1 min lesson
Force multiplier, not gatekeeper
Tell someone how to act on this idea: "Every story should land on 'this let the team move,' not 'I made sure research was done properly'."
Step 1 of 2
Frame yourself as the thing that makes a tiny team move faster and decide better, not the process owner everyone has to route through. In a flat org, a researcher who adds steps is friction; a researcher who removes uncertainty fast is impact. Every story should land on “this let the team move,” not “I made sure research was done properly.”
Don't confuse scrappy with sloppy. Speed over perfection is not permission to drop rigor silently - it's permission to make a deliberate, stated tradeoff. The senior move is “I ran five interviews instead of fifteen because the deadline was Friday and here's the confidence cost.” The junior move is presenting a thin study as if it were definitive.