Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.
Log in Create free account100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.
Summary
For the next Advancing Research Community Call, we’re going to switch things up. We’ll be breaking into small discussion groups to get thoughts from you about the current challenges, opportunities, and key themes for the future of research. You’ll have the opportunity to facilitate or contribute to your group’s discussion of the burning issues in our field. How are you thinking about users, participants, stakeholders, and communities we serve? What changes do you see to the frameworks, toolkits, and methods we apply to understanding the problem space? Into which areas (e.g., industry, academia, government, nonprofit) can research move and from which areas can research borrow; where are the opportunities for us to bridge divides? Join us on June 17th to share and learn what’s next for the practice of research.
Key Insights
-
•
Killing a product can be one of the most impactful outcomes of user research, as noted by Tony from group one.
-
•
Inclusion in research must account for multiple dimensions including sexuality, neurodiversity, and ethnicity, as discussed by Monday in group four.
-
•
Democratization of research is expanding the number of people involved, increasing diversity but also creating challenges in specialization, highlighted by John in group eight.
-
•
There is a growing need for governance and rigor in research methodologies to maintain quality amid democratization, emphasized by group six.
-
•
Cross-organizational communication remains a challenge; leveraging existing tools like newsletters and wikis can improve insight sharing beyond research silos, as observed by group nine.
-
•
Ethical considerations like privacy and security need to become mainstream topics championed by UX researchers within their organizations, per Sheila in group three.
-
•
Impact measurement often focuses on business outcomes, but some fear this narrows research’s broader value and language of influence, according to group ten.
-
•
There is potential in laddering stakeholder involvement from passive viewers of research artifacts to active co-researchers, a concept discussed by group ten.
-
•
Democratization involves teaching others which could reduce time dedicated to doing actual research work, creating tension, noted by group six.
-
•
Specialized roles such as DesignOps and UX recruiters are emerging with research’s expansion, offering new career pathways, as brought up by group eight.
Notable Quotes
"One of the most important parts of our job is killing the product."
"We hope that topics like privacy, security, and ethics become more amplified and mainstream throughout the organization."
"People are talking the talk about diversity and inclusion, but the fear is, are they really walking the walk?"
"The pyramid has gotten so much larger; the number of people feeling special at the bottom is growing."
"We need more governance and rigor around methodologies rather than just democratization."
"Connectivity and communication across organizational silos like product, marketing, and sales is key to advancing research impact."
"The ladder of engagement for stakeholders could range from watching videos to becoming co-researchers with us."
"The existing insights repositories aren’t engaging other parts of the organization effectively."
"Assuming business language is the ultimate goal can preclude other valuable perspectives in research impact."
"There are more and more specialized roles emerging as research expands, like DesignOps and UX recruiting."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"During roadmapping time, let's bring our roadmaps together and discover synergies."
Brad Peters Anne MamaghaniShort Take #1: UX/Product Lessons from Your Industry Peers
December 6, 2022
"You don’t have to be a designer to participate; over 90% of our community are not design professionals."
Lona MooreScaling Design Beyond Designers
June 11, 2021
"The interface becomes a radically adaptive surface—an intelligent canvas that reacts to your behavior and context."
Josh Clark Veronika KindredSentient Design, AI, and the Radically Adaptive Experience (1st of 3 seminars)
January 15, 2025
"We’re starting to see the role of the central researcher shift more towards coaching than just doing research themselves."
Erin May Roberta Dombrowski Laura Oxenfeld Brooke HintonDistributed, Democratized, Decentralized: Finding a Research Model to Support Your Org
March 10, 2022
"AI moderation, in short, is a large language model that runs a moderated interview session without a human researcher present."
Tara TresselInvestigating qualitative depth of AI-moderated interviews
March 10, 2026
"Governance is not policing; we're here to help you create the best experience and save time."
Charles Lee Jennie YipBuilding a New Home for the Atlassian Design System
October 22, 2020
"The future of education lies in collaboration and adaptation."
Kristin SkinnerFive Years of DesignOps
September 29, 2021
"But what’s the so what? Get to the point and don’t make me wait."
Megan BlockerGetting to the “So What?”: How Management Consulting Practices Can Transform Your Approach to Research
March 26, 2024
"Shared mental models serve as organizing frameworks that all players in the system can understand and make decisions within."
Shanti Mathew Natalie Sims Natalia RadywylCivic Design at Scale: Introducing the Public Policy Layer Cake
December 9, 2021