5 lessons learned after 2 years of doing Research Operations

After 2 years and experience in 3 companies I feel have learned some valuable lessons about doing Research Operations. Most of them are very obvious, but usually, those are also the first ones to be forgotten in day-to-day work and situations. So here we go:

1. Research Operations look different in every organization and team. The needs are different, the contexts and setups are different and the ways of doing research are probably different. Also, good work and 'solutions' will probably look different and thus Research Operations become a 'different game' in every organization. Now that doesn't mean that best practices or past examples are not transferrable from organization to organization, but many of the things will need to be figured out with every new start.
2. Success is usually built from many small successes and scrappy solutions. In day-to-day work, most things don't look like in Medium articles and case studies — with all stakeholders happy, straightforward impact across the organization, and problems solved once and for all. Be it in areas of insight sharing, research libraries, or improvements in workflows— the actual solutions might be more scrappy, have some cracks and always have that next level for growth and improvements.
3. Research Operations is as much about hands-on problem solving as it is about advocacy of research and effective processes. Sometimes good work does speak for itself, but usually, that is not enough. Especially for Ops-teams-of-one, there is an increasing need to get more involved in conversations with stakeholders and more senior leadership. Maybe those are conversations about how an organization learns, how knowledge is shared, how research capacity or participant experience could be improved etc. Whatever the topics — finding ways to talk effectively about them is what makes or breaks the work and ResOps practice at the organization.
4. Research Operations are not just about building and guarding processes and efficiencies — it is also about guarding and strengthening culture and a positive environment. It could be on small scale and it could be through little things — such as keeping effective meeting cadence and agendas. Or making research assets and guides easily available and usable. Or simply keeping an empowering and encouraging tone of voice in every piece of work. Cultures are enlivened and strengthened through day-to-day work and situations usually away from the spotlight… and that is exactly the playground of research operations.
5. there are no little things in Research Operations. Some things might look small and insignificant — like a shared calendar to make user research sessions on a company level visible, a shared Slack channel with a particular stakeholder group, an automated workflow, or a meeting note template. It could be something that didn't take much time and effort to set up, but in the end, could turn out to be just as impactful or even more impactful as any large-scale projects and initiatives — like a research repository, taxonomy, or participant panels. Small things matter, they make difference and it is where others might see and feel the impact of ResOps work.