Summary
A multidisciplinary research team needs a well-crafted framework to guide their behavior, nurture their growth, and cultivate their culture. Otherwise, they feel stuck in growth and unmotivated to collaborate. Through a participatory design, the authors established a three-pillar excellence framework at Uber. First, it focuses on the research impact on product experimentation, products, roadmaps, and the company/organization. Second, it promotes creative research methods that successfully prioritize work, produce and scale rigorous insights, and empower other researchers. Third, it recognizes true partnership cross functional teams and beyond their own product area. This framework worked well at Uber for years, and recently was applied by the authors in Booking.com and Course Hero with some modifications. As this starter framework, they hope all researchers and research leaders can build their own ones based on their situations.
Key Insights
-
•
Develop a framework that balances researcher impact with flexible methodologies tailored to organizational needs.
-
•
Prioritize research projects using a structured scoring system to evaluate potential customer and business impacts.
-
•
Simple research methods can be more effective and easier to implement than complex ones; start with one method and add as necessary.
-
•
Effective partnerships across teams enhance research outcomes and speed up decision-making in product development.
-
•
Communicate research impact clearly to stakeholders to ensure alignment on project priorities and methods.
Notable Quotes
"We developed this research framework during our time at Uber together."
"You really have to start with something, let it grow and evolve, and figure out what works for you."
"Balancing consistent delivery with project prioritization is a key challenge."
"Being simple is extremely complex; very difficult to do."
"Research is more of a science than an art; we strive for reliability and validity in insights."
"The scoring we used at Uber encompassed business impact, customer impact, and teamwork collaboration."
"The insights from user research can often align with business interests, creating mutual benefits."
"We needed to move research upstream to solve problems quickly during product development."
"Recognizing successes through awards can foster an inclusive and motivated research environment."
"Ethics is a very important part of user research and must be considered in every project."
More Videos
"How can we put a chatbot in the product instead of only at the end of the process?"
Noz UrbinaRapid AI-powered UX (RAUX): A framework for empowering human designers
May 1, 2025
"Not just making things up here on stage; there's actually an underlying structure."
Jim KalbachJazz Improvisation as a Model for Team Collaboration
June 4, 2019
"Talking to the people that I work with about the experience of doing their job in order to improve their job experience is probably the most overlooked skill set that we have."
Holly ColeUnderstanding Experiences: When you have to do more than work
November 8, 2018
"When we utilize merge we can fully solve this problem."
Jack BeharHow to Build Prototypes that Behave like an End-Product
December 6, 2022
"If you have questions for the speakers, you really need to put your question in the thread specific to the talk."
Bria AlexanderOpening Remarks
October 3, 2023
"I can't wait to tell the story of how AI can be integrated into our work."
Erika FlowersAI-Readiness: Preparing NASA for a Data-Driven, Agile Future
June 10, 2025
"Equipped with the right tools, we can truly meet students where they are."
Kristin SkinnerFive Years of DesignOps
September 29, 2021
"There are no mistakes, just missed opportunities."
Jim KalbachJazz Improvisation as a Model for Team Collaboration
November 6, 2017
"The purpose of design is to help create a just and equitable world for everyone."
Surya VankaUnleashing Swarm Creativity to Solve Enterprise Challenges
June 10, 2021
