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Summary
Despite all the recent focus on getting the different research disciplines to collaborate, it’s hard enough to simply get them to talk. In this Advancing Research community call, we’ve assembled an impressive group of cross-disciplinary researchers to discuss the challenges of aligning goals, language, and insight across research practices: Jamika Burge, Jem Ahmed, and Chris Geison. Collectively, they represent a variety of research perspectives, ranging from HCI and market research to UX research and data science.
Key Insights
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Cross-functional research requires bridging very different worldviews, languages, and methods between UX, market research, and data science.
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Successful collaboration often fails not for lack of will but due to time constraints, conflicting priorities, and organizational politics.
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Framing research as a collaborative, problem-solving tool—rather than as capability measurement—can reduce fear and resistance.
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There is no one-size-fits-all insight team model; centralized teams, distributed teams, and communities of practice all work depending on company maturity and context.
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High insight maturity shows in willingness to allow analysis and synthesis to take time and space and to appreciate mixed methods triangulation.
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Defining research insights clearly as actionable combinations of experience, emotion, and outcome improves team alignment and business impact.
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Impact is better demonstrated culturally through repeated references and integration in decision-making than by counting metrics or ROI numbers.
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Tools like Jira can help integrate research results into product workflows but require intentional effort to be effective due to tool complexity and adoption barriers.
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There is strong value in democratizing research while balancing rigor to train partners and broaden who contributes to insights.
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Stories about consequences of missing or weak research have persuasive power to drive cultural change more than statistics or reports.
Notable Quotes
"I think really kind of like to be able to do that, it’s really starting at the people, enabling them to figure out how you collaborate."
"If we frame research as a way to measure how not capable you are, people are going to be afraid."
"Most of my good work is born of frustration and being really frank about that."
"If you smush all these things together, you get the perfect whole."
"A research insight is not just a data point; it’s about the experience, the emotion, and the expected outcome."
"User research has to get our shit together because market research has established credibility and clout."
"For me, market success in insights is almost when you become viral inside the company."
"It’s almost a human journey that people need to go on, dealing with fear, vulnerability, and politics."
"I have never found convincing that research impact is measured by how many insights led to product decisions in X days."
"Stories about teams getting reamed for lacking user research can start to shift cultures better than data metrics."
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