Democratizing UX research: two real-life examples
Research democratization
✓ Seven tactics from two teams that already did it.
This past week we were lucky enough to speak with two of our customers about how they’ve democratized research at their organizations.
Nicole Wright is a Senior UX Researcher at Honeybook and Brad Orego is the Head of Research at Auth0. Both are really passionate about democratizing research as a way to keep their customers at the center of all their work.
During both of these conversations, we heard similar suggestions, so we wanted to get them into some tactical steps you can bring to your organization.
What we love most is that both Brad and Nicole believe that empowering other people to do good research doesn’t lessen their power or impact, it just brings their entire organization closer to their customers, and that’s their guiding principle as UX researchers.
7 steps to democratize UX research across your company
1. Just start
Nicole talked about how she started by asking people how they were doing research. She wasn’t worried that the methods weren’t perfect or the results weren’t analyzed using best practices, she just wanted to figure out how people were doing research and dig into what gaps they still had in that process. By doing research into the existing research she uncovered the opportunity.
Brad mentioned that he started by picking the Environment pillar from the 8 pillars of User Research as defined in the Re+Ops community. He knew he needed to teach people who do research (PWDRs) research basics, so he started by teaching.
In both of these cases, these passionate researchers used their own research skills to uncover what would get them a quick win within their specific organizations.
2. Start by sharing
Sharing came up in both sessions as an important part of the work they do. At Honeybook, the research team speaks to the entire company on a monthly basis about the research that’s happened, insights uncovered and upcoming research. This is in addition to the regular sharing that happens automatically via their Slack integration, so anyone can join a research call with a customer.
At Auth0 the research team holds monthly research method training sessions to educate others on how to do great research. Being open to sharing customer insights or research methodology insights has built the credibility of these research teams and made them more accessible to more teams.
3. Build cross-functional teams
One of our favorite learnings from Brad’s session was the CIA (customer intelligence alliance) a group of key stakeholders from product, product marketing, design, and data science. These folks meet regularly to prioritize research requests that come in from teams across the organization. Getting buy-in and involving folks from the beginning is a great way to build rapport and empower more folks to do research.
Nicole has been a consensus builder at Honeybook from the start, having been a customer, people were keen to understand her experience as a customer and she used that opportunity to understand where research was already happening and then she identified key people who cared about and could do customer research. She now has a taxonomy team of cross functional leaders from: support, UX research, design and customer success that are constantly adjusting and improving to keep control over how research is conducted.
4. Make it easy to find
As Brad and Nicole both suggested, just starting small can be a huge win, but second to that, making research easy for anyone to access is a really important part of democratization. From including research calls in new hire training courses to Slack integrations and be accessible. Make it easy for people to ask their great question and find an answer that might already exist. You can do that with an easy to filter research repository.
Brad said he likes to “nuggetize” research and share those nuggets out in their internal communication channels. But, the chunking of research into digestible bits makes it super accessible for PWDRs or people that benefit from hearing from customers.
5. Start with a solid foundation and a vision for the future
Brad talked a lot about the value of the Re+Ops community in helping him build a solid foundation. He said he’s laying the tracks for the railroad before putting a train down with a specific direction, and he knows that with a solid foundation he’ll be able to build a fast-moving train knowing that people know how to access research, they’ve been trained or empowered to do great research and in turn, research is easier for the entire organization.
6. Give people tools with the guardrails built in
A democratized program runs on its tooling as much as its training. Before you open research to PMs and designers, check that the tool you pick can do four things: give people templates to start from so methods stay consistent, set guardrails on who can see participant data and how often a customer can be contacted, keep a repository stakeholders can search without asking a researcher, and let people watch sessions without paying for a seat. We make Great Question, so the table includes our own limits. Competitor details come from each vendor's own pricing page as of September 2026.
Tool | Best for | Starting price | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Great Question | Best forResearch Ops teams letting PMs and designers run their own studies from shared templates, with a repository and unlimited observers | Starting priceSelf-serve $129 per seat per month, up to 5 seats, unlimited observer seats, 14-day free trial. Enterprise is custom (annual, 5-seat minimum) | Watch out forSelf-serve caps at 5 seats, and the participant panel and incentives come with the Research CRM add-on. The guardrails a company-wide program relies on (granular access control, candidate eligibility rules, custom consent, SSO) and Ask AI across the repository are all Enterprise |
| Maze | Best forDesigners and PMs running quick unmoderated prototype tests | Starting priceFree plan (1 study a month, 5 seats). Starter $99 per month. Enterprise custom with unlimited seats | Watch out forFree and Starter each allow 1 study a month |
| Dovetail | Best forCentralizing and tagging calls, documents and surveys you've already collected | Starting priceFree plan (1 channel, 1 project). Enterprise custom | Watch out forAn analysis and repository tool, so you'll still need another tool to recruit and run studies |
| UserTesting | Best forEnterprises that want a large external panel and vendor-run services | Starting priceCustom pricing (contact sales) | Watch out forPrice varies by number of users, so giving access to more people raises the cost |
At ServiceNow, 165 researchers recruit on their own, and recruitment time fell from 118 days to 6. Experian has 150 PMs who do research.
In Great Question: a researcher saves a study template with the approved screener and discussion guide, and PMs start their studies from it instead of a blank page. When the PM invites customers from the shared panel (part of the Research CRM add-on), every stakeholder who wants to watch joins the observer room without a paid seat. Each session lands in the repository with a transcript, AI tags and highlights, ready to share as a reel. On Enterprise, access controls and eligibility rules also limit who can see participant details and how often each customer is contacted.
7. Train & empower
Teaching was an important part of both of our customers' success. From monthly all-hands updates, to putting research into the new hire training materials, empowering people to find and do research is an important part of the UX Researcher role. They’ve each seen success by training fellow groups and PWDRs, and giving people templates to do great research.
We’re clearly super passionate about democratizing research and we’re so grateful to Brad and Nicole for sharing their stories and best practices.
To try this with your own team, start a 14-day free trial of Great Question.
Frequently asked questions
What tool do I need to democratize user research?
You need a tool that gives non-researchers templates to start from, guardrails on participant data and contact frequency, a repository they can search, and free seats for people who only watch. Great Question covers all four in one platform: self-serve is $129 per seat per month for up to 5 seats with unlimited observers, and the company-wide access controls and eligibility rules are on Enterprise. Maze suits teams that mostly run quick prototype tests, Dovetail suits teams that only need to organize research they already have, and UserTesting is sold through sales to enterprises that want its panel.
