#146 - Building a UX Research Team From Scratch with Julian Della Mattia of the180
Apr 16, 2024
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Julian Della Mattia shares insights on starting a UX research team from scratch, including strategies for success, building bridges within organizations, essential processes, and scaling research capacity. He discusses balancing research with operational tasks, connecting insights from different teams, and aligning user research with core business goals to maximize impact.
Understanding team dynamics is crucial for success as a solo UX researcher.
Tailoring research team-building strategies to unique circumstances is essential for startups.
Bridging teams and stakeholders as a solo researcher enhances collaboration and cohesion.
Deep dives
Understanding Context and Team Dynamics Leads to Success
One key tip to success is deeply understanding the context and team dynamics. By asking the right questions during interviews and onboarding, you can set yourself up for success. Spending time to grasp the company's current state and future goals is vital to avoid aimless efforts.
Framework for Starting a Research Team from Scratch
Starting a research team from scratch can be intimidating, especially in startups. Developing a framework based on the unique circumstances of the organization is crucial. The approach varies depending on factors like team size, global dispersion, and existing silos.
Building Bridges Between Teams for Research Insights
Being a UX researcher of one presents an opportunity to bridge teams and stakeholders to enhance collaboration. Strategies such as engaging stakeholders, establishing insight hubs, and clarifying roles can help in creating a cohesive research practice.
Prioritization: Balancing Ops and Hands-On Research
Effectively prioritizing operational tasks and hands-on research requires aligning with company objectives and team capacities. Separating and allocating time for operational tasks like setting up participant management and enhancing research processes can lead to more strategic and impactful outcomes.
Scaling Research Insights and Operations
Scaling a research team involves democratizing insights and operations within the organization. Encouraging collaboration among different teams and leveraging expertise across the company can help in scaling research efforts successfully. Striking a balance between executing research and refining operations is crucial for sustainable growth.
Erin and special co-host Ben Wiedmaier are joined by Julian Della Mattia of the180 for a deep dive into being UX team-of-one. Julian has been the first user researcher at a number of companies and shares his top to-dos, milestones, and things to consider before accepting such a role.
The episode digs into the ways a solo UXR can start making an impact, but in a strategic, sustainable way. Julian identifies questions to ask stakeholder teams, processes to consider standing up, and the tools to consider investing in from the start. We also discuss the dual hat-wearing of UXR and Ops on smaller teams/teams-of-one. Julian shares how he balances his time between executing on business-critical work and organizing research workflows so that other teams can start connecting with customers.
Even if you're not a solo UXR or a team-of-one, Julian's experience building bridges between/across departments and his suggestions for aligning user research to core business goals from the start will help you and your team be more impactful.
Episode Highlights
03:49 - Strategies for success as the first researcher in an organization
12:52 - Strategies for building bridges as a researcher in a new organization
19:16 - Building essential processes for small research teams
27:59 - Comparing research repositories and insights hubs
30:47 - Triangulating insights from different teams
35:11 - Strategies for scaling your research capacity
About Our Guest Julian is a UX Researcher specialized in Research Operations (ReOps), founder of the180 and based in Barcelona, Spain. Whether in-house or working with clients, he repeatedly found myself building Research teams from scratch as the first Researcher in the team. This experience helped him develop a real knack for infrastructure, so he decided to fully specialize myself in ReOps. He likes to talk about this as his switch "from Finder to Builder".