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.

Research Democratization: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Gold
Thursday, March 10, 2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Share the love for this talk
Research Democratization: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Speakers: Kathleen Asjes
Link:

Summary

The pros and cons of democratizing user research are heavily debated. Often this is seen as a black and white scenario where we are solely in favour or against it. But what about all the shades of grey we can explore? Depending on the situation there are both benefits and dangers that lie in democratizing our research practice. Kathleen will share her experience with research democratization. Based on this she will show a framework that will help you assess when it is an appropriate tool to further research maturity and when it might derail you.

Key Insights

  • Research democratization empowers non-researchers to conduct research but requires careful management to avoid poor quality and misuse.

  • Lisa Reichelt warns that research can be misused to prematurely validate ideas, suggesting no research is better than bad research.

  • Jared Spool critiques the term democratization, highlighting risks of arrogance in delegating research to others solely for convenience.

  • Kathleen proposes a framework based on organizational research maturity and researcher presence to guide when democratization helps or hinders.

  • When research maturity and presence are both high, democratization is optional and can build empathy but is not necessary.

  • In medium maturity but high researcher presence contexts, democratization helps others learn research by doing, improving early-stage involvement.

  • Low researcher presence but high maturity organizations can use democratization to advocate for more research investment.

  • In low maturity and low researcher presence situations, democratization can overwhelm lone researchers with administrative burden rather than freeing them.

  • Research done by democratized teams may lack coordination, risking duplicated effort and isolated insights.

  • Teaching others research skills supports professional growth and confidence but must be balanced with researchers’ hands-on practice needs.

Notable Quotes

"Research democratization is all about empowering people who are not researchers to start doing research themselves."

"If you have to choose between doing bad research or no research at all, you’re better off not doing it — Lisa Reichelt."

"Democratization can be used arrogantly if we just let others do research so we can pick what’s fun for ourselves — Jared Spool."

"Research maturity refers to how research knowledge and impact permeate the organization, not individual skills."

"Involving non-researchers firsthand helps them understand research’s complexity and when to bring in experts."

"Research democratization rarely frees up strategic research time; it often increases facilitation and ops work."

"Sometimes democratized research happens in silence, with little coordination, causing duplicated efforts."

"Allowing others to experience research firsthand can convert them into advocates for hiring more researchers."

"Sharing your skills and teaching others can boost your confidence and professional development."

"Democratization requires different approaches; there’s no one-size-fits-all solution."

Ask the Rosenbot
Megan Blocker
Panel: Excellence in Impact
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Gold
Robin Beers
Beyond Insights: Researchers as Organizational Change Catalysts
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Gold
Sheri Byrne-Haber
The Importance of Accessible Design Systems
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Irina Tikhonova
Small Wins, Big Impact: Leveraging and Elevating User Engagement
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Spencer L. A. Stultz
Why Social Justice Frameworks are Necessary for Successful DEI/JEDI Initiatives
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Jorge Arango
Meeting of the Waters: Designing for Successful Inorganic Growth
2021 • Enterprise Community
Anne Mamaghani
How Your Organization's Generative Workshops Are Probably Going Wrong and How to Get Them Right
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Yoel Sumitro
Actions and Reflections: Bridging the Skills Gap among Researchers
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Peter Boersma
How to Define and Maintain a DesignOps Roadmap
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Cornelius Rachieru
Handling Complexity: Framing a Scale of Design
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Barb Spanton
Doing Work That Matters: A Look Beyond The Idealistic Notion of 'Doing Meaningful Work'
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Changying (Z) Zheng
Practical DesignOps: From Ideas to Tools That Teams Actually Use
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Ivana Ng
Level Up Your Program with ProductOps
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Amelia Cole
Data-Prompted Interviews
2021 • QuantQual Interest Group
Fisayo Osilaja
[Demo] The AI edge: From researcher to strategist
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold
Peter Van Dijck
Building impactful AI products for design and product leaders, Part 3: Understand AI architectures: RAG, Agents, Oh My!
2025 • Rosenfeld Community

More Videos

Jim Kalbach

"Without these rules and conventions, we wouldn’t be able to improvise."

Jim Kalbach

Jazz Improvisation as a Model for Team Collaboration

November 6, 2017

Louis Rosenfeld

"You want someone who writes with equal parts empathy and authority, not just pure authority."

Louis Rosenfeld

Coffee with Lou: Should You Write a (UX) Book?

March 7, 2024

Catt Small

"Creating evergreen documents enables asynchronous influence — it’s not about being in the room all the time, it’s about having your voice heard."

Catt Small Micah Bennett Brian Carr Jessica Harllee

What's Next for ICs: Exploring Staff and Principal Designer Roles

February 22, 2024

Marieke McCloskey

"If you’re a person who studies people, then you’re a person who understands data."

Marieke McCloskey

User Science: Product Analytics & User Research

March 11, 2021

Llewyn Paine

"Wonder Studio automatically segments actors, maps their movements to a 3D model, and renders a synthetic avatar video."

Llewyn Paine

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

June 5, 2024

Joshua Noble

"Random assignment to treatment or control is essential—if it’s not random, it’s not a true experiment."

Joshua Noble

Casual Inference

October 6, 2023

Sara Logel

"Stakeholders are users too; the product we’re sharing is the research and learnings for their decision-making."

Sara Logel

Your Colleagues are Your Users Too

March 29, 2023

Bria Alexander

"Enterprise is kind of sexy because big, hairy, hard problems of scale and distribution live at the enterprise."

Bria Alexander Louis Rosenfeld

Welcome

January 8, 2024

Sam Proulx

"Accessibility isn’t a checkbox you run automated tests for; you must involve people with disabilities to benchmark success."

Sam Proulx

Online Shopping: Designing an Accessible Experience

June 7, 2023