UXDX Community:Sydney: Design, Research and AI in Action

Design Research shouldn’t feel slow, messy, or hard to scale, but for many teams, it does. If every project feels like starting from scratch, timelines keep slipping, and insights aren’t landing the way they should, the issue often isn’t the research itself, it’s the lack of an operational system around it. This gap is what ResearchOps is trying to solve. This is where ResearchOps plays a role as essential infrastructure, helping to centralise design and research and reduce duplication, cost, and friction across teams. In large organisations, where bureaucracy is unavoidable, ResearchOps absorbs complexity so researchers can focus on producing quality insights. In smaller organisations, these responsibilities can sit within research leadership, but they still need clear ownership, combining operations with mentorship to build sustainable research maturity.

As AI reshapes how products are built, product designers are increasingly well placed to become founders. This talk explores why: designers are trained to spot unmet needs, navigate ambiguity, and connect user insight to product direction. But the shift from designer to founder is more than a title change. It means moving from shipping features to owning outcomes, making sharper bets, and carrying responsibility across product, strategy, and growth. Through real examples from building products and founding a startup, Faria will share what changes, what carries over, and how designers can start building companies of their own.