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Research Democratization: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Gold
Thursday, March 10, 2022 • Advancing Research 2022
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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."

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