Fatimah Richmond, Sr. UXR Strategist at Google, joined us for a Rally AMA on October 3 to discuss research maturity and how strategic research requires strategic support systems.

If you missed our live event, or want to revisit the highlights, read our recap below. If you’d like to watch a recording of the full AMA, follow this link.

Who is Fatimah? 

I started out in engineering operations and spent over 15 years executing and leading research and programs strategy. My journey began as a research assistant, usability engineer, then shifted into enterprise research, executing research and leading research and programs strategy. In grad school, I studied applied anthropology, design, and critical theory, among other things. Now, I’ve shifted into what I call a UXR strategist role, where I primarily support strategic research initiatives. Today, I’m here to talk about “research maturity” from my perspective.

I want to make a quick disclaimer: this is just my view based on 20 years of experience and some of my observations about research maturity. It’s not reflective of any companies or projects I’ve worked for, current or former. Just Fatimah’s rants that’s it. 

My hope is that after this conversation, you feel inspired to bring some of the critical perspectives we discuss back to your own teams, workshop them, reflect on if they’re aligned with your research experience, opportunities and challenges, because every team approaches assessing research maturity differently. At the very least, I hope it sparks some self-reflection or even a juicy debate! I love a good, lively discussion, and I’m here for the spice.

How has your focus shifted in recent years, and how has your journey into UX evolved?

I’ve made a slight shift in my professional view of ‘research impact.’ From research execution only, to strategic support for research initiatives; focusing on research activation and integration. As I made shifts over the last 5 years of my career; I realized there’s untapped talent already available in research teams to enable more accountability and enforcement of user insights –  especially critical insights for users –  for example user safety, trust and ethics.

Foundation of my new focus: 

20 years ago I started in what’s now Engineering Ops –  measuring engineers time on government contracts, leveraging the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI). However, there’s room to improve the maturity of operations, especially at the strategic level of new product landscapes. 

• The re-emergence of Research Operations (ReOps), especially the early POV of Kate Towsey and Emma Boulton inspired me to reflect on the UXR practitioner experience and what it offers ReOps. 
• Returning to my academic roots in Applied Anthropology, Critical Reflexivity and Critical Human Computer Interaction (HCI) –  the work of Sam Ladner, Laura Nadar, Charles Dorish, and the Bardzells, inspires my applied, reflexive lens on research practice.
• Observing how some critical insights land, “wicked problem flowers,” those spicy 🌶️ insights that go beyond Design teams, may require new “co-pilots” to land.  

Read more “A-ha!” moments that inspired this focus on advocacy for UXR and insights: People Nerd article on "The Future of UXR Advocacy."

Why is the topic of research maturity and intelligence so important? 

Point of clarification: When I talk about “intelligence” in this context, I’m referring to operational insights – how product teams activate and integrate research insights, to strengthen user advocacy. 

It starts with reflecting on the researcher workflow, and realizing a few areas can include a critical perspective, especially from experienced UXRs. I call this “Strategist” but I'd love to hear from others!

• New ways of using the same tools: I think we have a lot of tools, but we’re not always sharpening them or using them in new ways. Assessing research integration and activation is one area to develop. 
• Maturity discussions – are design maturity: The current UX Maturity models force a design-centered lens, which is common. Research teams can challenge this framework to make unique recommendations for the research team and its strategic efforts. 

Gathering "Intelligence,” in this sense, to inform research strategy, beefs up user advocacy for any critical mission. User insights are a critical mission, beyond the product and design lens. What if User Research teams start enforcing this critical mission to integrate insights through strategic intelligence, not just design maturity? 

What influenced the way you approach strategic research today?

In the Defense & Aviation environment, operations felt more “no-nonsense,” focusing on compliance, and accountability. When I transitioned into UX, I immediately noticed a shift in culture, between Engineering and UX – a lack of shared accountability over outcomes, and a large amount of time searching for support.  

Reflections about shared accountability: 

• What are best practices that enable shared accountability? What are failures in accountability? 
• Once research leaders gain a “seat at the table,” how does their support compare to established functions like Product, Design, and Sales?

Reflections about enforcing UX research strategy:

• What is the “so what?” of research maturity models – is there a consequence? 
• If not, why not? How might enforcement of user research insights impact research teams?
• If so, which teams at a company would also be interested in assessing the integration of User Research? 

Reflections on the organizational context: 

• Kate Towsey initial framework 
• Emma Boulton’s eight pillars 
• Robin Beers - who focuses on organizational culture and power core. 
• Nalini Kotamraju - who moved research out of UX/Design. 
• Melissa Perri and Denise Tilles -  who provide a product ops perspective on support. 
• ..and the entire Research Operations community – specifically Jake Burghardt and Casey Gollan – who zoom in on the frameworks and tools to beef up insight integration. 

That’s why I’m passionate about this work – a lot of strong, critical perspectives on how user research operates is starting to emerge again. Hopefully I got out all the “shout outs” if not, check out the resources for this AMA here. 

What types of measures provide the intelligence you’re talking about for User Research strategies? What should teams be looking at to figure this out?

This is something I cover in more detail in my Advancing Research presentation, so I don’t want to spoil it, but at a high level, there are a few buckets that I see missing from traditional project trackers. More critical measures versus project descriptions, and topics shared at a broad level – beyond Design. 

• Environment measures: what are product / organizational factors that matter? 
• Response measures: what factors define a  “good” stakeholder response vs. a poor stakeholder response? 
• Decision & risk measures: is Design the only function concerned with the risk of not making user driven decisions? 
• Collaboration measures: what makes an ideal working relationship between researchers and stakeholders?

Workshop it! Pilot it! Gather a baseline – imagine making that visible and how that can strengthen User Research advocacy. I think corporate strategies would also benefit from those measures – along with Design Ops.

How can research programs move beyond traditional success metrics and deliver more strategic insights? What steps can they take?

I think this is where the conversation has to turn inward. It’s about critically reflecting on yourself and your role as a researcher. This works best as a team workshop, retrospective, post-mortem or offsite, where you map out your insights in a safe space. A few ideas: 

1. Start at the research report: Focus on where the insights go, if you don’t know, that’s where you need to start tracking with measures. 
2. Map the Insight Journey: McKinsey has a great article, “Are you asking enough from your design leaders?” If you, as a researcher or team, don’t know where your insights go, how can corporate or design leaders know? Use a journey-mapping process, like we do for users, highlight pain points – brainstorm measures. 
3. Elevate the research leaders’ voices: I find that research leaders have various perspectives, shaped by the shifts in our field, consider empathy interviews to understand their needs.

A lack of operational metrics could impact visibility of researchers and critical research strategy needs.

What are the most significant challenges people face when shifting their focus from research execution to strategic support for research strategy? 

While the UX Research industry has hired decision-makers across the industry, they can’t do it all. As Kate Towsey says, “Don’t move the operational challenges around, because you’re just moving inefficiencies.”

• Challenging professional identity & expectations: As I moved around between roles and disciplines, I found each one came with a set of identity norms and expectations– sometimes incorrectly.
• Challenging the status quo: The research function always “focused down” on: research rigor, researchers-design, storytelling. Shifting the lens up, the organization can be a healthy challenge with new partnerships. 
• Challenging bias: Because we’re human there will be bias, and because we’re human bias hurts. Negativity and perception biases can slow down progress. A lot of what Vivianne Castillo (HmntyCntrd) talks about – “it’s a real pattern of behavior.”

This can, at times, make the assessment of research integration and activation not just challenging, but psychologically unsafe. If it’s done in a data-driven way, that is corporately responsible then is it really negative – or is it just discomfort with growth?  

What trends do you see in research collaboration that will impact how research teams operate in the future?

As product landscapes evolve, I believe collaborators will evolve to be more nuanced than design, product, and engineering, while maintaining critical usability work. I foresee an increase in organizational support systems: 

• Awareness of new pathways to corporate strategy: Formal operations for insight integration strategies like Jake Burghardt and Casey Gollan.
• Elevate and formalize Senior+ ReOps roles: The trend toward Chief of Staff and Director roles is hopeful. I provide more ideas here.
• Design isn’t going anywhere: It is also critical to keep experts at the product level to ensure a high bar for usability, which also has strategic program needs.  

How can the discourse around research programs evolve to support corporate strategy goals? 

I’m hoping we get more executives and leaders discussing more about their “seat at the table.” We have tons of discourse on getting and “earning” a seat, but there’s been plenty of leaders representing research teams for years. Some leaders have gone above and beyond, moving their research teams across Insights, Corporate Strategy, and Business disciplines, like Nalini’s AR2024 presentation. Even experienced researchers have shifted to a product role. 

The additional insight about “seat at the table” will enable research teams to: 

• Resharpen research tools to meet the demands of ever evolving product landscapes. 
• Providing alternative career paths for researchers. 
• Increase the number of practitioners joining the operations movements. 
• …and most importantly, more insight strengthens the importance of what matters – users and their insights. 

Based on the insights you’ve shared, what would be your call to action for the research industry?

• Develop a culture of growth mindset: Foster a culture of learning from success and failure, user research is established in industry, even if it’s not at your company. Pivot the social science toolkit, foster a culture of job rotations, and skill exchanges. Extend the project tracker to practice tracker, to gain insight into a research strategy – and iterate! 
• Strengthen retrospectives, team surveys, and workshop it! Create a safe space for researchers to talk about collaboration and decision-making. Brainstorm the journey of critical insights and those wicked problem flowers.
• Read Kate Towsey's new book “Research that Scales” – start there! 

Connect with Fatimah

If you enjoyed Fatimah’s AMA:

1. Follow Fatimah on LinkedIn and say hello!
2. Watch her talk from Advancing Research.
3. Read Fatimah’s article “The Future of research teams Advocacy.” 
4. Visit Fatimah’s website for more insights.
5. Check out the poetry book Fatimah wrote! 

Dive deeper into the conversation with these must-read resources recommended by Fatimah!

Thank you, Fatimah!

It was an absolute pleasure to have Fatimah join us and we’re so grateful for her willingness to share her time, insights, and experiences! If you’d like to watch the full AMA, follow this link.