Stronger Together: Lessons Learned from UX Research Ops
This video is featured in the Knowledge Management playlist.
Summary
Design Ops and Research Ops teams are essential to design and research, providing strategic perspective as they solve problems and remove blockers. In this session, we review the shared functions of these two teams, focusing on Knowledge Management. We will talk about the rise and fall of research repositories in the ReOps space, outline the lessons learned, and present a way forward: a knowledge management system for both Design and Research - created and managed by Ops.
Key Insights
-
•
Distinguishing between static explicit knowledge (e.g., playbooks) and dynamic explicit knowledge (e.g., personas) requires different management solutions.
-
•
Many UX teams conflate asset organization with insight sharing, which undermines repository effectiveness.
-
•
UX research repositories often fail because they are designed only for researchers, not broader stakeholders.
-
•
Knowledge management principles from library science can greatly improve UX repository strategies.
-
•
Reframing UX deliverables as business assets changes how value, access, and impact are measured and managed.
-
•
Design information management systems create transparency by linking assets like templates, insights, and digital properties.
-
•
Design intelligence—analyzed and actionable design data—is a crucial, often missing layer in business intelligence.
-
•
Different UX roles need tailored views of knowledge, from high-level strategy to granular component history.
-
•
Collaboration between research ops and design ops is essential to break silos and build scalable UX operations.
-
•
Dedicated people and processes are key to successful knowledge ecosystems, not just tools or technology.
Notable Quotes
"Don’t decide on the solution before you understand the problem space."
"Repositories were meant only for researchers, not for stakeholders, and a lot of them failed."
"UX assets are actually valuable resources that generate revenue and contribute to business success."
"Knowledge management is what librarians and archivists have been doing for hundreds of years."
"We need to build connective tissue—shared taxonomies and relational schemas—to tie UX knowledge together."
"Design intelligence is the technologies and strategies organizations use to make informed business decisions from design data."
"Business intelligence already exists in many domains, but design intelligence is still the missing piece for UX."
"The repository isn’t the solution to your problem; knowledge management is."
"Different roles require different slices of information with varied levels of context."
"When UX teams see how these tools make their jobs easier, initial resistance usually disappears."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Cycles of successive approximation help us get closer and closer to great design through iteration."
Rebecca GimenezWork in Progress: Service Design at Airbnb
December 3, 2024
"Mastercard designers grew meaningfully for both people and business despite uncertainty."
Lada GorlenkoTheme 2 Intro
June 9, 2022
"Research Ops needs an operational brain — it’s not the kind of brain researchers usually carry."
Brigette Metzler Dana ChrisfieldResearch Repositories: A global project by the ResearchOps Community
August 27, 2020
"Find an unindicted co-conspirator in your company with a problem you can help solve, and the rest will follow."
Discussion
June 9, 2017
"Healthcare.gov was a blow, but it opened the door to new ways to work in government technology."
Sarah Brooks Jennifer PahlkaFireside chat with Sarah Brooks and Jen Pahlka
October 21, 2021
"Bringing our government Partners in early as collaborators and making a clear case for the value of research is one way that we build trust with our stakeholders."
Lisa Spitz Nikki BrandBuilding Trust Through Equitable Research Practices
November 18, 2022
"Don’t bluff regulated healthcare UX experience; everyone will know, and it’s harmful to your team and clients."
Theresa NeilDesigning for Wellness: Specializing in Healthcare
May 22, 2024
"Cursor is super transparent about what files it creates and how it builds the logic step by step."
Maverick Chan Claire LinFrom Doodle to Demo: AI as Our Storytelling Partner
October 23, 2025
"Safety is a state of our nervous system, not simply a feeling or relationship."
Alla WeinbergDesign Teams Need Psychological Safety: Here’s How to Create It
September 8, 2022