Leading with Purpose: UX Research Leadership and Managing Large Teams

By Philip Burgess - UX Research Leader

In today’s fast-moving digital world, UX research isn’t just about running studies and collecting data—it’s about building systems that help organizations make better, evidence-based decisions. For leaders managing large UX research teams, the role expands beyond methods and deliverables. It’s about vision, alignment, and people development.

The Role of a UX Research Leader

At scale, leadership becomes less about conducting studies yourself and more about enabling others to do their best work. Core responsibilities include:

• Strategic Alignment – Ensuring research connects directly to business goals and product decisions.

• Team Development – Coaching researchers at different career stages, from interns to senior leads.

• Operational Excellence – Standardizing processes, templates, and metrics for consistent delivery.

• Cross-functional Influence – Helping product, design, and engineering see research as a partner, not a service.

Leading With Purpose: Challenges in Managing Large Teams

Managing a team of 10–15+ UX researchers introduces unique challenges:

1. Maintaining Consistency – Different researchers may approach planning, reporting, and stakeholder engagement differently. Without guidelines, outputs can feel fragmented.

2. Balancing Autonomy and Alignment – Researchers need space to grow and lead, but leadership must ensure work ladders up to strategy.

3. Scaling Operations – As the team grows, ad hoc approaches to recruiting, tools, and repositories no longer work. ResearchOps becomes critical.

4. Preventing Burnout – With heavy demand from stakeholders, large teams can still feel stretched thin. Leaders must protect bandwidth.

Best Practices for Leading Large UX Research Teams

1. Build a Shared Vision

Clearly articulate how the team contributes to organizational outcomes. Tie research directly to KPIs like adoption, retention, or cost savings.

2. Create Standardized Frameworks

Provide templates for research plans, reports, and insights so the team produces consistent, high-quality outputs. This frees cognitive load for creativity while ensuring stakeholders always know what to expect.

3. Empower with Autonomy

Trust senior researchers to lead engagements while offering coaching and checkpoints. Empowerment builds confidence and lightens leadership’s load.

4. Invest in ResearchOps

Establish repositories, participant panels, and metrics dashboards. This enables scalability and ensures insights compound rather than get lost.

5. Lead with Servant Leadership

Put the team first. Listen, remove roadblocks, and create career paths. A servant leadership approach ensures morale stays high even in high-demand environments.

Measuring Success as a Research Leader

Strong leadership is measured not just in studies delivered, but in impact achieved:

• Research cited in decision-making forums

• Increased stakeholder trust in insights

• Consistency and quality of deliverables

• Retention and growth of team members

• Efficiency gains through ResearchOps

Closing Thoughts

Leading with purpose for a large UX research team is both a privilege and a challenge. It requires balancing strategy with empathy, and structure with flexibility. Done well, UX research leaders don’t just manage projects—they build organizations that cannot make decisions without user evidence.

Philip Burgess | philipburgess.net | phil@philipburgess.net