A Decision Framework for UX Resourcing A strategic and adaptable decision framework for optimizing impact As the demand for research continues to surpass the capacity of UX researchers (UXRs), especially in maturing organizations, the role of research democratization has become a hot topic — essentially, exploring the ways that non-UXRs can contribute to research. Over the years, I’ve seen the UX field evolve and grow as our work ecosystem evolves. Leading research at our connected health company during a period of rapid growth brought a new challenge for us, although common in the UX field ..read more

User research operations (ReOps) teams, which support user researchers / UX researchers to do their best work, are increasingly common. If you are considering setting one up, you probably want to learn from those who have trod the path before. I certainly did, when I established research operations at the Government Digital Service (GDS) in March-September 2022, joined in late July 2022 by the brilliant Uzma Razaq who runs it to this day. I learned a lot from Dr Salma Patel’s blog about setting up research operations at NHS Test and Trace, Emma Boulton’s work on pillars of user research, and ..read more

In recent years, there’s been growing discussion around democratization and People Who Do Research (PWDR) — there’s even a conference for it! There are also research-adjacent quantitative roles who could benefit from triangulating findings with qualitative insights. Ideally a UX research function would collaborate with these disciplines, sharing not just data but best practices, tools, and evangelism efforts. As a research operations specialist, how do you go about finding people in these types of roles? How do you engage with them and get buy-in for collaboration? The answers will vary from ..read more

The ‘I wish I had known this before’ of building an insights repository Image generated with Microsoft Designer This article is based on the conference talk Johanna gave at the 2023 ReOps conference. You can get access to the full replay here, including additional advice and hands-on examples Johanna shared during her talk. The following is a condensed version of the most important takeaways. Managing knowledge effectively is a topic that goes way beyond the work environment and I would argue that it matters for everyone dealing with knowledge and insights in their life in some way. It’s not o ..read more

Image credit: Patrick Tomasso via Unsplash. A few weeks ago I wrote about the importance of approaching research and design with a trauma-informed mindset. This work takes continual practice. It is not a step which you can add to the design thinking process, or slot into the double diamond. As with accessibility and inclusive design, we need to be thinking about it throughout the research and design lifecycle. We need to bring this lens to each new project, and think about how we can apply trauma-informed principles in that specific context. As part of the workshop I ran at UX Scotland, t ..read more

With the recent round of layoffs happening across tech/product organisations, many roles feel like they were the most impacted, which could easily be the topic of a whole other edition. In this edition however, I want to touch on the role of researchers in all this craziness and the increased interest in Research Democratisation. Back to basics The first time I personally heard of Research Democratisation, was back in 2018, when I came across articles by Tomer Sharon on the work they were doing at WeWork. I’m not sure if anyone explored the topic before and if so, I ask that yo ..read more

Defining and Scaling User Research: Unveiling the Power of Operations Thinking and the 8 Ps Framework In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, organizations are realizing that the key to creating products and services that truly resonate with users lies in the process and practices of user research. This article describes a new approach called Operations Thinking to define and scale research operations and I would like to introduce you to a handbook to help teams and organisations to work together to scale their research capabilities. The handbook is called ‘Operations Thinking — Resear ..read more

ROC2023 Preview: Relationship-building between Research and Ops — failure and recovery from it Is Ops to blame for a limited candidate pool? By Kate Fisher and Julia Cowing Current Reality Research and Operations (Ops) teams play vital roles in driving innovation and growth. Researchers are responsible for gathering and analyzing data to understand user needs, while Ops teams are responsible for supporting the research process and ensuring that studies have the right participants and tools. Despite their complementary roles, Research and Ops teams often face challenges in collab ..read more

By Stephanie Marsh, Springer Nature. Based on the upcoming https://reopsconference.com/ presentation. I am very excited to have the opportunity to give one of this year’s keynotes at ROC. It has given me the chance to reflect on my career, what skills I have and how we and others view ResearchOps. In this blog post, I want to talk about ResearchOps as a craft and what that means. Before I moved into leading a ReOps team at the science publisher Springer Nature, I was the Head of User Research and Analysis at Government Digital Service (GDS) in the UK government. Community was an integral ..read more

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