Rosenverse
Turning Research Ripples into Waves

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

Turning Research Ripples into Waves

Gold
Thursday, November 8, 2018 • DesignOps Summit 2018
Share the love for this talk
Turning Research Ripples into Waves
Speakers: Hana Nagel
Link:

Summary

Growing organizational research capacity requires both bottom-up and top-down changes that can be daunting to tackle. Hana Nagel will examine the challenge of scaling research ops through the lens of social change theory, showing how service design and systems thinking can be used to create a strategy to increase research’s impact on product. By building collaboration, connection and community, you can bring enough people together to turn research ripples into waves.

Key Insights

  • Scaling UX research is a form of social and systems change requiring new patterns of interaction within complex organizational systems.

  • Small, iterative interventions targeted at key moments, like early product development, yield outsized impact on systemic change.

  • Firsthand engagement of product owners with UX research—conducting or moderating interviews—triggers a positive shift in valuing research.

  • Theory of Change combined with system mapping and service design helps identify effective intervention points and align stakeholders.

  • Non-researchers can be empowered to conduct UX research through safe, low-risk practice spaces, increasing scale and speed of research use.

  • Rituals, as repeated group activities embodying organizational values, serve as leverage points to embed new behaviors sustainably.

  • Grassroots change needs empathy that validates existing values while introducing new behaviors to achieve better outcomes.

  • Top-down alignment, especially with engineering leadership and C-level, is crucial for resources and scaling impact in large enterprises.

  • Community building through newsletters, Slack workspaces, and Ask Me Anything sessions increases visibility, engagement, and ownership of UX research.

  • Persistence amid setbacks and adaptive shifts in strategy enable systemic change to progress from initial ripples to sustained wave swells of impact.

Notable Quotes

"If you make a change in one part of the system, it ripples out and you can’t always know the full scale of that impact."

"It’s not just empathy, but allowing people to understand all feelings are valid while offering new behaviors that reflect their values."

"Firsthand engagement with UX research shows that it doesn’t slow you down — it can actually help things move faster."

"Rituals embody our values by translating those values into repeated actions that sustain behavior change."

"Scaling change starts at the margins and ripples from the periphery into the center of a system."

"Design is a way to create better futures — better alternatives — but it requires persistent realistic optimism."

"You have to create a safe space for people to make mistakes in practicing UX research, because confidence grows over time."

"People not only need insights; they need confidence that they are making the right decisions with those insights."

"Facilitating change means giving others ownership, so they become responsible for finishing that change."

"It’s not incumbent upon you to finish making this world a better place but neither are you free to desist from it."

Ask the Rosenbot
Rikki Teeters
Concept to code: Transforming ideas into functional products with Kiro
2026 • Rosenfeld Community
Tess Dixon
C'mon Get Happy
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
John Cutler
The Alignment Trap
2023 • Design in Product 2023
Gold
Sarah Gallimore
Inspire Progress with Artifacts from the Future
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Jon Fukuda
Theme One Intro
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Rachael Dietkus, LCSW
Everything You Need to Know about the Civic Design 2022 Call for Presentations
2022 • Civic Design Community
Shipra Kayan
How Tess Dixon Facilitates Team Engagement and Collaboration at Condé Nast Using Miro 
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Iram Shah
Closing Keynote: The View from the Top
2019 • Enterprise Experience 2019
Gold
Snehal Pendharkar
Conducting pre-research with AI agent personas: Pressure-testing concepts for expert workflows
2026 • Designing with AI 2026
Conference
Chris Geison
Theme 1 Intro
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Stefanie Owens
Optimizing for Outcomes: Transformation Design in Systems at Scale
2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
Gold
Bob Baxley
Leading with Design Operations Past and Present
2019 • DesignOps Community
Shahrzad Samadzadeh
What Is My Value? Two Takes and Some Mistakes
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Jen Cardello
Learning Velocity—The Insights Speedometer
2021 • Advancing Research Community
Candace Myers
Standardizing Design at Scale
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Theresa Neil
Designing for Wellness: Specializing in Healthcare
2024 • Rosenfeld Community

More Videos

Dantley Davis

"There were things I controlled and things I didn’t, and I needed to plan for both."

Dantley Davis

Leadership & Diversity—A Fireside Chat with Dantley Davis

September 17, 2020

Frances Yllana

"The word intelligence in artificial intelligence leads many to read more into the technology than is actually there."

Frances Yllana Jorge Arango Maria Taylor Briana Thomas

The Big Question about Impact: A Panel Discussion

September 24, 2024

Jim Kalbach

"Our relationship is like a genuine brotherhood. We hang out almost every day."

Jim Kalbach

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

June 14, 2018

Sarah Kinkade

"Design pairs gave strength in numbers, faster turnarounds, and more impact especially when paired with product managers."

Sarah Kinkade Mariana Ortiz-Reyes

Design Management Models in the Face of Transformation

June 8, 2022

Reginé Gilbert

"It is not the responsibility of marginalized groups to do all the educating about their experiences."

Reginé Gilbert

Asking the Right Questions: Life, Hope and Moving Forward During the Pandemic

June 10, 2022

Robin Beers

"Learning is the new knowing, and researchers are catalysts of organizational learning."

Robin Beers

Navigating organizational systems: Rethinking researcher’s role in driving change

March 13, 2025

Paul Ford

"We’re shipping all the time and shipping really big things often without really caring if anybody uses it."

Paul Ford

New work, new words: A glossary for AI

June 9, 2026

Dan Donald

"A centralized model for design systems can be problematic because it distances the team from end users."

Dan Donald

Design Systems as a Vehicle for Systemic Change

June 1, 2023

George Abraham

"Our tool is not partial to Sketch — we support Adobe XD and will soon support Figma, enabling flexible integration in design workflows."

George Abraham Stefan Ivanov

Design Systems To-Go: Reimagining Developer Handoff, and Introducing App Builder (Part 2)

October 1, 2021