Rosenverse

Accessible only to conference ticket holders.

Log in Create account Buy conference recordings

For 90 days after a conference, only paid ticket holders can watch conference videos. After that, all Gold members have access.

If you have purchased recording access and cannot see the video, please contact support.

Tiny team, moonshot impact: Democratizing research across continents

Gold
Tuesday, March 10, 2026 • Advancing Research 2026
Share the love for this talk
Tiny team, moonshot impact: Democratizing research across continents
Speakers: Dagmara Kukawka
Link:

Summary

How does a team of 2.5 researchers support an organisation of 500-1,000 people? And what happens if we give away the last bits of power we have by exposing our craft? Welcome to ResearchOps 2.0. We’ve stopped debating democratisation (that’s so 2022) and started enabling it: tooling, coaching, and confidence at scale. We moved democratisation from theory to practice and extended our reach. Continuous enablement for teams close to us, plus Innovation Hubs twice-a-year events where teams from across disciplines and continents run their first real studies. These hubs connect us with people we’d never normally meet and unlock research at a scale that once felt impossible. With support from our Digital Experience team and VP, we equipped colleagues from ~10 diverse teams to do research—ethically and effectively. The outcome? In one quarter: - 500 interviews - 250 unmoderated tests - 1,700 survey responses Many led by first-time moderators from product, design, and business. This isn’t about replacing researchers. It’s about building a research culture so strong that everyone wants in and says, “Research is cool.”

Key Insights

  • A tiny research team can multiply their impact by enabling non-researchers to conduct customer research with proper coaching and guardrails.

  • Embedding generative research within existing large B2B conferences leverages customer volume and interest difficult to achieve through traditional recruitment.

  • In-person research builds stronger customer empathy and rapport than artifacts or remote methods alone.

  • Co-creation with customers leads to more actionable insights and greater engagement, especially in technical, regulated industries like aerospace.

  • Shifting research from execution to strategic advising requires moving from fulfilling requests to framing problems and guiding direction.

  • Quality is protected through coaching not caretaking, commitment enforcement, thorough rehearsals, and centralizing legal and consent responsibilities.

  • The Innovation Hub built a coalition of 30 research advocates across diverse disciplines within a year, increasing customer fluency organization-wide.

  • Despite progress, the appetite for tactical research remains stronger than for strategic, long-term projects, highlighting ongoing cultural challenges.

  • Providing opportunities for peer exchange among research participants increases ongoing engagement and capability retention.

  • Democratization must be actively designed and owned by research teams, embracing a system designer mindset rather than a victim mindset.

Notable Quotes

"The debate about democratization is over. The question now is how do we make the most out of it."

"We could either become an internal service desk that's always at capacity or find a lever that multiplies our impact."

"Customer voice lives in minds, not in artifacts. We want people to truly hear how customers think and what they value."

"Co-creation is highly actionable for teams and genuinely engaging for customers."

"We do research not just to generate insights but to embed empathy across the organization."

"Scale without guardrails becomes chaos. Coaching not caretaking protects learning and accountability."

"The role of research is shifting from making to advising, from executing studies to shaping problem framing."

"Teams openly said they didn’t know how to ask questions before and discovered research is cool afterwards."

"We built a coalition of about 30 research advocates in a single year. That’s powerful."

"Democratization was never something that happened to research. It was something I chose to design to make work for my team."

Ask the Rosenbot
Maria Rosala
Research Repositories
2026 • Advancing Research 2026
Gold
Prayag Narula
Dialing for Research: How to Reach the Unreachable
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Andy Barraclough
From Costly Complexity to Efficient Insights: Why UX Teams Are Switching To Voxpopme
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Greg Petroff
Exit Interview #1: Greg Petroff: From Silicon Valley Executive to Sonoma County Possibilitarian
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Melinda Belcher
Bridging the Gap: Making the Most of the Differences Between Agency and Enterprise
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Tim Frick
The journey of building a sustainable design practice
2025 • Climate UX Interest Group
Carla Casariego
DesignOps in Wonderland
2019 • DesignOps Summit 2019
Gold
Aditi Ruiz
Pulse Check: Empathy Mapping Your Product Manager, Pt. 2
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Craig Brookes
"Just Make it Look Good" and Other Ways We're Misunderstood
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Kavana Ramesh
Meaningful inclusion: Practicing accessibility research with confidence
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Josh Clark
Sentient Design: New Design Patterns for New Experiences (3rd of 3 seminars)
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Jeff Ephraim Bander
Eye Tracking Gamechanger: Why Smartphone Eye Tracking will Revolutionize Your UX Research
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Sarah Williams
Verizon_A Framework for CX Transformation
2024 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Kevin Bethune
Reimagining Design: Unlocking Strategic Innovation
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Deanna Washington
Connecting the Ops: Plenary Panel and Closing Circle
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Erin Weigel
Real-world lessons to improve your conversion rates
2024 • Rosenfeld Community

More Videos

Tristin Oldani

"One day without TikTok in the US could save over 26,000 metric tons of CO2."

Tristin Oldani

Turning awareness into action with Climate UX

January 16, 2025

Neema Mahdavi

"It’s difficult to break the rules when they’re not very clear or even there."

Neema Mahdavi

Operationalizing DesignOps

November 7, 2018

Nalini Kotamraju

"I underestimated how much identity our team tied to UX and how scary that loss felt to many of them."

Nalini Kotamraju

Research After UX

March 25, 2024

April Reagan

"It's not enough to imagine the future; we have to make plans that influence and build those preferable futures."

April Reagan

Look, Think, Act: The Futures-Smart Design Organization

October 1, 2021

Dave Gray

"People don’t share their beliefs; you have to search for and understand them to get true buy-in."

Dave Gray

Liminal Thinking: Sense-making for systems in large organizations

May 14, 2015

Megan Blocker

"Video newsletters sharing real user stories create empathy and engagement far beyond numbers and reports."

Megan Blocker Marieke McCloskey Renee Reid

Positioning insight: Structuring teams, roles and careers for a changing research landscape

March 13, 2025

Alexandra Schmidt

"Many tech harms run counter to business goals and can be controversial to address."

Alexandra Schmidt

Why Ethics Can't Save Tech

November 18, 2022

Dr. Jamika D. Burge

"Supporting older adults in UX research reveals a community that is often undervalued and underlooked."

Dr. Jamika D. Burge

Theme 3 Intro

March 11, 2022

Jacqui Frey

"Sometimes you have all the best ideas, but it’s not the right time, and that’s OK."

Jacqui Frey Dan Willis

Panel Discussion: Integrating DesignOps

November 7, 2018