Solve a Problem Here, Transform a Strategy There: Research as an Occasion for Expanding Organizational Possibility
Summary
Researchers use our work to drive organizational action, by closing knowledge gaps, clarifying user needs, or identifying opportunities. But the extent of that action is often limited. We frequently want our research to be about strategy, but that's not how organizations usually work. Our stakeholders want tactical research on tight timelines. By contrast, Peter highlights a different, and distinctive, approach to making strategic impact: considering research as a form of "robust action," work that solves specific problems while visibly expanding the organization's field of future possibility. Peter gives examples of work he’s done in this fashion at Intel, Autodesk, and Airtable, and provides some guiding principles to help make our work more valuable.
Key Insights
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User researchers often work as individual contributors without direct organizational power to enact large change.
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Strategic research creates new fields of future possibility by challenging core organizational beliefs.
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Intel’s 1998 cell phone ethnography foresaw mobile’s importance but was ignored due to organizational culture focused on profit margins and existing product categories.
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Airtable's 2021 usability study by Andy War questioned the company’s simplicity assumptions, leading to prioritized fixes and a push toward product simplicity.
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Robust action, inspired by chess grandmasters, involves making moves that preserve flexibility and open multiple future options rather than rigid forecasting.
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Solving immediate 'right here' problems can be aligned with longer-term transformational goals to mobilize robust action.
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Small, tractable research projects can spawn green shoots for organizational innovation, as seen in Intel’s 'silicon on demand' and Autodesk’s AutoCAD Trace.
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Cross-functional collaboration with people outside research is crucial for making research visible and actionable within an organization.
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Understanding your organization’s culture, priorities, and leadership concerns helps in selecting impactful research questions.
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Intuition plays a key role in discerning whether solving a ‘right here’ problem can lead to larger strategic change.
Notable Quotes
"I am an individual contributor living and breathing inside the organizational environment, not a manager who can move things around."
"Intel’s research on cell phones was unbelievably insightful but the company did nothing because it conflicted with their profit margin and core product beliefs."
"Robust action means making early moves to preserve flexibility and open up opportunity, not trying to forecast 50 steps ahead."
"Nobody actually cares that we’re better researchers. The question should be, what makes us different? What makes us distinctive?"
"Right here problems are the questions your PM asks you to fix this quarter to move forward."
"Most user researchers do not get tapped to solve grand challenges or outdated business models."
"Organizations are much better at making something better than they are at doing something new."
"If you don’t know where you are going, try to make the organization more flexible and open to possibilities."
"Sometimes making a terrible first big change is a success because it enables the next person to improve upon it."
"Be a narrative interpreter of your organization’s experience—understand its origin story, DNA, and what leadership cares about."
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