#86 - Research is Everyone’s Job: The Democratization of Research with Jonathan Widawski, CEO of Maze

Should everyone do research? It’s a tricky question. Yes, research is a craft that takes years to master. But on the other hand, if we want research to happen all the time, everyone needs to be able to do some of the basics on their own. Today, we talked to Jonathan Widawski, Founder and CEO of Maze about how the democratization of research is actually advancing the craft. He talked about the need for researchers to be good teachers, how research can grow in the same way data and design did, and why the future is user-centric.

Highlights

• [4:52] Ultimately, research teams need to scale to meet the rising demand. But democratization is a good way to increase an organization's learning potential and the visibility of research.
• [8:25] How do we balance good research practices with letting everyone participate?
• [14:55] Unlike disciplines like data and design, research needs to be guided by an expert at multiple points in the process.
• [19:13] The Maze team’s research process.
• [23:07] How to balance being your own user with getting out of the building. 
• [25:06] What Jonathan is excited about as research advances.

About our guest

Jonathan Widawski is the Founder and CEO at Maze. He’s a veteran Product Designer & former UX teacher. As a UX lead working with clients like McKinsey, Rocket Internet & PSG, he saw first-hand how hard it is for product teams to get the data, insights, and feedback they need to make confident design decisions. Now he’s co-founded Maze, the continuous product discovery platform for user-centric teams.