Rosenfeld Review Podcast

Why Research Repositories Need Humans (and AI) with Maria Rosala

What happens when someone moves from government UX research to shaping research for the broader industry? Lou talks with Maria Rosala, Director of Research at Nielsen Norman Group, about her role, her career path, and the value of research repositories.
Maria shares what it means to lead research at NN/g and how her experience as a UX researcher in the UK Home Office shaped her perspective on research maturity and real-world practice. They explore how research repositories help organizations surface knowledge, avoid duplicate work, and support collaboration—and why people and culture remain just as important as the tools. Maria also discusses how AI could make repositories more powerful by surfacing connections and insights.
 
What You'll Learn from this Episode:
What the Director of Research role at Nielsen Norman Group involves
How government UX work shaped Maria’s perspective on research maturity
Why research repositories help organizations reuse and share knowledge
Why research librarians and curators remain essential even with AI
Where AI could improve research repositories in the future
A book recommendation on qualitative research analysis
 
Quick Reference Guide:
0:10 - Meet Maria Rosala and learn about the UXR Tool Summit
3:23 - What it’s like being the research director of Nielsen-Norman
7:58 - Gauging and comparing research quality
10:18 - How the volume of research at Nielsen Norman compares to the Home Office in the UK
15:54 - What’s special about the Rosenverse and the Rosenbot
18:10 - What research repositories do for organizations
22:08 - Why we need both tools and a culture that is curious and collaborative
27:07 - Thoughts on surfacing and utilizing AI in defined, constrained spaces but with a human architect
33:31 - Maria’s gift for listeners
 
Resources and Links from Today's Episode:
The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers by Johnny Saldana https://www.amazon.com/Coding-Manual-Qualitative-Researchers-Third/dp/1473902495 
Advancing Research 2026 https://rosenfeldmedia.com/advancing-research/ 
 
Quotes:
“Because we're very small, we do have a lot of oversight of the research that we're doing.”
“People would go through and critique the design and say, ‘Why have you designed it like that?’ And you would need to have a good reason.”
“It's about ensuring that research can be consumed by not just the immediate team that are doing it to inform some of the key decisions that they're trying to make, but that it could potentially benefit others who might be thinking about that problem in a slightly different lens.”
“I think people are going to continue to play an important role, regardless of AI implementations in curating and drawing connections.”

Saving Survey Research from Itself with Caroline Jarrett

Survey research is in trouble—and Caroline Jarrett explains why. Returning to the podcast to preview the upcoming UXR Tools Summit, she and Lou Rosenfeld explore what’s really happening in the survey world and what researchers should be asking vendors right now.
They discuss collapsing response rates driven by constant, low-value feedback requests and the growing sense that many surveys are performative rather than useful. Caroline argues for fewer, smaller, more targeted surveys that respect people’s time and actually lead to change. The conversation also tackles AI in research tools, from synthetic users to automated analysis, and why human judgment still matters.
Caroline shares the key questions she plans to ask survey-tool vendors—especially around accessibility and panel management—and why researchers need better integration across tools and methods. She closes with a literacy-focused resource from the British Council tied to her passion for designing for people with low literacy.
 
What You'll Learn from this Episode:
Why survey response rates keep dropping—and how bad “always-on” feedback requests damage the whole method
How to make surveys feel less performative: smaller, targeted surveys and “question of the week” approaches
Why the best surveys are often the ones you never see (because they’re sent to the right small sample)
Caroline’s take on AI in research tools, including the risks of synthetic users and AI-only analysis of open ends
The top questions Caroline wants survey-tool vendors to answer, especially about accessibility for researchers and respondents; and panel management and integration
Why tool integration across methods (surveys + repositories + testing + recruitment + experimentation) matters—and what researchers should push vendors on
Quick Reference Guide:
0:13 – Meet Caroline and learn her role in the Advancing Research Conference
5:13 - Recent trends that have impacted how research should design and run surveys
8:15 - When surveys feel routine and performative
10:18 - Areas of improvement in uptake and responses 
13:58 - How AI is making a difference in designing surveys and analyzing data
18:55 - How vendors view the utilization of AI
23:58 - Why you need the Rosenverse
26:12 - Caroline’s questions for survey tool vendors
31:11 - Integration and triangulation
36:20 - Caroline’s gift for listeners
Resources and Links from Today's Episode:
Forms That Work - by Caroline Jarrett and Jerry Gaffney https://www.amazon.com/Forms-that-Work-Interactive-Technologies/dp/1558607102
Surveys That Work - by Caroline Jarrett https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/surveys-that-work/
Advancing Research and the UXR Tools Summit - March 10-12, 2026 https://rosenfeldmedia.com/advancing-research/
British Council’s LearnEnglish’s restaurant menu page https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/skills/reading/a1-reading/restaurant-menu
 
Quotes:
“This problem of being over-invited under usefulness of the survey experience is threatening the whole of survey research, and that trend has now started to affect national statistical agencies.”
“A really well-designed survey will go to the smallest sample that is appropriate for the effect that you're trying to achieve.”
“Do smaller surveys more often. Keep it small. Keep it frequent.” 
“If you’re selling to people, you’re going to have to actually engage with people.”

Dana Chisnell and Christian Crumlish on the DOGE-ification of Civic Design

Dana Chisnell and Christian Crumlish on the DOGE-ification of Civic Design
When Dana Chisnell and Christian Crumlish took roles in U.S. federal agencies, they knew the work wouldn’t be easy. But what unfolded during their time under the second Trump administration went far beyond bureaucratic resistance. In this gripping conversation, they recount the painful dismantling of teams like 18F and the Department of Homeland Security’s Customer Experience Office—takedowns that were less about efficiency and service, and more about ideology and erasure. From executive orders scrubbing DEI language to gutting digital service teams and exfiltrating government data, they describe what it felt like to navigate a coordinated unraveling of public-serving infrastructure.
Yet out of the ashes, a new civic design seeds are taking root. Christian and Dana reflect on what it means to build systems that endure, how to design for accountability, and where the next generation of mission-driven designers, researchers, and creators might focus their efforts. There’s urgency here, but also a throughline of resolve and resilience: the belief that better government is possible—and that good people are still fighting for it.
What You'll Learn from this Episode:
How design and research teams inside U.S. government agencies were dismantled under political pressure
The tactics used to erase DEI and disability-facing efforts and language from federal operations
Why civic tech and design teams need to plan for resilience—even under hostile leadership
What it looks like to “exfiltrate” ethical infrastructure during a transition of power
How former public servants are reshaping the civic tech ecosystem post–government
Why designing for accountability matters as much as designing for access
 
Quick Reference Guide:
0:34 - Meet Christian and Dana
1:41 - A year ago, Dana resigns head of customer experience for DHS
3:03 - Christian’s experience with 18F and his firing by TTS
8:09 - Why Dana resigned from her position with the federal government
11:46 - Considering the motives of the current administration
17:31 - Why running public services like a business is a bad idea
26:06 - Advancing Research - March 10-11, 2026
27:07 - Stewart Brand’s pace layer model theory
30:09 - The future of product design in the public sector
39:30 - Dana’s and Christian’s gifts for listeners
 
Resources and Links from Today's Episode:
University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda https://ughe.org/ 
https://www.linkedin.com/school/ughe/ 
Girl Scouts USA https://www.girlscouts.org/
Order Girl Scout cookies from trans girl scouts https://open.substack.com/pub/erininthemorn/p/2026-trans-girl-scouts-to-order-cookies?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web 
Advancing Research - March 10-11, 2026  https://rosenfeldmedia.com/advancing-research/ 
 
Quotes:
“ By firing us all at once, they inadvertently preserved our unity really well.”
“There was a shared belief that we could still have the shared goal of making stuff work better and put politics aside and make some actual advantages.”
“They thought..affirmative action..advantaged everybody except for white males. So nobody’s credentials are legitimate except white males. Everybody else has been boosted, and you have to discount them. It’s a bizarre thing that it’s the opposite of reality in many ways.”
“It was a data heist. They exfiltrated private government data – public data but private information. It was theft of the sovereign data of the United States.”
“I would argue that the government should not be run like a business. It is fundamentally a different thing.”
“Government exists because there are things that humans need that cannot be provided by the private sector.”

Designing Assistant Technology with Chris Noessel

Can AI really make us smarter, or is it just making us lazy thinkers? Lou reunites with the brilliant Chris Noessel to explore the nuanced world of AI assistants. As Chris gears up to release his third Rosenfeld book, Designing Assistant Technology: AI That Makes Us Smarter, he explains the critical differences between assistants (tools that help you do things) and agents (tools that do things for you). They discuss the implications of these models, from smart maps to inventory systems, and why most AI use cases today are assistive, not agentive. 
Chris also shares how over-reliance on AI tools can lead to "cognitive debt" and de-skilling — both for individuals and entire organizations. Drawing from philosophy, pop culture (yes, even Doctor Strange), and practical design methods, Chris offers a compelling case for why designers are crucial in shaping responsible AI, and how a well-designed assistant can help without dumbing us down. It’s a smart, witty, and insightful conversation that makes a strong case for the enduring relevance of design in an AI-driven world.
What You'll Learn from this Episode:
The key distinction between assistant and agent technologies—and why it matters
How everyday tools like predictive text shift between assistant and agent modes
Why assistive AI is more widespread (and safer) than fully agentive systems—for now
How designers can mitigate cognitive dependency and “de-skilling” in users
The risks of organizational over-reliance on AI, especially without design input
How pop culture (like Doctor Strange’s cloak) offers helpful metaphors for AI design
 
Quick Reference Guide:
0:11 - Meet Chris Noessel
1:44 - Agentive vs assistive (assistant)
8:36 - Real-world examples of technology assistants
11:55 - Agents and assistants in publishing
15:44 - Break: Advancing Research - March 10-11, 2026
17:10 - The risks of dependence and de-skilling 
20:43 - Studies on the effects of ChatGPT on the brain
21:57 - Over-reliance at scale
23:34 - How designers can prepare to navigate the AI maze
26:46 - On writing and publishing on AI
33:13 - Chris’ gift for listeners
 
Resources and Links from Today's Episode:
Designing Agentive Technology: AI that Works for People by Chris Noessel https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/designing-agentive-technology/
Designing Assistant Technology: AI that Makes Us Smarter by Chris Noesselhttps://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/designing-assistant-technology/
Chris’ sci-fi blog https://scifiinterfaces.com/
Your Brain on ChatGPT https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/your-brain-on-chatgpt/overview/
Cloak of Levitation  https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Cloak_of_Levitation
Doctor Strange  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1211837/?ref_=fn_t_1
 
Quotes:
“An assistant helps a user do something. An agent does that thing for them.”
“Whenever you have an assistant that helps you do something, there runs a risk of dependence.”
“When we talk about stupidity, we’re really talking about over-reliance and dependence and evn de-skilling.” 
“Dependence and over-reliance is a major risk when any assistant, but AI makes it more significant and troubling.” 

Rethinking Design Through Anti-Craft with Uday Gajendar

What happens when a designer starts questioning “craft” itself? In this episode of the Rosenfeld Review, Lou Rosenfeld sits down with longtime collaborator and community builder Uday Gajendar to explore his provocative new idea: “anti-craft.” Drawing on decades of experience across enterprises, startups, and academia—as well as his role curating Rosenfeld conferences—Uday shares how his thinking on design craft has evolved from statecraft, stagecraft, and tradecraft into something more contrarian and expansive.
Rather than treating craft as polish or perfection, Uday argues for looking inward—at the emotional, personal, pragmatic, and even spiritual layers that influence a designer’s work. He and Lou discuss how these hidden layers shape our taste, decisions, and impact, especially in an era where AI is transforming the practice of design. Uday makes the case for self-awareness and reflection as a way to strengthen both individual designers and teams, and hints at how his “anti-craft” framework might become a new tool for mapping the human side of design alongside its technical layers.
What You'll Learn from this Episode:
Why Uday Gajendar is rethinking “craft” through his concept of anti-craft
How design is shaped by personal, emotional, and spiritual layers
Why self-awareness and lived experience matter more in the age of AI
How teams can support designers beyond the work itself
A fresh way to evaluate both product and team growth
 
Quick Reference Guide:
0:30 - Meet Uday
2:07 - Uday, craft, and anti-craft
6:23 - The personal layers and dimensions that impact both the craft and the crafter 
11:07 - The spiritual aspect of design
16:31 - Break: Why you need the Rosenverse
18:51 - How to connect the layers back to technology
24:53 - Layers in light of the Pace Layers Model
28:00 - Uday’s gift for listeners
 
Resources and Links from Today's Episode:
Stewart Brand’s pace layering model https://longnow.org/talks/02015-brand-saffo/ 
The Way Forward by Yung Pueblo https://www.amazon.com/Way-Forward-Yung-Pueblo/dp/1524874833
 
Quotes:
“Design, for me, is a personal path of self-discovery, of meaning, of value, of impact.”
“For a lot of designers, we create something that is a manifestation of what we believe in because we believe in something of such quality, of such craft, of such character.”

Service Design Reconsidered with Lavrans Løvlie and Andy Polaine

The second edition of Service Design: From Insight to Implementation, by Lavrans Løvlie, Andy Polaine, and Ben Reason isn’t just a refresh—it’s a reintroduction to a field that’s evolved significantly in the last decade. Whether you’re new to service design or a seasoned practitioner who read the first edition cover to cover, there’s something new to gain here. This second edition continues to serve as a foundational reference for teaching and learning, but now with updated language, contemporary case studies, and clearer frameworks for measuring service impact.
Lavrans and Andy join Lou in today’s episode, and they acknowledge that their original work, while groundbreaking, often painted a slightly utopian picture of design practice. This edition brings a more grounded perspective, reflecting the messy realities of organizational politics, cross-functional collaboration, and measuring the value of design. Tools like service blueprints have been sharpened, not just described—making it easier for designers to move from abstract ideas to tangible outcomes.
And for experienced professionals? You’ll find new material that helps you advocate for service design more effectively within complex organizations, alongside updated thinking on ROI, team structures, and evolving roles in product-led environments. It’s not just a book—it’s a toolkit for navigating what’s next.
What You'll Learn from this Episode:
How service design is evolving within product-led organizations
Why public sector services are still the natural setting for “pure” service design
The shifting relationship between product and service design
Ways service designers can navigate organizational politics
How experience design has become more visual and actionable
What’s changed between the first and second editions—and why it matters
Quick Reference Guide:
0:12 - Meet Lavrans and Andy
0:48 - The reason for writing a second edition of Service Design
4:41 - What’s new and what remained in the new edition
7:51 - The case studies and new chapters in the new edition
10:16 - Service design’s relationship with organizational change and politics
13:13 - Experience the Rosenverse
14:41 - When service design meets product thinking
21:42 - Service design’s strength in public and product sectors
23:47 - Cutting the fluff: visualizing experience design
25:12 - Why the second edition still matters
28:41 - Andy and Lavrans’ gifts for listeners
 
Resources and Links from Today's Episode:
Diffusion Innovation by Everett Rogers https://www.goodreads.com/work/editions/129867-diffusion-of-innovations 
The Next Conversation: Argue Less, Talk More by Jefferson Fisher https://www.amazon.com/Next-Conversation-Argue-Less-Talk/dp/0593718720 
We Need to Talk by Joshua Graves https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/we-need-to-talk-a-survival-guide-for-tough-conversations/ 
Service Design: From Insight to Implementation by Lavrans Løvlie, Andy Polaine, and Ben Reason https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/service-design-second-edition/ 
9th Design Ops Summit, September 10-11, 2025 https://rosenfeldmedia.com/designops-summit/ 
 
Quotes:
“Services happen over time.” 
“Services are intangible.” 
“Service design involves people aligning around a common way of thinking about things. So a lot of service design is organization change.”

How Service Design and AI Can Fix the Frontlines with Bethany Brown

What if AI isn't a disruptor but a repair tool? 
frog North America's Head of Service Design, Bethany Brown, joins Lou to explore the intersection of service design, operations, and AI. With roots in industrial design and global experience across firms like EPA and Engine, Bethany brings a unique lens to tackling large-scale organizational friction.
She walks us through a real-world case study from her upcoming talk at the Advancing Service Design conference (November 19-20), where her team used service design principles to help a company identify costly operational breakdowns, before applying AI to streamline processes and improve financial outcomes. Instead of leading with technology, Bethany’s approach centers on deeply understanding human workflows, mapping them visually, and uncovering where systems are failing frontline workers.
Through this lens, “operations” becomes less about rigid systems and more about the connective tissue of a service experience. And service design becomes the glue that aligns people, technology, and strategy. It’s a talk—and a conversation—not to miss.
Plus, Bethany shares the best career advice she ever received, and pays tribute to the educator who helped her realize design is an ever-evolving discipline, not a fixed path.
 
What You'll Learn from this Episode:
How service design uncovers human inefficiencies AI can help solve
Why visualizing messy, manual workflows unlocks operational clarity
The role of empathy in reimagining frontline service delivery
How to bridge AI strategy and real business needs through co-creation
Why Bethany sees operations as the engine behind customer experience
How an industrial design background shaped her systems thinking approach
 
Quick Reference Guide:
0:00 - Meet Bethany and learn her career arc
3:33 - Bethany’s ah-ha moment about service design
6:15 - Shifting from physical design to strategic, zoomed‑out service work
9:53 - “The beauty of service design is that it doesn't live alone. It never works by itself. It's always in partnership.” 
13:13 - Why you should try the Rosenverse
15:27 - Visualizing messy operations to identify where AI helps
19:56 - Bridging operations and AI through service design clarity
28:41 - Bethany’s gift for listeners
 
Resources and Links from Today's Episode:
Advancing Service Design Conference (virtual) - November 19-20, 2025 https://rosenfeldmedia.com/advancing-service-design/ 
 
Quotes:
“Let’s not just design the bike. Or let’s not just design the chair. Let’s think about everything around that. And I got excited about evertyhign around it.” 
“ Service design is so much more about the process, and the value of it is  a lot of decision making that happens in the process of service design, like ambiguous decisions that you didn't know even needed to be made.” 
“You get to use a lot of design thinking and design process to drive to highly strategic decisions to be made.”
“ The most important part of service designing anything in an ambiguous space is making it visible and visualizing the complexity.”

Behind the Scenes of Advancing Service Design with Shreya Dhawan & Gustavo Vieira

What do a Brazilian retail strategist and an Indian industrial designer have in common? A passion for transforming complex systems through service design—and a shared mission to push the profession forward. In this episode, Lou welcomes Gustavo Vieira and Shreya Dhawan, two of the curators behind the upcoming Advancing Service Design conference, for a behind-the-scenes look at how service design is evolving—and how they’re helping shape that evolution.
Gustavo shares how his early work in franchising sparked a fascination with aligning brand strategy, operations, and customer experience, eventually leading him to service design as a more holistic lens. Shreya’s journey began with product design in hospitals, where she realized the real challenge wasn’t just designing a better object—it was improving the entire system around it.
Together, they reflect on the emerging trends in the field, including the move toward systems-level thinking, new contexts like journalism and B2B, and the rich global collaboration shaping this year’s conference. The conversation is full of thoughtful insight, heartfelt reflection, and a few unexpected gifts—from Ken Wilber to Picasso.
 
What You'll Learn from this Episode:
How two service designers from very different backgrounds each found their way into the field
Why service design thrives in complex, multi‑stakeholder environments like healthcare, franchising, and journalism
The emerging shift from focusing on “journeys” to understanding entire service ecosystems
How global collaboration and peer learning are shaping this year's Advancing Service Design conference
New ways to think about performance in services—beyond KPIs and toward learning, adaptability, and shared meaning
The value of evolving one’s craft: moving from precision and “doing it right” to embracing abstraction, ambiguity, and creative confidence
 
Quick Reference Guide:
0:12 - Meet Shreya and Gustavo
1:31 - Gustavo’s path into Service Design, which includes retail and franchise
7:30 - Shreya’s path into Service Design, which includes hand sanitizer and medical research
13:09 - Finding the magic of service design in unexpected fields 
17:46 - Check out the Rosenverse
19:11 - Shreya’s perspective on the upcoming conference
23:27 - Gustavo’s perspective on the same conference
25:21 - Hear the smiles
27:28 - Shreya’s and Gustavo’s gifts for listeners
 
Resources and Links from Today's Episode:
Advancing Service Design 2025 - November 19-20 https://rosenfeldmedia.com/advancing-service-design/ 
Ken Wilber’s books https://www.amazon.com/stores/Ken-Wilber/author/B0FKHPT8WN?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true&ccs_id=8053455d-fb3f-46a6-bd1d-a7b16cf04b04  
 
Quotes:
“The top of spirituality is service. You’re being spiritual when you’re serving.” 
“We build together and co-create, and the cases evolve through time.”
“ As you go, you become more experienced and work with different contexts, environments, and your practice grows and morphs into something else. Your comfortableness with ambiguity and being able to work with uncertainty and with abstract concepts and not knowing everything, I think you become more and more comfortable with that.”