Ben Wiedmaier sits with Karl Randay, Experience Director at 383, to explore how designers can stay relevant in an increasingly automated world. Karl shares insights from working with major brands like Hilton and Jaguar on digital innovation projects that blend strategy, research, and rapid prototyping.

They also talk about the "beige-ification" of design, where templated systems and AI tools risk creating homogeneous experiences across brands. Karl explains how his team uses AI as a research copilot while maintaining human craft and creativity. He also breaks down the skills modern designers need beyond visual craft, including business acumen, stakeholder communication, and the ability to translate design impact into executive language.

Highlights

• 06:26 Design challenges across multiple touchpoints
• 19:04 Simple questions unlock stakeholder priorities
• 25:31 Multi-skilled designers beyond specialization
• 32:23 Career growth through T-shaped skill development
• 36:53 The beige-ification of modern design
• 42:44 AI as creative exploration partner

Resources

• Designer's Guide to UX Research
• The 4 Steps to Redesigning Sites
• Connecting Research & Design Leadership

Ben is joined by Maria Rosala from Nielsen Norman Group and John Whalen from Brilliant Experience to wrap up 2025 and make some predictions for 2026. Maria and John share practical insights on everything from AI moderation tools to synthetic users, offering a balanced view of where these technologies excel and where human researchers remain irreplaceable.

Maria and John also dig into the democratization of research across product teams, the importance of governance and strategy when implementing AI tools, and how researchers can position themselves as orchestrators of both human and artificial intelligence.

Highlights

• 08:22 AI tools creating pressure for faster delivery
• 17:18 Governance and oversight for AI implementation
• 24:55 Composite and synthetic users explained
• 41:56 Hiring advice for new researchers
• 44:27 Demonstrating AI proficiency in job applications
• 49:25 Research industry predictions for 2026

Resources

• Research Wrapped 2025
• The State of User Research
• Ultimate UX Jobs Board

Erin May sits down with Kate Towsey, founder of Cha Cha Club and author of Research That Scales, for Research Ops Appreciation Week. Kate shares insights from producing an audio documentary series on the future of research ops, including her fascinating experience co-creating content with AI. She reveals how research ops teams are increasingly surviving layoffs while research teams are cut, explaining that ops professionals focus on unblocking systems and delivering measurable business value rather than gatekeeping processes.

Kate emphasizes the critical shift happening in research ops from administrative firefighting to strategic systems design. She discusses the importance of discovery over knee-jerk solutions when building research ops from scratch, advocating for focused problem-solving rather than generic panel and library building. The conversation covers the newly released research ops career ladder, the growing need for strategy skills in the field, and how to effectively communicate value to executives by aligning with existing business priorities and measuring concrete outcomes.

Highlights

• 03:54 Bringing past skills to research ops
• 17:45 AI context and memory limitations
• 26:37 Future vision for strategic research positioning
• 36:28 Quality governance in AI era
• 44:21 Strategy skills gap in research teams
• 50:27 Translating research value to executives

Resources

• Strategy References
• Kate's Masterclass
• Research That Scales (Book)
• Kate's Substack
• The ResearchOps Review