# The Researcher as a Diplomat — Ania Mastalerz — session 2026-08-26T03:25:00.000Z → 2026-08-26T03:55:00.000Z _467 transcript lines · 72 slides_ ## Transcript the focus on the customer. Sometimes you find that your business doesn't actually need more research. It needs a reminder of who your user really is and easier access to learning more about them. So And the other ingredient of soft power is showing up with confidence. Confidence is such a simple thing. But the importance it brings to this process is often overlooked. Soft power is all about optics and there is enormous power in how we show up in our organizations. You know, doing great research isn't enough most of the time. If we want people to trust us and entrust things to us, they're going to have to detect a level of confidence. And confidence is kind of easier said rather than done. Right? Just build some confidence So how do you actually do that as a researcher? One thing my twelve years in this field has taught me is that confidence isn't a trait. It's not something that we are born with. It's a muscle, and it's something that comes from doing hard things. Have encouraged to put yourself in uncomfortable situations, to speak up to put forward a new plan, maybe suggest a different approach if something isn't working. Maybe it's maybe putting your hand up at a conference and asking a question even. It's not something that happens something we're born with. It's something we can build over time and it takes deliberate and regular practice. Do I build confidence? Like this. You know, I I wasn't always confident, and for many years, I doubted myself a lot. And I still do. I'd hesitate, you know, I'll stay silent, in meetings where maybe I should have pushed back. I'd probably be the least likely to put my hand up in a meeting for a long time. And a few years ago, I started challenging myself to build my confidence as a researcher. To do scary things outside of my comfort zone like this. And when you lean into discomfort, amazing things start to happen. You know, your confidence starts to build and as a result, your stakeholder dynamics naturally start to shift. You stop being this kind of passive actor in your organization and you start backing yourself more. And confidence builds respect but more importantly, it builds credibility and trust in our craft. So we've talked talked a little bit about what it takes to be a diplomat. You know, the internal work that we need to do of showing up with confidence and business, human. But obviously diplomacy doesn't happen in a vacuum. You can be the most confident, insights driven researcher in the but without a network of support, your influence remains bottled up. And that brings us to our second principle which is you can't be a diplomat. Alone. So we need to talk about coalition building. In diplomacy, coalition building is the process of forming alliances, or partnerships among diverse parties to achieve a singular shared objective. Again, maybe this sounds a little familiar. Coalitions can be temporary alliances for a specific issue or longer term partnerships, a addressing broader concerns. For us as researchers, coalitions can exist at a project level, you know, aligning stakeholders around a singular problem or objective, or maybe with a longer term view. Building lasting partnerships with specific stakeholders or teams. So If I ask you about the ecosystem of all the people you work within your organization, I'm I'm sure you could tell me who your key stakeholders are. Maybe it's your product partners, your key design partners, Maybe they're in the team you work in, maybe they're part of leadership, you know, that's even better. Now consider in that ecosystem, who are your greatest allies? Who who are the people who champion research day to day? Who are the people who your insights when you're not in the room? But another question to ask yourself is who in your organization cares about the customers just much as you do? Because the teams that might be your greatest allies, I that maybe you haven't even connected with yet. So Build strategic relationships with your champions and allies and lean on them to to help you grow research impact in your organization. Part of building influence as a researcher is understanding your organization structure and the dynamics within your organization and really navigating these to your advantage. Functions that regularly incorporate research, in their decision making are your closest allies. And you can see product and design take the lead here. But think beyond just product and design. Now these are really the obvious ones. Maybe it's sales. Marketing, data science. Again, Anna spoke about this earlier. You know, some of the greatest research allies I've ever seen in my career have come from these teams specifically. And it's not just about who is using your work, consider who regularly connects with customers in your organization. At Atlassian, we identified customer support team as a major ally of ours. You know, they were drowning in support tickets caused by really simple usability issues. And we partnered with them to test and ship improvements. By solving their problem, we were able to estimate how much it would save and support costs and proved the ROI of of our work. And the key wasn't the research itself, but it was shared goal that we had with another team. Map out your stakeholders and consider where you might have work to do. Your champions are the people who have high power and show a lot of interest in research and die. And this is really your core coalition, so you wanna make sure you keep this group close. And next, we move on to our supporters. The people or teams or stakeholders who have low power in our organization but show a lot of interest in the work that we do. And you wanna keep this group informed. You know, they're often the echo that amplifies our work when we're not there and advocates for research. Behind closed doors. And then we have our challenges. You know, the folks with high power but low interest and engagement with our work, and I'm sure we can all think of one of these people and that will explode now. Sometimes, it's because of a lack of awareness, but it can also sometimes be a skepticism about the value research can provide. You know, maybe they've been burnt in the past, and they're less likely to want to collaborate with us. And you really wanna treat this group as your diplomatic mission. You know, focus on small wins to help prove your value. Find out what they care about or what they're worried about, and find ways that you can help them understand it better even in really small ways. And lastly, we have our bystanders. The folks with low power and no real care or interest in what we're doing day to day. You wanna monitor this group, but you don't really wanna spend all of your resources trying to win them over. At least not at this point because you also wanna remember that power can shift over time. But coalitions aren't just about who you engage, but how you engage them. And the tip here is to engage directly. So How many of you have walked into a high stakes meeting, share an idea, or an opportunity backed by research and watched a get shot down in two minutes. I'm sure it happens to the best of us. And, to avoid this, I like to use something called memoashi, a Japanese concept that literally translates to, preparing the roots before transplanting a tree, or kind of doing the groundwork. And in our world, it literally translates to the meeting before the meeting. It's the process of having quiet one on one conversations with your stakeholders before a formal review kickoff, or presentation takes place. You're not just selling your idea, you're letting them see it, critique it, influence it. And if our stakeholders feel like they've consulted and they've got their fingerprints on an idea, they're much more likely to want to see it succeed. It's a really powerful tool for also working with challenges that we spoke about earlier. You know, show them what they've stand to gain by partnering with you. You know, they'll be much more likely to want to see us succeed if they can see how it benefits them. Once you have your allies, you need a message that sticks. Need to ensure that the people you've gathered are aligned. And that leads us to our final and maybe what I'd say is my most creative principle. And that's framing narratives. Because research isn't just about the data that we gather, but it's about the story that we give to that data. And I'm sure we all love a very compelling story. In diplomacy, framing narratives is a strategic communication tool that involves structuring information to influence and opinion. And an important call out here is it's not about changing the fact It's about choosing which facts to highlight to emphasize your message. As researchers, we have an incredible opportunity to influence through how we actually tell the story. Research on its own is just a collection of observations, data points, facts, but narrative is what gives those facts meaning. Narratives becomes the lens through which our stakeholders perceive a problem. The right framing is often the difference between knowing something and actually doing something about it. And, this is why we often see great research that doesn't lead to anything. Shaping narrative is probably one of my favorite things about being a researcher. I love the creativity that goes into it. It can be a bit of a journalist, an analyst, a writer, maybe a bit of a designer, visual communicator. And the reality is, in the AI era, storytelling is more important than ever. I'm kind of proud of myself. We're twenty minutes through and I only said the word AI now. I'll consider that a win. The percentage of LinkedIn job postings in The US that include the term storyteller doubled in 2025. Our stakeholders need our expertise to help cut through the noise and to help them focus on what truly matters. So Raise your hand if you've ever felt stretched to their network. Yeah. No surprises there once again. Is often a superpower that researchers have that is overlooked. You know, the struggle of being spread across too many things can actually be a real advantage that we have. It lets us see things from a wider angle. And to see the bigger picture and how the dots connect across our organization. It increases that surface area that we talked about earlier as well. And another advantage is our inside out perspective. Know, we're really the bridge between what goes on inside our organization and what is happening on the outside. And these two perspectives give us a really unique edge in our organization, so make sure you use them to your advantage. We often treat the research report as as the finish line. But the most effective diplomats, they don't wait for the official meeting to happen before they build consensus. They treat every interaction the hallway chat, the casual Slack message, the stakeholder check-in, as part of that narrative. If you shift your focus away from the final report towards the continuous narrative, you stop being a reporter and you start being more of a partner. And that starts at the very beginning, you know, framing the right questions. The right altitude. Engaging the right people in the work, choosing the right channels to share what you learn, choosing the right formats in which you're sharing it, co creating insights in that process. You know, the final readout and the report shouldn't be the only thing that you're optimizing for. And when you move away from view viewing the final read out as the be all and end all, you're now free to do the real work, which is campaigning. You're no longer just delivering findings, but you're actively shaping the organizational narrative. So what does that actually mean? The kind of campaign for change. It means you stop waiting the research report to do the heavy lifting. You do this by showing up in the right places, but also making sure your insights are opinionated, meaningful to your stakeholders, and actionable. And you never wanna leave your audience guessing. Wanna clear the path by outlining what needs to happen. When you shift from delivering insights to campaigning for change, you transform from being a passive reporter into a strategic partner. Who is actively shaping the narrative. In your organization. And being that strategic partner requires mastering how you deliver the message. As researchers, we're often the bearer of inconvenient truths. You know, maybe the feature that everyone loves and is excited about just isn't landing with your users. And the problem is when you highlight a problem, trigger defensiveness. If you present an opportunity, you trigger dopamine. Neuroscience tells us that threats make us narrow minded. But opportunities expand our thinking. And if we wanna truly campaign for change, we have to be more calculated and strategic about the lenses that we use. Stakeholders are much more likely to respond to opportunities rather than threats. Instead of pointing out gaps, point out possibilities. Instead of saying, we lack basic accessibility features, tie it to the opportunity that presents itself if this problem was solved. The right framing can really multiply the impact of the work that we're doing. And we also need to make it memorable. We need to communicate insights that stick. And there are endless ways to tell a story and I'm sure many of us have experimented a lot in this area. One of my favorite things to do is to identify a key customer quote and turn it into a bit of a slogan for my study. You know, create a bourb intrigued, get people excited about it. Thoughtfully designed infographics are another one. Create artifacts that are easy to reuse in different places. A picture can tell a thousand words. You know, find a hook, a stat, a quote to make your insights memorable. Borrow from journalism, use hitings to draw your readers in, you know, get craft Make it interactive. And try different formats as well and you customize your message to different audiences in your organization. And use AI as a brainstorming pun. Here as well if you're stuck for ideas. So am I showing you an image of three bulbs? You might ask. I was once working on, a project looking at a different a new market's taxation challenges. It was really dry really quite boring, but I used these simple shapes to visualize the layers of complete that we were dealing dealing with in this new market. Kind of the representation of the mess that we had to wrap our heads around. And what I ended up doing is transforming a boring subject matter into a more engaging story for my stakeholders. To the point where they even started using these visuals presentations. Is it sophisticated? Not really. It's just three bobs, but it was really memorable. And that's really the goal. And the impact of making your insights memorable and why this matters is that the story that you share lives on in rooms even when you're not there. If stakeholders can easily recall and reference your work, it helps the message spread organically. So we've covered three important skills that researchers can learn from diplomacy. But there is one more important skill that I think we all need to focus on in 2026, We have to really address the hardest part of our job, which is letting go of the things that we know. I think unlearning is one of the fundamental skills that we really need to harness as researchers right now. The ground beneath our feet is constantly shifting. I'm sure we're feeling it every day. And what works for us? Yesterday isn't guaranteed to work for us tomorrow. If what you're doing right now isn't working, you need to try another way. I recently moved into a new team and I instantly felt the pressure to set up regular one on ones with my new stakeholders, you know, to really fill up the calendar, get as much face time with them as possible. And I quickly realized I was spreading myself way too thin. I'm sure many of us can relate to this feeling. My capacity to focus at work just isn't there when my calendar is slammed and I'm constantly context switching. So instead, I tried a different approach. I focused on building my coalition first. You know, I tried to find two to three stakeholders who I really wanted to focus on building relationship with in the next six months. You know, going deep over going wide. And when you take the pressure off yourself to do things the way you've always done them, it really frees you up. And it helps you think about your role and your value in new ways. What you're doing right now isn't working, owe it to yourself to try things another way. So what's one small change? You can make in how you show up at work to build greater influence. Maybe it's in building your soft power you know, pushing yourself into new uncomfortable situations to build your confidence or your influence. Maybe it's building your coalition, leveraging existing allies you already have, or finding new ones across your company or organization. Or maybe it's in how you frame the narrative. Know, with a stronger point of view, in a more creative way, in a different format to really make your insights live on even in rooms. You're not in. Research is only influential when it is trusted remembered, and acted on. And so your challenge today is to really think about that one habit that you can reinvent for yourself. So, yeah, ask yourself, you know, how might you show up differently after this talk? And I forgot to skip through these. Just a final reminder. Awesome. Thank you so much. Yeah. I really appreciate you being here. If you have any questions, reach out to me on LinkedIn. I'd love to chat. I think we might have some time for questions. We do have time for questions. So, thank you. Yeah. I know. This one? Yes. Yeah. Thank you. So, anyone have We do have a little bit of time, so let's make use of it. Questions for Anya. At the back there, sir? Yeah. When I love how you frame that question. When do you bring in the the framing was so beautiful you used it, and I completely forgot it. Hearing was so cool. When do you bring in the aerial support and when do you just like extract yourself from the operation? I think it's a bit of an art form to be honest. I think it's totally okay and I think we should give ourselves more permission to know when we are hitting a wall and where we just won't be able to make progress. And I think that's why leaning on allies and really aligning yourselves to parts of the organization where you are building traction and you're seeing positive progress is really smart. I do think that sometimes no amount of diplomacy will will fix a relationship or change how people perceive us. And I think it takes a while to figure out where that line is at what point do you give up. I think one one thing that works or I've seen work in the past is giving a commitment from the people we're working with to actually do something about the work that we are about to embark on and make sure that they are committed to actioning the insights and working from the data that collect. And if they don't, really making that clear, you know, you we we did this work and didn't lead to anything and unfortunately, we're not going to be able to support that going forward. So think it is a bit of an art, but I do think it's okay to sometimes just say, we're not making progress here, maybe we should focus on something else. And sometimes that's the only thing we can do. I have a question. What? Sorry. Hang on. So one of the one of the things with diplomacy that it's good to understand decision making, what their interests are, and finding either common ground or ways to help them. Do you adopt any kind of sort of support or tool or framework when you're thinking about this to help with that kind of thing? Yes. Great question. I don't have to repeat it back then. Oh, because he's stuck into the mic. Great question. I so first thing is, I just I always assume that people on the inside are good people. And I think a lot of the someone is a bad person or because they don't respect us Like, I think a lot of it comes from the fact that we are all dealing with pressure at work every single day. And when people don't give us the time, they don't give us the space to really work with them, I don't assume that it's because of us. I think it's because of all the other pressures that they have. So I think first thing is really being mindful of that and really trying to get into the headspace of being curious about about what are they experiencing, what are they what are the pressures that are weighing on them that are influencing how this thing about a problem and what they're prioritizing? I think in terms of more tech tactical things that I have found help me I love this so I can't remember where I picked this up, but someone once said about how the how asking how can really open up a conversation and shift the conversation from you having to figure things out to how can we move forward recognizing that, you know, there's x y z factors at play here, there's timelines, there's scope changes. And and I think when you ask how, it can scramble think you know, scramble and figure out the answer. So I'd say, yeah, be really mindful of everyone else is dealing with, but I think ask how and shift a little bit of the problem solving when you're in a situation where there's maybe gridlock or misalign it mis misalignment in some ways and and ask, you know, how can we move forward Or how do you see it? Or how can how can we, you know, figure out how we might be able to solve this and get their perspective on it as well. So don't feel like you need to be the one who's figuring out the problems for everyone all the time. I'm gonna cheat and ask a second question. So, one of the other things I've noticed is that people's willingness to engage is dependent potentially on seasonality or timing of other events like budget cycles. And when budgets have been locked in, they don't they're not willing to engage anymore in any kind of change. So knowing when, like, when those decisions get locked in, like when is the money decided and have conversations with them then or when in their reporting cycles are. So my next question is around how do you how do you look at when to engage with stakeholders and build those alliances? Yeah. Yeah. I I think that, like it really it really is an ongoing thing. And and I think when when you just focus on the project or the initiative, and this is maybe also with being in house versus being on on the agency side a little bit different. I think when and this is I'm coming in coming at it from the in house perspective. But, you know, there are so many opportunities for you to maintain, a positive relationship with a stakeholder whether it's know, checking in with them, but also just seeding things as you're learning things. You know, oh, this is this isn't related to what you're working on, but you might find this interesting, or we found this parallel here, and just like drip feeding things as you go to to show that you are thinking about them and thinking about what might be relevant to them. I think that's really valuable. I think Anna talked this in her presentation about being proactive as well rather than expecting them to come to you and and, you know, expecting initiatives to drop down as actually kind of as you are attuned to what's happening in the organization, like, starting to seed things or starting to maybe think about how you could also bring some ideas to the table. So I think it's a combination of these two things, but I think the answer would be different. You know, on the inside or the outside of an organization. I thought there was yes? I'm curious about how you might something that's Yeah. It's a really good one. It depends on the nature of the problem. Of course, it depends. Someone had to give an answer today. I think, you know, one one thing that has helped me in dealing with those situations is when you think about like, building all of your allies, it's not just about the people who you're trying to influence with your insight, but it's also people who have the right expertise in the team when you have gaps. So for example, I'm not I'm not a technical person. A lot of, like, the new AI experiences agents that we are building for our customers but for myself as well. Like, I need to rely on folks to help me understand, like, how do I connect this MCP server to my CLI? Like, I don't I don't know. But I think finding allies also is about finding people whose skills and experiences you can leverage in your own work. Whether that's engineering, whether that's someone who comes from a technical background, whether it's talking to someone in sales who has like a solution engineering perspective, and and just building those relationships to help you be better at your work and to have someone you can go to to ask some dumb questions can be really helpful. So don't just think about, I guess, building those allies for a particular reason or project, but really think about it as well from who are the people I could lean on if I need to fill in some gaps. Yeah. But I can relate to that for sure. Any other questions? Yes? At the back there? Yeah. So, yeah, the question was, any strategies for dealing with assumptions about is it the value that research can offer? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think understanding where they're coming from is really valuable, and I think that's, like, that's where the separation of is this a lack of awareness what research is? Because I think a lot of people just don't really understand how it's different to sales just talking to a customer or a PM talking to a customer. Like, I think sometimes it's it's just a lack of understanding. Versus are you dealing with someone who's just been burnt in the past? And and sometimes it's like a there's a little bit of therapy almost involved to say, you know, what happened? What was it that led to this experience? Was it the that the research wasn't hitting the mark, it wasn't useful, that spent a lot of time and came back with things that maybe weren't that helpful. I think as you relationships with new stakeholders, it's good to really understand like, okay. If someone's ignoring me, like, what's underneath that? Is it sometimes there's a, you know, you might assume, well, it's because they're a dick. You know, they don't care. But, you know, you might find that there's very different reasons for why that's the case. And I found that usually it's, yeah, it's an awareness problem, or it's an assumption that research is x y z, and it's usually based on some kind of negative. And unfortunately, I think most of the time, it's based on the assumption that there are ways to educate stakeholders about different options, like, if we want to move faster, maybe we can. Maybe we can look at AI moderation. But recognizing the kind of the cost of doing that and what it means for the types of insight that we might be able to get. So little bit of discovery and a little bit of education, I think. Yeah. That's it. Hello. Not so Yeah. That's such a great question. So the question was ## Slides ### 00:00:23 # Building Soft Power 1. Anchor to business realities. 2. Show up with confidence. ### 00:00:46 ### Design Research 2020: The... [Screenshot of a web browser displaying a presentation slide with an image of a raised hand in a blurred audience] ### 00:01:08 ### Screenshot of "Design Research 2026" presentation [Image of a person's hand raised in a room, with blurred people and lights in the background] ### 00:01:31 ### Example A. [A large black arrow pointing from the top-left towards the bottom-right] ### 00:01:53 ### Example A. [A large black arrow pointing downwards and to the right] ### 00:02:08 # Example A. [Black arrow pointing down and right] ### 00:02:14 Example A. [A large black arrow pointing downwards and to the right] ### 00:02:38 ### Design Research 2026: The X [Close-up image of a map with many colorful pushpins marking locations] ### 00:03:02 ### Coalitions: Short term & long term [Icon of a document] [Icon of a handshake] [A vertical line separates the document icon and the handshake icon] ### 00:03:08 ### Coalitions: Short term & long term [Icon of a document] [Icon of a handshake] [A vertical line separates the document icon and the handshake icon] ### 00:03:30 # Who are your key stakeholders? [Diagram showing a network of interconnected circles, with some circles highlighted in green and others in grey, representing stakeholders.] ### 00:03:52 # Who are your greatest allies? [Network diagram of connected circles in grey, orange, green, purple, and blue] ### 00:04:08 ## Who are your greatest allies? [Diagram showing a network of connected circles (nodes) in various colors (grey, green, purple, orange, blue)] ### 00:04:11 ## Who are your greatest allies? [Diagram of interconnected circles (nodes) in various colors (green, purple, orange, blue, grey), forming a network structure] ### 00:04:32 # Which teams in your organization incorporate user research findings into their decision-making processes? [Horizontal bar chart showing the percentage of teams incorporating user research findings into decision-making processes for 20 ### 00:04:57 ### Which teams in your organization incorporate user research findings into their decision-making processes? * **Customer Support:** 18% (2025), 22% (2026) * **Sales:** 11% (2025), 23% (2026) * **Engineering:** 24% (2025), 26% (2026) * **Executive Team:** 24% (2025), 31% (2026) * **Data/Analytics:** 23% (2025), 33% (2026) * **Marketing:** 38% (2025), 50% (2026) * **Design:** 77% (2025), 89% (2026) * **Product:** 78% (2025), 85% (2026) Future of Research Report (Maze), March 2026 [Horizontal bar chart comparing the percentage of different teams incorporating user research findings in 2025 and 2026] ### 00:05:10 # Which teams in your organization incorporate user research findings into their decision-making processes? - Customer Support: 16% (2025), 22% (20 ### 00:05:34 ### Design Research 2020 - **Y-axis:** Power (Low to High) - **X-axis:** Interest (Low to High) [Diagram showing a 2x2 matrix with axes labeled 'Power' and 'Interest', overlaid on an image of a board with many pushpins, representing a stakeholder mapping exercise.] ### 00:05:57 # Stakeholder Matrix - **Champions** - Your coalition - **Supporters** - Keep close [2x2 matrix with Y-axis labeled "Power" (Low to High) and X-axis labeled "Interest" (Low to High). The top-right quadrant (High Power, High Interest) is labeled "Champions" with "Your coalition". The bottom-right quadrant (Low Power, High Interest) is labeled "Supporters" with "Keep close".] ### 00:06:23 # DESIGN RESEARCH ## UX AUSTRALIA | WEB DIRECTIONS ### Stakeholder Matrix: Power vs. Interest #### High Power - **Low Interest:** - **Ch ### 00:06:47 # DESIGN RESEARCH ## Power-Interest Grid * **Challengers** (High Power, Low Interest) * ➡️ Focus here * **Champions** (High Power ### 00:07:08 ### Stakeholder Matrix - **Challengers** - Focus here - **Champions** - Your coalition - **Bystanders** - Monitor - **Supporters** - Keep close [2x2 matrix with "Power" on the Y-axis (Low to High) and "Interest" on the X-axis (Low to High). Quadrants are labeled: Top-left "Challengers", Top-right "Champions", Bottom-left "Bystanders", Bottom-right "Supporters".] ### 00:07:10 # DESIGN RESEARCH - **Challengers** (High Power, Low Interest): Focus here - **Champions** (High Power, High Interest): Your coalition - **Bystanders** ### 00:07:35 # Nemawashi The meeting before the meeting [Image of a man and a woman sitting at a table, looking at a laptop screen displaying charts and data, with the woman pointing at the screen] ### 00:07:56 # Nemawashi The meeting before the meeting [Image of two people discussing data on a laptop screen] ### 00:08:08 # Nemawashi The meeting before the meeting [Image of two people, a man and a woman, sitting at a table and looking at a laptop screen, with the woman pointing at the screen] ### 00:08:31 # Nemawashi The meeting before the meeting [Image of two people, a man and a woman, sitting at a table and looking at a laptop screen together] ### 00:08:52 ## Design Research 2026: The F... [A hand holds a camera lens, looking through it at a lake and mountains] ### 00:09:08 # Framing narratives Structuring information, events, and issues to influence perceptions, policy, and public opinion. ### 00:09:29 Research is a collection of facts. **Narrative** is the story that gives those facts meaning. ### 00:09:51 Research is a collection of facts. **Narrative** is the story that gives those facts meaning. ### 00:10:08 # DESIGN RESEARCH ## Companies Are Desperately Seeking 'Storytellers' - The percentage of job postings that include the term 'storyteller' doubled in 2025. [ ### 00:10:11 # UX AUSTRALIA | WEB DIRECTIONS ## DESIGN RESEARCH ### Screenshot of The Wall Street Journal article: "Companies Are Desperately Seeking 'Storytellers'" - The percentage of job ### 00:10:38 # Design Research 2020: The ... [Aerial view of a city showing an octagonal building, other high-rise buildings, and roads with traffic] ### 00:11:01 [Aerial photograph of a city from above, showing an octagonal building with a reddish-brown roof at a major intersection, surrounded by other buildings, roads, and cars.] ### 00:11:07 ### Screenshot of "Design Research 2020: The..." [Aerial photograph of a city intersection with an octagonal building and surrounding skyscrapers] ### 00:11:29 # DESIGN RESEARCH ## UX AUSTRALIA | WEB DIRECTIONS Start End [A simple diagram showing the word "Start" on the left and "End" on the right, inside a large rounded rectangle.] ### 00:11:52 # UX AUSTRALIA | WEB DIRECTIONS ## DESIGN RESEARCH **Start** - Engaging the right partners - Framing the right question - Setting the right altitude - Choosing the right channels - ### 00:12:08 # DESIGN RESEARCH ## Research Process - **Start** - Engaging the right partners - Framing the right question - Choosing the right channels - Socialising as you learn ### 00:12:17 UX AUSTRALIA | WEB DIRECTIONS # DESIGN RESEARCH - **Start** - Choosing the right channels - Engaging the right partners - Framing the right question - Setting the right altitude ### 00:12:42 ## Framing narratives 1. Campaign for change. [A hand holding a camera lens, with a blurred background of water and mountains] ### 00:13:03 # Framing narratives 1. Campaign for change. [A hand holding a camera lens, looking through it] ### 00:13:07 # Framing narratives 1. Campaign for change. [A hand holding a camera lens, looking through it] ### 00:13:28 # Problems → **Opportunities** ### 00:13:51 # Problems → **Opportunities** ### 00:14:08 > "We lack basic accessibility features our customers need." > > "Inclusive design expands our **Total Addressable Market (TAM)** by 15%." [Two text blocks, "We lack basic accessibility features our customers need." and "Inclusive design expands our Total Addressable Market (TAM) by 15%.", connected by a right-pointing arrow.] ### 00:14:11 "We lack basic accessibility features our customers need." "Inclusive design expands our **Total Addressable Market (TAM)** by 15%." [An arrow points from the first quote to the second quote] ### 00:14:34 # "Driving a Jaguar like a Toyota Corolla" - Learnings from Market... By Ania M... - **Why so many?** - 14, ### 00:14:59 # DESIGN RESEARCH ## UX AUSTRALIA | WEB DIRECTIONS ### "Driving a Jaguar like a Toyota Corolla" - Learnings from Market... [Screenshot of a Forbes article] [Customer journey ### 00:15:23 [Progression of abstract shapes: a pink circle, an arrow, a blue blob overlapping a pink blob, and a multi-lobed shape formed by overlapping transparent red, yellow, and pink blobs ### 00:15:47 [Sequence of three abstract shapes illustrating transformation: a pink circle, then two overlapping blob-like shapes (blue and pink), then multiple overlapping irregular splash-like shapes in red, pink, and orange.] ### 00:16:09 ### Design Research 2026: The x [Close-up photo of a red wooden door secured with a brass padlock] ### 00:16:31 # 3 principles 1. Soft power 2. Coalition building 3. Framing narratives ### 00:16:52 # The act of unlearning [Road sign with a red circle and white bar (no entry symbol) above text that reads "Turning Point"] ### 00:17:09 ## The act of unlearning [Road sign with a red circle and white bar (no entry symbol) above the text "Turning Point"] ### 00:17:13 # UX AUSTRALIA | WEB DIRECTIONS ## DESIGN RESEARCH ### The act of unlearning [Image of a road sign featuring a red "no entry" symbol above the text "Turning Point" with a thick vertical line below it.] ### 00:17:37 ### UX AUSTRALIA | WEB DIRECTIONS ## DESIGN RESEARCH # The act of unlearning [Image of a road sign that reads "Turning Point" with a "No Entry" symbol above it] ### 00:17:59 # The act of unlearning [Road sign with a 'no entry' symbol and the text "Turning Point"] ### 00:18:23 # DESIGN RESEARCH ## Start with changing one habit 1. Soft power [App icon with "Say It Louder!" in neon text on a floral background] ### 00:18:47 # Start with changing one habit 1. Soft power [App icon with a floral background and neon-style text "Say It Louder!"] ### 00:19:07 # Thanks! ## Questions? Find me on LinkedIn :) Design Research 2026 [QR code for a LinkedIn profile] ### 00:19:34 # Thank you Design Research 2023 [QR code on the right side of the slide] ### 00:21:32 # Thank [QR code] ### 00:22:32 [no slide content]` ### 00:24:08 # Thanks! [QR code] ### 00:27:28 # Thanks Design Research 2023 [QR code] ### 00:27:52 # Thanks [QR code] ### 00:28:08 # Thanks https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-m-baker/ Design Research 2023 [QR code linking to Jessica M. Baker ### 00:28:13 # Thanks [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-m-b-a70b0b10/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-m-b-a70b0b10/) Design Research 2023 [QR code linking to a LinkedIn profile] ### 00:28:38 # Thank you! [https://www.designresearchsociety.org/](https://www.designresearchsociety.org/) Design Research 2023 [QR code linking to designresearchsociety.org] ### 00:29:00 # Thank you! Design Research 2023 [QR code] ### 00:29:23 # Thanks! Design Research 2023 [QR code]