Kate Towsey's six ResearchOps lessons
Seamless digital experiences start with research and feedback at every stage of development. But it can be a monumental effort to manage how cross-functional teams collect data, analyze it, and share insights throughout product development.
Research leaders across all industries are embracing Research Operations to help deliver programs that are efficient, ethical, scalable and impactful.
Over the past three years, Kate Towsey has built a global Research Operations team for Atlassian that now looks after 350+ team members including researchers, designers, product managers and more.
In our recent ResearchOps webinar, Kate Towsey, shared what it took to get there and how a ResearchOps program has helped amplify research efficiency and its impact.
Here we'd like to share a few of the highlights from the webinar, including the six ResearchOps lessons Kate has learned over the last few years.
For more insight, you can watch the free on-demand webinar at your own convenience. In the meantime, here's Kate with a concise overview of ResearchOps starting from the very beginning...
What is ResearchOps?
Kate reveals the nine elements of ResearchOps and how they provide the infrastructure that helps support and shape how research is seen and done in an organization.
How we developed our Research Services
The team developed a 'complete research package' offering specialist support, training, help channels, invites to live research, and onboarding specialist skills into any given team.
Six ResearchOps lessons
Here are some key takeaways to keep in mind when launching and managing your own ResearchOps program, direct from the orginator of ResearchOps.
Lesson #1: Know your supply and demand
Before you make any participant recruitment promises to the organization, understand the reality of its supply and demand.
Lesson #2: Scalable ops serves hundreds
Participant recruitment is a highly administrative task, but the value of admin is like steam... it evaporates fast.
Lesson #3: Avoid 'Roadrunner' research
Operationalising for more and more, faster and faster research isn't always a triumph.
Lesson #4: You can have too much candy floss
Be aware of the research culture you want to create. There's such a thing as too much research.
Lesson #5: The 'Goldilocks' rule
Deliver just the right amount of operations. Not too much, not too little.
Lesson #6: Don't be scared to shut things down
Know when you've made a mistake, and have the courage to stop doing it.
Results so far...
In the following video clips, Kate reveals the wins of her ResearchOps program, including delivering high-quality moderated research faster and more effective prioritization.
In the wider organization, the research team is seen as supportive, rather than a blocker or 'gatekeeper' of all research. And for the long-term sustainability of ResearchOps, the team are getting useful metrics on how much research is being done and how can it be supported better.
Our ResearchOps triumphs
Kate reveals the wins of her ResearchOps program so far.
What's next for ResearchOps?
In the future, Kate and her team will be tackling enterprise recruiting, integrating recruitment technology with Atlassian's data lakes and developing its accessibility research.
Learn more in our on-demand webinar
After building a global ResearchOps team, Kate Towsey, Research Operations Manager at Atlassian, shares how ResearchOps has helped amplify research efficiency and its impact.
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