"Just Make it Look Good" and Other Ways We're Misunderstood
Summary
Research helps us understand the customer's needs, behaviors, and attitudes, design meets those needs through interaction and visual expertise, and content helps make sure the entire experience is expressed in the customer's language. It seems simple, right? So where does it go wrong? Hear from Compass leaders about how misunderstanding these roles leads to poor collaboration and how we can change the way we work together to deliver incredible customer experiences. Hear from leaders in design, content, and research about the most common ways their role is misunderstood and the impact this has on the customer experience. Learn ways design, content, and research can communicate and collaborate better to collectively create better experiences that scale. Get a better understanding of the unique role design, content, and research play in our customer's lives and how to use each other's secret powers to deliver better customer outcomes.
Key Insights
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User research should be embedded early in the product process, not just used at the end for validation.
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Assumptions baked into product decisions risk missing true user needs—research uncovers these nuances.
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Close partnerships between user researchers, product leaders, and design teams enable aligned expectations and transparency.
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Content design (UX writing) is often under-resourced and treated as a service rather than a strategic partner.
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Starting design with content first wireframes avoids treating words as decoration, reducing last-minute fixes.
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If finding the right words is difficult, this often signals underlying UI interaction problems, not just word issues.
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Ideal content designer to product designer ratio is roughly 1:3, but varies based on product scope and organizational context.
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Hiring junior writers for product writing at the end of the process helps maintain quality and scales content work.
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Finding a champion in leadership and starting with small wins helps teams move towards better research and content integration.
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Collaboration without ego among researchers, designers, and content designers leads to improved product outcomes.
Notable Quotes
"User research is a validation function is a common pitfall, but its real power is uncovering meaningful insights early."
"Our customers actually live in Siberia and they don't want ice cream, they want hot cookies out of the oven."
"If you are spinning trying to make words work over and over, you likely have an interaction problem, not a word problem."
"We often get designed into a corner by trying to fix words at the end instead of involving content designers earlier."
"Start with content first wireframing and avoid lorem ipsum to prevent treating words like decoration."
"A single line of UI text might be a small ask but can have massive impact on customer understanding and experience."
"Collaboration without ego is key to building the right product, not just what one's own interests are."
"Finding a leadership champion and building on small wins creates momentum for integrating research and content."
"Style guides and embedding content systems into design systems help scale content without bottlenecks."
"Content design is nascent and often misunderstood, but embedding content designers improves product clarity and usability."
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