Rosenverse

Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.

Log in Create free account

100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.

Landing Product Impact: Aligning Research as a Foundational Driver for Delivering the World’s Best Products (Videoconference)
Friday, December 15, 2023 • QuantQual Interest Group (Rosenfeld Community)
Share the love for this talk
Landing Product Impact: Aligning Research as a Foundational Driver for Delivering the World’s Best Products (Videoconference)
Speakers: Renee Bouwens
Link:

Summary

Rather than spend all our time validating product decisions late in the development lifecycle, researchers can (and should!) drive innovation. This interactive discussion will set researchers up with tools and product knowledge to impact change in roadmaps. Participants will hear real-world examples and learn how to drive a research roadmap against business strategy goals and KPIs and create stronger partnerships with Product.

Key Insights

  • Research impact is increasingly critical due to tech layoffs and AI uncertainties.

  • Lack of visibility and executive buy-in significantly hampers research influence.

  • Agile practices are often poorly implemented, leading to 'agile fall' where research happens too late.

  • Product managers and requirements engineers sometimes conduct research without formal training, introducing bias.

  • Embedded research teams build strong triads with product and design but face challenges from shifting priorities.

  • Research teams can also function as standalone service organizations, gaining strategic focus but losing roadmap impact.

  • Building relationships beyond design—especially with product owners, analytics, and engineering—is key to driving impact.

  • Tying every research effort explicitly to business KPIs and customer outcomes improves prioritization.

  • Diverse research methods must be used strategically; usability testing is often misapplied and over-relied upon.

  • Researchers must advocate internally by publishing insights clearly, maintaining research repositories, and influencing prioritization.

Notable Quotes

"Impact now and actually showing the value of research is more critical than ever."

"Product moves weird. They are delivery focused, not data or excellence focused."

"Quality doesn’t matter. We’re bringing in $90 billion a year, so we don’t need to focus on user experience."

"We’re stuck in a reactive state, and that’s chipping away at our ability to have impact."

"Requirements engineers doing research without training creates an incredible amount of bias."

"Research often fits in after design is 100% baked, leading to unusable late-stage usability testing."

"If your research can’t tie a line to top-level KPIs, it’s just validation, not impact."

"Analytics and research should be partners—analytics finds issues, research explains why."

"Researchers need to understand product managers as the cruise directors who prioritize delivery."

"Being nimble and scrappy is essential to survive and have impact in product research roles."

Ask the Rosenbot
Jose Coronado
People First - Design at JP Morgan
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Sarah Williams
A Framework for CX Transformation
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Sean Dolan
A Practical Look at Creating More Usable Enterprise Customer Journeys (Videoconference)
2019 • Enterprise Community
Renee Bouwens
Landing Product Impact: Aligning Research as a Foundational Driver for Delivering the World’s Best Products (Videoconference)
2023 • QuantQual Interest Group (Rosenfeld Community)
Adrian Howard
Sturgeon’s Biases
2024 • DesignOps 2024
Gold
Anna Avrekh
Expert Panel: Leading in and with Research
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Edward Cupps
The Principal Path: Journeying from Management to Individual Contributor
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Sam Proulx
Designing For Screen Readers: Understanding the Mental Models and Techniques of Real Users
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Kristin Skinner
Group Activity: A Deep Dive Into Value and Outcomes
2019 • DesignOps Summit 2019
Gold
Anna Avrekh
User Research, Design, and Product - A Love Story
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Sandra Camacho
Creating More Bias-Proof Designs
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Lada Gorlenko
Theme 3: Introduction
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
April Reagan
Look, Think, Act: The Futures-Smart Design Organization
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Jules Monza
Use These Words and Count These Things
2024 • DesignOps 2024
Gold
Mariah Hay
BUILD: Discussion
2018 • Enterprise Experience 2018
Gold
Prayag Narula
Empowering Designers to do Good Research
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold

More Videos

"Many designers feel overwhelmed by hundreds of expected skills, which creates paralysis about where to focus."

Shaping design, designers and teams

November 8, 2018

Sabrina Mach

"A design system is our hero here—it acts as a single source of truth facilitating collaboration among design and technology."

Sabrina Mach Nina Wainwright

How to Design Your Design Operating Model

September 29, 2021

Samuel Proulx

"As we age, we all face some cognitive or physical challenges. Accessibility helps our future selves."

Samuel Proulx

Invisible barriers: Why accessible service design can’t be an afterthought

December 3, 2024

Saara Kamppari-Miller

"Meeting designers where they spend their time and integrating accessibility into their tools is the most effective way to drive adoption."

Saara Kamppari-Miller

DesignOps for Inclusive Design and Accessibility (Videoconference)

May 26, 2022

Briana Thomas

"We didn’t chase shiny objects; we gave creatives access to tools to inspire the future of creativity."

Briana Thomas

The Quiet Force: Uncovering Hidden Leadership in High-Impact Design Teams

September 24, 2024

Adam Cutler

"You need strong regional players with negotiation skills to navigate the split loyalties in global teams."

Adam Cutler Karen Pascoe Ian Swinson Susan Worthman

Discussion

June 8, 2016

"By building tools around the natural workflow and how work was being done, we moved faster and worked more productively."

Operationalizing DesignOps

November 7, 2018

Leah Buley

"When in doubt, make pictures. Drawing takes control of the conversation and makes it concrete."

Leah Buley Joe Natoli

Ask Me Anything with Leah Buley and Joe Natoli, co-authors of The User Experience Team of One (2nd edition)

October 8, 2024

Nathan Shedroff

"Most strategy is done pretty poorly; it's misleading, sloppy, and often ignored after it's produced."

Nathan Shedroff

Double Your Mileage: Use Your Research Strategically

March 31, 2020