Rosenfeld Review Podcast

AI is reshaping product development faster than most organizations can even rethink how they work—and that gap sits at the heart of this conversation with product design guru Jeff Gothelf. Lou and Jeff explore why proven methods like Agile and OKRs so often become “process theater” instead of real change, and what it actually takes to shift organizations from output-driven cultures to outcome-driven ones.

Jeff explains that most transformations fail because incentives still reward shipping outputs, not creating real value. Meaningful change tends to emerge only in pockets led by leaders willing to experiment and treat ways of working as something to test and evolve.

They also explore how AI is shifting risk upstream—from engineering to vision, validation, and decisionmaking—making design and research more critical than ever. Along the way, they reflect on consulting as organizational therapy, the need to prove design’s value in the AI era, and why companies that relentlessly embrace new technology are best positioned to endure.

Jen van der Meer’s career path is anything but linear—spanning comparative religion, working on Wall Street, internet startups, and design education. In this thoughtful and timely conversation, Jen shares how her liberal arts background shaped her global perspective, eventually leading her to leadership roles at Frog Design, startups, and now Parsons School of Design, where she co-directs the MFA in Transdisciplinary Design.

Jen challenges designers to go beyond the narrow scope of their titles or craft. Instead of trying to “convince” other industries of design’s value, she argues that designers must step outside their professional comfort zones, learn new languages—especially finance—and see themselves as co-conspirators in systemic change.

With today’s precarious job market and the erosion of traditional design roles, Jen offers a compelling vision for designers to build collective practices, join interdisciplinary communities, and find purpose in transforming complex systems like health, energy, and finance. Her advice to students and early-career professionals? Focus on a system that needs fixing and start connecting with others who care.

AI isn’t just changing research tools—it’s reshaping how research itself happens. Lou chats with ResearchOps pioneer (and co-host of the upcoming inaugural UXR Tools Summit) Kate Towsey about the shift from linear workflows toward interconnected research systems where recruiting, knowledge management, repositories, and insights all function as part of a single ecosystem. Kate argues that future organizations will rely on “insights lakes,” structured collections of knowledge that anyone can query through AI interfaces, making research continuously accessible rather than locked behind reports.

The discussion explores how tool vendors are evolving toward integrated platforms, why taxonomy and information architecture are even more essential in an AI-driven world, and how research operations professionals are becoming critical connectors across teams and technologies. Rather than replacing researchers, AI may free them to focus on identifying knowledge gaps and proactively generating insight. Kate ultimately offers an optimistic perspective: the future favors makers and experimenters—professionals willing to play, adapt, and help shape how AI is used responsibly within research practice.

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.

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.