Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.
Log in Create free account100s 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
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
-
•
Current market turmoil and AI emergence make demonstrating research impact crucial for job security.
-
•
Lack of visibility and CEO buy-in heavily limits research influence in product organizations.
-
•
"Agile fall" describes organizations that follow agile ceremonies superficially but skip true test-and-learn practices.
-
•
Product managers and requirements engineers often conduct research inadequately, introducing bias and devaluing insights.
-
•
Embedding researchers within product teams builds trust and domain expertise but is vulnerable to shifting priorities and leadership noise.
-
•
Strong collaboration with product owners is essential for research to influence prioritization and roadmaps effectively.
-
•
Aligning research activities explicitly with business KPIs and outcomes increases organizational impact.
-
•
Using diverse research methods—not just usability testing—tailored to the right stage improves insight quality and timing.
-
•
Maintaining accessible, updated research repositories tied to KPIs helps increase team and organizational awareness of research value.
-
•
Researchers must be nimble, scrappy, and proactive advocates to position themselves strategically in complex organizations.
Notable Quotes
"The sum is greater than the parts—how qualitative and quantitative research play together."
"I think the world we’re in is definitely not antagonistic to research, there’s a huge opportunity right now."
"We’re capturing requirements usually without research, design has to be 100% baked before development starts."
"It’s either too late in the product cycle and we’re wasting money because we find usability issues after development."
"Product managers are often prioritization focused, so they can bias themselves in research decisions."
"At Meta, one product partner said quality doesn’t matter because we’re bringing in $90 billion a year."
"Research is seen as an adjunct to design, often missed in road mapping and strategic planning."
"Every report should say this research is tied to this KPI, here’s the outcome we want to address."
"Analytics and research should work closely to explain what is happening and why it is."
"Being nimble means sometimes you have to throw out academic rigor and just do what’s practical at the moment."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Bringing stakeholders into the kitchen early helped us learn even before sessions started and adjust designs accordingly."
Joanna Vodopivec Prabhas PokharelOne Research Team for All - Influence Without Authority
March 9, 2022
"I didn’t understand just how complex everything was both on the stakeholder and technology side."
Louis Rosenfeld Lashanda Hodge Senongo Akpem Chris HodowanecBecoming a Civic Designer: Making the Move from Private to Public Sector
November 17, 2022
"Lauren Cantor is our house librarian and has made an outstanding contribution to the conference."
Bria AlexanderDay 3 Welcome
September 25, 2024
"Sponsor sessions are so great that people want recordings. They’re not sales pitches."
Uday Gajendar Louis RosenfeldDay 2 Welcome
June 5, 2024
"Confidence is a higher burden in retail because people are giving real money; inaccessible flows cause quick abandonment."
Sam ProulxOnline Shopping: Designing an Accessible Experience
June 7, 2023
"Onboarding isn’t a single event or process, it’s an ecosystem with many touchpoints impacting the new employee experience."
Russ UngerOnboarding: The Ecosystem, not the Afterthought
November 7, 2017
"The constraints in enterprise pushed us to focus more on an employee-centered approach for product decisions."
Catherine DubutBridging Physical and Digital Spaces: Approaches to Retail Service Design
March 18, 2021
"Sentient design is about intelligent interfaces that are aware of context and intent so they can be radically adaptive to user needs in the moment."
Josh Clark Veronika KindredSentient Design: New Postures for AI-Mediated Experiences (2nd of 3 seminars)
January 29, 2025
"If you don’t have those challenges, it’s a lot easier to make it in the corporate world."
Dantley DavisLeadership & Diversity—A Fireside Chat with Dantley Davis
September 17, 2020