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.

Discussion

Gold
Wednesday, May 13, 2015 • Enterprise UX 2015
Share the love for this talk
Discussion
Speakers: Steve Portigal , Chris Chapo , Kelly Goto and Christian Rohrer
Link:

Summary

In this talk, Kelly, Christian, and Chris explore the unique challenges of conducting UX research and generating insights within large enterprise organizations. They highlight the importance of empathy to bridge cultural divides between tribes such as data and design, as Kelly emphasizes starting with understanding others' perspectives. Christian stresses balancing corporate momentum with addressing critical gaps in knowledge, advising targeting insights that align with business needs and decision-makers’ motivations to maximize impact. Chris illuminates organizational politics where relationships can trump the quality of data or methods, underscoring the value of trust and tailored communication in convincing stakeholders. The panelists also discuss tactical challenges like recruiting participants and executing ethnographic studies in enterprise contexts, advocating for pilot projects and building internal research practices. They recognize the early maturity of enterprise UX and foresee increasing adoption but note that success depends on strategic awareness and PR around insights work. Various practical methods such as intercept interviews, microsurveys, and observation of networked workflows are shared. The conversation includes addressing pitfalls like confirmation bias and bad data, emphasizing data integrity and framing research questions effectively. Together, Kelly, Christian, and Chris provide a nuanced view of how to create meaningful, actionable insights and embed them into large organizations to drive customer-centered product success.

Key Insights

  • Empathy is foundational to bridging cultural gaps between different organizational 'tribes' such as design and data teams.

  • Both data scientists and designers share a deep commitment to creating awesome customer experiences despite differing toolsets.

  • Effective insight work balances leveraging existing corporate momentum with uncovering critical blind spots in knowledge.

  • Building trust with senior executives is crucial to successfully influencing decisions with user insights.

  • Visualization tailored to how an executive interprets data can turn skepticism into acceptance.

  • Enterprise UX research often succeeds by breaking down large organizations into smaller, approachable segments.

  • Organizational politics and relationships often outweigh the methodological rigor of insight work in influence.

  • Pilot studies and evangelists within companies help overcome fear and budget hesitations around ethnographic research.

  • Recruiting ‘impossible’ user groups like data scientists requires strategic high-level buy-in and creative outreach.

  • Data quality, understanding research questions, and recognizing confirmation bias are vital to trustworthy analysis.

Notable Quotes

"The core of it is really putting yourself in that other person’s shoes—it’s basic but essential empathy."

"Both tribes really believe in doing awesome for customers, that’s our common ground."

"The weakest insight method might win simply because of the relationship to the power structure."

"Trust is built by showing you’re there to help make them succeed, not just push your agenda."

"Visualizing data in a way executives can interpret is key to shifting from I think to I know."

"Enterprise UX is still nascent—businesses worldwide are just beginning to figure out where UX fits."

"When you look at data without training, confirmation bias makes you just find what you already believe."

"Pilot projects with evangelists inside the company make ethnography manageable and successful."

"Breaking enterprise into small segments lets you apply research methods effectively at scale."

"Building an internal research practice is critical for long-term value and integration of insights."

Ask the Rosenbot
Bria Alexander
Opening Remarks
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Sam Proulx
Understanding Screen Readers on Mobile: How And Why to Learn from Native Users
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Sam Proulx
Understanding Screen Readers on Mobile: How And Why to Learn from Native Users
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Mark Interrante
Collaboration Flows in Product Development
2017 • Enterprise Experience 2017
Gold
Dave Gray
Group Activity: Making Sense of DesignOps
2017 • DesignOps Summit 2017
Gold
Cornelius Rachieru
Handling Complexity: Framing a Scale of Design
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Theresa Marwah
How Atlassian is Operationalizing Respect in Research
2020 • Advancing Research Community
Jemma Ahmed
Theme 1 Intro
2026 • Advancing Research 2026
Gold
Taylor Jennings
Research Debate Club
2026 • Advancing Research 2026
Gold
Dave Gray
Connection, Community, and the Future of Work
2026 • Rosenfeld Community
Edgar Anzaldua Moreno
Using Research to Determine Unique Value Proposition
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Peter Van Dijck
Building the Rosenbot
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold
Dawn Ressel
Full-Stack User Experiences: A Marriage of Design and Technology
2016 • Enterprise UX 2016
Gold
Sean McKay
Whole Product Thinking: Expanding beyond problem and solution space thinking
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Liwei Dai
The Heart and Brain of the AI Research
2020 • Advancing Research 2020
Gold
Jemma Ahmed
Collaboration: learning from other fields beyond our own [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
2024 • Advancing Research Community

More Videos

Greg Petroff

"The best experiences are the ones that start to be relevant around who we are, recognizing where we are and what we’re trying to accomplish."

Greg Petroff

Software as Material—A Redux

June 6, 2023

Brendan Jarvis

"Why was the universe doing this to me? That was a bad question."

Brendan Jarvis

Framing Tomorrow by Questioning Today

June 8, 2022

Prerna Makanawala

"Work with majority wins but don’t alienate minority teams; everyone has to sometimes compromise for the greater good."

Prerna Makanawala

Achieving Balanced Design Consistency

June 9, 2021

Tricia Wang

"In Web 2.0, a small group sets the rules and most people just play within them."

Tricia Wang

From Users to Shapers of AI: The Future of Research

March 25, 2024

Cheryl Platz

"Competitiveness doesn’t motivate play as much as it used to; companionship and collaboration are more motivating now."

Cheryl Platz

Embrace Your Fun Factor: Game Development Best Practices for Product Design

January 9, 2026

Ariel Kennan

"When I started, there were a few practitioners in the US, a small community, and now I see this growing network and community of practice."

Ariel Kennan

Theme Two Intro

November 17, 2022

Tricia Wang

"Companies parachuting in to 'study' marginalized groups often do more harm than good when they don't build local capacity."

Tricia Wang

The most popular design thinking strategy is BS

January 27, 2022

Kristin Wisnewski

"The state of IT is a daily reflection of what the company thinks and feels about its employees."

Kristin Wisnewski

Measuring What Matters

October 23, 2019

Scott Jensen

"It became less important to keep doing fresh research and more important to grow the collective team knowledge."

Scott Jensen Sarah Delaney Carmen Liu

Short Take #2: UX/Product Lessons from Your Industry Peers

December 6, 2022