In this Co-Lab lightning talk, Danielle Morrison (Patient Experience Research Director at UCSF Health) flips the script on what we typically consider “strategic” in UX research.

Drawing from her experience leading patient experience research—a system with more than 450 independently run departments—she makes the case that real strategy isn’t just about surfacing key insights. It’s also about clearing the internal roadblocks that keep those insights from being used. Through this lens, she shows how turning your craft inward (yes, treating your own team like research participants) can be a game-changer for impact.

You’ll hear how her team moved from being seen as passive data providers to becoming trusted partners—shaping decisions at both the department and executive levels. Danielle shares what worked (and what really didn’t), and how using familiar UX frameworks like discovery, iteration, and stakeholder mapping internally helped unlock buy-in.

Her takeaway? If we want our insights to matter, we need to design the conditions that make them land. Strategy, it turns out, starts at home.