I find it can be more effective if the designers do the research or if they are partnered with a true researcher. There are a few reasons for this.
-
if the designers of the actually product is involved, they have a vested ownership of the research and they internalize it. If they are just handed a research deck, they might ignore it, or overlook certain things.
-
if there is no designer on the research team it is possible the researchers will overlook something that a designer might get very inspired by or they may not be able to package the research in a way that is actionable for the design team. Research teams without designers run the risk of becoming removed from the process and perhaps a bit academic.
These are generalizations of course, but things to watch out for and why in a lot of smaller firms the designers do the research themselves. The process is also rarely linear. It doesn’t typically flow in a Research → Design → Build flow. In reality there are many smaller cycles of these phases and it is good to get into the solution space while doing research to quickly test out some of the recommendations.