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Summary
Three of your research colleagues discussed and defended their respective positions on making UX leadership more effective in this Advancing Research community workshop. Participants engaged with them in a discussion and Q&A, facilitated by Peter Merholz. “UX Research leaders of tomorrow need to stand tall, assert themselves, and take a seat at the table because we have a purpose and companies cannot afford to make investment decisions based on intuition.” – Sarah Alvarado “Move out of your UX org.” – Nalini Kotamraju “Most organizations talk a good prioritization game but fail to actually prioritize their projects, creating the perfect opportunity for Research leadership. Developing and maintaining a stack-ranked ruthless prioritization of projects has the power to grow Research headcount and budget and elevate Research strategically while minimizing researcher overwork.” – Anne Mamaghani
Key Insights
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UX research leadership must shift from justifying its existence to driving strategic decisions at the highest organizational level.
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Positioning UX research as an independent, unbiased pillar rather than under design or product teams increases leadership effectiveness.
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UX research leaders often have greater influence when their teams report outside traditional UX organizations.
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Saying no to low-impact or overly evaluative research is essential to avoid spreading research teams too thin and losing strategic value.
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Prioritization is a key leadership tool, requiring negotiation and honest communication with stakeholders about what research can and cannot be done.
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Democratization of research through non-researchers is beneficial only with strong leadership partnership and organizational support.
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Effective research portfolio management balances immediate evaluative work with long-term strategic initiatives and innovation projects.
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Understanding organizational politics, allyship, and influence tactics is crucial to advancing a research agenda within complex companies.
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Building researcher confidence and domain expertise enables researchers to contribute opinionated perspectives and lead prioritization.
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UX researchers often fail to apply user research principles internally on organizational leaders, causing a gap in understanding stakeholder behaviors and motivations.
Notable Quotes
"It’s time for us to shift our focus away from justifying our existence to leveraging our skills to drive strategy and measure impact."
"UX leadership can’t really lead the way it should while it’s within a UX organization."
"UX research teams are spread way too thin, and they need to start saying no to research."
"Research leaders need to build that spreadsheet of prioritized projects and set a red line for what can’t be done."
"Democratization models sound great, but in practice, people have full loads and can’t just squeeze research on top."
"Strong trust and partnership with design or product leaders is essential for successful research democratization."
"The prioritization dance is more like conducting an orchestra—balancing many voices for collective agreement."
"Sometimes you have to put projects on the roadmap simply to build trust or support pet projects with potential."
"UX researchers are great at applying their methods to external users but terrible at applying them to their own leaders."
"A research roadmap should include near-term actionable work and strategic projects that illuminate the path forward."
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