Sunday Rewind: Why data science and UX research teams are better together

In this 2018 talk from ProductTank San Francisco Chris Abad, VP of product and design at User Testing, shares his thoughts on why bringing together qualitative user research and quantitative data science teams is crucial for companies. 

He explains how it can help them to see the complete picture and inform critical product decisions. He shares real-world examples and lessons learned as User Testing established its Product Insights team, a team made up of UX researchers, data scientists and data engineers.

Chris says teams often lack a holistic, big-picture view of the challenges they face but if researchers and data scientists work together they can provide the depth and reach to gain insights about the product and customers. He says that User Testing had three goals when it put its research and data science teams together – to ensure they were solving problems worth solving, to understand the impact of what was built, and to make product insights self-service across the company. Combining the two teams was initially just an experiment, but has been more successful than anyone anticipated.

Watch the original talk: Why data science and UX research teams are better together