the right research method for any problem (and budget)

The Right Research Method for Any Problem USER RESEARCH FOR EVERYONE, ROSENFELD MEDIA OCTOBER 2016

When it comes to research, you have questions.

How do I convince people research is important?

How do I turn this research into better products?

How do I make sure everybody understands the research?

How can we do this faster and cheaper?

How do I pick which research to do?

How do I get more participants?

Evidence to support decisions to make changes.

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY RESEARCH?

CORPORATE STRATEGY

MARKET RESEARCH CUSTOMER

EXPERIENCE RESEARCH

We often treat research as a departmental concern.

USER RESEARCH

Instead, we can think of research as a series of questions that build on each other.


1. What is happening around us?



2. What do people need?




3. What can we make that will help?





4. Does our solution really work?



5. What is the impact?




Intuit conducted a series of studies to understand how its customers’ world will change in the next 10 years.

Source: about.intuit.com/futureofsmallbusiness/

They identified trends that will shape customers’ needs and experiences…

Source: about.intuit.com/futureofsmallbusiness/

… And highlighted implications for how products and services will need to evolve to support people’s needs.

The goal here is to understand significant shifts that will soon impact your organization—or may already.

Futures Research Macrotrend Analysis Demographic Research Mining Customer Data Comparative Benchmarking Signals and Trend Spotting

RESEARCH ACTIVITIES TOOLS & PROVIDERS

$$$$

$

APPROACH

Analytical

Empirical

Periodic Continuous

Philips shadows patients and healthcare professionals to understand how they do their jobs today.

Source: alicehyde.com

Using observations from field research, the Philips team identifies key issues, which get captured as ‘issue cards.’

Source: Philips Design

Then the team maps out a framework to understand problems, paint points, emotional needs, and mindset of users as they move through their journey.


From there, the team begins to explore potential concepts and solutions.


Potential solutions are reviewed, refined, and vetted with stakeholders and team members in an opportunity workshop.


The goal here is to understand people’s needs, behaviors, mindsets, and motivations.

Ethnographic Research Market Research Research Communities Diary Studies Extreme User Research Participatory Design Customer Interviews Customer Journey Mapping Bodystorming


$$$$

$

APPROACH

Analytical

Empirical

Periodic Continuous

Source: Medium, ‘Designing Facebook Collage’

For its Collage feature, Facebook first observed user behaviors that suggested a need for a new feature.

Source: TheNextWeb.com

Next, Facebook prototyped successive explorations, moving eventually into an MVP.


As a small initial beta, Facebook ‘dogfoods’ apps with its own employees.


Finally, they tested in a regional beta and then released it to all of their customers.

The goal here is to know the range of possible solutions and which direction is most successful.

Concept Testing A/B testing Card Sorting & Tree Testing Lean Experiments Landing Page Tests 5 Second Tests RITE Testing


$$$$

$

APPROACH

Analytical

Empirical

Periodic Continuous

<html>

Source: “Data-Driven Design In the Real World,” SmashingMagazine.com

An internal team at Volusion was tasked with improving its registration conversion rate.


After finding that an alternate design made no difference in conversion, they dug into their analytics data.


Based on this research, they developed a new trial page and saw a 48% increase in trial registrations and a 57% increase in trial-to-store conversions.

The goal here is to understand if people can successfully use your products as you intend.

Beta Testing Mining Analytics Usability testing Heuristic reviews Dogfooding RITE Testing


$$$$

$

APPROACH

Analytical

Empirical

Periodic Continuous

5. What is the impact?

Google’s HEART framework:

Happiness

Source: Google Ventures


Happiness Engagement



Happiness Engagement Adoption



Happiness Engagement Adoption Retention



Happiness Engagement Adoption Retention Task Success



Happiness Engagement Adoption Retention Task Success

Goals Signals Metrics


Usabilla applied this framework to measure the success of new two-step verification feature.

Source: Usabilla

Source: Usabilla

The goal here is to know how your product impacts your customers (and by extension your organization).

VoC Programs Behavioral Analytics Text Analytics Sentiment & Loyalty Analysis Social Listening Channel Surveys


$$$$

$

APPROACH

Analytical

Empirical

Periodic Continuous

Where do you go from here?

LANGUAGE YOU MIGHT HEAR

What should we do with [mobile/social, etc.]?

What should we prioritize first?

We have some ideas about what we need to do. How do we know we’re right?

You think customers will do X. I think they’ll do Y. Who’s right?

What’s the right [language, imagery, interaction method, etc.] to use here?

Did our changes make a difference?

Why didn’t our changes make a difference?

Why isn’t this [feature, product, etc.] getting as much traction as we thought?

What is the impact of [design, UX, research, etc.] on our business?

LANGUAGE YOU MIGHT HEAR FOCUS HERE

What should we do with [mobile/social, etc.]?

What should we prioritize first?

We have some ideas about what we need to do. How do we know we’re right?

You think customers will do X. I think they’ll do Y. Who’s right?

What’s the right [language, imagery, interaction method, etc.] to use here?

Did our changes make a difference?

Why didn’t our changes make a difference?

Why isn’t this [feature, product, etc.] getting as much traction as we thought?

What is the impact of [design, UX, research, etc.] on our business?

Web: leahbuley.com Email: [email protected] Twitter: @leahbuley

DOWNLOAD AT BULEY.CO/RESEARCH-METHODS-FOR-ANY-PROBLEM