 2019
"If you don’t have the support you need—budget, time, people—your program is at high risk of failure."
Kim Fellman CohenMeasuring the Designer Experience
October 23, 2019
"Inviting other teams into research sessions lets us triangulate findings by combining interviews, observations, and focus groups."
Joanna Vodopivec Prabhas PokharelOne Research Team for All - Influence Without Authority
March 9, 2022
"Design ops folks meet the habit of catering so much to everybody’s increasingly trivial whims that it takes us away from the real meaty ops work."
Tess DixonC'mon Get Happy
September 29, 2021
"The real question is who's gonna be using this dashboard and what questions are they trying to answer."
Theresa NeilJust Build Me a Dashboard!
April 9, 2019
"I started spending more time understanding agent processes at a deeper level beyond just answering tactical questions."
Kayla Farrell Chelsey Glasson Sean Fitzell Jared LeClercWhat It's Like To Be a User Researcher at Compass
March 12, 2021
