About this episode

Erin May interviews Kate Towsey about the future of research operations and the evolving role of research ops professionals.

Erin May sits down with Kate Towsey, founder of Cha Cha Club and author of Research That Scales, for Research Ops Appreciation Week. Kate shares insights from producing an audio documentary series on the future of research ops, including her fascinating experience co-creating content with AI. She reveals how research ops teams are increasingly surviving layoffs while research teams are cut, explaining that ops professionals focus on unblocking systems and delivering measurable business value rather than gatekeeping processes. Kate emphasizes the critical shift happening in research ops from administrative firefighting to strategic systems design. She discusses the importance of discovery over knee-jerk solutions when building research ops from scratch, advocating for focused problem-solving rather than generic panel and library building. The conversation covers the newly released research ops career ladder, the growing need for strategy skills in the field, and how to effectively communicate value to executives by aligning with existing business priorities and measuring concrete outcomes. Highlights 03:54 Bringing past skills to research ops 17:45 AI context and memory…

People in this episode

Host: Erin May

Guest: Kate Towsey

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Cha Cha Club, ResearchOps Review

Books & works: Research That Scales

More episodes of Awkward Silences

• #187 - Throwback: Harnessing AI For Better Insights with George Whitfield of MIT and Google · April 14, 2026 · 41 min
• #186 - Positioning Your Portfolio for AI Skills with Aneta Kmiecik of Be Your Own Design Team · March 31, 2026 · 43 min
• #185 - How to Use AI Without Losing Your Research Soul with Nikki Anderson of Drop in Research · March 17, 2026 · 52 min
• #184 - Use Context For More Influence with Kristen DeLap of Econify · March 3, 2026 · 40 min
• #183 - The Best Ways to Use AI in UX Research with Laura Klein of NN/g · February 17, 2026 · 48 min
• #182 - The Future of Research (In a Moment of Change) · February 3, 2026 · 41 min

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Awkward Silences podcast page.