Recording and chat transcript now available from June 20 community videoconference, “The State of ResearchOps: More Than Just Theory” with Kate Towsey

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Over the past decade, user research has matured significantly. It’s increasingly more common for large organizations to have dozens of people doing user research, whether as part of a dedicated team of researchers or other design roles. Growing team sizes and increasing organizational demand has meant that the pressures placed on people doing research have grown too. To meet demand and be efficient, impactful, compliant (and happy, lest we forget), researchers need more rigorous operational support. In 2018, through the work of the ResearchOps Community and its #WhatisResearchOps initiative, the nascent practice of ResearchOps was given shape: via a series of global workshops by researchers and for researchers, the Community explored what ResearchOps should look like and produced a framework to map its various parts. But what’s behind the theory? What does ResearchOps actually look like in the world today? And who are the people leading the way? In this talk, Kate will share insight into the state of ResearchOps today, talk about current and potential ResearchOps opportunities and challenges, and share what she thinks the future holds for this emerging practice.

About Kate:

Kate Towsey has been a consultant specialist in ResearchOps for more than half a decade. The instigator of the ResearchOps Community and the #WhatisResearchOps initiative, she’s been instrumental in amplifying and shaping the conversation around this emerging practice. Originally a content strategist, she’s known as the researcher of user researchers and has designed and delivered labs, participant recruitment services, research panels, media archives and research communications for large organizations. Kate now walks the talk as Atlassian’s Research Operations Manager in Sydney, Australia, where she’s building out a team and delivering a seamless ecosystem to support people who do research.