Rosenverse

Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.

Log in Create free account

100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.

Multipurpose Communication & UX Research Marketing

Thursday, September 12, 2019 • DesignOps Community
Share the love for this talk
Multipurpose Communication & UX Research Marketing
Speakers: Molly Fargotstein
Link:

Summary

Despite our clear value in informing product and advocating for our customers, UX Research (UXR) tends to have a lot to prove within most companies. Whether it’s our value, knowledge, or definition, there are information-holes about UXR that need to be filled. Not only that, but we have a lot to share with the rest of our company. We want to be sure that our insights are heard. With zero marketing experience, I (alongside our Centralized Research Team) took a stab at rebranding and marketing our UX Research (UXR) team with sincere intention. Collecting lessons and dodging roadblocks along the way, we tested and evolved different methods set out to evangelize UX Research insights, share findings between teams, define and demystify UX Research and prove value for UXR throughout the company. What does that even look like? Molly will tell you.

Key Insights

  • UX research marketing is a strategic effort to clearly communicate who UX researchers are and what they do, creating greater impact within organizations.

  • Without intentional marketing, UX research risks being misunderstood, undervalued, or seen as mysterious and unapproachable.

  • MailChimp’s UX team created one-pagers for each research project to provide skimmable, digestible summaries accessible across the company.

  • Quarterly newsletters and internal broadcasts like 'Camp Radio' effectively increase engagement by sharing insights creatively and widely.

  • Physical artifacts such as posters and team swag foster a strong UX research brand and cultural presence inside the company.

  • Multipurpose communication—tailoring messaging to different audiences and goals—is essential to maintain relevance and drive collaboration.

  • Encouraging company-wide participation in research via shadowing sessions and sticker rewards builds advocacy and visibility.

  • Measuring the success of research marketing efforts remains a challenge but is critical for justifying resourcing and scaling initiatives.

  • Collaborative team dynamics, leveraging designers and volunteers within the UX team, amplify marketing efforts and creativity.

  • Research marketing and knowledge management overlap, with well-organized repositories enhancing discoverability and autonomy across the company.

Notable Quotes

"UX research marketing is the strategy behind and implementation of intentional effective promotion and communication of who UX research is and what UX research does."

"If we haven’t defined and branded ourselves, others will—and others could be wrong."

"Valuable research becomes buried in overflowing Slack channels with meaty decks no one has time to read or revisit later."

"One-pagers are a lightweight, skimmable way for anyone in the company to quickly understand what’s been learned from research."

"When you market UX research, you prove and show your value, make your company smarter by your insights, and create advocates."

"Multipurpose communication means the same insights might be presented differently depending on the audience’s needs and what outcome you want."

"We give out stickers for research participation, and people get really eager to collect them all and promote research to their teams."

"Our definition of UX research connects the dots and helps fellow peeps make smart, strategic decisions by collecting insights directly from users."

"You could never do all this marketing alone—it’s all hands on deck, relying on different strengths and creativity across the team."

"Measuring the success of marketing tactics is starting to become a focus; right now it’s fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants but we want to quantify and prove impact."

Ask the Rosenbot
Dan Mall
“Ask Me Anything” with Dan Mall, Author of Upcoming Rosenfeld Title, Design that Scales
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Leah Buley
Ask Me Anything with Leah Buley and Joe Natoli, co-authors of The User Experience Team of One (2nd edition)
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Michal Anne Rogondino
Saving Outer Space: The First UX Design System for Our Nation’s Satellites
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Brad Orego
Bringing Customer Research to More Internal Teams
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Sam Proulx
Understanding Screen Readers on Mobile: How And Why to Learn from Native Users
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Laura Gatewood
Beyond Buzzwords: Adding Heart to Effective Slack Communication
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Jen Briselli
Learning is the north star: service design for adaptive capacity
2025 • Advancing Service Design 2025
Gold
Brendan Jarvis
Framing Tomorrow by Questioning Today
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Scott Plewes
Why Isn't Your UX Approach Going Viral?: A Mathematical Model
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Uday Gajendar
From AI to Zeitgeist: Theory as the design antidote to AI hype
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Patrick Boehler
The service shift: transforming media organizations to create real value through design
2025 • Advancing Service Design 2025
Gold
Holly Cole
Understanding Experiences: When you have to do more than work
2018 • DesignOps Summit 2018
Gold
Christian Crumlish
Afternoon Insights Panel
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Steve Krug
Don’t Make Me Think 3.0: What Endures and What Evolves in UX
2026 • Advancing Research 2026
Conference
Dr. Jamika D. Burge
Advancing the Inclusion of Womxn in Research Practices
2022 • Advancing Research Community
Kristin Taylor
Building Bridges Across Organizational Silos
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold

More Videos

Daniel Gloyd

"Patricia Moore’s aging research revealed how product design often excludes elderly users by living their constraints."

Daniel Gloyd

Designing From the Inside Out: How Method Acting Can Inspire Design Research

February 12, 2026

Deirdre Hirschtritt

"Eggs are the binder — humility and trauma-informed practices that keep relationships and research together."

Deirdre Hirschtritt Cesar Paredes Marie Perrot

Research is Only as Good as the Relationships You Build

November 17, 2022

Benjamin Real

"We were lost in the forest and you come across this compass, maybe all time rusty, but still something a little bit useful."

Benjamin Real

Maturity Models: A Core Tool for Creating a DesignOps Strategy

October 1, 2021

Max Gadney

"It’s really important to understand your own mental bandwidth and not take on too much even if the project excites you."

Max Gadney Andrea Petrucci Joshua Stehr Hannah Wickes

Assessing UX jobs for impact in climate

August 14, 2024

Lada Gorlenko

"Seb said his function supports the function that supports the main business – making his work twice removed."

Lada Gorlenko

Theme 1: Intro

January 8, 2024

Feyikemi Akinwolemiwa

"Play is known to create psychological safety, break down barriers, and foster shared alignment."

Feyikemi Akinwolemiwa

Play to innovate: How curiosity and experimentation transform UX

March 11, 2026

Bria Alexander

"We’re obligated to treat each other with kindness and respect."

Bria Alexander

Opening Remarks

March 29, 2023

Llewyn Paine

"Even if you’re not doing facial recognition, storing face and voice data is under growing legal scrutiny."

Llewyn Paine

[Demo] Deploying AI doppelgangers to de-identify user research recordings

June 5, 2024

Bria Alexander

"Accessibility is a great example where OKRs can unify multiple product and design teams to a non-negotiable standard."

Bria Alexander Benson Low Natalya Pemberton Stephanie Goldthorpe

OKRs—Helpful or Harmful?

January 20, 2022