The User Research Democratization Playbook: Part One
Part 1: The Complex Landscape of Research Democratization
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This is a series on user research democratization — since this is a tough topic, there was way too much for one article. I will be writing this series and posting it over the next weeks and will edit this as I add to the series so you can easily navigate the different parts.
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The Complex Landscape of Research Democratization
User research is at an inflection point. Demand for research insights is growing exponentially, but research teams remain small. This imbalance forces organizations to explore democratization, enabling non-researchers to conduct research.
At its best, democratization scales insights, increases research buy-in, and enhances customer-centricity across an organization. At its worst, it leads to poor-quality research, biased data, and diluted research rigor. For researchers, democratization can feel like a double-edged sword: it helps meet demand, but it can also erode the depth and expertise of the field if done poorly.
The Growing Demand for Research Across Organizations
User research has expanded beyond the traditional UX and product development lifecycle. Today, research is needed for:
Product strategy – Understanding user needs before features are even conceptualized.
Marketing validation – Ensuring messaging aligns with real customer pain points.
Customer support optimization – Identifying friction points that lead to high support ticket volumes.
Business decision-making – Using research to inform investment, expansion, and prioritization.
As research extends into these diverse functions, the traditional researcher-to-team ratio has become unsustainable. Many researchers find themselves spread too thin, juggling too many projects with too few resources. In some cases, researchers must reject critical research requests simply because they don’t have the bandwidth. This leads to frustration among stakeholders who feel they lack access to the insights they need.
Additionally, many researchers face the dilemma of either being a solo UXR or small team of researchers trying to take care of multiple teams (I was once working across 10 teams), foundational processes, ops, and maintaining a research framework.
However, research teams haven’t scaled at the same rate as demand. According to Maze’s 2023 Continuous Research Report, 64% of companies now have a democratized research culture to cope with increasing research requests. Yet, research bandwidth remains a major challenge:
This imbalance is what drives the need for democratization but, without structure, it can create chaos rather than efficiency.
The Growing Desire from Non-Researchers to Engage in Research
It’s not just research teams feeling the pressure; stakeholders themselves are becoming more eager to engage with user insights. Product managers, designers, and even marketing teams want direct access to users. They see the value in speaking with customers, testing hypotheses, and gathering feedback.
This shift is largely positive. When more people across an organization have a user-centric mindset, better decisions are made. However, without structure, this enthusiasm can lead to problems:
Biased research – Without training, non-researchers may unconsciously lead participants toward desired answers.
Unethical practices – Mishandling of participant consent, privacy, and data security.
Poor research methodologies – Relying on convenience sampling, asking leading questions, or misinterpreting results.
A 2023 industry survey found that 73% of UX researchers reported spending significant time correcting or guiding poorly conducted research by non-researchers. This often happens because non-researchers unknowingly introduce confirmation bias, leading questions, and flawed synthesis.
The Risks and Rewards of Democratizing Research
Like many trends in UX and product development, democratization is neither inherently good nor bad, it depends entirely on how it is implemented.
Potential Benefits of Democratization:
Scalability – More research gets done without overburdening researchers.
Stakeholder Buy-in – Teams feel more ownership of insights, increasing the likelihood of acting on findings.
Faster Decision-Making – Teams don’t have to wait weeks or months for research results.
User-Centric Culture – More teams engaging with research can help embed user thinking into company culture.
Potential Risks of Democratization:
Compromised Research Quality – Without structure, teams may conduct poorly designed studies, leading to misleading conclusions.
Research Fragmentation – Multiple teams running isolated studies without alignment, leading to duplicated work and inconsistent data.
Undermining the Value of Research – If anyone can “do research,” the expertise of trained researchers may be devalued.
Ethical Concerns – Improper consent collection, storing sensitive data insecurely, or asking questions that could cause harm.
In a survey done by User Interviews, participants rated their feelings about democratization on a scale from 1 (very concerned/dissatisfied) to 5 (very excited/satisfied). On average, participants rated their feelings a 2.95 out of 5—just below neutral. Sentiment toward democratization was lowest among UXRs, who gave an average rating of 2.84.
The key to democratization is finding the right balance by enabling access to research while ensuring rigor and ethical responsibility.
A Personal Reflection
I’ll never forget the first time I experienced the impact of ungoverned research democratization. At one company, a well-intentioned product manager decided to run their own customer interviews. They were frustrated that the research team couldn’t prioritize their request, so they took matters into their own hands.
On the surface, it seemed great, my stakeholders were taking initiative. But when they presented their findings, I quickly realized the data was riddled with issues:
They had only interviewed three participants, all of whom were personal contacts.
The questions were leading, designed to confirm the PM’s assumptions rather than uncover real insights.
They had misinterpreted responses, turning neutral feedback into positive validation.
As a result, they advocated for a product change that was completely misaligned with actual user needs. It wasn’t until months later, after launch failure, that the team realized their mistake.
This experience solidified my belief that democratization without structure is dangerous. However, the opposite extreme—gatekeeping research—also isn’t the answer. If research teams hoard insights, they risk becoming bottlenecks and alienating stakeholders.
Defining Democratization in a Research Context
At its simplest, research democratization is the process of making research more accessible beyond the UX research team. It allows product managers, designers, marketers, customer support teams, and even engineers to engage with research, conduct studies, and apply insights. But accessibility doesn’t mean a free-for-all, it requires structure, training, and well-defined boundaries.
Nielsen Norman Group has called this ‘Democratization 2.0’ where research is distributed but carefully guided through training, templates, governance, and tiered research access.
For democratization to work, it must be intentional. It’s not about handing research tools to anyone who wants them. It’s about equipping the right people with the right skills to conduct the right kinds of research under the right conditions.
What Democratization Looks Like in Practice
A well-structured approach to research democratization includes:
Training and education – Non-researchers need to be taught not just how to conduct research but how to recognize its limitations, avoid bias, and synthesize insights properly.
Clear guidelines on who can conduct what research – Not all research should be democratized. Simple usability tests? Yes. Complex generative studies? No.
Templates and frameworks – Providing standardized interview guides, usability testing scripts, and survey templates reduces the likelihood of poorly designed studies.
A review and oversight process – Researchers should act as coaches and advisors, ensuring studies are structured correctly and that findings are interpreted responsibly.
A centralized research repository – Without a system for documenting and sharing insights, research efforts become fragmented, leading to duplication and inconsistencies.
At one company, we introduced a tiered democratization system to balance access with quality control:
Product managers and designers were trained to run usability tests using a structured process. They had to submit a research plan before running any sessions, and a researcher reviewed their findings before they were shared.
Marketing and customer success teams were given access to pre-approved survey templates but needed a researcher’s sign-off before launching a survey.
All generative and exploratory research remained the responsibility of trained researchers, ensuring foundational insights were handled by those with the expertise to do them properly.
This system allowed the research team to focus on high-impact projects while enabling stakeholders to conduct low-risk research on their own. It wasn’t about giving away research, it was about scaling it responsibly.
Common Misconceptions About Democratization
Much of the resistance to research democratization comes from misunderstanding what it actually entails. Let’s break down the biggest misconceptions.
Misconception #1: “Democratization means replacing researchers.”
One of the most common fears among researchers is that democratization is a thinly veiled cost-cutting measure, a way for companies to avoid hiring or retaining research talent. The reality is, if democratization is implemented as a replacement for researchers, it will fail. Research quality will drop, teams will make decisions based on incomplete or biased findings, and the organization will ultimately feel the consequences in lost revenue, increased churn, or misguided product investments.
Democratization should extend the impact of research, not eliminate the need for researchers. When stakeholders conduct basic research, it frees up researchers to focus on deeper, more complex studies—the kind that require a trained researcher’s skill set.
A responsible approach to democratization: A product team struggling with usability issues trained designers to run usability tests using a pre-approved script. However, researchers still guided the study setup, reviewed findings, and ensured insights were properly synthesized. This allowed research to happen faster while maintaining quality.
A dangerous approach to democratization: An organization decided researchers weren’t needed because product managers could “just talk to users.” Without training or structure, these conversations were riddled with leading questions, incorrect assumptions, and cherry-picked data that confirmed pre-existing biases. The result? A product launch based on faulty insights, leading to poor adoption and wasted development time.
Misconception #2: “Anyone can do research well.”
It’s tempting to think that research is just about asking people questions. After all, everyone talks to users in some capacity, doesn’t that mean anyone can conduct research? Not exactly. Good research requires more than just talking to customers. It involves:
Knowing how to frame a study to uncover real insights, not just confirm assumptions.
Asking the right kinds of questions—ones that don’t lead or bias participants.
Understanding how to analyze responses in a way that reflects true patterns, not just individual anecdotes.
Recognizing the limits of what a given method can tell you.
I once worked with a marketing team that wanted to “validate” a new pricing strategy by running a customer survey. When I reviewed their draft, I found that nearly every question was leading: “Would you be excited to see this new lower price?” “How much better is this compared to what we had before?” The survey was structured in a way that guaranteed positive responses, and they nearly made a major pricing change based on biased data.
The solution isn’t to ban stakeholders from doing research, it’s to train them on how to do it properly and put safeguards in place.
A balanced approach: Educate non-researchers about common biases, provide pre-approved templates, and have researchers review research plans before launch.
A risky approach: Assume that because someone understands their product, they automatically understand how to conduct valid research.
The Spectrum of Research Democratization
Not all organizations take the same approach to democratization. There’s a spectrum, ranging from tightly controlled research to fully open, self-directed studies.
No Democratization:
Research is conducted solely by dedicated UX researchers.
Insights are centralized but often bottlenecked by research bandwidth.
Teams rely entirely on the research team for user insights.
Partial Democratization:
Non-researchers conduct some research but within a structured framework.
Usability tests, surveys, and small-scale studies can be run by trained stakeholders.
Researchers maintain oversight and provide guidance.
Full Democratization:
Research is open to everyone with minimal oversight.
Teams run studies independently, without researcher involvement.
Insights are often fragmented, with no centralized knowledge base.
Without strong governance, this approach usually leads to unreliable data and misalignment across teams.
Most organizations benefit from structured, partial democratization. It allows research to scale while maintaining rigor.
The Case for Democratizing Research
Democratizing research isn’t just about efficiency, it’s about survival. The landscape of product development moves at an unforgiving pace. Decisions are being made constantly, whether research has informed them or not. Research teams, however, rarely scale at the same speed as their organizations. While demand for research has skyrocketed, the number of dedicated researchers often remains stagnant.
This gap has forced research leaders to rethink traditional models. If a research team can’t directly support every initiative, how can research still be embedded in decision-making across an organization? The answer, for many, has been some form of research democratization—empowering non-researchers with the tools, training, and guardrails to conduct research on their own.
Done correctly, this creates a system where research isn’t just something that happens within the confines of a UX research team. It becomes part of how the organization operates. It allows for more user-centered decisions at scale, better alignment across teams, and an overall stronger connection to customer needs.
But before getting into how to democratize research effectively, it’s important to understand why this shift is happening and what’s at stake.
The Need for Scale
Most research teams face an impossible task: meeting an increasing demand for research with limited resources.
A single researcher might be responsible for supporting five to ten product teams, each with multiple ongoing projects.
Companies are making huge strategic bets on product roadmaps, go-to-market strategies, and design decisions, but often without the research capacity to inform them properly.
Many research teams spend their time prioritizing projects rather than conducting research, meaning valuable but lower-priority questions go unanswered.
I’ve seen this firsthand. In one company, I was the only researcher supporting seven product teams. There were simply not enough hours in the day to conduct research on every feature, design iteration, or customer pain point that needed attention. No matter how well we prioritized, important questions were left unanswered.
At the same time, my colleagues—product managers, designers, and marketers—were desperate for insights. They wanted to understand users, but without access to a researcher, they were forced to rely on assumptions or whatever anecdotal evidence they could gather on their own.
This is the core problem democratization attempts to solve. If every research question has to go through an overburdened research team, insights become a bottleneck. But if teams are enabled to conduct certain types of research themselves, more questions get answered, and research scales alongside the company.
The key is to ensure this doesn’t lead to a free-for-all where bad research does more harm than good.
The Benefit of Increased Empathy
One of the most overlooked benefits of democratization is how it transforms the way teams think about users.
Research isn’t just about gathering insights; it’s about changing perspectives. When product managers, designers, or marketers engage directly with users, it fundamentally shifts how they approach their work. They start making decisions based on what they’ve heard and seen, not just what they assume.
A designer who watches users struggle through an onboarding flow will never unsee those frustrations. Instead of relying on second-hand reports, they will instinctively advocate for a better experience.
A product manager who sits in on user interviews stops thinking about features in isolation and starts seeing the bigger picture—the messy, real-world contexts in which customers actually interact with their product.
A marketing team that tests messaging directly with users will refine their approach based on evidence, not just gut feeling.
I once worked with a product manager who, before engaging in research, had a firm belief that customers wanted more customization options. He pushed hard for this, confident that flexibility was the key to retention. But after sitting in on just three customer interviews, he completely changed his mind. Customers didn’t want more customization; they were overwhelmed by the complexity of the product and wanted simpler, more guided experiences.
That shift in thinking didn’t come from a research report, it came from direct engagement with users. That’s the power of democratization.
When more people in an organization interact with customers, it builds a culture of customer empathy, where decisions are made with a deeper understanding of real user needs.
However, this benefit only materializes when teams are engaging with research in the right way. Without structure, direct engagement can just as easily reinforce biases rather than challenge them. That’s why a thoughtful approach to democratization is critical.
Faster Decision-Making
Speed matters. In fast-moving companies, decisions are made quickly, often without research, simply because waiting weeks for insights isn’t an option.
Product teams are pressured to ship. They can’t always afford to wait for a dedicated researcher to become available.
Executives expect quick answers. Delays in research can sometimes mean the difference between launching a feature and missing a market opportunity.
Customer expectations are evolving constantly. The faster a company can learn, the faster it can adapt.
Democratization, when done well, allows teams to validate assumptions quickly, reducing the risk of making costly missteps. For example:
A design team that has been trained to conduct usability testing can validate whether a new checkout flow is intuitive in days, not weeks.
A product team with access to survey tools can gather user sentiment data before launching a feature, ensuring they’re not blindsided by poor reception.
A marketing team can test messaging with real users before committing to a campaign, avoiding misalignment with customer expectations.
By giving teams the ability to get user feedback quickly, democratization reduces reliance on guesswork. However, the key here is ensuring that teams know when to move fast and when to slow down. Not all research can or should be done quickly. Usability tests and surveys? These can often be done efficiently. Generative research or behavioral studies? These require more time and expertise.
Without a clear framework for what research should be democratized and what should remain within a dedicated research team, organizations risk prioritizing speed over accuracy—which can lead to even bigger problems down the road.
The Risks and Challenges of Research Democratization
Research democratization, if structured well, can expand an organization’s ability to incorporate user insights into decision-making. But when done poorly—or without enough oversight—it can introduce serious risks that undermine the credibility of research altogether.
Scaling research across non-researchers means reducing barriers to participation, but without guardrails, it also increases the likelihood of biased findings, ethical missteps, and fragmented efforts that don’t drive meaningful change.
Quality Control Issues
One of the most immediate risks of democratization is a decline in research quality. When individuals without formal training in research conduct studies, common methodological mistakes can creep in, sometimes with significant consequences for product and business decisions.
In a study of research democratization practices, 73% of UX researchers reported spending significant time correcting or guiding poorly conducted research by non-researchers. This often happens because non-researchers unknowingly introduce confirmation bias, leading questions, and flawed synthesis. One research leader shared that democratization without guardrails turned research into a ‘game of telephone’—insights became increasingly distorted as non-researchers misinterpreted findings, leading to misguided product decisions.
1. Risks of Biased Research, Leading Questions, and Poor Methodology
Non-researchers often approach research with the best of intentions, but without training, they can unintentionally introduce bias at every stage of the process:
Confirmation bias – Asking questions designed to validate existing assumptions rather than uncovering new insights.
Leading questions – Steering users toward certain responses rather than letting them express their true thoughts.
Poor sampling – Interviewing a narrow or unrepresentative set of users, leading to skewed conclusions.
Flawed synthesis – Cherry-picking insights that align with stakeholder preferences rather than accurately reflecting patterns in the data.
At one company, a product team wanted to “validate” a new feature idea. Since the research team was at capacity, a product manager ran a quick round of interviews. But instead of an open-ended discovery study, they asked leading questions like, “Wouldn’t you find this feature helpful?” Predictably, most users responded positively.
The team took this as a green light to move forward, investing months of development resources. After launch, usage was almost nonexistent—because while users agreed in interviews, their actual behavior told a different story. The issue wasn’t the idea itself, but the flawed research approach that had given them false confidence.
2. The Danger of Superficial or Cherry-Picked Insights
Without proper synthesis, research findings can become over-simplified, misinterpreted, or cherry-picked to support pre-existing ideas. Teams conducting their own research may:
Over-rely on a few strong opinions, mistaking them for broad trends.
Ignore conflicting feedback that doesn’t align with their preferred narrative.
Mistake usability issues for lack of user interest, discarding features too quickly.
A marketing team wanted to refine its messaging and conducted a quick user survey. Most responses were positive, leading them to assume their messaging was strong. But when a researcher later reviewed the data, they found that negative feedback had been dismissed as “outliers.”
In reality, those “outliers” represented a critical segment of potential customers who found the messaging unclear. Because this nuance had been ignored, the company missed an opportunity to improve conversion rates.
Ethical Concerns
User research involves handling people’s personal data, stories, and behaviors. When research is democratized, it’s critical to ensure that ethical best practices aren’t compromised.
1. Consent, Privacy, and Proper Handling of Sensitive Data
When non-researchers conduct studies, they may not fully understand data protection laws or consent protocols. Common mistakes include:
Failing to obtain proper consent before recording or storing user data.
Not anonymizing sensitive information, increasing the risk of privacy violations.
Misusing user data beyond the scope of consent, which can lead to legal repercussions.
A designer I worked with ran an unmoderated usability test using a third-party tool but forgot to include a consent disclaimer. Participants were unaware their sessions were being recorded, violating privacy policies. This led to a compliance issue that required removing all collected data, wasting weeks of work.
2. The Risk of Manipulating Research to Confirm Pre-Existing Biases
Research can be weaponized. When stakeholders conduct their own studies, there’s a risk that they will design the research to confirm what they already want to believe. This can lead to:
Over-reliance on supportive data while ignoring conflicting insights.
Framing research questions in ways that guarantee a preferred outcome.
Misrepresenting insights to push a particular agenda.
An executive wanted to push a new subscription model and asked for research to support the decision. Instead of conducting an unbiased study, they only surveyed customers who had previously expressed interest in subscriptions. The results? A misleadingly high approval rate that didn’t reflect the broader customer base.
When the new model launched, churn increased dramatically because the real majority of customers had never been considered in the research.
Undermining the Value of Professional Research
One of the most contentious risks of research democratization is the fear that it diminishes the role and expertise of trained researchers. As more non-researchers take on research tasks, there’s a real concern that leadership will begin to deprioritize the need for dedicated research professionals altogether.
When organizations assume that “anyone can do research,” they often fail to recognize the depth of expertise required to conduct meaningful, unbiased, and methodologically sound studies. This can lead to fewer dedicated research hires, underfunded research teams, and a loss of credibility for research as a discipline.
But this problem doesn’t emerge overnight. It often starts subtly by shifting responsibilities away from researchers and making research a distributed, secondary task rather than a core business function. If this shift goes unchallenged, researchers can quickly find themselves fighting for relevance rather than driving strategic impact.
How Democratization Can Devalue Research Roles
Democratization, when unchecked, can lead to a misunderstanding of research as a profession. Instead of being seen as a specialized discipline requiring training, rigor, and experience, research is sometimes reduced to a simple task that anyone with access to a survey tool or a scheduling link can handle. There are a few ways this devaluation takes shape:
1. The Erosion of Research Credibility
When non-researchers conduct studies without proper training, they often produce flawed, biased, or misleading insights. These insights, if used to inform decisions, can lead to failed product launches, wasted development resources, or misaligned marketing strategies.
However, when these failures happen, the blame doesn’t always fall where it should. Instead of acknowledging that the methodology was flawed, teams may conclude that research itself isn’t valuable or that it doesn’t lead to actionable insights.
Over time, this weakens the perception of research within an organization. Instead of being seen as a critical function, research becomes an optional, nice-to-have activity that doesn’t always justify investment.
At one company, product managers were given the freedom to conduct their own research. Over time, they ran dozens of studies, but because they lacked training, their insights were inconsistent, biased, and often contradicted each other.
Executives began questioning the value of research altogether. “Why are we spending time on this if every study seems to say something different?” they asked. Instead of realizing that the issue was the lack of research rigor, they assumed that research itself wasn’t producing useful outcomes.
2. The Shift from Research as a Discipline to Research as an Admin Task
When democratization isn’t structured properly, research risks being reduced to a tactical, administrative function rather than a strategic discipline.
Instead of being valued for their critical thinking, synthesis, and ability to uncover deep insights, researchers may find themselves relegated to checking survey drafts, reviewing discussion guides, or approving stakeholder-run studies. This shift has serious long-term consequences:
Researchers lose their influence in shaping business and product strategy.
The organization stops seeing research as a driver of innovation and only values it for usability testing and validation.
Research teams become service providers rather than thought leaders.
A UX research team at a large company started a democratization initiative that allowed product managers and designers to run usability tests. Over time, stakeholders became accustomed to doing their own research and started relying less on the research team.
Eventually, leadership began questioning the need for a dedicated research function at all. “If product teams can do their own research, why do we need a full research team?”
Instead of scaling research, democratization led to the gradual defunding of the research department, reducing it to a small oversight function rather than a core driver of decision-making.
3. The Budget and Hiring Freeze Effect
One of the most polarizing debates in research democratization is whether it threatens the job security of UX researchers. In a 2023 survey, 7% of researchers explicitly linked democratization to layoffs or role reductions. Some companies, after implementing democratization, froze research hiring or shifted research into hybrid roles rather than dedicated teams. However, research leaders argue that structured democratization should enhance, not replace, UX researchers. The key distinction is ensuring researchers own complex studies while enabling non-researchers to contribute within predefined boundaries.
When leadership perceives that research is happening without dedicated researchers, they may start questioning the need to invest in research at all. This can result in:
Reduced budgets for research tools, participant recruitment, and training.
Hiring freezes for research roles, even when the demand for insights remains high.
Reallocation of research responsibilities to non-researchers, leading to burnout and ineffective studies.
This often happens gradually. At first, democratization is seen as a way to scale research—but without careful structuring, it can quickly lead to justification for cost-cutting.
At one startup, researchers trained designers to conduct usability tests. Initially, this helped the research team focus on generative studies. However, when budget season rolled around, leadership pointed to the success of democratization as a reason not to hire additional researchers.
Within a year, the research team was stretched even thinner, and designers—who were supposed to be running only tactical usability tests—were now expected to handle all product research. The result? A research culture built on speed, not depth, with major gaps in insight quality.
How to Protect the Value of Research While Scaling Access
If democratization is necessary, researchers must take an active role in shaping its implementation rather than passively accepting it. Here’s how to do that:
Define the boundaries of democratized research
Be clear about what types of research can and cannot be democratized.
Ensure that high-risk, high-impact research remains with trained researchers.
Establish research standards and oversight
Create a research framework with clear guidelines for methodology, synthesis, and reporting.
Require peer reviews and quality checks before insights are shared.
Position research as a strategic partner, not just a service
Proactively contribute to decision-making conversations, not just research execution.
Show how research can drive innovation, reduce business risk, and uncover opportunities that teams hadn’t considered.
Continuously advocate for research expertise
Educate leadership on the depth and complexity of research.
Track and report the impact of research on business outcomes, so it’s clear why dedicated researchers are still essential.
When and How to Democratize Research Responsibly
Democratizing research isn’t an all-or-nothing decision. Done well, it can scale research efforts, integrate user insights across an organization, and build a stronger culture of customer empathy. Done poorly, it can introduce bias, lead to poor decision-making, and undermine the credibility of research as a function.
The key to responsible democratization isn’t just who conducts research, but how, when, and under what conditions. This section breaks down the circumstances in which democratization makes sense, when it doesn’t, and how to ensure that research remains rigorous even as it becomes more widely distributed.
When Should Research Be Democratized?
Democratization works best when it’s filling a gap, not replacing expertise. In the right contexts, it can help teams make better, faster, and more user-centered decisions while allowing researchers to focus on high-value work. Here are the conditions that make democratization beneficial:
1. When Research Demand Exceeds Researcher Capacity
Research teams—especially in growing organizations—are often stretched thin. The number of product teams, marketing initiatives, and business strategies that could benefit from research far outweighs the available researcher capacity. In these situations, democratization allows research to scale beyond the limitations of a small team.
However, this does not mean handing over all research responsibilities to non-researchers. Instead, it means creating a system where smaller, tactical studies can be owned by trained stakeholders, freeing researchers to focus on more complex, high-impact work. Without this structure, research functions become bottlenecks, delaying projects and forcing teams to make decisions based on assumptions rather than data.
To manage this well, researchers should define the types of studies stakeholders can conduct and establish guidelines for when their involvement is required. This ensures that research demand is met without compromising quality or overwhelming the research team.
2. When Teams Need Quick, Low-Risk Insights
There are times when teams need immediate feedback on relatively small decisions—such as refining copy on a landing page, testing a minor UI change, or gauging user reactions to a new feature layout. These types of research questions are not deeply exploratory and do not require advanced methodologies, making them ideal for democratization.
But even these quick-turnaround studies need guardrails to ensure findings are still meaningful. Without structure, teams may conduct rushed, poorly designed research that introduces more noise than clarity. For democratization to work in these cases, organizations need:
Pre-approved templates and research guides to ensure consistency.
Baseline training on research bias and question framing to avoid leading questions or faulty assumptions.
Access to a repository of past research so that teams don’t conduct unnecessary studies when existing data already holds the answer.
By putting these supports in place, teams can run research without reinventing the wheel or making common mistakes that undermine their findings.
3. When Non-Researchers Are Trained and Supported
One of the biggest mistakes organizations make with democratization is assuming that anyone can do research effectively without training. In reality, even seemingly simple methods—such as usability testing or surveys—can introduce bias or misinterpretation when not handled correctly.
For democratization to succeed, non-researchers must be properly trained in research fundamentals. This doesn’t mean turning them into full-fledged researchers, but rather ensuring they have enough knowledge to avoid common mistakes and recognize when they need additional support. Training should include:
How to ask unbiased questions and avoid leading participants.
How to recruit representative samples rather than relying on convenience sampling.
How to synthesize findings in a way that reflects patterns rather than isolated opinions.
How to understand ethical considerations, such as participant consent and data handling.
Beyond training, ongoing support is necessary. Research should not be a one-time training session that leaves stakeholders on their own. Researchers should act as mentors, reviewing research plans, helping synthesize findings, and ensuring that non-researchers have the support they need to conduct meaningful studies.
4. When Research Rigor is Maintained Through Structured Oversight
Democratization should never mean unstructured or uncontrolled research. While it allows for more people to participate in research, it should still operate within a defined system that ensures research quality remains high. This requires clear oversight mechanisms, including:
A standardized research review process where trained researchers sign off on study designs before they are executed.
A centralized research repository where all findings are logged and cross-referenced to prevent duplication and inconsistencies.
Regular research audits to evaluate the quality of democratized studies and refine processes over time.
Without these structures, research can become fragmented, inconsistent, and difficult to trust—leading to decisions being made based on unreliable data.
When Should Research NOT Be Democratized?
Just as there are times when democratization is beneficial, there are also clear situations where research should remain exclusively within the domain of trained researchers. These tend to be higher-risk studies where poor execution can have serious consequences.
1. When the Study Requires Advanced Methodologies
Some research methods are simply too complex to be handled by non-researchers. These include:
Generative research that explores unmet needs and uncovers new opportunities.
Behavioral research that requires deep observation over time.
Mixed-method studies that involve advanced synthesis across qualitative and quantitative data.
These methods require expertise in study design, recruitment, analysis, and synthesis to ensure findings are valid, reliable, and actionable. Handing them over to non-researchers can lead to inaccurate conclusions that derail business strategies.
2. When Biases Could Significantly Distort Findings
All research contains some level of bias, but certain situations make it especially difficult to remove. If the person conducting the research has a vested interest in the outcome, there is a high risk of unintentional—or even deliberate—bias shaping the results.
For example, if a product manager is testing their own feature, they may subconsciously lead users toward positive feedback or ignore negative comments that challenge their assumptions.
In cases like these, research should be handled by an independent researcher who can approach the study with neutrality and objectivity.
3. When Ethical or Privacy Concerns Exist
Studies that involve sensitive topics, vulnerable populations, or legally protected data require a high level of ethical oversight. If non-researchers are not trained in research ethics, they may unknowingly:
Fail to obtain proper consent before recording user data.
Collect and store sensitive data in ways that violate privacy regulations.
Ask questions that unintentionally cause harm or distress to participants.
For any study that involves healthcare, finance, children, or legally protected information, research should be conducted only by trained professionals who understand compliance, consent, and ethical risk mitigation.
Scaling Research Without Losing Rigor
Research democratization is a reality for many organizations, and it’s clear that it is not inherently good or bad—it depends entirely on how it is executed. When structured effectively, democratization enables faster, more user-informed decision-making without sacrificing research integrity. However, without proper governance, it risks lowering research quality, fragmenting insights, and reducing the perceived value of dedicated research teams.
The key takeaway from this first part of the series is this: Democratization is not an all-or-nothing approach.Organizations that find success with it strike a balance between empowerment and oversight—providing stakeholders with the tools and training they need while ensuring researchers maintain quality control.
In the next part of this series, we’ll explore specific frameworks and methodologies that enable responsible democratization, including:
A framework for responsible research democratization
Scaling research without losing rigor
Responding to democratization issues
Stay tuned, and if you want to ensure you don’t miss the next part of the series, subscribe for updates!
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Nikki
Really appreciate this take Nikki — democratization is such a tricky balance. In longevity UX, that risk gets amplified: older adults’ experiences often break the 'default' patterns, and missing that nuance means missing the real insights.
Have you seen any models where teams open up research but still keep the rigor intact?