Rosenverse

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.

User Science: Product Analytics & User Research
Gold
Thursday, March 11, 2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Share the love for this talk
User Science: Product Analytics & User Research
Speakers: Marieke McCloskey
Link:

Summary

Want to help make better product decisions? You've got to combine qualitative human insights from user research with data analytics and experimentation. Too often research questions are "sent to the team that can answer them best." Questions about how many users do something goes to analytics, questions about which design might work better goes to user research. But what if you partnered with those other teams to answer the questions together? In this session Marieke will share how, as a qualitative UX researcher she's partnered with analysts to identify high-growth opportunities and gain a deeper understanding of users.

Key Insights

  • User science combines qualitative user research and data science to generate more impactful product insights.

  • Early collaboration between UX researchers and data teams helps reconcile conflicting insights and builds stronger shared understanding.

  • Curious and thoughtful data partners who care about the people behind the data are essential collaborators.

  • Developing a shared engagement metric like an activity score can help narrow research focus and create common language.

  • UX researchers’ storytelling and cross-functional skills position them uniquely to lead collaboration with data teams.

  • Opportunity solution trees provide a useful framework for aligning product goals, user problems, and possible solutions across teams.

  • Ethical concerns about striving for more engagement should be constantly revisited; more use is not always better.

  • Employee experience and customer experience research share many metrics and methods and can inform one another.

  • Proactive collaboration can transform narrow data or qualitative projects into comprehensive, actionable research.

  • Transparency about knowledge limits and honest communication enable trust and effective collaboration between UX and data teams.

Notable Quotes

"If you’re a person who studies people, then you’re a person who understands data."

"Typically we get stuck answering the questions we know we can answer but lose the chance to see the big picture."

"I think we as UX researchers are uniquely positioned to forge bonds with data teams because of our storytelling and cross-functional work."

"Finding out more about these most active users is a key priority this year, said our CEO at the board presentation."

"We can’t be there for every behavior after the nudge, nor do we necessarily want to be."

"Less than a third of respondents feel like they work somewhere with a clear investment in customer-driven decision making."

"You might find that spending the most time getting people interested in collaboration is where the work really happens."

"I invited Mark to a user interview — he had no idea interviewing wasn’t for him but respected that skill deeply."

"We are really good at finding problems, but the opportunity solution tree helps pick the best ones to focus on."

"Sharing your research skills broadly within your company can create unexpected opportunities to improve experiences."

Ask the Rosenbot
Ryan Matthew
DesignOps without Boundaries: Building More with What You Have
2025 • DesignOps Summit 2025
Conference
Aditi Ruiz
A PM State of Mind: Empathy Mapping Your Product Manager, Pt. 1
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Samuel Proulx
Designing for Disability, Innovating for Everyone
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Lija Hogan
Three Years Out: Perspectives on the Near-Term Future of User Research
2024 • Advancing Research Community
John Maeda
About Design Organizations
2019 • DesignOps Community
Llewyn Paine
Coexisting with AI: A practical guide for researchers to navigate tools, ethics, and integration
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Discussion
2017 • Enterprise Experience 2017
Gold
Mujtaba Hameed
Frameworks for Excellence: Using Visual Thinking and Communication to Elevate Your Research
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Gold
Chris Moses
Stretching the Definition of DesignOps with Product Development
2018 • DesignOps Summit 2018
Gold
Roy Opata Olende
How Zapier Uses ‘All Hands Research’ to Increase Exposure to Users
2020 • Advancing Research Community
Anna Avrekh
Expert Panel: Leading in and with Research
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Jon Fukuda
Theme One Intro
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Jason Mesut
Shaping design, designers and teams
2018 • DesignOps Summit 2018
Gold
Sheryl Cababa
Expanding your Design Lens with Systems Thinking
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Bria Alexander
OKRs—Helpful or Harmful?
2022 • DesignOps Community
Billy Carlson
Pro-level UI Tips for Beginners
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold

More Videos

Sam Proulx

"If you’re doing research with people with disabilities, consider using the Accessible Usability Scale to get more accurate insights."

Sam Proulx

SUS: A System Unusable for Twenty Percent of the Population

December 9, 2021

Michael Land

"The biggest bottleneck is the bureaucracy, like the Paperwork Reduction Act, we have to creatively navigate that."

Michael Land

Establishing Design Operations in Government

February 18, 2021

Shipra Kayan

"I spent too much time trying to change company culture and should have focused more on just getting things done."

Shipra Kayan

How we Built a VoC (Voice of the Customer) Practice at Upwork from the Ground Up

September 30, 2021

Ian Swinson

"Innovation is about being fearless, breaking rules, and refusing to stop at the way things have always been done."

Ian Swinson

Designing and Driving UX Careers

June 8, 2016

Isaac Heyveld

"The persona of a goalkeeper is helping to triage and prioritize strategy and work for the executive."

Isaac Heyveld

Expand DesignOps Leadership as a Chief of Staff

September 8, 2022

Amy Evans

"What if product and business actually manage designs and deliver digital communications?"

Amy Evans

How to Create Change

September 25, 2024

Kate Koch

"Teleportation lets us move throughout the organization by building tools that gather disparate data for real-time decision making."

Kate Koch Prateek Kalli

Flex Your Super Powers: When a Design Ops Team Scales to Power CX

September 30, 2021

Dave Gray

"If you do anything with other people, you’re creating culture."

Dave Gray

Liminal Thinking: Sense-making for systems in large organizations

May 14, 2015

Matt Duignan

"Providing immediate tactical value is the big one for just-in-time curation."

Matt Duignan

Atomizing Research: Trend or Trap

March 30, 2020