Service Design Show

The Secrets behind Research that Scales / Kate Towsey / Ep. #216


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There is no service design...

Without high-quality research.

Sure, we all know that.

But doing good research is hard.

Kate Towsey, often called the inventor of the ResearchOps field, can certainly attest to this.

If you're a dedicated listener of the show, you might remember Kate from our conversation about a year ago where she shared that she was writing a book.

Well, that book, titled "Research that Scales", has officially been published!

And with a 4.9/5 rating on Amazon, it seems to have struck a chord with readers.

Of course, we had to get Kate back on the show to discuss it.

In this conversation we delve into topics like:

  • Do we need to scale research, and if so why?
  • What does "scale" actually mean in the context of research?
  • When should you start thinking about scaling?
  • What are the key steps to scaling research?
  • What role can AI play in all of this? Will it take over our jobs?
  • Why did it take Kate 3.5 years to publish the book?
  • And as always, that's just the tip of the iceberg.

    It's hard to imagine a service design professional who wouldn't be interested in the topics we cover in this episode.

    Good research isn't just a nice-to-have; it's a must.

    Without giving away too many spoilers, I found it fascinating that it's not actually research that you need to (or can) scale, but something else. Something that we as a community are pretty good at.

    Can you guess what it is?

    Enjoy and keep making a positive impact!

    ~ Marc

    --- [ 1. GUIDE ] ---

    00:00 Welcome to Episode 216

    03:00 Quick overview about scaling research

    04:00 Why she wrote the book

    09:30 Pandemic's impact on the book

    13:00 Research rabbit hole

    15:00 Unscalable Research: What to Avoid

    18:30 What is enough research?

    22:00 The problem she saw

    25:00 The main bottlenecks

    27:45 Libriarian's role in making the change

    31:00 How the process work

    33:00 Knowledge as a network vs tree

    35:30 Maximizing efficient use of library

    39:00 Designing the system

    41:00 Knowledge vs. Learning: Value Proposition

    43:00 Cost center vs value center

    47:00 AI and Research: A Synergistic Future

    49:00 Cost of scaling: A Trade-off

    51:00 Strategic approach to scaling

    53:00 How to know when to scale

    54:30 Her readers insights

    56:00 Upcoming masterclasses

    58:00 Resources

    58:30 Food for thought

    --- [ 2. LINKS ] ---

    • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katetowsey/
    • Website: https://katetowsey.com/
    • Substack: https://katetowsey.substack.com
    • --- [ 3. CIRCLE ] ---

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