Kate Towsey has certainly left her mark on research operations, pioneering the practice, helping launch the ResearchOps community, and now through writing Research That Scales: The Research Operations Handbook, which Rosenfeld Media published in September of 2024.
In her interview with Lou, Kate reflects on her journey from content strategist to a pivotal figure in the research operations community. She recounts her early days at the UK Government Digital Service, where she unexpectedly found herself building research labs, and later at Atlassian, where she helped develop systems to manage vast amounts of research data. Through her work, Kate realized the need for a more structured approach to research operations, leading to facilitating a global ResearchOps community. Oh, and along the way, she coined the term “PWDR” (“People Who Do Research”).
The conversation delves into the strategic importance of ResearchOps, emphasizing that it’s much more than just administrative support—it’s about designing systems that enable organizations to effectively learn and innovate. Kate likens research operations to city planning, highlighting the need for strategy to build successful, sustainable systems.
What You’ll Learn from this Episode:
- How Kate’s early work in content strategy and her experiences at the UK Government Digital Service (GDS) led to the work she does today
- The importance of aligning research operations with a clear research strategy
- How research operations have evolved over the years
- The distinction between research and insights, and the value of turning research findings into actionable insights that drive decision-making
Quick Reference Guide:
0:27 – Introduction of Kate and her book
3:32 – Kate’s ah-ha moment
9:38 – Facilitating a global conversation before writing the book
11:47 – 8 elements unique to operations
14:09 – The Rosenverse
16:56 – Defining research operations
16:15 – Strategy in operations
20:50 – A story from overlooking the Hudson River in 2018
23:58 – On insight
27:14 – Human-centered research
32:04 – Kate’s gift for listeners
