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.

Under My (Research) Umbrella: The Benefits and Challenges of Building a Unified Insights Function
Gold
Monday, March 25, 2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Share the love for this talk
Under My (Research) Umbrella: The Benefits and Challenges of Building a Unified Insights Function
Speakers: Andy Warr
Link:

Summary

When research is siloed it can lead to duplicative research of variable quality. In this talk, Andy explores the benefits (and challenges) of having a unified research & insights function, based on his experiences leading teams at Airtable, Instagram, and Dropbox. Further, Andy presents practical strategies to align diverse insight-generating functions, offering guidance even in situations where forming a unified team may not be possible. Through a detailed examination of real-world scenarios and Andy’s professional journey, attendees will gain valuable lessons and recommendations aimed at fostering a cohesive and effective research ecosystem.

Key Insights

  • Research is conducted by many functions, not just UX researchers—termed insight-generating functions including customer support, data science, marketing, and finance.

  • The main challenges in organizational research are duplicative studies, inconsistent research quality, and research noise from disconnected teams.

  • Awareness across insight-generating teams prevents duplicated efforts and increases organizational efficiency.

  • Quality gaps in research reduce trust in insights overall, leading executives to disregard who conducted the work.

  • Customer connection is a better term than research democratization to empower non-researchers to engage meaningfully without lowering rigor.

  • Creating a unified insights function helps set a clear bar for research craft and offers a coherent voice across the organization.

  • Research reviews and centralized project trackers promote peer feedback, learning, and transparency.

  • Insight primers synthesize market data, customer problems, and potential business impact to inform strategic planning.

  • Insights councils foster cross-functional collaboration, reduce duplicated work, and encourage holistic thinking about customers.

  • Starting small with close collaborators and proving value before scaling unified efforts is more effective than trying to unify all at once.

Notable Quotes

"Everyone does research, but not everyone does research with rigor."

"Research is more than just interviewing or having a conversation."

"Research is research to an executive—they don’t care which team did it."

"I much prefer customer connection over research democratization."

"We have all these different people throwing insights over the wall, and it's too much."

"What if we could create awareness of what each insight function was working on?"

"No more duplicative research, no more variable research quality, no more research noise—just a coherent voice."

"Start small, pick your closest collaborator, provide and prove value before trying to scale."

"You’re doing research for the company and the customer, not empire building."

"Research reviews improve quality, increase awareness, and provide learning opportunities."

Ask the Rosenbot
Matt Duignan
Atomizing Research: Trend or Trap
2020 • Advancing Research 2020
Gold
Alexis Lucio
Scaling Accessibility Through Design Systems
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Sarah Auslander
Insights Panel
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Dan Willis
Enterprise Storytelling Sessions
2019 • Enterprise Experience 2019
Gold
Marisa Bernstein
It Takes GRIT: Lessons from the Small, but Mighty World of Civic Usability Testing
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Josh Clark
Sentient Design: New Postures for AI-Mediated Experiences (2nd of 3 seminars)
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
George Aye
That Quiet Little Voice: When Design and Ethics Collide
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Cara Maritz
The Art of Extrapolation
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Carol Scott
Avoid Harming Your Team and Users: Promoting Care and Brand Reputation with Trauma-Informed UX Practices
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Milan Guenther
A Shared Language for Co-Creating Ambitious Endeavours
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Sarah Brooks
Theme 3 Intro
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Deanna Washington
Scaling Success: Paving the Path from DesignOps to VP
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Lija Hogan
Contexts of Use: A Framework for Connection
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Mike Brzozowski
UX in everyday products: Empowering climate conscious choices (Videoconference)
2024 • Climate UX Interest Group (Rosenfeld Community)
John Paul de Guzman
10k Screens Later: How We Became a Data-Driven Design Organization
2024 • DesignOps 2024
Gold
Jaskiran Kang
Why Community is Key to Professionalizing Design (Videoconference)
2022 • Civic Design Community

More Videos

Jennifer Kanyamibwa

"The blueprint is really within all of us — all the things that have brought us to this moment should come to our teams."

Jennifer Kanyamibwa

Creating the Blueprint: Growing and Building Design Teams

November 8, 2018

Brigette Metzler

"The skills involved in building and maintaining a repo aren’t necessarily those that researchers carry."

Brigette Metzler Dana Chrisfield

Research Repositories: A global project by the ResearchOps Community (Videoconference)

August 27, 2020

Carl Turner

"Taking meeting minutes and assigning action items with director names reduced arguing and helped move things forward."

Carl Turner

You Can Do This: Understand and Solve Organizational Problems to Jumpstart a Dead Project

March 28, 2023

John Mortimer

"Sometimes you have to make something wrong on purpose to learn and improve it with others’ help."

John Mortimer Milan Guenther Lucy Ellis Patrick Quattlebaum

Panel Discussion

December 3, 2024

Dante Guintu

"My superpower is to connect the dots between people, places, ideas, and opportunities."

Dante Guintu

How to Crush the Talent Crunch

September 8, 2022

Richard Buchanan

"Creativity means a change in perception, from the familiar to the unfamiliar, even initially ridiculous."

Richard Buchanan

Creativity and Principles in the Flourishing Enterprise

June 15, 2018

Dan Willis

"Michelle Wong took her outside consulting experience inside at PwC to design tools for contractors."

Dan Willis

Theme 3: Intro

January 8, 2024

Dan Ward

"We don’t celebrate failure; we celebrate the attempt and risk-taking."

Dan Ward

Failure Friday #1 with Dan Ward

February 7, 2025

Chris Geison

"We need to step out from informing decisions and into becoming changemakers."

Chris Geison

Theme Two Intro

March 28, 2023