Summary
In this insightful conversation, Mike, a seasoned design lead with 10-15 years of experience including at Twitter and now Kraken, discusses his evolving understanding and advocacy for research within tech organizations. He admits to not being a traditional researcher but strongly supports elevating research as a core function that saves time and informs better decisions. Mike highlights how early in his career, design was often disconnected from solid user data, but working with Twitter’s large, world-class research team opened his eyes to global user diversity and failures. At Kraken, where the mission is global cryptocurrency adoption for financial inclusion, research faces unique challenges given privacy and remote work. Mike stresses the importance of equitable compensation for researchers equal to engineers, delegating decisions to trusted research leads such as Chloe at Kraken, and building scalable research orgs with balanced manager-to-individual contributor ratios. He also advocates creating internal champions at all levels, especially leadership, to sustain research investment. The talk covers practical advice on hiring, onboarding, and integrating cross-functional teams while encouraging team members to contribute beyond narrow roles. Mike closes with tactical guidance to mirror engineering career frameworks for research roles to ease pay equity conversations and organizational clarity.
Key Insights
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Early-career design often lacked access to rigorous research and relied on superficial metrics like page views.
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Working at Twitter exposed Mike to the vast ways products fail users globally, not just those in tech-savvy regions.
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Research should be seen as a time-saving function that prevents costly engineering missteps.
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Researchers and designers should receive equal pay and respect as engineers in tech companies.
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Building support for research internally requires creating champions at the highest organizational levels.
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Effective research orgs need balanced growth with individual contributors and managers to avoid overload or top-heaviness.
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Remote research presents unique challenges related to privacy, especially in sensitive financial contexts like crypto.
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Delegation becomes critical as teams grow—leaders must trust and empower capable research leads.
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Encouraging team members to get 'outside their lane' fosters continuous improvement in team processes.
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Mirroring engineering career frameworks for research positions simplifies pay equity and promotion discussions.
Notable Quotes
"I know less about research than anybody at this entire conference, I guarantee."
"The only way for us to get to the bottom of failing our users is to invest heavily in research."
"Designers and researchers should get paid like engineers — tech companies have valued engineers for decades now."
"Research is there to save you time, not take up time."
"If you do research right, you avoid sending your entire engineering team down roads to nowhere."
"Find your champion as high up in the company as possible—CEO, head of design, CTO."
"You can’t see every little pixel that goes out the door anymore when the team grows large."
"Your remit is improving the team, and that includes helping with recruiting, onboarding, and cross-team collaboration."
"Many engineering teams would rather go the road to nowhere than take the time to do research because of hubris or lack of exposure to great research."
"Just mirror engineering career paths and titles exactly for research—it stops all the extra chatter."
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