Using Evidence and Collaboration for Setting and Defending Priorities
Summary
UX research and product discovery methods that work in a complementary way are key. UX leaders can take the project-based, strategic approach to UX research to get key business and product insights. Product discovery lends itself to lean experimentation for refining products and the UX. Both are needed simultaneously for broad and focused research efforts. This session will explain how UX Research and Product Teams can collaborate to identify innovation opportunities and develop products and services customer and users need.
Key Insights
-
•
Only 33% of businesses conduct research throughout the entire product lifecycle to guide decisions, indicating widespread underutilization of research.
-
•
Chloe's move from UX researcher to product manager required unlearning detailed documentation habits and adopting more concise, stakeholder-appropriate communication.
-
•
Involving stakeholders directly in user interviews, with careful preparation, helps change assumptions and align business and product strategies.
-
•
A flexible, high-level product roadmap like the now-next-later framework is effective for managing stakeholder expectations around timelines.
-
•
Democratizing research by upskilling non-research team members expands research capacity and embeds a culture of user-centered thinking.
-
•
Collaborative synthesis methods like affinity mapping allow stakeholders to empathize with users and advocate for their needs.
-
•
In small teams with external developers, clear delineation of roles and frequent communication are vital to managing priorities and responsibilities.
-
•
Continuous discovery accelerates over time, shifting from slow, project-based research to rapid prototyping and iterative feedback.
-
•
Balancing product priorities involves weighing stakeholder expectations, resource constraints, and clear documentation of decisions for transparency.
-
•
Product trios ideally include more than one engineer to represent engineering perspectives adequately, but resource constraints often limit this.
Notable Quotes
"Only 33% of businesses conduct research throughout the whole product lifecycle to inform product and business decisions."
"When I first came into the role, I almost took the consultant approach of writing a big report with recommendations, but that overwhelmed the team."
"Taking stakeholders on the journey by involving them in interviews really changed how they saw the product and business strategy."
"A high-level roadmap with now, next, later helped us show we had a plan but kept flexibility for changing priorities."
"Upskilling customer success managers and others to help with testing meant we could do far more research than I alone could manage."
"We used affinity mapping with stakeholders to get them really into the mindset of the users and advocate for them."
"There was a lot of communication needed around roles, especially since our software developer was external and not always involved in day-to-day decisions."
"As the product journey progressed, research cadence got faster with prototypes and quicker feedback loops."
"For bigger decisions, having documented meetings was critical for transparency and defending choices later on."
"Researchers can overcome reluctance to include others by training them closely and collaborating on synthesis to maintain data quality."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"The rebrand caused our NPS to plummet and freaked out our executives — that was the trigger to get serious."
Shipra KayanHow we Built a VoC (Voice of the Customer) Practice at Upwork from the Ground Up
September 30, 2021
"When you’re in a culture that celebrates complexity, making things simple is still a very hard thing to do."
Peter MorvilleThe Architecture of Understanding
May 13, 2015
"I was able to connect the dots a lot for the UX team because I had those relationships from customer success."
Renee ReidBecoming a ResearchH.E.R (Highly Enterprise Ready)
June 3, 2019
"Physical therapists see their hands as a golden resource and tend to resist technology that might replace that."
Dane DeSutterKeeping the Body in Mind: What Gestures and Embodied Actions Tell You That Users May Not
March 26, 2024
"Avoid strictly timed interactions because they stress everyone, especially people using screen readers or with cognitive disabilities."
Sam ProulxOnline Shopping: Designing an Accessible Experience
October 3, 2023
"It costs less to keep the customers you have than to acquire new ones."
Andrew Custage Michael MallettThe Digital Journey: Research on Consumer Frustration and Loyalty
March 29, 2023
"Persisting conversations in Slack instead of Zoom chat means folks can revisit and join conversations asynchronously."
Shelby SwitzerMaking Space for Community Knowledge-sharing in a Distributed World
December 10, 2021
"Right now, there’s a fear of being replaced by AI, and while a lot of that’s overblown, researchers have a legitimate reason to feel uncomfortable."
Llewyn PaineCoexisting with AI: A practical guide for researchers to navigate tools, ethics, and integration
March 11, 2025
"We’re not going back to stability; we’re riding this wave of perpetual upheaval and must learn to surf it."
Robin BeersNavigating organizational systems: Rethinking researcher’s role in driving change
March 13, 2025
