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
If you’ve followed LinkedIn of late, it’s clear that UX researchers are frustrated. They feel their work is undervalued, their strategic contributions are marginalized, and their jobs have been made redundant. Multiple fingers have been pointed in multiple directions, and—as you’d expect from social media—the discussion has often ended up in a decidedly sour place. In light of The big design freakout and the UX research reckoning, there is an important conversation to be had about the changing roles of research, design, and product, and where we go from here. In light of this, Rosenfeld’s Advancing Research community is hosting a panel of respected, collaborative, and opinionated experts from the disciplines/functions at the core of this changing dynamic: Jamika Burge, Teresa Torres, Robert Fabricant, Noam Segal, and Peter Merholz—to stop litigating the past, and engage in a positive, constructive conversation about the future of UX research. Panelists: Jamika Burge, Robert Fabricant, Noam Segal, Teresa Torres Moderated by: Peter Merholz
Key Insights
-
•
UX research must balance human-centered insights with business alignment to demonstrate practical value.
-
•
AI presents opportunities for continuous user research but raises concerns about biases and transparency.
-
•
Democratizing research helps more team members engage with customers but requires quality safeguards.
-
•
Specialized UX researchers remain essential for complex studies and longitudinal work despite broader participation.
-
•
Organizational maturity influences how successfully research democratization can be implemented.
-
•
Change management is a critical and often overlooked skill for advancing UX research’s role in organizations.
-
•
There is no single clear framework for defining good research quality across contexts and roles.
-
•
Research quality can be evaluated through reliability, validity, and ultimately the impact on product outcomes.
-
•
Terms like 'democratization' may oversimplify evolving roles and should give way to conversations about role evolution.
-
•
Effective sharing and storytelling of research insights is crucial for driving organizational learning and ethical decision-making.
Notable Quotes
"How do we show the value of the work that enables us to really advocate for the humans whom we are serving?"
"Building for humans is a huge challenge; people are multi-layered, weird, and irrational."
"We need all of the above: skilled research and everyday conversations with customers across the org."
"There will always be more work to do than we can do; democratizing allows better leverage of our skills."
"If you’re just having a beer with someone, that’s not research, but collecting data for decisions is research."
"The ultimate measure is did we build the right thing and did it have the expected impact?"
"I’m not teaching teams to do longitudinal studies; I’m teaching fast, specific interviews for quick answers."
"Change management is the work to be done to move organizations towards being insight-driven."
"AI may begin offsetting the role of researchers by acting as proxies, aggregating data and conducting interviews."
"We should move past democratization as a word and instead focus on how our roles are evolving."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"The hardest part about remote is making design reviews feel collaborative and team-based."
Adam Cutler Karen Pascoe Ian Swinson Susan WorthmanDiscussion
June 8, 2016
"We don’t get upset when users say one thing and do another, but we freak out when our leadership behaves that way."
Peter MerholzThe Trials and Tribulations of Directors of UX (Videoconference)
July 13, 2023
"In the automotive industry, most safety standards only became mandatory after governments intervened."
Lisa WelchmanCleaning Up Our Mess: Digital Governance for Designers
June 14, 2018
"Sustainable practices are not just a luxury; they are a necessity for our survival."
Vincent BrathwaiteOpener: Past, Present, and Future—Closing the Racial Divide in Design Teams
October 22, 2020
"If you forget the individual, you cut out psychological safety, and that’s the foundation of strong teams."
Brenna FallonLearning Over Outcomes
October 24, 2019
"Most organizations are still asking design questions at a global level; we need to be hyper-local now."
Tricia WangSpatial Collapse: Designing for Emergent Culture
January 8, 2024
"Creating hypotheses from pain points with measurable success criteria helped prioritize which to pursue."
Edgar Anzaldua MorenoUsing Research to Determine Unique Value Proposition
March 11, 2021
"The toy shouldn’t be the goal of play, but a tool or a process that unlocks the unlimited possibilities set forth before a child."
Designing Systems at Scale
November 7, 2018
"Design is the rendering of intent — bringing ideas into a form people can interact with to solve problems, as Jared Spool said."
Erin WeigelGet Your Whole Team Testing to Design for Impact
July 24, 2024
