Video: Collaboration: learning from other fields beyond our own [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]

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Collaboration: learning from other fields beyond our own [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]

Wednesday, August 7, 2024 • Advancing Research Community

Jemma Ahmed

Advancing Research Curator

Subhasree Chatterjee

Data Analytics Manager, LexisNexis Legal & Professional

Robert Fabricant

Co-Founder & Partner, Dalberg Design

Alexandra Jayeun Lee

Director of Research and Data Science, Microsoft

Ben Robins

Founder, Sound Insights

Summary

For the best part of 15 years, user researchers have been experimenting with how to collaborate and join up insights and practices with data analytics, market research, CX, and more. As ad hoc and sometimes structural collaborations start to become the norm, we will be taking a step back and asking ourselves... As we become more joined up are there still fundamental differences between market and user researchers? Are we becoming people who just do research? And if we are, what does that mean for our field? Where should the balance lie between generalization and specialization? And what might happen if we look to collaborate and learn outside of our own insight-generating field, and start collaborating with communities beyond our walls? Attend all of our Advancing Research community workshops Each free virtual workshop is made up of panelists who will share short provocations on engaging ideas to discuss as a group, as well as a leader in our field to moderate. If you're looking for discussions that challenge the status quo and can truly advance research, look no further than our workshop series. (P.S. We’ll be drawing most of our Advancing Research 2025 conference speakers from those who present at upcoming workshops—so tune in for a sneak peek of what's to come from #AR2025!) July 24, 4-5pm EDT Watch Video Theme 1: Democratization Working with it, not against August 7, 11am-12pm EDT Watch Video Theme 2: Collaboration Learning from market research, data science, customer experience, and more August 21, 4-5pm EDT Watch Video Theme 3: Communication Innovative techniques for making your voice heard September 4, 11am-12pm EDT Watch Video Theme 4: Methods Expanding the UXR toolkit beyond interviews September 18, 4-5pm EDT Watch Video Theme 5: Artificial Intelligence Passionate defenses, reasoned critiques, and practical application October 2, 11am-12pm EDT Watch Video Theme 6: Junctures for UXR Possible futures and the critical decisions to move us forward October 16, 4-5pm EDT Watch Video Theme 7: Open Call Propose ideas that don’t match our other workshops’ themes

Key Insights

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Collaboration strengthens insight quality and organizational standing but requires intentional culture change and relationship-building.
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Trust and credibility are foundational to democratizing insights across teams and stakeholders.
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Combining qualitative UX research with quantitative data analytics provides a fuller picture of customer pain points.
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Specialists need to adopt a 'learn it all' mindset, remaining open to being proven wrong as fields evolve rapidly.
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Long-term collaboration involves continuous investment in personal relationships and emotional regulation.
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Research insights are not static objects but dynamically meaningful only within the contexts they are shared and acted upon.
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Power dynamics influence collaboration, especially when engaging marginalized or vulnerable communities, requiring participatory and advisory models.
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Vertical knowledge extraction should transition toward horizontal knowledge co-creation with communities and users.
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Different organizations and teams require tailored collaboration approaches; there is no one-size-fits-all.
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Collaborative work incurs costs but brings high ROI by enabling better decision-making and more inclusive innovation.