Insights Unlocked: How TruStage's Design Team Operationalized UX Research

Podcast: Insights Unlocked
Episode Title: How TruStage's design team operationalized UX research
Date: February 16, 2026
Host: Natalie Padilla (UserTesting)
Producer: Nathan Isaacs (UserTesting)
Guests: Benny Brooks, Nick Higbee, Betsy Drews (TruStage)

Episode Overview

In this episode, Natalie Padilla hosts a candid discussion with leaders from TruStage’s design and research team—Benny Brooks, Nick Higbee, and Betsy Drews. The trio shares how they transformed TruStage’s UX research from an inconsistent, ad hoc process into a structured, scalable, and embedded practice within their design team. They unpack their unique “Cookbook” framework, explore how food analogies fostered adoption and clarity, and discuss the cultural and operational changes that resulted in a significant uptick in research activity, buy-in, and designer empowerment.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Background: TruStage’s Transformation

• Nick Higbee (04:43): TruStage is a rebranded insurance and financial services company, recently unified under one brand.
• The design team transitioned from collaborating with external research teams to embedding research directly within design, enabling faster and more informed decisions.

2. Life Before Operationalized Research

• “We were sort of running our research practice a bit like a potluck... everyone was showing up with their own contributions, their own recipes, but nothing is really shared at a global level and there’s no consistency.”
  — Benny Brooks (04:59)
• Research was effective but inconsistent, lacking shared standards and repeatable processes.

3. From Playbook to Cookbook: The Evolution of Their Framework

• Initial attempts at a sports metaphor “playbook” proved limiting; they sought an analogy that was both transparent and actionable for design teams and stakeholders.
• Cookbook Framework:
  • Recipes: For the “cooks”—detailed guidance for designers/researchers carrying out specific methods.
  • Menu Listings: For the “diners” (stakeholders)—overview of what to expect, benefits, resources, and time expectations.
  • Tasting Menus / Meal Plans: Predefined sequences of research studies, tailored to product phases, streamlining kickoff and reducing rework (06:35–11:13).
• Built as modular Figma flashcards, adjustable for different audiences.

4. Operational Benefits & Stakeholder Impact

• Betsy Drews: The Cookbook allowed for “five-minute” research plan presentations that secured stakeholder buy-in, reduced friction, and minimized ad hoc explanation (13:32–17:38).
  • Notable Quote:
    “The way you just have this all ready to show and explain is beyond my expectations.”
    — Stakeholder feedback (16:44)
• Consistency across projects and teams improved as the Cookbook’s artifacts became a shared language.

5. Massive Growth in Research Activities

• UX and research stories in Azure DevOps more than doubled from 83 (2024) to 201 (2025) after operationalizing research (18:09).
• Researchers moved from “pitching” research to responding to requests from product leaders—a cultural shift from a push to a pull demand model.

6. Quality, Efficiency, and Measuring Success

• Initial focus: Increase research quantity; next focus: Improving quality and efficiency.
• A shared research backlog enabled more transparent planning and tracking, fostering better team collaboration and reducing bottlenecks (21:59–23:43).

7. Iterative & Collaborative Evolution

• Figma became the “central station” for all research resources, maximizing team strengths and comfort with the tool (34:45–35:52).
• Conducted retrospectives (retros) to source feedback and pain points, shaping subsequent iterations of the system (35:58).

8. Designer Growth and Empowerment

• The Cookbook democratized research, empowering both seasoned and less-experienced team members to initiate and lead studies (28:53–32:05).
• Nick Higbee:
  “Regardless of how much experience that they have in research. It gives them what they need to get started and flex some muscles... or for the people with less experience to try a new method.” (30:12)

9. Fun, Engagement, and Cultural Impact

• The collaborative and analogy-driven approach brought genuine enjoyment and shared ownership.
• Betsy Drews:
  “No constraints, like you have a focus area you’re interested in, passionate about, like go for it. And we all had a big portion of this big research pie. So that in itself was super fun to have that equal ownership.” (33:07–34:28)
• The team’s first workshop to build the Cookbook was memorable for the rapid co-creation it enabled.

10. Advice for Other Teams

Panel’s Tips for Operationalizing Research:

• Use tools your team knows and loves; meet people where they are.
• Gather regular feedback (e.g., retrospectives) to inform iterations.
• Set ambitious, aspirational objectives that aren’t artificially time-boxed.
• Don’t skip deep, philosophical discussions; they foster creativity and clarity.
• Involve everyone in the process from the start to drive buy-in and creativity (34:45–38:25).
• “Learning by doing” trumps over-planning: launch small, iterate quickly.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On food metaphors:
  “Recipes for the cooks and menu listings for the diners... They both describe a dish, but one tells you how to make it, and the other tells the diner what they’re getting and what the cost to them is.”
  — Benny Brooks (06:35)
• Stakeholder delight:
  “Your team was already impressing me... The way you just have this all ready to show and explain is beyond my expectations.”
  — Stakeholder via Betsy Drews (16:44)
• Culture shift:
  “We had a potluck before... but it was a really good potluck, right? It was good food.”
  — Nick Higbee (28:53)
• Creativity and support:
  “I felt crazy half the time and then you’d be like, nah, this is cool. You should push. I was like, okay, okay, I should push. So yeah, I also appreciate that so much.”
  — Benny Brooks to Natalie Padilla (40:12)
• On the role of philosophy:
  “Not skimping on the philosophical conversations... That spawned better thought. We had more creative ideas about what we could do with the ops.”
  — Benny Brooks (36:48)

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | Speakers | |------------|-------------------------------------------|------------------------| | 01:32 | TruStage context and team role | Nick Higbee | | 04:43 | Life before the project (“potluck”) | Benny Brooks | | 06:35 | Evolution to the “Cookbook” framework | Benny Brooks | | 11:13 | Stakeholder pushback case study | Brooks/Higbee | | 12:43 | Embedding and operationalizing research | Betsy Drews | | 16:44 | Stakeholder quote on effectiveness | Betsy Drews | | 18:09 | Research quantity growth and impact | Nick Higbee | | 28:53 | How the system empowered designers | Nick Higbee | | 33:07 | Collaborative and fun team culture | Betsy Drews | | 34:45 | Advice to other teams | All panelists | | 40:12 | Reflections on creative partnership | Panel & Natalie |

Final Takeaways

• TruStage’s journey illustrates how thoughtful frameworks, team engagement, and relatable metaphors can turn research from an afterthought into a driver of innovation, quality, and trust.
• Their Cookbook approach, built on accessible formats and rich analogies, fostered speed, repeatability, and cross-team understanding.
• Empowering every team member and making research fun and approachable are just as critical as process and tools.
• Continuous iteration, candid retrospectives, and philosophical alignment underpin lasting operational change.

For more details, examples, and artifacts, visit the UserTesting podcast show notes.