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.
The Future of UX Research
Summary
Monty Hammontree will share his take on the future of User Experience Research and how that extends out beyond traditional UX researchers to everyone trying to bring the customer to the forefront of decision making—to everyone striving to be customer connected and data-driven. It extends out beyond traditional research roles to everyone involved in the product making process, such as, Designer, Product Managers, and Software Engineers. He believes the heart and soul of the future of user research as a discipline lies not in trying to create a dynamic where, “the few endeavor to learn on behalf of the many but rather lies in expanding the role to focus on empowering the many to learn.”
Key Insights
-
•
UX research at Microsoft shifted from a specialist role to a collaborative team sport driving continuous learning and customer connection.
-
•
Satya Nadella’s cultural pillars—growth mindset, empathy, and inclusion—strongly influenced UX research transformation.
-
•
Microsoft's developer division used UX research to triple engaged developers from 2.5 million to nearly 18 million over five years.
-
•
Empathy efforts focus both on customers and internally within product teams to bridge cross-functional collaboration.
-
•
The team created a research playbook emphasizing hypotheses, assumptions, and experiments as common language across disciplines.
-
•
Democratizing research empowers non-researchers but raises concerns about diluting rigor and recognition of researchers.
-
•
Monty’s approach trusts that a critical mass of good learning practices will self-correct poor research behaviors in organizations.
-
•
The research culture prizes learning over being right, celebrating invalidated hypotheses as valuable insights.
-
•
Complementing big data with ‘thick data’ makes research relatable and drives emotional engagement and advocacy.
-
•
Encouraging researchers to become generalists and try skills from other disciplines enriches the team and culture.
Notable Quotes
"Our mission is to empower everybody to learn; not the few learning on behalf of the many."
"Closing the distance is about connecting not only with customers but also between cross-functional team members."
"Satya Nadella’s leadership feels authentic—he puts empathy at the center of everything he does."
"We changed the culture by changing the language, introducing common terms like hypotheses and experiments."
"The fastest way to gain influence is to get somebody else promoted."
"If you get enough good behavior going on, the system corrects itself and susses out the bad."
"People will work harder for people than they will for a number."
"Learning invalidates being right as the currency of research and product decisions."
"We built a Mount Rushmore of design thinking engineers to help the culture resonate with developers."
"Everybody involved in product making should have empathy for each other, not just for the customer."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Seeing product managers and designers’ aha moments when they realize how impactful the tool is was great."
Taylor Jennings Joe Nelson Alex KnollRepository Retrospective: Learnings from Introducing a Central Place for UX Research
March 9, 2022
"Anticipation involves preparatory actions to manage uncertainty about future conditions."
Nicole AleongFuture Orientations to Everyday Life: Futures Anthropology as a Methodology
March 26, 2024
"Innovation is not a spice that you sprinkle on and suddenly magical new things come out."
Jeff GothelfInnovation Studios: the Engines of Enterprise Experimentation
May 14, 2015
"If you don't have dedicated accessibility people, start grassroots by building empathy and rallying teams around user stories."
Saara Kamppari-MillerDesignOps for Inclusive Design and Accessibility
May 26, 2022
"Our culture has diminished a lot of the other things in life that are supposed to give us meaning and put infinite pressure on work."
Tess DixonC'mon Get Happy
September 29, 2021
"Soft skills often are a multiplier on your hard skills—they’re just as valuable, if not more so."
Liam ThurstonWhy Your Design Team Is Quitting, And How To Fix It
June 10, 2022
"Careers as ladders are what HR wants, but careers aren’t linear; they should be a jungle gym."
Ian SwinsonDesigning and Driving UX Careers
June 8, 2016
"My kids know everything. If you listen to conversations with them, they say I know, Ma, I know."
Leisa ReicheltOpening Keynote: Operating in Context
November 7, 2018
"Without a design ops function, teams make their own flavors that dilute brand and accessibility."
Rachael Greene Alison DavisBuilding a Design Ops Practice that Really Works (Most of the Time)
October 2, 2025
