Research Repository
A searchable store of research findings and their evidence, so what a team already learned can be found again.
Process & MethodsMost teams do not have a research problem, they have a retrieval problem. The study that answers this quarter's question was run eighteen months ago by someone who has left, and it exists as a slide deck in a folder nobody can name. A repository fixes that by storing findings as atomic, tagged items — each with the evidence behind it and a link to the session it came from — rather than as documents.
The unit matters more than the tool. A repository of reports is a folder with search; a repository of findings is something a product manager can query by feature, by user type or by theme and get an answer with evidence attached. Tagging has to be maintained by whoever runs the study, at the time, because retrofitting tags to a year of decks never happens. So does a rule for when a finding is stale — a 2023 observation about a flow that was rebuilt in 2025 is not evidence any more.
In practice
A 40-person product org ran the same onboarding study twice in fourteen months, in two squads, reaching the same conclusion. The first study existed as a deck titled “Q2 Research Readout v3 FINAL”. Moving to tagged findings with a feature taxonomy meant the second team found it in a search before commissioning anything.
Where teams get it wrong
- Storing documents instead of findings, which is a folder with extra steps.
- Tagging retroactively, which is a project nobody completes.
- Findings with no link to their evidence, so they cannot be checked or challenged.
- No staleness rule, so observations about rebuilt flows keep getting cited.
- Choosing the tool before deciding what a finding is.
Learn more
You may ask
Frequently Asked Questions
What should a research repository store?
Atomic findings, each tagged and linked to the evidence and session behind it — not finished reports. The test is whether someone can search by feature and get an answer with its proof attached.
When does a research finding become stale?
When the thing it describes has changed. Set an explicit review period and mark findings against flows that have since been rebuilt, or the repository starts supplying confident answers about a product that no longer exists.
Related terms
All terms- User ResearchThe systematic study of users' goals, behaviour and context — through interviews, observation and analysis — to inform what gets designed and built.
- Affinity MappingGrouping raw research observations until themes emerge from the data rather than from the team's assumptions.
- Design SystemThe single source of truth for how a product looks and behaves: tokens, components, patterns, usage rules and the process for changing them.
- UX AuditA structured review of an existing product against usability, accessibility and business criteria, producing a prioritised list of problems and fixes.
Defined by Mara Last reviewed .
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