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Summary
For the next Advancing Research Community Call, we’re going to switch things up. We’ll be breaking into small discussion groups to get thoughts from you about the current challenges, opportunities, and key themes for the future of research. You’ll have the opportunity to facilitate or contribute to your group’s discussion of the burning issues in our field. How are you thinking about users, participants, stakeholders, and communities we serve? What changes do you see to the frameworks, toolkits, and methods we apply to understanding the problem space? Into which areas (e.g., industry, academia, government, nonprofit) can research move and from which areas can research borrow; where are the opportunities for us to bridge divides? Join us on June 17th to share and learn what’s next for the practice of research.
Key Insights
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Killing a product can be one of the most impactful acts of a user researcher, emphasizing the strategic value of saying no.
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Inclusion in research requires organizational commitment beyond the research team, involving job ads, onboarding, and supportive culture.
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There is a growing challenge balancing democratization of research with maintaining methodological rigor and governance.
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Ethical concerns such as privacy and security must be amplified and become mainstream organizational considerations.
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Cross-silo communication between research, sales, marketing, and other teams is crucial for knowledge transfer but remains uneven.
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Research is expanding at the C-suite level with dedicated researcher roles emerging, offering new opportunities and challenges.
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The research community is seeing an increase in specialized roles like design ops and UX recruiters due to the field’s growth and segmentation.
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There is a tension between using business language to communicate research impact and preserving insights that may not align with commercial metrics.
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Engagement of stakeholders can range from passive consumption of research artifacts to co-researcher roles involving shared analysis.
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Community gatherings like this create rare and valuable space for diverse minds to connect, reflect, and advance research collectively.
Notable Quotes
"One of the most important parts of our job is killing the product."
"We hope more cross-functional team members become involved for more impact."
"Privacy and security and other ethical considerations should become more amplified and mainstream throughout the organization."
"The concern is that research could devolve into a mechanism of conversion and metrics rather than insight and strategy."
"Inclusion is complicated because it goes beyond the research team and involves the whole organization."
"We fear losing time teaching others instead of doing the research work itself."
"There is more job openings and strategic thinking happening but not fast enough."
"Cross-silo communication tools could help connect inbound customer interactions with research ethnography at scale."
"Stakeholder engagement can be seen as a ladder, from receiving research videos to diving in as co-researchers."
"It's rare to carve out the glorious space and time where diverse minds come together to think through problems."
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