What is UX Research Operations (ResearchOps)?

By Philip Burgess- UX Research Leader

In today’s fast-paced digital world, organizations are conducting more user research than ever before. But scaling research across multiple teams, projects, and timelines can get messy—fast. This is where UX Research Operations (ResearchOps) steps in.

ResearchOps provides the structure, processes, and support systems that enable researchers (and sometimes non-researchers) to do their best work. Think of it as the backbone of a successful UX research practice.

Defining UX Research Operations

UX Research Operations (ResearchOps) is the practice of creating and managing the systems, infrastructure, and workflows that support UX research activities.

Where UX Research focuses on studying users, ResearchOps focuses on how research gets done.

This means:

• Setting up participant recruitment pipelines

• Managing research tools and platforms

• Establishing governance for ethics and compliance

• Building repositories for storing and sharing insights

• Measuring research impact at scale

In short, ResearchOps ensures that research is efficient, consistent, and repeatable.

Why ResearchOps Matters

Without ResearchOps, research can feel fragmented: recruitment is slow, insights get lost in slide decks, and researchers spend more time wrangling logistics than uncovering user insights.

With a strong ResearchOps function in place:

• Researchers spend more time on actual research (not admin tasks)

• Teams have easier access to past insights (avoiding duplicate studies)

• Recruitment is smoother and faster, saving time and money

• Executives see clear ROI from research investments

• Research scales efficiently across multiple teams

Core Pillars of ResearchOps

The ResearchOps Community defines ResearchOps across several key pillars. Here are the most critical ones:

1. Participant Recruitment & Management

• Building panels or access to user pools

• Handling consent, incentives, and scheduling

• Ensuring diverse and representative samples

2. Tools & Platforms

• Managing licenses and onboarding for research tools (e.g., UserTesting, Dovetail, Maze, Optimal Workshop)

• Standardizing tool usage across teams

3. Knowledge Management

• Creating centralized research repositories

• Tagging, categorizing, and making insights easily searchable

• Avoiding duplicated research efforts

4. Governance & Ethics

• Managing compliance with privacy laws (GDPR, HIPAA, etc.)

• Standardizing consent forms and participant agreements

• Upholding ethical research practices

5. Education & Advocacy

• Training non-researchers in basic methods

• Evangelizing the value of research across the organization

• Establishing templates, playbooks, and best practices

6. Measuring Impact

• Setting up metrics to demonstrate the ROI of research

• Showing how research insights influence product outcomes

Tools Commonly Used in ResearchOps

ResearchOps isn’t just about processes—it’s powered by the right tools. Some of the most common platforms include:

• Participant Recruitment: User Interviews, Ethnio, Respondent

• Usability Testing: UserTesting, Maze, Lookback, UserZoom

• Repositories & Knowledge Management: Dovetail, Notion, Confluence, Aurelius

• Surveys & Feedback: Qualtrics, Typeform, Google Forms

• Collaboration & Documentation: Miro, FigJam, Slack, Airtable

Best Practices in ResearchOps

1. Standardize Where Possible. Create templates for consent forms, research plans, and reporting to save time.

2. Build a Research Repository. Make past insights accessible—so teams build on existing knowledge instead of starting from scratch.

3. Balance Scalability with Flexibility. Systems should support enterprise-level research but remain adaptable to different team needs.

4. Prioritize Ethics & Privacy. Protecting user data and ensuring participant trust is critical for sustainable research.

5. Measure and Communicate Impact. Tie research activities to business outcomes—showing leadership the ROI of research investments.

The Future of ResearchOps

As organizations mature in their UX practices, ResearchOps is moving from a “nice-to-have” to a strategic necessity. In many companies, ResearchOps specialists or teams now exist solely to streamline operations, much like DevOps did for engineering.

The future will likely include more AI-powered automation (for transcription, tagging, and insights discovery), as well as greater emphasis on governance and scaling research democratization (enabling non-researchers to do lightweight studies with oversight).

Final Thoughts

UX Research Operations is the engine behind great research. While researchers uncover insights, ResearchOps ensures they have the people, tools, processes, and support to do it efficiently and at scale.

For organizations serious about making user-centered decisions, investing in ResearchOps isn’t just smart—it’s essential.

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