Summary
Research teams are at the frontier of uncovering valuable insights that can inform products, services, and strategy choices. Few researchers in large organizations have the visibility and buy-in to exert influence across all of product, engineering, customer success, marketing, and overall organizational direction. How do you break down silos and maximize the impact of your research? Join us in conversation with Joanna Vodopivec, Principal Design Researcher at Intuit, to learn how she makes her team’s research relevant to colleagues in product, marketing, and services, and the latest initiatives she has led to enable the research team to be truly seen in a large organization. You will also hear the creative approaches Joanna and her team take to engage and influence, even when working remotely.
Key Insights
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Effective research collaboration requires building trust and mutual respect across different organizational teams.
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Distributed research teams within a large company like Intuit often lack a single leadership structure, making coordination complex.
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Partnering with market researchers to add targeted questions to existing surveys can reveal valuable product insights.
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Inviting non-researchers (e.g., customer success, tax experts) to participate in research sessions enhances shared understanding and buy-in.
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Early involvement of cross-functional partners in prototype development uncovers important design adjustments before launch.
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Video presentations of research findings help engage a broader audience and facilitate cross-silo knowledge-sharing.
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Embedding research updates into Slack and tagging relevant team members enables asynchronous engagement with busy development teams.
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Senior researchers should proactively propose new, inspiring research initiatives beyond direct stakeholder asks.
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Addressing reluctance from customer-facing teams about revealing product weaknesses requires starting with positive feedback and building relationships.
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A shift from a solely product-focused to a product-plus-service approach requires adapting research and collaboration methods.
Notable Quotes
"Customer obsession is actually one of our key values, which makes my job as a researcher easier."
"Breaking down organizational silos requires building trust and relationships based on mutual respect."
"Collaborating with another researcher with the same methodology and skillset makes aligning goals and questions seamless."
"Partnering with marketing teams opened doors and helped us understand the size and significance of promise-to-pay gaps."
"Inviting other teams into research sessions increased rigor, allowing us to triangulate points of view from different disciplines."
"Bringing cross-functional partners in early helped us learn before the product was even built."
"Video parties allow teams to engage with research findings more compellingly than decks or report readouts."
"We embed research into Slack channels with live updates and tag stakeholders so they can follow asynchronously."
"Building good relationships with marketing and market research partners takes time but is invaluable."
"Starting presentations with positive feedback helps overcome resistance from teams used to shielding weak spots."
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