“Numbers without context can be misleading. Stories without scale can be dismissed. But when UX researchers and product analysts join forces, the full picture emerges and with it, better products.”

That was the central argument made by Archana Shah, Principal UX Researcher, and Subhasree Chatterjee, Data Analytics Manager at LexisNexis. Together, they offered a candid and humorous account of how research and analytics can move from uneasy neighbours to indispensable partners. It was a story about mistakes, missteps, and the hard-won creation of a framework for collaboration.

When Silos Fail

The setting was familiar to anyone working in a large organisation. Customer support teams were overwhelmed with calls from users struggling to navigate the company’s flagship legal research product. The solution proposed by leadership seemed straightforward: rebuild the in-product help system, add more content, and make it easier for people to find what they needed without picking up the phone. It was, on the surface, a reasonable idea. And like so many “reasonable ideas,” it risked wasting time, money, and credibility.

Archana and Subhasree were tasked with investigating. At that point, they barely knew each other, and they set off separately to do what their roles demanded. Archana, the researcher, reframed the question into something more human. Why did users need help? Where did they want to seek it? What pain points drove them to call customer support? Through interviews she discovered that legal professionals were under tremendous cognitive load when conducting searches. They had to juggle client needs, case law, and jurisdictional details while crafting queries, and the difficulty was not in clicking the right buttons but in constructing the right terms. Surveys confirmed that while people claimed to prefer online help, they were not actually engaging with it.

Meanwhile, Subhasree turned to the numbers. She analysed product data to uncover usage patterns of the help feature. What she found was stark: very few users ever touched the help system. Of those who did, only about 20% returned. The timing was also revealing. Most users clicked on help immediately after running a search, suggesting that their struggle was not with the interface but with the search itself. For Subhasree, the evidence was clear that the system was underused and ineffective.

When they presented their findings separately, both had captured essential truths. Yet the organisation went ahead with the rebuild. The result was sobering. Despite the enhancements, engagement with help remained flat and support calls continued to flood in. The problem had been described accurately, but the solution was still wrong. The missed connection between research and analytics had cost the business valuable time and resources.

Research Without Numbers, Numbers Without Stories

This disappointment became the turning point. Archana and Subhasree realised that while each discipline had illuminated part of the story, it was the missing connection between them that kept the organisation from acting wisely. Research alone provided empathy and context but risked being dismissed as anecdotal. Analytics alone provided scale and clarity but risked flattening nuance into meaningless bar charts. Together, they could produce something far stronger. A holistic narrative that answered both the “what” and the “why.”

From Strangers to Partners

Instead of continuing as strangers, they began working as collaborators. They sat together at the outset of projects, breaking down broad business questions into smaller research and analytics questions. They coordinated their timelines so findings could be woven into a single narrative. And most importantly, they learned to anticipate what the other would bring to the table, which sharpened their own work in turn.

The difference in outcomes was immediate. When the help system challenge arose again, Subhasree confirmed through data that even with visibility improvements, usage of in-product help was negligible. But because she and Archana were working in sync, the research questions evolved. Archana went back to users, this time focused on the specific struggle of crafting effective searches. What emerged was a more pointed insight: people didn’t want more documentation. They wanted a human partner to brainstorm queries, to suggest connectors, to act as a sounding board. Customer support was succeeding not because it provided better content but because it provided conversation.

Uncovering the Real Problem

This reframing changed everything. Instead of recommending yet another round of content investment, the duo advised shelving the rebuild entirely. Their combined evidence suggested that what users truly needed was conversational assistance. A support mechanism that could replicate the brainstorming value of a human partner. By working together, they had not only deepened the insight but also saved the business from sinking resources into a feature that would never deliver the intended impact.

A Framework for Collaboration

From these experiences, Archana and Subhasree built what they now call their framework for collaboration. It is deceptively simple but powerful in practice. Start every project together with the business question on the table. Break it into research questions and analytics questions side by side, rather than after the fact. Plan your timelines so that findings can converge into a single narrative. Invite each other into your worlds: have analysts observe interviews to hear the nuance in users’ voices, and have researchers engage with dashboards and instrumentation to see the bigger behavioural patterns. Over time, the disciplines begin to speak the same language, and the friction that once defined their relationship fades into trust.

What makes their story resonate is not just the practical steps but the honesty about what happens when collaboration is absent. Working in silos leads to false confidence. Research without analytics risks being dismissed as anecdotal. Analytics without research risks being misleading, stripped of human meaning. Together, the two not only validate each other but also elevate the work to a level stakeholders cannot ignore. Presenting a unified story with both numbers and narratives leaves little room for doubt.

The Power of Peanut Butter and Chocolate

The metaphor Archana and Subhasree use, peanut butter for analytics, chocolate for research, captures this dynamic beautifully. Each is valuable alone, but together they create something richer, more satisfying, and ultimately more useful. The message is clear: if you want products that solve real problems, you cannot afford to let peanut butter and chocolate sit in separate jars. They need to blend.

Beyond the Framework: Why This Matters

For organisations, the benefits are substantial. Time is saved by avoiding wrong turns. Resources are preserved by shelving ineffective solutions early. Stakeholder trust grows when recommendations are backed by both scale and empathy. And for the practitioners themselves, the rewards are equally powerful. By learning from each other, researchers and analysts expand their own capabilities and increase the impact of their work.

Archana and Subhasree’s framework is not about compromise. It is about amplification. Research and analytics, when brought together from the beginning, do not dilute each other. They sharpen each other. They move beyond getting the problem right to ensuring the solution is right too. And in an industry where speed, efficiency, and credibility are everything, that difference is transformative.

Final Thoughts

Their story ends with an invitation. Look around your organisation. Find your counterpart. Start small, with a conversation, a shared finding, or a joint presentation. Build the habit of collaboration until it becomes second nature. Because when you do, you move beyond building the wrong solutions beautifully and start building the right ones with confidence.

Want to watch the full talk?

You can find it here on UXDX: https://uxdx.com/session/bridging-perspectives-a-framework-for-seamless-collaboration-between-ux-researchers-and-product-analysts/ 

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