Cultivating Business Partnerships to Grow Research Ops (Videoconference)

The landscape of Research Operations is vast, and there is no “easy button” for organizations implementing a successful practice. So how do you multiply your effectiveness and increase your impact in a scalable way? Whether you’re a team of one or twenty-one, cultivating relationships across the business is critical in these days of interconnectedness. In this session, Noel Lamb shares examples of how you can get your company to invest in helping you build your Research Ops program.

Business Influence Without Losing Your Soul (Videoconference)

To be an effective design leader requires knowing about the business, but does it require an MBA? Maybe it’s more about exerting influence by leveraging simple models of behavioral science and persuasion to achieve outcomes—and doing it without losing your soul. Join us for an enlightening approach to achieving our goals as designers, in a fireside chat with Ryan Rumsey, Chief Executive Officer, Second Wave Dive. He shares his own journey from Apple to Electronic Arts (EA) and beyond as a design leader learning how to gain effective influence with “the business” side of things.

What UX research can learn from other research practices [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series] (Videoconference)

Three of your research colleagues discussed and defended their respective positions (below) on what UX research can learn from other research practices. Participants engaged with them in a discussion and Q&A, facilitated by Brianna Sylver.

“UX research is inherently future-oriented. An anthropology of the future can offer more distinguished and nuanced ways to explore the meaning of users’ expectations, anticipations, hopes, and speculations.”

     – Nicole Aleong

“UX research should learn more from market research, a larger and more mature field in which it has roots. Market research is a multidisciplinary field with an extensive collection of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies that have been used to support product development decisions to deliver business outcomes for decades—no need to reinvent the wheel.”

     – Michaela Mora

“UX research is often viewed as cute, charming and ‘nice to have.’ For that perception to change in the market, we need to learn from those charging millions of dollars for their strategic research skills: management consultants.”

     – Prayag Narula  

Framing Tomorrow by Questioning Today

How can you use the humble question to be a better leader?

Over the past year or two, Brave UX Podcaster Brendan Jarvis has been asking great questions of over 75 of the best and brightest design leaders with the goal of surfacing the biggest questions facing the field, and using them as a springboard to becoming a better leader.

Brendan joins Lou for a wide-ranging conversation about questions—a preview for his talk at June’s Design at Scale 2022 conference. Along the way, they cover the importance of diverse perspectives, the controversies of Amazon Alexa, and how designers can get a seat at the table.

Warning: this talk may raise more questions than it provides answers for!

Figure It Out: Getting from Information to Understanding

Authors Stephen P. Anderson and Karl Fast discuss the complex world of information (think incomprehensible tax policies to confusing medical explanations) we are faced with, and the ways in which information can be transformed into better presentations, better meetings, better software, and better decisions. Stephen also shares a personal anecdote about part of the inspiration for the book.

How to make UX research leadership more effective [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series] (Videoconference)

Three of your research colleagues discussed and defended their respective positions on making UX leadership more effective in this Advancing Research community workshop. Participants engaged with them in a discussion and Q&A, facilitated by Peter Merholz.

“UX Research leaders of tomorrow need to stand tall, assert themselves, and take a seat at the table because we have a purpose and companies cannot afford to make investment decisions based on intuition.” 

 – Sarah Alvarado

“Move out of your UX org.” 

 – Nalini Kotamraju

“Most organizations talk a good prioritization game but fail to actually prioritize their projects, creating the perfect opportunity for Research leadership. Developing and maintaining a stack-ranked ruthless prioritization of projects has the power to grow Research headcount and budget and elevate Research strategically while minimizing researcher overwork.”

 – Anne Mamaghani

Panel: Excellence in Communicating Insights

Insights wither and die when they gather dust on the shelf. Excellence in research is only excellence when data is turned to insight, those insights made actionable and are told in stories which engage, inspire and provoke. Our esteemed panel of research leaders will be sharing their best practices for ensuring that insights are heard, acted upon and given the power to become received wisdom which drive business’ forward.

Why Community is Key to Professionalizing Design (Videoconference)

Over the last 5 years, design as a profession has become more established in the public sector. What does it mean to professionalize design? And how does community play a part? Jaskiran Kang, Head of Service Design at TPXImpact shares her experience moving into government from the private sector, leading design at the Department for Education, and building community to further design practice.

The Other L Word—Addressing Workplace Loneliness with Kat Vellos

Kat Vellos, author of Connected From Afar: A Guide for Staying Close When You’re Far Away and We Should Get Together: The Secret to Cultivating Better Friendships, is our opening speaker on day one of the DesignOps Summit this October 21-23, 2020.

Here, she discusses the issues of loneliness in the workplace, and how managers can support their teams—especially in the time of remote work and added stresses from a global pandemic. In addition to supporting employees’ humanity, a manager who keeps their staff happy enough to stay can have a major impact on a company’s bottom line—at the average national voluntary turnover rate of 25%, a company of 100 people with an average salary of $50,000 will spend between $625,000 and $2.5 million dollars on staff replacement costs in one year.

Compass 101: Growing Your Career In A Startup World

Let’s talk about design careers–and about doing design work under the influence of just the right amount of caffeine. These Compass design leaders guide you through a discussion of a day in the life of product designers at a fast-growing enterprise. And they’ll also talk about their journeys getting there.

• Hear about design and career opportunities in a technology company that is bringing meaningful disruption to real estate.
• See what it’s like to design beautiful productivity tools for real estate agents and an industry that seems to thrive on complexity.
  
• Get insight into how your own career path is reflected in the many paths that lead to good product design.