Product Experience Practice Maturity Project: Research Democratization

Context

As our Product team rapidly scaled—adding more designers, content strategists, and PMs—it became clear that demand for research was outpacing the capacity of our UXR team. Backed by UXR and Product Experience leadership, I kicked off a discovery initiative to explore how we could scale research responsibly.

Approach: The 5P Framework

To move from startup scrappiness to scalable impact, I introduced and led a five-part strategy:

  1. Plan
    I conducted secondary research across industry sources (e.g., Nielsen Norman Group, LinkedIn UXR communities, conference talks) to understand best practices and common pitfalls in democratized research. This surfaced gaps in our own product development process and shaped our foundational direction.

  2. Policies
    Given our regulated healthcare environment, I partnered with a teammate to define responsible guardrails. We proposed an initial focus on unmoderated research only—balancing speed with rigor and compliance.

  3. People
    Stakeholder input was critical. I conducted interviews with interested designers, content strategists, and researchers to identify needs and pain points. This helped ensure the program addressed real-world challenges and built early buy-in.

  4. Partnership
    With speed in mind, we piloted a Minimum Lovable Program (MLP), leveraging an existing tooling partner that offered built-in training. I secured budget, developed a lightweight program guide, scheduled the first cohort, and launched within weeks.

  5. Progress (a.k.a. Party!)
    After the first cohort completed, I led a check-in study to assess what worked, what didn’t, and how to measure success moving forward. After two cohorts, over 50 team members were equipped to conduct lightweight research, effectively doubling our impact—and yes, we celebrated.

Results & Impact

The program was a major success, recognized internally and by UserTesting as a standout example of scaled research enablement. It empowered product teams to move faster and smarter—without sacrificing quality. Our team shifted from being a bottleneck to a multiplier.

Reflections

Standing up this program was a personal and professional win. It wasn’t without challenges, but it proved that research democratization, when done thoughtfully, can drive real value. I saw mindsets shift, teams light up with insight, and an entire culture begin to evolve around research.

  • Lead Content Strategist Testimonial

    “Christina is a gem. She shines bright, exudes warmth and always shows up with a smile on her face.

    In the time I spent with her at Teladoc Health, Christina led several large team meetings. She’s eloquent and engaging and has a wonderful way of bringing people together and captivating her audience.

    She led the Research Empowerment and Democratization program, which provides UXR training to non-research colleagues. With Christina at the helm, it was a well-oiled machine. The training was comprehensive and flexible. Christina provided a plethora of resources. She scheduled training sessions with vendor partners. She offered office hours and ample time to discuss research projects and ask questions.

    Christina kept us organized and she kept us moving, reaching out to check on our progress and motivating us to achieve our certificate of completion. With Christina, there is no ego. She took the time to share her team’s expertise with colleagues and empower them to learn new skills and conduct their own quality, ethically sound UXR.

    Christina is the epitome of a team player and a company culture advocate, and I am grateful I had the chance to work with her.”

  • Lead User Experience Research Testimonial

    “Christina is a versatile and agile product researcher, a champion of culture, an operational expert, and a natural public speaker.

    Christina co-launched and maintained a research democratization program, which helped scale our user research capacity immensely. She champions partnerships and effortlessly wrangles stakeholders. She led regular advisory board meetings to gain insights from our providers, working with PMs to prioritize questions and frame activities.

    In addition to her many accomplishments, her deep healthcare domain knowledge and empathic nature make her a valuable asset in many environments.”

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