Jess Nichols - Creating Impact through the Research Journey

These days, researchers can’t share a report or presentation and expect their research to have an impact within teams. Researchers need to make sure that they’re able to take their teams along the journey of research to help their colleagues understand and get buy-in for research outcomes. However, this can be challenging when teams don’t understand or value research, or when the researchers’ outputs are misaligned to business objectives.

During this presentation, Jess will share how to identify the research maturity of your team to help maximize the success of bringing your team on the research journey to create impactful research outcomes. She will also share practical tips on when and how to empower your teams to lead their own research.

Transcript

1. Jess Nichols Creating impact through the research journey.
2. My big screw-up. Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
3. Research is a partnership. Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
4. There should be no surprises in research. Photo by Ekaterina Shevchenko on Unsplash Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
5. How can researchers define impact? Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
6. Direct impact explicitly connects to a business outcome. e.g. quantitative research, evaluative approaches & experimentation. Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
7. e.g. qualitative research, foundational or generative approaches. Indirect impact influences decisions for business outcomes. Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
8. Define your impact at the start. Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
9. Research should align to business outcomes. Leverage OKRs, KPIs, company goals, roadmaps or evergreen business outcomes. Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
10. Show the impact of your research by mitigating business risk. Photo by Matthew Waring on Unsplash Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
11. Research maturity influences the impact. Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
12. None Push Pull Parallel Research outcomes aren’t considered. Research outcomes need to be ‘sold’. Research outcomes are actively sought. Research outcomes are a partnership. Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
13. Maturity: None Research outcomes aren’t considered. What to expect • Research is part of other roles, not a distinct role. • If research is being executed, it’s often tactical and poorly run. • May have ad-hoc hired (internal or external) researchers but will not have actioned outcomes. Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
14. Maturity: None Research outcomes aren’t considered. Create impact through USEFULNESS • Find a small quick win with direct impact. • Provide guidance and tips to others running research already. • Create partnerships with other ‘information teams’ and surface information. Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
15. Maturity: Push Research outcomes need to be ‘sold’. What to expect • Research questions or projects are often repeated because previous research is not leveraged. • Researchers are in the room where it happens. • Limited understanding or assumptions for research. Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
16. Maturity: Push Research outcomes need to be ‘sold’. Create impact through VISIBILITY • Find and enable research advocates. • Visualize and promote research outcomes. • Connect the dots across research and information sources. Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
17. Maturity: Pull Research outcomes are actively sought. What to expect • Tactical or ‘solutionised’ requests for research. • Research is brought in to decision making, but often too late. • Non-researchers ad-hoc running their own research. Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
18. Maturity: Pull Research outcomes are actively sought. Create impact through CONNECTION • ‘Shared understanding’ artifacts. • Centralised research repositories. • Education and guidance through the research process. Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
19. Maturity: Parallel Research outcomes are a partnership. What to expect • Research is woven into product strategies. • Proactive identification of research opportunities - both strategic and tactical. • Research process, resources and tooling clearly defined and leveraged. Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
20. Maturity: Parallel Research outcomes are a partnership. Create impact through EFFICIENCY • Empower team members to run their own research projects. • ‘Step-ahead’ in foundational and strategic opportunities. • Identify research process and operations improvements. Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
21. Knowing the maturity helps you engage meaningfully on a project. Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
22. None Push Pull Parallel Visibility & input to research projects. Collaborate on project activities e.g. questions. Partner to define projects & opportunities to close knowledge gaps. Partner to identify research opportunities during OKRs & product strategy activities. Stage: Before Research Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
23. None Push Pull Parallel Sharing outcomes of research sessions. Invites to attend research sessions. Participation in research sessions e.g. note taking. Collaboration on research projects & synthesis to support each other’s research projects. Stage: During Research Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
24. None Push Pull Parallel Sharing relevant insights to individual stakeholders. Sharing insights and artifacts to teams. Sharing and storing insights for reusability across projects & teams. Traceability from research outcomes to product strategy, roadmaps & OKRS. Stage: After Research Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
25. Meet your team where they are on their own research journey. Photo by Chris Liverani on Unsplash Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
26. Put yourself in your team’s shoes. Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
27. Take the lid off the research box. Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
28. Share early and often. Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
29. Make insights digestible. Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
30. Create moments that matter. Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
31. Make your stakeholders care about research. Photo by Marina Shatskih on Unsplash Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
32. A researcher should only work on the most impactful research. Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
33. DO REVIEW DELEGATE ELIMINATE High Influence Low Influence Low Ambiguity High Ambiguity Determine research priority by influence & ambiguity Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
34. Delegate projects that do not increase your own impact. Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
35. Clear scope with minimal ambiguity. Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
36. Over-feasible timeline. Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
37. Builds onto existing knowledge. Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
38. Can be set up for success with limited guidance and guardrails. Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
39. To have successful research projects, you have to learn to say no. Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
40. If a project will not be successful, say no. (…or what are the tradeoffs) Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
41. If a project topic already has a lot of existing research, say no. (…or go look at the previous research & come back) Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
42. If there is already high confidence in an outcome, say no. (…or trust your gut) Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
43. Everyone who runs research should be successful & create impact. Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
44. Creating research impact is an ongoing process. Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
45. Celebrate the impact, no matter how small. Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
46. You’re going to learn the most when you screw-up. Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
47. Creating research impact is a marathon, not a sprint. Photo by Isaac Wendland on Unsplash Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
48. TL;DR • There should be no surprises in research. • Show the impact of your research by mitigating business risk. • Meet your team where they are on their own research journey. • Make your stakeholders care about research. • Everyone who runs research should be successful & create impact. • Creating research impact is a marathon, not a sprint. Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
49. “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” Benjamin Franklin Jess Nichols - Creating impact through the research journey.
50. Q&A jess@jessnichols.com @jessnichols (on all major platforms) jessnichols.com Creating impact through the research journey.