Turning Research Ripples into Waves
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."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Don't shy away from technical conversations; service designers should map data journeys like user journeys."
Lais de Almeida Maria IzquierdoDesigning Data Services
December 4, 2024
"You don’t have to be a CFO or accountant, most of the time you won’t even touch balance sheets or cash flow statements."
Giff ConstableFinancial fluency for product leaders: AMA with Giff Constable
April 11, 2024
"No one else knows what you know as a DPM. You have to coach and help them frame up problems."
Courtney KaplanTaking it to the next level: Career paths in DesignOps
November 8, 2018
"The future of civic design will be localized, designed for and by communities rather than dictated top-down."
Bria Alexander Ariel Kennan Charlotte Lee Sarah Brooks Emily Lessard Gordon Ross Joanne DongReflect and Chart Forward
December 10, 2021
"Design sprints are popular because they give us a format; we don’t have to improvise how we’re collaborating."
Jim KalbachJazz Improvisation as a Model for Team Collaboration
June 4, 2019
"It’s exhausting every day doing extra emotional and cultural labor beyond the design work itself."
Jennifer Strickland Lesley-Ann NoelFireside Chat: How Design Addresses a World on Fire
March 18, 2022
"Our user experience partners co-create with product teams to help refine IBM products."
Tracy McGoldrickIBM User Experience Program—The What, Why and How
October 15, 2021
"Everyone was just staying in their lane and focused on delivery, not seeing how their project impacted others."
Matt StoneScaling Empathy, A Case Study in Change Management
June 11, 2021
"Navigating complexity is like sailing in open ocean. A GPS won’t help if you don’t know how to read wind and water."
Kyle GodbeyNon-linear service design for complex adaptive systems
December 10, 2025