Research Operations
Team Formation & Leadership
Process Improvement
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Project Management
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Leadership
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Team Formation
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Operations
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Process Improvement 〰️ Project Management 〰️ Leadership 〰️ Team Formation 〰️ Operations 〰️
Forming a team that empowers our researchers to do impactful research (minus the overhead).
Company
Verizon Connect
Role
Senior Manager
Collaborators
Kelcey Little (Recruitment Specialist)
Iris Barrera (Research Librarian)
Ariel Cole (Communications Specialist)
Project Summary
The Problem at Hand:
As our research team grew in size and demand, we needed a better way to streamline, maximize, and standardize research.
Solution:
I formed and currently lead a Research Operations team that empowers our team of 13 researchers to do impactful research (minus the overhead).
We call ourselves ReOps!
Impact:
The ReOps team of 4 drastically shortened recruitment time, manages a repository with high stakeholder viewership, and amplifies research insights at the executive leadership and company-wide level.
Team Formation & Organization
Experts Across the Research Process:
I recognized and capitalized on a natural connection between the ReOps work and the classic research stages of Planning, Recruitment, Data Collection, Analysis, and Readout. So, I structured the team so that each member focuses on specific stages.
Now, everyone in the research team knows who is best equipped to help them - streamlining support!
Experts Across Research Tools:
The ReOps team also own their specialty research tools ensuring we have an expert user, troubleshooter, and vendor manager for each.
For example, our Recruitment Specialist manages projects in User Interviews and our Research Librarian can find anything you need in Dovetail.
Team Mission & Pillars:
Even though we have SME’s across stages of the research process and tools, we stay united under a co-created mission statement and goal pillars:
Foster Continuous Learning In Team
Level Up Communication to Amplify Research
Streamline Operations
Celebrate Wins & Track Impact
Collaborate! (within our team and beyond)
How I Lead
I genuinely consider myself a working member of the teams I lead. I honor the unique needs and culture of each team - while always prioritizing active engagement and a clear way of working. Here are some examples of programs and processes I have established:
Planning Extravaganza:
As a list-maker and goal-setter myself, I knew I needed to bring that kind of structure to this Operations team. I also know that planning can be fun!
Biannually, I host the “Planning Extravaganza” - a full day, planning session with a variety of retrospective and future planning activities.
Together we discuss impact, create our yearly roadmaps, and find opportunities for collaboration across our specialities.
Operations Competency Model:
Research Operations is a trendy, but new space. I never wanted my team to feel like their career paths were unclear.
Riffing off our team’s existing career materials, I created a set of Research Operations competencies that traced the skills needed to excel in this new space.
My team uses this evaluation tool to document where they are and where they want to be.
Working Sessions and Body Doubling:
I wanted this team to operate like a multi-headed hydra - independently fearsome in our specialty areas, while also able to swarm together seamlessly to tackle big problems.
To support this, I organize 2 weekly group working sessions. During Tuesday’s session, we co-create solutions and on Thursday we practice body doubling- we go heads down while feeling energized by our team nearby.
Hybrid 1:1 Schedule:
I established a 1:1 structure unique to my ReOps team that allows us to stay in sync about tactical operations projects while protecting time for strategic and career discussions.
Week 1-3 I host project focused 1:1s while week 4 is a longer, development dedicated session to check in on long term goals. Then, we repeat!
Example Projects
Obviously, the majority of the hard work is led by the team. Here are a few examples of the projects the team has completed with my guidance:
On Site Visit Process:
(Executed by Recruitment Specialist)
Since 2020, the vast majority of our research activities moved to virtual interviews - but our customers have always worked on out on worksites.
Our Recruitment Specialist defined a standardized recruitment process, consent agreement, and budgeting template so our researchers can now easily plan for on site visits.
Impact: The ReOps team helped organize 4 customer site visits in Q1 of 2024 alone - a vast increase from our previous 1 or fewer visits a year.
Research Repository Adoption:
(Executed by Research Librarian)
After establishing a research repository, we struggled with adoption - both researchers storing their work and our stakeholders accessing it.
Our Research Librarian created a yearlong strategic adoption plan focused on simplifying access, curating useful research, and creating training material for various users.
Impact: This strategic rollout improved researcher adoption from 25% to 100% and bumped the viewership by 115 users.
Company Wide Communication:
(Executed by Communication Specialist)
Our researchers do an amazing job presenting customer insights to their direct stakeholders but we are invested in cultivating a culture of customer focus across the entire organization.
Our Communications Specialist tackles this by putting on a company-wide event with panel discussions between customer-facing colleagues interwoven with customer interviews / sentiments.
Impact: The most recent event gathered an audience of 411 resulting in direct praise from our CEO.
How We Measure Team Impact
One of the major pillars I identified for the Research Operations team is to Celebrate Wins & Track Impact.
This has become one of my favorite accomplishments. Especially as strategic research can have a long lead time to impacting the product or customer - I love being able to immediately show our team their influence!
Research Project Tracking :
Track all projects for the entire research team - 13 researchers across 6 product lines. This includes keeping up with information like:
Incentive budget
Recruitment success
Duration of each research stage
Research projects completed
Customer Hours & Spread:
Document hours spent with customers across interviews, on site visits, and surveys to hit our annual company Hoshin goal
Track research “spread” - a unique metric that looks at customer insight presented and attendance of those presentations
Snap Cup:
Inspired by the 2003 classic film Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde, Snap Cup is a weekly ritual I brought to the Research team to foster consistent celebrations of wins big and small!
Peers “give snaps” to one another - thanking them for their help or acknowledging their hard work.
Impact
$50,000+
Tool Budget Saved
After consolidating tools and refining vendor contracts based on what the team actually needed.
Saved significant operational cost, allowed us to spend on what matters
4x
More On Site Visits
Streamlined operations allows us to prioritize research at our customers’ worksites.
Increased accessibility to conducting varied research methods
199
Research Repository Viewers
Stakeholders in Product, Engineering, Marketing, etc independently and regularly access customer insights.
Provided the entire organization with a path to the customer
411
Attendees at Research Event
Latest customer focused, company-wide research event draw a large audience.
Cultivated culture of customer focus