Robin Beers - Design Researchers, what are we up to in 2022?

A scan of the presentation descriptions for Design Research 2022 and conversations with Research Leaders across a variety of companies in the U.S., illuminates where our attention is going in our field. I will delve into some of the trends and themes such as the possibilities of research as a catalyst for organizational change, the rise of Research Operations, the trend toward democratization of research, and the quest for the knowledge management holy grail.

Transcript

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   Robin Beers, PhD
   Design Research 2022
   March 16, 2022
   Researchers:
   What are we up to?
   

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2. Let’s start with WHY?
   From user-centered to systems shifting
   design
   Impact & Interconnection
   What does research democratization
   have to do with it?
   What’s coming up
   

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3. WHY?
   

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4. 3
   Englis
   h Lit.
   Women’
   s
   Studies
   Org
   Psych
   African
   America
   n
   Studies
   Diversity
   Consultin
   g
   

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5. 4
   Anthropologists in
   the Corporate Jungle
   

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6. © Photo by TK Hammonds on Unsplash
   Making
   Business
   More
   Human
   

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7. User-Centered 🡪 Systems-Shifting
   

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8. Human-centered Design: How it started
   woman in black long sleeve shirt holding white paper photo – Free Indonesia Image on Unsplash
   

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9. Human-centered Design: How it’s going
   

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11. Serving the needs of one audience (commuters) to the detriment of another (residents)
    User-centered 🡪 Humanity-centered
    

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13. Impact & Interconnection
    

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16. UK Design Council: Evolved Double Diamond
    

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17. Kate Rasworth, Economist – Exploring Doughnut Economics - https://www.kateraworth.com/doughnut/
    

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18. We need bigger
    questions
    How might research lead to and inform solutions that are:
    Lasting
    Circular
    Inclusive
    

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19. This is not a technical
    challenge, but a
    creative one that depends
    on our collective ability to make
    and to remake the systems we
    live by–systems for wealth,
    property, ownership,
    consumption, welfare, wellbeing
    - at a deeper level.
    

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20. Evolving design practice at Design Council. | by Cat Drew |
    Design Council | Medium
    Systems Shifting Design
    User-centered
    System-conscious
    System-shifting
    

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21. Single-use plastics, deforestation,
    social equity, data privacy…
    Tackling these problems means
    redesigning entire systems but
    these are the problems truly worth
    solving.
    “
    “
    Tommy Campbell, Space10
    Beyond Human-Centered Design
    

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22. Design Research Maturity
    

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23. Signs Design Research is Maturing
    • Research Operations
    • New Roles
    • Research Democratization
    • New Tools
    • Conducting research
    • Knowledge management
    

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24. Research Democratization is a HOT topic
    What is it?
    • Democratizing research is about empowering anyone in the organization to create and consume
    user insights to make more informed decisions
    This can look like:
    • Allowing non-researchers to conduct studies
    • Research repositories with tagged, searchable insights
    Professed benefits:
    • Enable organizations to scale insight volume and velocity
    • Free up research team’s time
    • Increase research ROI with reuse and reducing waste
    

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25. - Devalues the training and expertise of
    researchers
    - Poor research quality leading to poor
    decision making
    - Keeps research teams under resourced
    + Non-researchers are going to talk to
    customers
    + It heightens appreciation for our
    expertise
    + It frees up time for strategic research
    Non-researchers doing research
    

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26. Research-Approved
    Research-Assisted
    Research Led
    Inspired by
    @BEH_ZOD
    Generative, strategic, high
    visibility, not a lot is known
    You’re figuring out ‘democratization’ you
    want guard rails, you are jointly
    responsible for outcomes
    Templates, tools, and processes
    are in place, as well as trust
    High
    Low
    Risk
    Democratizing research is not the same as handing over the
    practice of research
    

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27. Democratization is core to, not competitive with, the focus of a
    research team. We have to acknowledge that our role in helping
    our organizations learn and make better decisions means that
    we cannot be the ones with all the answers. Instead, we need to
    identify areas where our organizations need to learn in rigorous
    and structured ways and actively support that learning.
    “
    “
    Bezoh Sirjani
    Democratization is our Job
    

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28. Maintaining an insight
    library is one of the most
    sophisticated things you
    can do in research
    practice.
    

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29. A knowledge management system that
    really works doesn’t exist.
    “
    “
    Our repository is not at the level
    we would want.
    “
    “
    

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30. + Atomized insights, tagged and
    searchable, can be used and reused
    + Reduces duplication waste
    + Self-service insights
    + Automatic transcription
    + Video clip processing
    - Tagging takes work
    - Changes the researcher’s process
    - Can decontextualize insights
    Knowledge Management Repositories
    

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31. Audience
    Data Density
    Raw Data Curated
    quotes/video
    Business/Design
    decisions made
    Synthesis across a
    program or topic
    Findings &
    Recommendations
    Another
    Researcher
    Workshop
    Participants
    Program team
    members/leaders
    Other people in
    the org
    Senior Executives
    Who is accessing the repository and why?
    

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32. Context matters
    

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34. “The main currency of
    research is synthesis.”
    

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35. Personas, Task Models, and Journey Maps are also insights repositories
    

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37. Thank you!
    

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