# Designing ResearchOps for uncertainty โ€” Weiyan Chee โ€” session 2026-08-26T02:50:00.000Z โ†’ 2026-08-26T03:20:00.000Z _436 transcript lines ยท 76 slides_ ## Transcript the thing with the AHEC advisor is that their role is really to do the work of design research. So they have to spread the breadth of the organization and be responsible for, you know, managing regulatory compliance exemptions through to looking at other advising on a number of projects. So their time is quite, that's not their expertise in specialty. So that's why we had to shift it to have them be involved as our ongoing adviser. Through the course. Alright. Thank you both, Barb and Michelle. Thank you. I'm glad that they were talking about, their research session, life is for three hours and everything. Okay. I've got research plans. A couple of weeks that runs over two days for two sessions through the same people, and I was a little nervous about it. But I reckon Alright. Our next speaker is Wang Chi, who's gonna be talking to us about designing research and research operations for uncertainty. Please join me and welcome So today I wanna talk about research operations and how to design your research operations for this uncertain world. Before we begin, in case anyone is not familiar with what research ops is, just now you heard about Chanel and and Baven trying to design, a research session for, these disabled people. All the planning that comes up to it, she talks about lab procurement, and she talks about, like, oh, we became event planners. That is part of research operations. So research operations are enablers of research user research. It is the engine behind user research, and it it removes these administrative friction so researchers can focus on insights. It's the combination of people, processes, tools, systems, strategies, all these things that support research so that research can scale. Before I begin, I would like to acknowledge the Guido people of the Eora nation as the traditional custodians of the land on which we gather on today, and I pay my respects to the elders past and present. And I extend their respect to any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people today. Okay. AI transparency. I use AI make my slides, but everything else came from me. Alright. A show of hands because we're gonna go talk about AI and it's important to talk about this. A show of hands. Okay? We're gonna give you three four scenarios. Okay? I want you to think about which of these situations do you think will cause the most chaos. Okay? Four scenarios, right? We'll have a vote after this. First one, layoffs. So half or more of your researchers gone. Bye bye. Sorry. Next one, your report vanishes. Your repository, your research repository disappear overnight. You think it's crazy? It has happened before. Okay? So Your research budget is cut because that you know, that happens very often. Or, another one that you don't think about but has happened before, your company acquires another business. And suddenly your team doubles overnight. It sounds great, you know, having more researchers, having more great, but so, okay. Let's go. Let's go. First one, layoffs. Who do you think is the most chaotic? Okay. Next one, repo, your repository. Okay. Alright. Alright. Budget cut. I'm surprised. I am very surprised. I thought budget car would be the most alright. The last one. Your team doubles. Team doubles is the most. Okay. Interesting. Trick question. It's not what will cause the most chaos, but it's about how you want to survive through it. Who cares what which one caused the most chaos as long as you have systems in place to survive through this chaos? Right? So today I wanna explore how we can design research ops so that no single change brings everything to a halt. But first, why do I want to talk about uncertainty? I feel like the roads in my life very naturally brought me to this place. Where I thought that, oh, you know, if I'm very nosy and I enjoy science, I can get paid to become a scientist. And then I went into UX research and research operations, and I started to realize that I am no longer a researcher. Now I'm a research operations practitioner. I'm more of a systems administrator. What I thought I wanted to be because then I want I have the stability. Right? I don't have to move countries or state every two years. If you're an, an academic, you know what I'm about. You also, like, as a as a research ops person, you don't jump around product teams. Researchers, they always tend to jump around product teams. Sometimes you build you have to build a product, and then they are, like, go to the other team, and then like, but that's my baby. No. So, I I don't have to jump around. It's great. Like, stability. I really want just need to make sure that research operations is stable and smooth, and then my life will also become stable and smooth. Right? So I was really wrong, the more I expected it to stay the same, the more chaos it created. So then I asked myself, do I want stability in my life or is it adaptability and flex flexibility that I want? When I pitched this talk to UX Australia, I was thinking a lot about the change and uncertainty in my life. And it seemed to me that actually, I just really want being able to to be very flexible in my life and I saw it in the way of how I should design research operations to be. So let's go back to the start. When does change happen? It can be for a variety of reasons. Not just including the ones that I I just gave you, but, layoffs, we've talked about it. You know, it's like it's at this point it's like an annual carnival. I feel like we're so numb to it now. It's just coming, like every year you're like, alright, it's happening again. Right? Because cutting, they're always asking us to do more with less, even with AI, it's like with AI, it's like even even crazier. Reox, is the most common one I've experienced so far, and they always like to, like, shake things up because some new executive joined and, like, let's move things people around. Move move move. Right? So how do we design for change? When we assume as when we assume certainty, any change can feel like it's a time for panic. So if change is inevitable, then our operations need to be able to absorb that change. It means designing for flexibility by default, not building processes around assumption that the tools, the people, and the team and organization will stay the same. Design it so that it can absorb the uncertainty. The core philosophy I want to introduce you to is on designing enduring principles. A principle is a high level belief or value that guides your decision making making regardless of the circumstance. It over arches the way you create your processes. When these, uncertainty arises, you can turn to your principles, and that becomes your compass that helps you adapt while staying true to what matters most. So regardless of whether you're choosing a new tool, redesigning a process, responding to organizational change, enduring principles and ensure that your decisions continue to protect your participants support your researchers, and reduce risk for the organization even when everything keeps changing over and over again. Let's talk about some key research operations pillars. And what it means to have enduring principles, starting with research governance. Research research needs to be governed because when you have a team of researchers or designers who do research, anyone who does research people bring in their own experience and expertise in. Some people come from academic background. Some come from really fast moving start ups. Some from design backgrounds, and they've all been taught to be flexible, be creative, and when all these different types of people meet, they kind of lose their minds a little bit. They bring in, different ways of working, different expertise, different specialties. And our job as research ops is to stop them from constantly trying to reinvent the wheel. Standardize the way the research is done so that it can scale with quality. It improves efficiency, it creates trust, and it allows researchers to focus on research. And it also exists to protect your participants. You protect their safety and you maintain your ethics as a researcher and the organization compliance or the rules that's been set up for you. So how do we design for uncertainty? The enduring principle here is to focus on what you want to protect. What is your ethics and what are your priorities? Is it the out is it is it a research output? Is it the value of research that will help improve the digital experience, or is it the people that you create these experiences for? Build your operations around key principles to protect what you care about, So for me, my priority will always be on the participant. The the participant, the researcher, and the company, and that is the order I add and prototype. Because at the end of the day, while I am a research operation operations practitioner, I am still a researcher, and my priority will always be on the user and the participants. So I designed processes for people. I design my enduring processes for the people who decide, the people who approve budgets, who govern, and the vendors. I decide, the people who follow the people who execute the processes, though it could be researchers, could be designers, could be product managers, and I designed the principles for the tools that they use, the systems that enable the work So whenever you design a process, ask yourself, will this survive reorganization? Is this tool agnostic? Am I assuming that the same people will always do the same work? Take participant incentives. Right? Decision makers, are the ones who approve the budget, then the researchers and research ops people, they issue the incentives, and then the delivery tool is the one that, that you use to deliver the the the incentives. Could be a gift card platform, it could be cash, it could be merch, could be anything. So the enduring principle isn't use this tool. Get approval from this person, do all these things. It's the design of the whole process It needs to explain why this process exists, what problem is it solving, and why do we let people do it the way we want them to do and how do we make this process last through any change. But while I talk a lot about, depending on people, I mean it as a whole. Build your research team build research team's maturity. It's building your research team's maturity is a team effort. So think about what each person's purse, specialty is and the knowledge and the skills that they bring with them and how that this disappears when they leave. Are you able to continue as well? If it depend on one or a small handful of specialized individuals, your systems will crumble the moment a change is initiated. The solution is documentation. I've been in organizations that document everything and also organizations that don't. Guess which one bounces back quickly when a major change happens How how fast does it go back to being productive? And guess which one is more resilient, more agile. This might sound very obvious, but unfortunately, it's a lot said than done, and it's very, very, very dependent on the team on the organization's culture. Changing a culture is very difficult. It's very scary as well because the moment you initiate change, any sort of change, people if people don't like it, they will think that, oh, you're not a very agreeable person. You're hard to work with. Right? But documentation will ensure continuity. It's not simply just about documenting it. It's about managing that knowledge as well. Is it in one place or is it in multiple places? Not just talking about inside and repository. I'm even I'm talking about the processes, their operation processes that and the initiatives that you create. You need to differentiate, front facing research operations, content with back facing works in progress, consolidate in places that make sense and it's easy to get to as well. So it's one of those enduring principles that you need to to fight the uncertainty. Start small, drive to change, ask for documentation, then put it in the right places. Provide people with the tools, to do all these documentation, make it as easy as possible. You can also provide them with AI tools. I know what you're thinking. Oh, she just wants us to train AI models. You won't you she just wants us to do all these documentations so that the AI models can be trained and then we will all be out of a job. The company wants to replace all of us with with AI, and as we've heard this morning, it's not happening soon. So, I get it. I I I get so many, like, AI job offers nowadays on LinkedIn asking me to train AI models. Like, I don't like it as well. But it has brought us so much uncertainty to the way we do research now. But, again, lean into the enduring principles that you set up for yourself and you operations. It's your research rigor, it's your research skills, your human judgment, These are the enduring principles that nobody can take from you. Use AI to accelerate your skills and operations, but keep your ethics and your judgment. Differentiate yourself from a machine. We're still in the business of people, and what makes you different from an AI researcher is your ability to connect with empathy, to another human. Be a rigor, improve your skills, learn to identify nonsense, all the slop that's been drip that's been created, and, be the one to refine these methods as well. Use AI as a tool to showcase your humanity and your irreplaceable skill set. It's just a tool. Tools are not very flexible. But your approach to tools can be flexible. Focus on the people who use the tool designed for enduring principles in a way that you use the tool and for the people who use the tool, and for the people who create the tool. It's not always going to be experienced senior researchers you work with. It's not gonna be these people who use the tools because tomorrow, we all suddenly product managers are doing research. Suddenly, the c suite people are doing research. I don't know. Design for all levels of expertise because even if your team has experienced researchers, it will benefit everyone. Like, when you design for h cases, it benefits everyone. It's the same thing with these sort of tools as well. So it forms a enduring principle because the people and the teams using the tools will change tomorrow, six months, one year. Who knows? Right? Choose the tool that gives the team room to move. When it comes to two changes from my experience is that, the best way to deal with two changes to, like, move from one to a customer success managers. I find that, they are the best they are going to be your best friend when it comes to navigating, tool changes they they have gone through it all. They have worked with so many of their clients to change tools. So if you need to change your tool, lean very heavily on them. They will support through it. Make it, make it clear from the start that when you are going if you are going to get their tool, if you're gonna buy their tool, they need to firstly take that change. They need to expect, you need to they they need to expect that you will lean on them and a good customer success manager will make a world of difference. So your operating model won't collapse the moment you say, hey, let's go for these other two. It's cheaper, it's better, let's go. Right? So I talk a lot how much time do I have a lot of time? How much, how much I talk so much about changes and uncertainty. Right? But what should be permanent? Ethics, privacy, consent, legal, the sustainability of your operations and the efficiency, your principles as a person, and as a as a researcher should stay the same. So which means always prioritizing the participants' rights and comfort and their experience. That's the basic ethics of research. Treating your participants like a decent human being regardless of what company you work for, what your boss wants you to do. Don't waver in your ethics. It makes you human. And when you find yourself in a situation, if you find yourself in a situation where you have to, every good company has a speak up hotline. They have onboards They have ethics and compliance teams. So work closely as a as a op research op person, I do work very closely with research and ethics teams. Or if they don't have that usually it's a legal or privacy team. So when you're and during when designing for these sort of processes and all these principles, a lot of times they will set the rules on how you should operate. So it's very important to work very closely with them whether you're a researcher, research ops, or anybody who does research. I finished early. Okay. So, research will always be chaotic. Alright. The we've talked about, you know, making sure that your ethics stay the same, have having research rigor, all these budget and tools, they will shift continuously, but research ethics participant care, human critical thinking, keep it the same, keep it there, keep, the standard high. Build the system that will outlast individuals, avoid reliance on single heroes by creating clear governance, create shared tools and explicit shared principles for decision makers and for the people who do research. Designed for uncertainty by default, don't fight the change. Structure is such that when something changes, you can sort of move. Have you seen one of those like, in Japan, like, where they have like, those buildings that move, with the earthquake, and then they have those things? Yeah. Oh, I should put a I should put a little video there of that. Of the building just shaking. So structure your your your research ops like that. Making sure that like if the the ground moves, you sort of move together with it. So that you can go back to doing the really good research that everybody has been doing and then you can go back to being business as usual. Thank you. I I really yay. Yeah. That means we have time for questions. So anyone like to ask a question of weigh in? Research ops are yes, down the front. Okay. Thank you, Ben. It was a very, very interesting presentation. I really loved it. And then, you know, given that you're talking about research ops, and Uber is a research intensive organization, and it makes to have a sense to have a dedicated research operations. Team. Do you feel smaller organization where fewer people are in business Research ops is still important. Yes. The reality is that from experience, a lot of small organizations small startups, they don't have, the capacity or the resources to have a designated one person. So a lot of times, they will still have research operations, but it will be like a shared resource. Or like, I'm a lead researcher by also do, like, maybe, like, 30% of my time is being done on research operations. It is important to have that, not just like having one person. Remember, don't depend on one individual. Right? Depend on it as like a discipline. And you you still need that work to be done because if not, it's really hard to scale. If to if you have a small team of, like, three and then tomorrow you're like, oh, you know what? We're going to, hire more. How are you going to, like, have shared resources? How are you going to have shared templates? How are you going to all do the same thing together? You you're not going to be able to. So one team, they'll be like, hey. This is my consent process. This is my repo. And then another team is like, no. We we don't want this this. We're gonna do something else. And then you just repeat. You just reinvent the wheel over and over again, and all this different, and then you can't scale because everybody's doing the same thing in their own way, and then how many different ways of working do you have in what organization? Ones, it really starts to scale. You have, like, oh, I have, you know, 10 research teams. They're all doing different things, and I'm paying, so much money for all the, the tools, all the subscriptions, and I just want all them to use one single tool so that I can cut down on the cost. Remember, cost cutting is like they they constantly want you to cut costs. So you can if you sort of have that operation set out to be like, okay. When we scale this, what we're going to do. But for now, this is how we're going to do things. This is the way of working. So that it can scale. Then having the operations, it makes a lot of sense. In a smaller organization. Might be less but it exists. So Yeah. Does that answer your question? Yeah. Thank you so much. Operating currently in a team of four. I completely agree. Completely agree with that answer. Next question. There and then here. At the back. Okay. Comment on the I'm just gonna repeat what she wants me to comment on. She wants to me to comment on, how to maintain ethics in AI tools. This is something that we are actively, I don't wanna comment too much about what we're doing right now in Google because there is a lot of work in progress. But, so the same thing as well. Right? One is that, like, participant safety is the number one thing. Whether they book out or not, it's always gonna be number one thing. So looking at all these AI, different AI tools, are we protect participants? And we're not just talking about, like, oh, having making sure that they're comfortable when they're talking to you, making sure that, whatever scenario of research that you're putting them, whether it's in a train or in, behind a computer screen, you are prioritizing we're not just talking about that with talking about, like, their rights as a person, their data privacy. Who are we sharing this data with? Like, what if we if we do all this research through AI, do we own the data, or does the AI AI, LLM, whatever company own that? Right? So these are all the hoops that you have to jump through as you try to get AI approval from your company. They will ask you, like, okay. How are we go how are we setting this up with them? Where is the data flowing? So a lot of my day to day work right now is on, like, trying to explain to people this is the data that how is it going through, the process of it, what happens when we want out how are we taking back all the data. And also that is and regardless of whether it's Bupa a big company or a small company, that it should be the number one thing you think about. What what are they doing with my data? Right? Then, participant safety is also another one as well. We've seen just now, of, can't remember her name, but, she was talking about the AI moderators and, you. Just like talking about, like, you know, the AI moderators and making sure that, like, having that kind of rapport, that, like, that is not that was a very new thing that I learned that, like, you know, that kind of rapport. But making sure that if a participant is off a vulnerable population, have we done enough to make sure that this participant is protected from this robot? You know? So these are some thoughts I have. Thank you. Down the front? Yeah. I was wondering if you might be able to share one or two of your principles. Of my what? Your principles. Was it you created for the Ariana's practice? Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. So, the one I talked to I've always I always talk about is on, like, creating the ethics part of it, of making sure that, oh, you do no harm, Why you're supposed to do how are you supposed to deal with this? And all that all these principles, I don't have, like, fixed principles, but I use, what I think is right when it comes to research ethics to guide my decision. So I'll give it example. There was, in in a previous company, they wanted me to somebody wanted to do a a secret shopper experiment. Right? And this was also one of the ways I also learned about, like, oh, maybe I should have that as enduring principle because I never thought of that. So we were trying to do, this this research was trying to do a mystery shopper, and I went to my ethics and compliance team, and I was like, hey. Do you think we can do that? And then the ethics person was like, think about all the things that you are saying to that participant and how you're lying to them and whether or not that holds true to what you think you should treat the participant as. Is that is that an ethical thing to, like, lie to a participant and then later be like, gotcha. We did not. Yeah. And I was like, oh, actually, no. That's not a very good thing, but, like, for the business, like mystery shopper is a great way to like figure out, oh, am I doing all this, creating, like, the best customer experience? But as a researcher, you think yeah, but I'm just going down to lights. You know, I I I feel like I'm not protecting these participants well now. Like, they have offered to to to to do research for us, and then I'm just lying to them and, like, trying to, like, gotcha. Just so that, my boss is happy. So that is one of those things where I also put it in the back of my mind that I think, oh, if I want to think about ethics, if that is happening to me, do I want to be lied to? Do I want this to happen? To me if I'm a vulnerable population? I'm a vulnerable person. This any type of minority, is that a good thing to have? So, yeah. I don't have, like, a a a a whole poster of rules in my office that says how I should act, but it's more of a general purpose of why I do the things I do, and at the end of the day, like, you are just a worker in a company. That's what you are, but you are a person first and foremost, then you are a worker. So be a person, treat your your colleagues right, treat your participants right, then you can go be a good worker. I'm going to be very unemployable. Shit. Any other questions, sir, Wayne? There are none on line. Just a reminder for people joining remotely, you can type into the chat and we'll read those questions out as well. Alright. Thank you very much. We do have a couple of minutes while we swap over and get Annie on stage. Excellent. See how this goes. It's always conference. This is like having the next speaker plug in and see what actually happens. There we go. So next up, we have, Anya, musculoskeletal from Atlassian, one of the lead researchers at Atlassian. Please join me in welcoming her to the stage. Thank you. Thanks for having me. When you hear the word diplomacy, what are the images that come to mind for you? I will. Hello. Hello. Can you hear me? Soft. Soft. Should I stand here instead? Is that better? Okay. I'll stand here. Alright. Like a true diplomat. Awesome. So, yeah. When you hear the word diplomacy, what is the images? Images that come to mind for you? Maybe it's images like these. Maybe it's images like these. Maybe this. Many nations working together Maybe it's images of international conflict and negotiation. For me, diplomacy looked a lot like this. Bit of a change. I grew up in a family of diplomats and moved countries many times throughout my early life. As I adapted to new places, schools, social circles, culture, I grew up carefully observing how those around me navigated the world around them through the lens of diplomacy. Diplomacy itself isn't about politics. Or force. It's about relationships and building relationships without hostility. As a diplomat, you don't get a choice of who you work with. Some relationships are simple, where your values and goals are aligned. And sometimes things are a little bit more complex, where views differ. Maybe where not everyone is open to a dialogue. Yet you have to remain professional and maintain composure at all. Times. Does this sound familiar to anyone? Raise your hand if you've ever struggled or hit a wall trying to build a relationship with a stakeholder. I had a feeling, I would say a lot of hands. Navigating stakeholder relationships as a researcher can be a bit of a roller coaster. We aren't working with our best friends. We're working with stakeholders who have different agendas, ## Slides ### 00:00:31 Choose to Mirror or Extend Display from the [Control Center icon] menu [A small laptop icon] ### 00:00:57 # Designing for Uncertainty ### 00:01:14 - Designers - Uncertainty ### 00:01:16 - Design - Uncertainty ### 00:01:37 # Designing ResearchOps for Uncertainty Weiyan Chee ResearchOps Lead | August 2026 ### 00:01:57 # Designing ResearchOps for Uncertainty Weiyan Chee ResearchOps Lead | August 2026 ### 00:02:23 # AI transparency AI was used to create this deck I used my own brain for the content ### 00:02:44 ## Which Would Cause the Most Chaos? - **Layoffs** Half or more of the researchers you work with are laid off. [Icon of three stylized people] ### 00:03:07 UX AUSTRALIA | WEB DIRECTIONS # DESIGN RESEARCH ## Which Would Cause the Most Chaos? - **Layoffs** Half or more of the researchers you work with are laid off. - **Repo Vanishes** Your research repository suddenly disappears overnight. - **Budget Cut** Your research budget is sliced in half or more with immediate effect. - **Team Doubles** Company acquires a business and your team doubles overnight. [Icon of three people next to "Layoffs"] [Icon of stacked documents next to "Repo Vanishes"] [Icon of scissors cutting a line next to "Budget Cut"] [Icon of a building with two people next to "Team Doubles"] ### 00:03:51 # Which Would Cause the Most Chaos? - **Layoffs** Half or more of the researchers you work with are laid off. - **Repo Vanishes** Your research repository suddenly disappears overnight. - **Budget Cut** Your research budget is sliced in half or more with immediate effect. - **Team Doubles** Company acquires a business and your team doubles overnight. [Icon of three people next to "Layoffs"] [Icon of a stack of documents next to "Repo Vanishes"] [Icon of scissors next to "Budget Cut"] [Icon of four people, two with an arrow, next to "Team Doubles"] ### 00:04:08 # How Did I End Up Here? - Psychology and Neuroscience - UX Research and ResearchOps [Photo of a snowy mountain landscape under a bright, cloudy sky] ### 00:04:11 # How Did I End Up Here? - Psychology and Neuroscience - UX Research and ResearchOps [Image of a snowy mountain landscape under a partly cloudy sky] [A downward arrow icon connecting the two bullet points] ### 00:04:35 # How Did I End Up Here? - Psychology and Neuroscience - UX Research and ResearchOps [Image of a snowy mountain landscape under a bright, cloudy sky] ### 00:04:56 # How Did I End Up Here? - Psychology and Neuroscience - UX Research and ResearchOps [Photo of a snowy mountain landscape under a bright sky] ### 00:05:08 # How Did I End Up Here? - Psychology and Neuroscience - UX Research and ResearchOps [Image of a snowy mountain landscape under a bright sky with clouds] ### 00:05:29 # How Did I End Up Here? - Psychology and Neuroscience - UX Research and ResearchOps > Do I want stability in my life... or is it adaptability and flexibility that I really want? [Image of a snowy mountain landscape under a bright sky] [An arrow pointing down from "Psychology and Neuroscience" to "UX Research and ResearchOps"] ### 00:05:51 # When Does Change Happen? - Layoffs - The annual carnival [Icon of a person with an 'x' next to "Layoffs"] ### 00:06:09 # When Does Change Happen? ## Layoffs The annual carnival ## Cost Cutting Do more with less, always ## Reorgs You gotta move it, move it ## New Executive A new Chief of Something wants to shake things up [Four cards, each with an icon: a person with an 'x' for Layoffs, scissors for Cost Cutting, two people with an arrow for Reorgs, and a lightning bolt for New Executive.] ### 00:06:14 # UX AUSTRALIA | WEB DIRECTIONS ## DESIGN RESEARCH ### When Does Change Happen? - **Layoffs** The annual carnival - **Cost Cutting** Do more with less, always - **Reorgs** You gotta move it, move it - **New Executive** A new Chief of Something wants to shake things up [Four cards, each with an icon: a person with an 'x', scissors, two people with an arrow, and a lightning bolt.] ### 00:06:37 ### THE CORE PHILOSOPHY ## Design ## for Research Operations ### 00:06:58 ### THE CORE PHILOSOPHY ## **Design** ## **Enduring Principles** ## **for Research Operations** ### 00:07:23 ### THE CORE PHILOSOPHY ## Design Enduring Principles for Research Operations ### 00:07:46 # Research Governance ## Build around what you protect ### Why Does It Exist? - Protect participants, ensure research ethics and legal compliance, and creates consistencies to scale - Create trust so researchers can move fast without breaking core values and principles ### 00:08:07 # Research Governance ## Build around what you protect ### Why Does It Exist? - Protect participants, ensure research ethics and legal compliance, and creates consistencies to scale - Create trust so researchers can move fast without breaking core values and principles ### 00:08:29 # Research Governance Build around what you protect ### Why Does It Exist? - Protect participants, ensure research ethics and legal compliance, and creates consistencies to scale - Create trust so researchers ### 00:08:55 # DESIGN RESEARCH ## Research Governance Build around what you protect ### Why Does It Exist? - Protect participants, ensure research ethics and legal compliance, and creates consistencies to scale - Create ### 00:09:08 # Research Governance ## Build around what you protect ### Why Does It Exist? - Protect participants, ensure research ethics and legal compliance, and creates consistencies to scale - Create trust so researchers can move fast without breaking core values and principles ### How to design governance for uncertainty? - Stop reinventing the wheel every time team leadership or business priorities shift. - Focus on foundational ethics and key principles - Create governance that acts as a guardrail, focusing on protecting the participant, the researcher, and the company. ### 00:09:31 # Design Processes for People ## 1. People Who Decide Leaders and governance owners who approve risk ## 2. People Who Follow Researchers and cross-discipline partners who execute and integrate workflows ## 3. The Tools They Use The shared tools, templates, and platforms that enable the work [Icon of a single person above "1. People ### 00:09:55 # Design Processes for People - **1. People Who Decide** Leaders and governance owners who approve risk - **2. People Who Follow** Researchers and cross-discipline partners who execute and integrate workflows - **3. The Tools They Use** The shared tools, templates, and platforms that enable the work [Icon of a single person next to "1. People Who Decide"] [Icon of three people next to "2. People Who Follow"] [Icon of a wrench next to "3. The Tools They Use"] ### 00:10:09 # Design Processes for People - **1. People Who Decide** - Leaders and governance owners who approve risk - **2. People Who Follow** - Researchers and cross-discipline partners who execute and integrate workflows - **3. The Tools They Use** - The shared tools, templates, and platforms that enable the work [Three cards, each with a title, descriptive text, and a small icon: a single person, three people, and a wrench.] ### 00:10:31 # Design for capabilities, not people ## Do Not Depend On An Individual. Single points of failure ruin research maturity. ### 00:10:52 ## Design for capabilities, not people - **Do Not Depend On An Individual.** Single points of failure ruin research maturity. ### 00:11:08 # Design for capabilities, not people ## Do Not Depend On An Individual. Single points of failure ruin research maturity. ## Documentation ensures continuity Don't let context leave with people ### 00:11:13 # Design for capabilities, not people ## Do Not Depend On An Individual. Single points of failure ruin research maturity. ## Documentation ensures continuity Don't let context leave with people ### 00:11:38 # Design for capabilities, not people - **Do Not Depend On An Individual.** Single points of failure ruin research maturity. - **Documentation ensures continuity** Don't let context leave with people ### 00:11:59 ### Design for capabilities, not people - **Do Not Depend On An Individual.** Single points of failure ruin research maturity. - **Documentation ensures continuity** Don't let context leave with people ### 00:12:23 # AI is an accelerator ... **not a surrogate for human analytical judgment** - **Build your rigour**: Establish clear methodological standards before automated synthesis. - **Improve research skills**: Deepen qualitative analysis, active listening, and domain expertise. - **Learn to identify nonsense**: Critically evaluate synthetic outputs and hallucinated insights. [Image of an airplane wing over the ocean and land] ### 00:12:46 # AI is an accelerator ... **not a surrogate for human analytical judgment** - **Build your rigour**: Establish clear methodological standards before automated synthesis. - **Improve research skills**: Deepen qualitative analysis, active listening, and domain expertise. - **Learn to identify nonsense**: Critically evaluate synthetic outputs and hallucinated insights. [View from an airplane window showing the wing over the ocean and land] ### 00:13:08 # AI is an accelerator ... **not a surrogate for human analytical judgment** - **Build your rigour**: Establish clear methodological standards before automated synthesis. - **Improve research skills**: Deepen qualitative analysis, active listening, and domain expertise. - **Learn to identify nonsense**: Critically evaluate synthetic outputs and hallucinated insights. [Image of an airplane wing over blue water and land] ### 00:13:09 # AI is an accelerator ... **not a surrogate for human analytical judgment** - Build your rigour: Establish clear methodological standards before automated synthesis. - Improve research skills: Deepen qualitative analysis, active listening, and domain expertise. - Learn to identify nonsense: Critically evaluate synthetic outputs and hallucinated insights. [Image of an airplane wing over a body of water and land] ### 00:13:31 # AI is an accelerator ... **not a surrogate for human analytical judgment** - **Build your rigour**: Establish clear methodological standards before automated synthesis. - **Improve research skills**: Deepen qualitative analysis, active listening, and domain expertise. - **Learn to identify nonsense**: Critically evaluate synthetic outputs and hallucinated insights. [Image of an airplane wing over the ocean with land in the distance] ### 00:13:55 # Tools aren't flexible. Your approach has to be. ## Design for enduring principles across both perspectives ### The People Who Use the Tool Lean on the researchers who actually use the tool. Shape its future together. ### The People Who Create the Tool Lean on your tool's Customer Success Manager to facilitate and enable changes [Two-column layout with an icon and text for "The People Who Use the Tool" and "The People Who Create the Tool"] ### 00:14:08 # Tools aren't flexible. Your approach has to be. Design for enduring principles across both perspectives - **The People Who Use the Tool** Lean on the researchers who actually use the tool. Shape its future together. - **The People Who Create the Tool** Lean on your tool's Customer Success Manager to facilitate and enable changes [Icon of three people next to "The People Who Use the Tool"] [Icon of a wrench next to "The People Who Create the Tool"] ### 00:14:30 # Tools aren't flexible. Your approach has to be. ## Design for enduring principles across both perspectives - **The People Who Use the Tool** Lean on the researchers ### 00:14:55 # Tools aren't flexible. Your approach has to be. Design for enduring principles across both perspectives ## The People Who Use the Tool Lean on the researchers who actually use the tool. ### 00:15:08 # Tools aren't flexible. Your approach has to be. Design for enduring principles across both perspectives - **The People Who Use the Tool** Lean on the researchers who actually use the tool. Shape its future together. - **The People Who Create the Tool** Lean on your tool's Customer Success Manager to facilitate and enable changes [Icon of two people next to "The People Who Use the Tool"] [Icon of a wrench next to "The People Who Create the Tool"] ### 00:15:30 # Tools aren't flexible. Your approach has to be. Design for enduring principles across both perspectives - **The People Who Use the Tool** Lean on the researchers who actually use the tool. Shape its future together. - **The People Who Create the Tool** Lean on your tool's Customer Success Manager to facilitate and enable changes [Icon of three people next to "The People Who Use the Tool"] [Icon of a wrench next to "The People Who ### 00:15:55 # What Should Be Permanent? ## **DO NOT WAIVER IN YOUR ETHICS** Tools, team sizes, and budgets will fluctuate constantly. Your commitment to your participant and research ethics must remain unshakeable. ### 00:16:09 # What Should Be Permanent? ## DO NOT WAIVER IN YOUR ETHICS Tools, team sizes, and budgets will fluctuate constantly. Your commitment to your participant and research ethics must remain unshakeable. ### 00:16:30 # DESIGN RESEARCH ## What Should Be Permanent? **DO NOT WAIVER IN YOUR ETHICS** Tools, team sizes, and budgets will fluctuate constantly. Your commitment to your participant and research ethics must remain unshakeable. ### 00:16:54 # Research will always be chaotic. - **Hold Unwavering Ethics & Research Rigor**: Budgets and tools shift continuously, but research ethics and human critical thinking must remain unshakeable. - **Build Systems That Outlast Individuals**: Avoid reliance on single heroes by creating clear governance, shared tools, and enduring principles - **Design for Uncertainty by Default**: Stop fighting change. Structure ResearchOps so your organization can adapt effortlessly ### 00:17:09 # Research will always be chaotic. - **Hold Unwavering Ethics & Research Rigor**: Budgets and tools shift continuously, but research ethics and human critical thinking must remain unshakeable. - **Build Systems That Outlast Individuals**: Avoid reliance on single heroes by creating clear governance, shared tools, and enduring principles - **Design for Uncertainty by Default**: Stop fighting change. Structure ResearchOps so your organization can adapt effortlessly ### 00:17:31 # Research will always be chaotic. - **Hold Unwavering Ethics & Research Rigor**: Budgets and tools shift continuously, but research ethics and human critical thinking must remain unshakeable. - **Build Systems That Outlast Individuals**: Avoid reliance on single heroes by creating clear governance, shared tools, and enduring principles - **Design for Uncertainty by Default**: Stop fighting change. Structure ResearchOps so your organization can adapt effortlessly ### 00:17:54 # Research will always be chaotic. - **Hold Unwavering Ethics & Research Rigor**: Budgets and tools shift continuously, but research ethics and human critical thinking must remain unshakeable. - **Build Systems That Outlast Individuals**: Avoid reliance on single heroes by creating clear governance, shared tools, and enduring principles - **Design for Uncertainty by Default**: Stop fighting change. Structure ResearchOps so your organization can adapt effortlessly ### 00:18:09 # Research will always be chaotic. - **Hold Unwavering Ethics & Research Rigor**: Budgets and tools shift continuously, but research ethics and human critical thinking must remain unshakeable. - **Build Systems That Outlast Individuals**: Avoid reliance on single heroes by creating clear governance, shared tools, and enduring principles - **Design for Uncertainty by Default**: Stop fighting change. Structure ResearchOps so your organization can adapt effortlessly [QR code for Wayne Chen's LinkedIn profile] ### 00:18:13 # Research will always be chaotic. - **Hold Unwavering Ethics & Research Rigor**: Budgets and tools shift continuously, but research ethics and human critical thinking must remain unshakeable. - **Build Systems That Outlast Individuals**: Avoid reliance on single heroes by creating clear governance, shared tools, and enduring principles - **Design for Uncertainty by Default**: Stop fighting change. Structure ResearchOps so your organization can adapt effortlessly [https://www.linkedin.com/in/wengyinchen/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/wengyinchen/) Add me on LinkedIn [QR code for Wengyin Chen's LinkedIn profile] ### 00:18:37 [A small, blurry, unidentifiable image is centered on a mostly blank white slide.] ### 00:20:40 [Small dark rectangular image, possibly a document or book cover, with faint white text or a logo] ### 00:21:04 # Illegible slide text. [Small, dark rectangular graphic or logo in the lower middle of the slide] ### 00:21:07 ### Screenshot of an unidentifiable document [Screenshot of a document with unreadable text and a small, unidentifiable icon at the bottom] ### 00:23:33 # Unreadable text due to overexposure. [Small, dark rectangular icon resembling a document or folder in the bottom center] ### 00:24:50 [The slide is a blank white screen] ### 00:26:06 [Small rectangular graphic resembling a document or card with an icon and faint text] ### 00:26:07 [A small, stylized document icon with faint text, centered at the bottom of the slide] ### 00:26:32 # DESIGN RESEARCH ## DESIGN ### 00:26:53 # DESIGN RESEARCH ### 00:27:09 # The researcher as a diplomat ### 00:27:11 # The researcher as a diplomat ### 00:27:32 # The researcher as a **diplomat** ## Ania Mastalerz Lead Researcher | Atlassian *Presented at Design Research 2020, Surry Hills, AU, August 2020.* ### 00:27:54 # The researcher as a **diplomat** Design Research 2020 | Surry Hills, AU | August 2020 Ania Mastalerz Lead Researcher | Atlassian ### 00:28:08 ### Design Research 2026: The... [Image of a large group of people, representing various countries, seated around a circular table in a formal meeting room, with a world ### 00:28:15 ### Design Research 2026: The... [Image of a large group of people, representing various countries, seated around a circular table in a formal meeting room, with a world ### 00:28:39 Or this? [Photograph of a young girl in traditional attire standing next to a large floral arrangement] ### 00:29:01 # DESIGN RESEARCH ## Diplomacy 1. the art and practice of conducting negotiations between groups or nations. 2. skill in handling affairs without arousing hostility. ### 00:29:07 # DESIGN RESEARCH ## Diplomacy 1. the art and practice of conducting negotiations between groups or nations. 2. skill in handling affairs without arousing hostility. ### 00:29:30 Sound familiar? [Image of a baby seal with the text "HELLO" above it and "IT'S ME" below it]