What is ResearchOps?

ResearchOps, or Research Operations, is the orchestration and optimization of the processes, tools, and people involved in conducting research. Think of it as the backbone of research activities, ensuring that everything runs smoothly, from the recruitment of participants to the final analysis and reporting of data. The primary goal of ResearchOps is to create a seamless environment where researchers can focus on extracting insights without being bogged down by administrative or logistical hurdles.

In qualitative research, where methodologies such as interviews, ethnographies, and focus groups often require meticulous planning and execution, ResearchOps plays a crucial role. It ensures consistency, efficiency, and compliance across all research activities, which is particularly important as organizations scale their research efforts and navigate increasingly complex regulatory landscapes.

How Did ResearchOps Start?

The formalization of ResearchOps is a relatively recent development, born out of necessity as organizations, particularly in the tech sector, began to realize the inefficiencies inherent in their research processes. Before ResearchOps, research activities were often siloed, with little coordination between teams. This lack of structure led to duplicated efforts, inconsistencies in data collection and analysis, and ultimately, missed opportunities for deriving meaningful insights.

The rise of user experience (UX) research in the 2010s was a significant catalyst for the development of ResearchOps. As UX research became integral to product design and development, researchers found themselves spending an increasing amount of time on operational tasks—recruiting participants, managing consent forms, and organizing data—rather than on actual research. This inefficiency highlighted the need for a dedicated function to manage these operations, leading to the birth of ResearchOps.

A pivotal moment in the evolution of ResearchOps was the 2018 kickoff meeting of the ResearchOps Community in London. This gathering of researchers from various industries marked the beginning of a concerted effort to define and share best practices in research operations. Since then, the community has grown, with practitioners around the world contributing to the development of frameworks and tools designed to streamline research activities.

When Do You Need to Create a ResearchOps Function?

Establishing a ResearchOps function is not a decision to be taken lightly. It requires careful consideration of the organization’s needs, scale, and research goals. However, several indicators can help determine when it’s time to implement your team.

1. Increased Volume of Research Activities: If your organization is conducting multiple research projects simultaneously, especially across different teams or geographies, a ResearchOps function can help centralize and streamline these efforts, ensuring consistency and reducing redundancy.

2. Researcher Overload: When researchers spend more time on administrative tasks—such as scheduling interviews, managing consent forms, or organizing and storing data—than on actual research, it’s a clear sign that a ResearchOps function could be beneficial.

3. Complex Research Methodologies: Qualitative research often involves complex methodologies that require careful planning and execution. A ResearchOps function can provide the necessary support to ensure that these methods are applied correctly, efficiently, and ethically.

4. Compliance and Risk Management: As data privacy regulations become more stringent, ensuring compliance with ethical standards and legal requirements in research is critical. A ResearchOps function can help navigate these complexities, reducing the risk of legal issues and ensuring that all research activities are conducted responsibly.

5. Cross-Functional Collaboration: In organizations where research findings need to be shared and integrated across different departments—such as design, product development, and marketing—a ResearchOps function can facilitate smoother communication and collaboration, ensuring that insights are effectively utilized.

Measurable Outcomes of ResearchOps

One of the key arguments for establishing a ResearchOps function is the potential for measurable, tangible outcomes that can significantly enhance the effectiveness of research activities. Here are some of the key benefits:

1. Increased Efficiency:

One of the most immediate and tangible benefits of ResearchOps is the dramatic increase in research efficiency. In many organizations, researchers are often bogged down by administrative tasks—scheduling interviews, managing consent forms, or organizing data—leaving them with less time to focus on the core of their work: generating insights. ResearchOps changes this dynamic by centralizing and automating these tasks, allowing researchers to concentrate on what they do best.

Consider a tech company launching multiple user studies simultaneously across different markets. Without a ResearchOps function, this process might be disjointed, with teams duplicating efforts and wasting time on redundant tasks. ResearchOps streamlines these processes, ensuring that resources are used effectively and that projects are completed on time, ultimately accelerating the research cycle. The result is not just faster research but better, more focused research—allowing companies to stay ahead in an increasingly competitive landscape.

2. Higher Quality Data:

Quality is the bedrock of meaningful research. Without consistent methodologies and rigorous standards, the insights derived from research can be flawed, leading to misguided decisions. ResearchOps ensures that research is conducted with the highest level of consistency, across all projects and teams. By standardizing processes and tools, ResearchOps minimizes the risk of errors and ensures that data collection and analysis are reliable and valid.

This consistency is particularly crucial in qualitative research, where the nuances of human behavior and experience are often difficult to capture. With ResearchOps in place, organizations can be confident that their research methodologies are applied uniformly, leading to high-quality data that truly reflects the needs and desires of their users. This not only bolsters the credibility of the research but also enhances the trust that stakeholders place in the insights generated.

3.  Enhanced Compliance and Risk Management:

In an era where data privacy and ethical considerations are at the forefront of public concern, ensuring that research activities comply with legal and ethical standards is more important than ever. ResearchOps plays a crucial role in this area by establishing clear guidelines and protocols for conducting research. This not only helps organizations navigate the complex regulatory environment but also reduces the risk of legal issues that can arise from non-compliance.

By managing informed consent processes, data storage, and participant privacy, ResearchOps ensures that all research activities are conducted with the highest ethical standards. This commitment to ethical research not only protects the organization from legal risks but also builds trust with participants and stakeholders, enhancing the overall reputation of the organization.

4. Improved Cross-Functional Collaboration:

In many organizations, research operates in silos, with findings often isolated within specific teams. This can lead to missed opportunities, as valuable insights are not shared or leveraged across the organization. ResearchOps acts as a bridge between these silos, facilitating better communication and collaboration between researchers and other stakeholders, such as designers, product managers, and executives.

By centralizing research data and making it accessible to all relevant teams, ResearchOps ensures that insights are not just generated but also utilized effectively. This cross-functional collaboration is key to ensuring that research findings are integrated into decision-making processes, leading to products and services that are more closely aligned with user needs. The result is a more cohesive organization, where every department works together towards a common goal, driven by a shared understanding of the user.

5. Scalability: ResearchOps provides a scalable framework that can support the increasing demands of research as organizations grow. This scalability is crucial for maintaining the quality and consistency of research findings over time, especially in large organizations with diverse research needs.

Conclusion

ResearchOps is not just a trend—it’s a necessary function for organizations that are serious about integrating research into their decision-making processes. By establishing a ResearchOps function, organizations can streamline their research activities, improve the quality of their findings, and ensure that their research practices are ethical, efficient, and scalable.

The measurable outcomes of ResearchOps—ranging from increased efficiency to higher quality data and better researcher retention—underscore its importance in the modern research landscape. As the field of research continues to evolve, the need for a dedicated ResearchOps function will only grow, particularly in organizations where research plays a crucial role in shaping products, services, and strategies.