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.

Inviting the Whole Org to Come See For Yourself

Gold
Monday, March 30, 2020 • Advancing Research 2020
Share the love for this talk
Inviting the Whole Org to Come See For Yourself
Speakers: Jesse Zolna
Link:

Summary

So all of a sudden, everyone at your company is interested in going into the field, meeting with clients, and “building empathy.” What could possibly go wrong? At ADP we created a program of ethnographic (lite) research designed to harness this excitement for exploratory research, enable anyone in the org to participate in conducting research, and help stakeholders think outside of their own product or screens. Secretly, our program was carefully designed to also teach our partners what it means to do Research: listen thoughtfully, analyze holistically, and truly understand client feedback before jumping to solutions.

Key Insights

  • A large appetite for research in an organization is a good problem and can be harnessed through democratization rather than only growing a large professional research team.

  • Democratization has two parts: exposing non-researchers to research work and upskilling them to do better research themselves.

  • Non-researchers often jump prematurely to solutions or insufficient research practices without guided structure.

  • Breaking research into three clear phases—planning, data collection, and analysis—helps non-researchers understand and participate effectively.

  • Exposure hours and programs like 'Come See For Yourself' increase empathy by allowing diverse teams to observe real user interactions.

  • Empathy training for non-researchers before user visits teaches critical listening skills, managing power dynamics, and the importance of silence.

  • Strict roles during interviews help maintain data quality and allow observers to focus on specific research questions with dedicated note-taking.

  • Synthesis sessions use unstructured discussions focused on observed facts, helping identify themes and consider outliers collaboratively.

  • Analyzing insights into user needs and framing problem statements supports user-centered solution workshops aligning teams on priorities.

  • Involving non-researchers deeply in the entire research process changes organizational culture from guessing to evidence-based understanding.

Notable Quotes

"Having a huge appetite for research and a huge manner for research is a good problem to have. So let's lean into it."

"Doing research is not always the most natural transition for people who don't really care about research."

"Anybody making decisions about products should have regular exposure to researchers — Jared Spool’s exposure hours."

"We called it 'Come See For Yourself' — kind of like following me home, but slightly less creepy."

"There’s no half-assing it. If you want to be involved in developing solutions, you better have significant client exposure."

"Non-researchers often think you can just jump in and start asking questions, but that can be inefficient or risky."

"Listening is different than conversation, even though it looks and feels similar."

"We view ourselves as Sherpas on the adventure. We do the work, they get the experience."

"In synthesis sessions, it’s a pretty unstructured discussion focused on facts rather than interpretation."

"It’s important for us all to experiment with ways to harness the excitement for research as it grows beyond our own teams."

Ask the Rosenbot
Alana Washington
(Remote) Service Design: A Transformation Case Study
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Christian Crumlish
Morning Insights Panel
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Melinda Belcher
Bridging the Gap: Making the Most of the Differences Between Agency and Enterprise
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Sam Yen
Driving Organizational Change Through Design? Do more of this and less of that
2017 • Enterprise Experience 2017
Gold
Sam Ladner
Methodologies: Beyond the interview [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
2024 • Advancing Research Community
Tracy McGoldrick
IBM User Experience Program—The What, Why and How
2021 • Advancing Research Community
Dawn Ressel
Full-Stack User Experiences: A Marriage of Design and Technology
2016 • Enterprise UX 2016
Gold
Neil Barrie
Widening the Aperture: The Case for Taking a Broader Lens to the Dialogue between Products and Culture
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Gold
Adrian Howard
Sturgeon’s Biases
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Greg Petroff
The Compass Mission
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Teresa Swingler
Look, Up in the Sky! UX/UI for Aerospace
2022 • Enterprise Community
Meredith Black
Building Community and Common Trends to Look for in 2021
2020 • DesignOps Community
Alicia Mooty
Design Staffing Models
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Steve Krug
Don’t Make Me Think 3.0: What Endures and What Evolves in UX
2026 • Advancing Research 2026
Gold
Kat Vellos
Opener: The Other L Word
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Jemma Ahmed
Democratization: Working with it, not against it [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
2024 • Advancing Research Community

More Videos

Greg Petroff

"People are starting to catch on with the fact that design matters and that it’s maturely important to solving the problems we face."

Greg Petroff

Software as Material—A Redux

June 6, 2023

Brendan Jarvis

"If only we could just get that seat at the table."

Brendan Jarvis

Framing Tomorrow by Questioning Today

June 8, 2022

Prerna Makanawala

"A service leadership approach means you’re here to help and orchestrate, not to command and control."

Prerna Makanawala

Achieving Balanced Design Consistency

June 9, 2021

Tricia Wang

"Language matters — calling people 'users' reflects and reinforces the reality of reduced agency."

Tricia Wang

From Users to Shapers of AI: The Future of Research

March 25, 2024

Cheryl Platz

"Designing for human motivation makes experiences more likely to thrive long term."

Cheryl Platz

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

January 9, 2026

Ariel Kennan

"There’s inherent conflict that will arise when navigating many stakeholders."

Ariel Kennan

Theme Two Intro

November 17, 2022

Tricia Wang

"Representation is key to avoiding harm and misinterpretation, especially when working with Indigenous and marginalized communities."

Tricia Wang

The most popular design thinking strategy is BS

January 27, 2022

Kristin Wisnewski

"Before, we never really looked holistically at decades of UX data—now we use it to be proactive and avoid duplicative studies."

Kristin Wisnewski

Measuring What Matters

October 23, 2019

Scott Jensen

"I didn’t invest enough in slow and steady relationship building early on, and that led to major shifts."

Scott Jensen Sarah Delaney Carmen Liu

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

December 6, 2022