Gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss! What went wrong in relations between product, design and research people

We are not planning a roast. Nor rant. But there will be some drama, cause the tension between research, design and product people is getting out of control - and discussions on Teresa Torres’ “Continous Discovery” seem to be a symptom, not a source of the problem.

Through our dynamic duet, we want to protect the world from devastation and unite all the people within the product nation. We will go through several fail (or near-fail) stories to identify the main problems in relations between research, design and product people.

Key topics we plan to include:

- What is the real goal of design/product research, and why “mitigating risks” or “building product backlog” are the tips of the same iceberg that might sink our Titanics?

- Where lies the green area between gatekeeping research and fully democratizing it, and why do none of the extreme approaches work?

- What are the most useless results that researchers can bring to the table, and what is the most thoughtless thing that designers and product managers can do with valid results?

- Why are the easiest methods used in the ways textbooks intended not enough, and when do you need researchers with more complex techniques to gain deeper knowledge?

- Why both researchers and designers/product managers are so eager to participate in research theatre with magic formulas (You only need to test with 5 users) and tools of wizardry (Let’s create personas, empathy maps, and customer journeys without research) instead of valid methodology?

We believe that synergy between different product areas is possible and are willing to share our approach tested in complex research and design projects (often completed with external research partners) for industries such as mobility, insurance, banking, and retail.

[ENG] Gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss! | Radzewicz, Makowiecki | WaysConf 2024

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