Research Ops 2019: What do you wish you had invested more time in?
I’ve been speaking to a lot of Research Leaders lately and also ran a very small survey about Research Ops in 2020. One of the questions I asked was:
“Looking back at 2019, when it comes to research activities and processes, what do you wish you had invested more time in?”
Reading through the candid statements I received, I found that the responses fell into three main buckets:
- Missed opportunities to evangelize research
- Lack of training and career opportunities for researchers
- Needed processes improvements
Here are just a few of the things people shared:
“I wish we had invested more time in advocating for more headcount for our research ops team. Ensuring we’re moving to ratios that help scale our research practice to its full capacity. We’ve made great progress but lots more room for growth!” — Manager, User Research, 1,000+-person company
“I wish we had applied the same research/learning mindset we direct toward our customers to equally emphasize the motivations, problems, value systems, and experiences of our product teams.” — Director of UX Research, 1,000+-person company
“I wish we had invested more time in career growth and opportunity.” — Director of UX Research, 1,000+-person company
“I wish we had invested more time in evangelizing research earlier in the process to make an impact with teams — they want to test what they have already decided to do not learn what they should do.” — Director of UX, 51–200-person company
“I wish we had invested more time in improving templates and processes for research deliverables.” — Research director with 20+-person research team, 51–200-person company
As a Research or Research Ops Leader in your organization, what do you wish you had invested more time in? Leave your comments below!
