Summary
What do you do when you have 8x more designers than user researchers in an organization? Learn how we empowered designers to conduct local-level evaluative research, gave researchers more time to work on global, strategic research, and transformed our user research delivery practice. We will share what key ingredients made our transformation possible and what pitfalls to avoid when bringing research democratization to your own organization.
Key Insights
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Companies often have more designers than researchers, leading to bottlenecks in research.
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Fidelity’s transformation introduced 450 scrum teams but revealed inefficiencies in research processes.
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Democratizing research can empower designers and significantly decrease project turnaround times.
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Training designers to conduct their own research led to an increase from 15% to 56% in strategic research projects.
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Educational programs should ensure validity through structured feedback and oversight from experienced researchers.
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Effective communication is crucial in managing expectations before and during any training initiative.
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Articulation of purpose in simple terms can help garner support for new initiatives.
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Learning from failures is key; scheduling, participant limits, and clear expectations are crucial.
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Continuous measurement and assessment of program effectiveness is important to demonstrate value to leadership.
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Empowering others in the organization fosters a culture of collaboration and innovation.
Notable Quotes
"We had one researcher for every designers, with some groups having one for every 10 or 15."
"Democratizing research is about empowering designers to build their own skill sets and increase learning velocity."
"Our average time for research delivery was 14 days; we needed to address that problem fast."
"We discovered that our solution was to train product team members to conduct remote, unmoderated usability studies."
"Post-implementation, designers began to empathize more deeply with researchers; many exclaimed it was more challenging than they'd realized."
"The first key ingredient to program success is a shared vision between researchers, designers, and stakeholders."
"We realized we needed a kickoff meeting to set clear expectations for our class participants."
"Through feedback, we learned that periods for implementing changes are critical to avoid burnout."
"Articulate your purpose in 10 words or less, to clearly express what you're trying to accomplish."
"Iterate and move forward; there's always room for improvement."
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