We are lucky to have so many wonderful sponsors and exhibitors at this year’s Advancing Research conference–and we thought you might like to get to know them better! We’ve asked all of them some questions in the coming weeks that get at the heart of why they’re passionate about ResearchOps, what it’s like to work with them, and what makes their products and services special to Design and Research Operations professionals.

Nalini KotamrajuNALINI KOTAMRAJU, VICE PRESIDENT, USER INSIGHTS AND ANALYTICS AT SALESFORCE

Rosenfeld Media: Why are you sponsoring the Advancing Research conference?

Nalini Kotamraju: I attended the very first Enterprise UX (now Enterprise Experience) conference in Texas, organized by Lou Rosenfeld, and I touted it for years as my favorite design conference. Not only the formal program, but the caliber of conversations made such a strong impression on my role as a research leader at Salesforce.

Research – the high-quality, nimble, systematic and useful kind – is at my core. When I learned that Lou was providing research its own space to flourish, I emailed him asking him how my team and Salesforce could participate.

Rosenfeld Media: What excites you about Research and/or Research Operations?

Nalini Kotamraju: Transforming data into insights is a key activity happening within companies right now.

Now more than ever, people who build products – across all roles within companies – recognize the importance of data in their success. This focus on data raises really thorny and crucial issues, such democratizing data, ethical questions, big data, and large-scale versus small-scale data collection. Research and Research Ops are perfectly positioned to help decision-makers navigate those issues. It’s our moment to shine and leverage our expertise to help institutions make insightful decisions for the people they serve.

It’s really inspiring to see the level of engagement and enthusiasm for research insights, creative methodologies, and the robust research operations frameworks that need to be in place to create and deliver them.

Rosenfeld Media: What is it like for researchers and ResearchOps people to work at your company? 

Nalini Kotamraju: Our team transforms data into trusted insights, analyses and metrics for our Product, Technology and Marketing organization. We are not an order-taking, cookie-cutter kind of team. Our researchers and Research Ops team shape and define their work with an eye to following through on our commitment to provide the best product experience possible for our customers.

Rosenfeld Media: What is your company culture like, and who are the champions?

Nalini Kotamraju: At Salesforce, we’ve built a culture of trust. We keep our culture healthy and strong by being incredibly intentional about our values, our behaviors, and the experiences we deliver. We take our role in our customers’ success very seriously, which translates into working with colleagues who are eager and committed to co-creating and using research insights.