Summary
Designers are the driving force in today’s user research landscape. In this workshop, Prayag Narula, CEO & Co-Founder of Marvin, will discuss how good design is a competitive advantage that enhances the customer experience when you embed research into your process. Learn how design teams can use the tools and methodologies of trained researchers so the whole company benefits from a collaborative and repeatable approach to research.
Key Insights
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Design and research cannot succeed in isolation—they need each other for effective outcomes.
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Good designers recognize the necessity of research and actively want to collaborate with researchers.
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Research teams should move from reactive project execution to proactively shaping product strategy.
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Researchers need to empower designers and product managers to conduct their own research to scale insights.
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Cultural and practical organizational changes are required for research and design collaboration to be effective.
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No research is fully unbiased; acknowledging and surfacing biases is vital for better insights.
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Embedding researchers within cross-functional product teams drives strategic impact on product roadmaps.
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Sharing ongoing research via short video clips, quotes, and quick readouts is more impactful than large reports.
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Both researchers and designers can and should contribute to usability and foundational research, blurring traditional role lines.
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The primary function of a research team is to build a culture of research rather than just executing studies.
Notable Quotes
"Design plus research is better than design alone."
"Good designers understand you cannot design what you do not understand."
"Research doesn’t exist in a vacuum; if insights don’t translate to good design, research is wasted."
"Your job as a research team is to build a culture of research, not just respond to requests."
"There aren’t enough researchers to do all the user research; designers need to help conduct research."
"Unbiased qualitative research does not exist; the best we can do is acknowledge and call out our biases."
"Researchers should coach designers and PMs with scaffolding to do research properly."
"Don’t wait to share learnings until the end; share insights and video clips as you go."
"Most senior researchers should focus on strategic research rather than basic usability testing."
"Changing mindsets is hard, but the shift to collaborative design research is the next evolution of design thinking."
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