Rosenverse

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

Research Democratization: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Gold
Thursday, March 10, 2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Share the love for this talk
Research Democratization: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Speakers: Kathleen Asjes
Link:

Summary

The pros and cons of democratizing user research are heavily debated. Often this is seen as a black and white scenario where we are solely in favour or against it. But what about all the shades of grey we can explore? Depending on the situation there are both benefits and dangers that lie in democratizing our research practice. Kathleen will share her experience with research democratization. Based on this she will show a framework that will help you assess when it is an appropriate tool to further research maturity and when it might derail you.

Key Insights

  • Research democratization empowers non-researchers to conduct studies, increasing organizational empathy and cross-functional collaboration.

  • Organizational research maturity and researcher presence shape when and how democratization is beneficial, according to Kathleen's framework.

  • High research maturity with many researchers ('the Holy Grail') may not require democratization but can still benefit from it to foster empathy.

  • In organizations with enough researchers stuck in tactical work, democratization helps teach others research skills and promotes earlier involvement.

  • Low capacity but high maturity organizations can use democratization to advocate for expanding research teams by involving cross-functional members.

  • Teams with low presence and low maturity face risks of overloading researchers with facilitation duties rather than gaining strategic research time.

  • Research done by democratized teams often lacks depth and rigor initially but fosters broader organizational understanding and alignment.

  • Research democratization risks include duplicated efforts, siloed insights, administrative overhead, and potential misuse to validate preconceived ideas.

  • Practitioner Greg Bernstein suggests researchers should spend more time actually doing research rather than solely enabling democratization.

  • Different levels of democratization exist, from passive observation to fully independent research by product managers and designers without researcher involvement.

Notable Quotes

"If you have to choose between doing bad research or no research at all, you're better off not doing it - Lisa Reichelt."

"Research democratization is all about empowering people who are not researchers to start doing research themselves."

"Research democratization can be a very useful tool to help others learn by doing firsthand and understand the value of early-stage research."

"Doing democratized research sometimes leads to research happening in silence, with teams duplicating efforts and not sharing insights."

"The idea that democratizing research will give you more time for strategic work is almost a fallacy."

"By letting people try research firsthand, they understand how hard it is and why deep expertise from researchers is needed."

"Research democratization can help nurture empathy and create a deeper connection between researchers and other teams."

"I’m actually changing my mind: if you hire a researcher, let them do research rather than just enable others - Greg Bernstein."

"Involving executives in research sessions can generate more buy-in and positive energy around research initiatives."

"There’s not one standard for democratization—some see involving people in observation as democratization, others mean full independent research."

Ask the Rosenbot
Sam Proulx
Designing For Screen Readers: Understanding the Mental Models and Techniques of Real Users
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Uday Gajendar
Theme Four Intro
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Mohammad Hossein Jarrahi
Contextuality problem: Exploring the Benefits of Qualitative and Quantitative Research
2023 • QuantQual Interest Group (Rosenfeld Community)
Paula Bach
Improving Legacy Software: How Much Better Does it Have to Be?
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Joe Meersman
Use AI to Drive Outcomes that Go Beyond the Design Sprint
2024 • DesignOps 2024
Gold
Louis Rosenfeld
Opening Remarks
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Dave Malouf
Theme 3: Introduction and Provocation
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Sam Proulx
To Boldly Go: The New Frontiers of Accessibility
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Monty Hammontree
The Future of UX Research (Videoconference)
2020 • Advancing Research Community
Louis Rosenfeld
Opening Remarks
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Christian Crumlish
Introduction by our Conference Chair
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Shawna Hein
Create a Cohesive Civic Design Practice Across Agency, Vendors, and Contracts
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Magdalena Zadara
Zero Hour: How to Get Far Quickly When Starting Your Digital Service Unit Late
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Rachael Dietkus, LCSW
Everything You Need to Know about the Civic Design 2022 Call for Presentations (Videoconference)
2022 • Civic Design Community
Weidan Li
[Case Study] Qualitative synthesis with ChatGPT: Better or worse than human intelligence?
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold
Kara Kane
Communities of Practice for Civic Design (Videoconference)
2022 • Civic Design Community

More Videos

"Users’ perception predicts attrition and paid referrals — design absolutely matters when people decide to buy or go."

Standardizing Product Merits for Leaders, Designers, and Everyone

June 15, 2018

Simon Wardley

"Building a map is like learning to play chess—you have to see the board to decide your move."

Simon Wardley

Maps and Topographical Intelligence (Videoconference)

January 31, 2019

Sandra Camacho

"There’s a gap between intentions and impact; humility is needed to close it."

Sandra Camacho

Creating More Bias-Proof Designs

January 22, 2025

Darian Davis

"I held Jeff accountable by expecting criticism to come with rationale and intentional improvement."

Darian Davis

Lessons from a Toxic Work Relationship

January 8, 2024

Fisayo Osilaja

"My goal today is to showcase how generative AI can go beyond just speeding up our processes and actually catapult us in our career."

Fisayo Osilaja

[Demo] The AI edge: From researcher to strategist

June 4, 2024

Uday Gajendar

"Craft should evolve from making a beautiful final object to serving as a facilitative anchor in enterprise UX."

Uday Gajendar

The Wicked Craft of Enterprise UX

May 13, 2015

Davis Neable

"What’s so difficult about designing a login? On the surface, it’s simple, but the real challenge was cultural alignment across business units."

Davis Neable Guy Segal

How to Drive a Design Project When you Don’t Have a Design Team

June 10, 2021

Eniola Oluwole

"TripAdvisor is really nine major business units each thinking like sub companies instead of one end-to-end user experience."

Eniola Oluwole

Lessons From the DesignOps Journey of the World's Largest Travel Site

October 24, 2019

Aurobinda Pradhan

"The operational glue that binds strategy, execution, and measurement in design is often missing, and that’s critical for scaling."

Aurobinda Pradhan Shashank Deshpande

Introduction to Collaborative DesignOps using Cubyts

September 9, 2022