Overseas user research, decentralized user research

This article explores the concept of decentralized user research and addresses how to improve the efficiency and impact of user research with limited resources. It is recommended for professionals in the fields of user experience, product, and design.

Core ideas:

1. The democratization of research or decentralized user research is popular abroad, empowering non-researchers (product, design, operation, etc.) to do user research, which is quite different from the current situation in China. The democratization of research is almost impossible to survive in China, because recruiting more people to expand the research team and gain more power is the preferred way for research leaders

2. But in the current environment of reducing costs and increasing efficiency, what should we do if we cannot solve research needs by expanding researchers? One way is to raise recruitment requirements and give priority to recruiting talents with compound knowledge and experience, such as experience designers (who understand both design and user research). One person can do many things, which is already a trend; another way is to democratize research, which is very important for the future of user research teams.

3. There is only one prerequisite for empowering non-researchers to do user research, which is to push away fragmented and basic research needs so that the team can focus on more valuable and influential projects. Otherwise, you are training substitutes for yourself.

4. The democratization of research has never been about telling everyone that "anyone can do research", but rather that you can do some simple user research needs (such as which version is better, which name is better, and collecting user feedback) by yourself, and our professional researchers are responsible for handling more complex and higher-dimensional research propositions.

It takes a long time for user research partners and executives to understand the critical role we play in creating experiences that users love. Accountability to users is not only fundamental, but has a huge impact on a company’s bottom line: Forrester research shows that excellent user experience can increase lead conversion rates by up to 400%; Dr. Susan Weinschenk reports that the average cost of fixing a bug after development is 100 times that of fixing it beforehand; and Forbes states that every $1 invested in UX brings an average return of $100.

Many user researchers find themselves facing too many demands, but what is the result? Resources cannot keep up with daily needs. The fact that there is a limited budget means that we must maximize the research results under the given conditions. Thinking about how to overcome obstacles can improve our problem-solving ability. In response to this common situation of too much work and too little time, a new concept has emerged in user research: decentralization of responsibility, that is, empowering your colleagues to carry out user research activities.

1. Measure whether user research is being promoted in your organization

When weighing whether to promote user research in your organization, consider these positive factors:

• Greater productivity at scale: More people supporting the planning, execution, and analysis of user research means higher output. The extra time will allow you to focus on higher-impact projects.
• Reduced friction and increased influence: As colleagues learn more about user research, they tend to develop empathy for researchers. By experiencing it firsthand, they may become advocates for user research within the organization. You may notice increased cross-functional harmony when rallying support for research activities, and it becomes easier to gain buy-in for your suggestions. Having more people involved and discussing research also increases the influence of user research in the organization, opening up new opportunities and increasing research resources.
• Better user experience: More team members focusing on users will have a clearer understanding of user needs, pay more attention to people-centered design, and improve the overall product experience.

2. How to empower colleagues to do research?

If you don’t feel ready to create a research training program for non-researchers, or if you prefer to take incremental steps, consider the following small-scale initiatives:

1. Start Small

• Host a lunch and learn: Schedule a time for your research team and cross-functional partners to have a (virtual) lunch together and learn more about user research. Focus on easy-to-understand but valuable topics like the difference between user research and market research, favorite research methods, and analyzing research results.
• Set up office hours: Reserve fixed times and dates for user researchers to answer questions about user research and provide simple consultation on projects on a first-come, first-served basis.
• Highlight your findings: Increase the visibility and impact of your user research work by sharing your findings regularly, such as in an email newsletter or in a dedicated Slack channel. Also, use storage tools to increase the visibility of your research insights.

2. Expand the impact of user research

Assuming you’re ready to seriously scale up user research in your organization, where do you start?

A great place to start is by learning from companies that have done this successfully, such as LinkedIn, Nerdwallet, and Fidelity. Also, remember that every company’s needs are different — here’s a framework that can be adapted to your specific situation.

Step 0: Validate the need for creating a user research training program for non-researchers

Please consider:

• Is there a steady enough flow of work to sustain the need for expansion, or is this just a busy period in the product lifecycle?
• Is the nature of our research suitable for being conducted by non-researchers?
• Do we currently have the time and resources to create this project?

Step 1: Identify the right people for the project

After validating the need to democratize research with your team and leadership, start considering cross-functional colleagues who are eager to learn more about user research and have the time to participate—don’t forget to get their managers’ approval. Historically strong participants include:

• Product Designer: A natural ally of user researchers, designers already have a human-centered mindset and understand the importance of integrating user needs into their work.
• Product Manager: A great fit as they have a lot of responsibility for the timeline, feature set, and success or failure of the product.
• Engineers: Despite being responsible for building products, dreaming up creative technical solutions, and caring deeply about whether their work meets people’s needs, many engineers never get the opportunity to interact with actual users.

Step 2: Provide an engaging, useful, and educational experience

Once you’ve screened and selected the people who are willing to participate, the fun begins. It’s time to equip them with the knowledge to conduct user research. A standard course includes:

• Planning research: defining objectives, framing questions, choosing methods
• Conduct research: Best practices for moderating, strategies for taking effective notes, and what to expect during a session
• Data analysis: how to organize raw data, label data by frequency or severity, generate data-supported insights, and synthesize findings into recommendations
• Sharing findings: Format, expectations, and recommendations for research presentations

Step 3: Provide tools and templates

Once you have the basics down, you can move on to providing participants with the tools and access they need to conduct their research.

template:

• Research Plan
• Guidelines for Interviews, Observations, or Usability Testing
• Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure Agreement
• Slideshow template for sharing results

process:

• Recruit, schedule, motivate and debrief participants
• Instructions for booking lab space for in-person research or remote research setup
• Instructions for storing session data
• Steps to access the Research Toolkit

Step 4: Practical Experience

It is important to conduct hands-on research experiences with actual users. Of course, it is even more important to choose the right projects for non-researchers, let them practice with internal pilot sessions first, and then identify projects they can lead, while reserving key projects for dedicated user research teams. Projects that can be involved are early design exploration and exploratory interviews, design concept testing, and small-scale usability testing.

Step 5: Reflect and Iterate

Once new researchers have completed their first study, remember to review and revise your training program. It may not be perfect the first time, but we can always learn and improve. Emphasize the most and least useful parts of the course. Cut unnecessary content and add more popular content. Identify gaps in the program and understand what elements program participants would like to see included. Finally, improve the tools provided. In addition to sharing training materials, consider creating operation manuals and cheat sheets to help knowledge retention. For those who are eager to continue to improve their skills, it is also worth sharing some resources.

3. Risks and Concerns

There are potential downsides to enabling research. Here are some risks to be aware of:

• Devaluation of research: Naysayers argue that researchers have worked too hard to get to where we are today and that we should not hand over our responsibilities to non-researchers. This indirectly creates the idea that “anyone can do research”. This reminds us to be careful when promoting projects that democratize user research – we are not training our replacements, but meeting the growing demand for research by empowering more people to practice our craft on appropriate projects.
• Reduced research rigor: Another concern against democratizing research is that the research performed by non-researchers may not be high quality and well executed. While your newly trained colleagues’ research may not be comparable to that of an experienced user researcher, they will still receive your standard training. Mistakes are inevitable, but non-researchers will perform work on projects that would otherwise be delayed or not happen at all. This in itself is a major win. Ultimately, you and your team will still be responsible for the primary research activities.
• Adding extra work to the user research team: Democratizing user research may improve productivity in the long run, however, designing, executing, and adapting a training program requires a significant investment of time, energy, and resources. Depending on the current needs of your organization (e.g., working to meet a tight deadline to deliver an MVP), this may not be the smartest decision. Consult with other researchers, colleagues, and leadership to ensure this is the right time to build such a program.

Author: James Vinh; Source: Peron User Research (ID: 330829)