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.

Influencing Strategy

Gold
Tuesday, March 31, 2020 • Advancing Research 2020
Share the love for this talk
Influencing Strategy
Speakers: Christian Madsbjerg
Link:

Summary

Human science is well suited for informing corporate strategy. Since big decisions in companies are bets on human behavior, having someone at the table specialized in humans can be helpful. So why is it that the logic of finance and technology dominates most strategy processes? Why are we, human scientists, are not as influential as we could be? Drawing on stories from his 20 years as an advisor, Christian will share how the human sciences can – and why they should – be part of the most important and consequential decisions companies make.

Key Insights

  • Advising executives is best approached as a partnership of equals, not managing from below.

  • Less than 10% of big corporate decisions are truly driven by research despite the industry’s size.

  • Understanding the internal harmony of an organization—including jargon, assumptions, and financial flows—is crucial to influence.

  • A company's financial literacy is fundamental for researchers to gain strategic influence.

  • Each organization has a distinct rhythm or cadence that governs timing for change and decision-making.

  • Introducing challenging ideas (dissonance) requires precise timing, minimal new concepts at once, and a foolproof presentation.

  • Memorable hooks or riffs—small, repeatable stories—are vital for executives to retain and act on insights.

  • Ethnographic skills are as important internally as they are externally in understanding organizations.

  • Deep understanding of both micro organizational rhythm and broader societal context is necessary for impactful advice.

  • Opaque or complex business models, especially in tech, require intense ethnographic effort before credible advice can be given.

Notable Quotes

"Managing up assumes research is below something, but I see advising as partnerships and equals."

"Less than 10% of big decisions are based on research, which is rare given how much we spend on it."

"If you don’t understand the financial flow in an organization, you’re financially illiterate and you’re on top."

"The rhythm of a company is like a drumbeat—knowing when to suggest changes is everything."

"I wasted five years being blind to the rhythm of the place before we moved billions of dollars addressing major issues."

"When you introduce dissonance, people listen only to catch your mistakes, so you have to be precise like tweezers."

"Without memorable hooks or riffs in your presentation, executives forget your message the minute they leave."

"The story of the immunotherapy patient and his daughters became a riff that executives remember to understand complex life impacts."

"Ethnography inside companies is about living in France and caring to learn French."

"If you stop reading journals and practicing your instrument, you’re done as an expert."

Ask the Rosenbot
John Calhoun
Have we Reached Our Peak? Spotting the Next Mountain For DesignOps to Climb
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Louis Rosenfeld
How AI will Change DesignOps Tooling
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Chris Hammond
Embedding sustainability into enterprise design and development: A journey towards "sustainability consciousness"
2025 • Climate UX Interest Group
Sarah Flamion
Complex Problem? Add Clarity by Combining Research and Systems Thinking
2020 • Advancing Research 2020
Gold
Husani Oakley
Theme Three Intro
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Matteo Gratton
Can Data and Ethics Live Together?
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Dan Hill
Strategic design, slowdown, and the infrastructures of everyday life
2022 • Enterprise Community
Robin Beers
Research as a Catalyst for Organizational Transformation
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Weidan Li
Qualitative synthesis with ChatGPT: Better or worse than human intelligence?
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold
Emily DiLeo
Stronger Together: Lessons Learned from UX Research Ops
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Michael Land
Establishing Design Operations in Government
2021 • DesignOps Community
Louis Rosenfeld
GenAI for UXers: A Rosenbot Demo and Discussion
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Rima Campbell
Increase Productivity and Drive Business Impact
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Sabrina Mach
How to Design Your Design Operating Model
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Dawn Ressel
Full-Stack User Experiences: A Marriage of Design and Technology
2016 • Enterprise UX 2016
Gold
Lada Gorlenko
Theme 1: Discussion
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold

More Videos

Rebecca Gimenez

"Service design is still so new that no one really knows what maturity looks like."

Rebecca Gimenez

Work in Progress: Service Design at Airbnb

December 3, 2024

Lada Gorlenko

"Designers can be first responders, not just in digital but in real disaster situations."

Lada Gorlenko

Theme 2 Intro

June 9, 2022

Brigette Metzler

"Researchers are often nervous about their research being used in the wrong way, so trust and communication matter."

Brigette Metzler Dana Chrisfield

Research Repositories: A global project by the ResearchOps Community

August 27, 2020

"We became entrepreneurs internally, doing work across other GE divisions to generate funding."

Discussion

June 9, 2017

Sarah Brooks

"In traditional government projects, policy writers are often gone long before implementations fail or need revising."

Sarah Brooks Jennifer Pahlka

Fireside chat with Sarah Brooks and Jen Pahlka

October 21, 2021

Lisa Spitz

"We prioritize speaking with people who are most in need of support so we can better understand and design for all potential users of PFML."

Lisa Spitz Nikki Brand

Building Trust Through Equitable Research Practices

November 18, 2022

Theresa Neil

"Don’t bluff regulated healthcare UX experience; everyone will know, and it’s harmful to your team and clients."

Theresa Neil

Designing for Wellness: Specializing in Healthcare

May 22, 2024

Maverick Chan

"Cursor is super transparent about what files it creates and how it builds the logic step by step."

Maverick Chan Claire Lin

From Doodle to Demo: AI as Our Storytelling Partner

October 23, 2025

Alla Weinberg

"Psychological safety means if I make a mistake on our team, the people won’t disconnect from me."

Alla Weinberg

Design Teams Need Psychological Safety: Here’s How to Create It

September 8, 2022