Rosenverse
Your Colleagues are Your Users Too

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.

Your Colleagues are Your Users Too

Gold
Wednesday, March 29, 2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Share the love for this talk
Your Colleagues are Your Users Too
Speakers: Sara Logel
Link:

Summary

We empathize and deeply understand our products’ end users, but do we understand our colleagues and stakeholders to the same level, as they are users of our insights? In this session, we’ll discuss how changing our mindset and better understanding our colleagues can unlock a path to research acceleration.

Key Insights

  • Distinguishing findings from insights is crucial; findings are observations, insights reveal motivations and consequences.

  • Stakeholders are the end users of research outputs and their needs and beliefs shape how they receive information.

  • People react to information that challenges their core beliefs as if facing a physical threat, causing defensive skepticism.

  • Confirmation bias leads people to accept information that aligns with their beliefs and reject what conflicts.

  • Sharing research insights requires tailored communication strategies based on the audience’s familiarity and role.

  • Reports alone may not foster empathy or understanding; interactive and creative methods like workshops and storytelling work better.

  • Knowing the desired outcome of sharing research (e.g., decision-making, empathy-building, buy-in) should guide how it’s presented.

  • Conflict management skills are essential when presenting challenging research insights that may provoke strong reactions.

  • Engagement with research outputs is often stronger when stakeholders are involved early and consistently throughout the project.

  • Creative communication techniques such as persona exercises, highlight reels, and narrative storytelling improve retention and resonance.

Notable Quotes

"Findings are observations with a short shelf life, whereas insights get deep into the why and the consequences."

"Stakeholders are users too; the product we’re sharing is the research and learnings for their decision-making."

"We’re biologically wired to respond to intellectual challenges the same way as physical threats."

"We’re selectively skeptical—skeptical about some things but not others based on what we want to believe."

"If the scale delivers bad news, we jump on and off to check; if it delivers good news, we accept it quickly."

"Empathy doesn’t come from reading a report—you don’t get close to users by just reading data."

"Storytelling helps gain people’s attention, build empathy, and improve understanding and recall of key points."

"Not all learnings lead to crucial conversations, but big insights often do, requiring emotional awareness."

"We need to think about who we’re sharing with, how they might react, and what motivates them."

"Choosing the right output depends on the desired outcome—from quick iterations to gaining senior leadership buy-in."

Ask the Rosenbot
Paul Bakaus
Killing the handoff: Iterating design live in the browser on real production code
2026 • Designing with AI 2026
Gold
Alison Rand
Scaling Impact with Service Design
2021 • DesignOps Community
Louis Rosenfeld
Day 1 Welcome
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Jerome “Axle” Brown
How to Use Self-Directed Learning to Ensure Your Research Insights are Heard and Acted Upon
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Kyle Godbey
Non-linear service design for complex adaptive systems
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Kristin Skinner
Opening Keynote: Org Design for Design Orgs
2017 • DesignOps Summit 2017
Gold
Abby Covert
Stuck? Diagrams Help
2022 • DesignOps Community
Changying (Z) Zheng
Practical DesignOps: From Ideas to Tools That Teams Actually Use
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Alberto Ferreira
Making it Count: Developing a custom digital metric framework that works
2021 • QuantQual Interest Group
Trisha Terhar
Empathizing with the Empowered: Non-Researcher Responses to Democratization
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Frances Yllana
Theme 2 Intro
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Deanna Washington
Connecting the Ops: Plenary Panel and Closing Circle
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Benjamin Wiedmaier
Redefining Toolkits: Unbundling to Create a Perfect Match
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Wendy Johansson
Be a Product Boss!
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Sam Proulx
Accessibility: An Opportunity to Innovate
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Kristin Wisnewski
Measuring What Matters
2019 • DesignOps Summit 2019
Gold

More Videos

Sam Proulx

"What screen readers allow us to do is to jump directly to bits of content that we are interested in to replicate the visual experience of skimming a web page."

Sam Proulx

SUS: A System Unusable for Twenty Percent of the Population

September 29, 2021

Josh Clark

"AI is a design material, not just a tool or function you add to an experience."

Josh Clark Veronika Kindred

Sentient Design, AI, and the Radically Adaptive Experience (1st of 3 seminars)

January 15, 2025

Taylor Klassman

"We have these four pillars—purpose, people, process, and progress—that ground our thinking about UX research's future."

Taylor Klassman

Shaping the Next Era of UX Research: Collaborative Forum

March 11, 2025

Tara Tressel

"AI moderation did not make the research easier. It made it possible under real world constraints."

Tara Tressel

Investigating qualitative depth of AI-moderated interviews

March 10, 2026

Angy Peterson

"Every digital touchpoint is an opportunity to learn more about an individual’s needs, behaviors, interests, and priorities."

Angy Peterson Bob Ainsbury

More Than Technology: Personalized Public Sector Experiences

December 10, 2021

Jemma Ahmed

"People often think qualitative research is easier, but it’s hard and easy in different ways depending on who you are."

Jemma Ahmed Steve Carrod Chris Geison Dr. Shadi Janansefat Christopher Nash

Democratization: Working with it, not against it [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]

July 24, 2024

Erika Flowers

"Hope is the only thing that lets the conversation continue and reach forward."

Erika Flowers

AI-Readiness: Preparing NASA for a Data-Driven, Agile Future

June 10, 2025

Marc Rettig

"The conversation about risk needs to shift to what’s the acceptable amount compared to the value of the opportunity."

Marc Rettig Julie Baher Phil Gilbert Nathan Shedroff

Discussion

May 14, 2015

Jen Briselli

"Psychological safety may not be something you can actively engineer; it emerges from conditions that make learning possible."

Jen Briselli

Learning Is The Engine: Designing & Adapting in a World We Can’t Predict

April 16, 2025