Leveling up research
Growing the impact of research from a UX design function to a company function
Role
Lead UX Researcher
Methods
Evaluative, Generative, & Foundational research
Type
Seeding & Nurturing UX Research
Date
2018-2021
I set out to implement and grow the UX research process for a startup that had recently pivoted and had no established processes.
I had various advocates throughout my journey helping me navigate this path. Each will be credited accordingly throughout the case study.
The challenge
Proving the value & impact of UX research on key product & business decisions.
Designing & implementing cross-functional ResearchOps.
My approach
A design research focus to...
implement usability testing and concept validation into our product development process
standardize the practice amongst all designers
A foundational research focus to...
ingrain customer-centricity in the roadmap
inform the company’s direction
A maturation phase to…
increase research bandwidth to match the demand
improve the socialization of findings
Phase 1: Design research
Objective.
Rally support for research within the team.
The team was operating as a pod structure and communication between the UX team was sparse — 4 UX designers, each working independently, and with heavy pressure to handoff designs as quickly as possible.
We were bypassing a critical step in the design process — validation.
A few months of observation provided valuable insights:
The current structure was resulting in disjointed UX and frustrated UX designers.
There was apprehension towards the value of UX research outside of the UX team.
The plan for polishing the beta was for the team to use these products (dogfooding).
Weeks away from launch, I built a pitch deck for the value of usability testing. Once the team experienced the UX, it was easy to gain support.
Soon, I was able to add exploratory questions into studies which quickly gained support from our PMs.
¿Porque no los dos?
It wasn't long before the opportunity to advocate for separate studies appeared — standardizing our operations.
With the support of my peers, we successfully embedded two types of research at different stages in the design process.
End Result.
Better informed design decisions.
While we didn’t have clean tracking of metrics, we saw a steady increase in conversion, and steady decrease in bounce rate — which can be attributed, at least in part, to the research informed design decisions.
Note: My design lead and mentor at the time nudged me to success. Without his and my teammates’ support, the story would have been different.
Phase 2: Foundational user research
Objective.
Prove the value of foundational and long-form generative studies.
New leadership hires joined the team and were tasked with increasing traction, and drive cost-efficient growth. They were on the hunt for data and I was quickly looped in.
While they originally wanted to conduct a market research study, I took the opportunity to pitch a generative research approach and got buy-in.
Over the course of a month, I worked with a marketing consultant on a longitudinal study with 20 participants that included: Two surveys, two unmoderated product tests, and two in-depth moderated semi-structured interviews.
We extracted 3 core needs, which became the pillars by which the company operated.
We also identified 40+ actionable insights and key strategic areas of opportunity that sparked more interest on in-depth research.
End Result.
Research earned its place as a department.
Note: Having someone with deep marketing knowledge helped me prove that the value of research went past the design department. Her help was key in being able to prove the impact of research.
Phase 3: ResearchOps
Objective.
Increase research bandwidth
The way we were operating was not scalable. Business, marketing, content, and product sought to answer new questions, spreading my bandwidth thin quickly.
Hiring more researchers was not an option at this moment. I was able to negotiate the hire of a full-time contractor to ease my bandwidth.
Within 6 months I was able to implement:
Research processes & guides for: usability testing, contextual inquiries, and structured & semi-structured interviews
Company-wide communication channels: daily chat updates, weekly research podcasts, monthly-ish generative research presentations
Standardized structured reports & handoffs with designers and PMs
A data repository which contained clean and searchable insights
A customer panel which was still quite small but dependable
All while training and overseeing a junior UX researcher and two product strategists across 8 research projects (3-4 concurrently).
End Result.
Democratized & streamlined research.
Note: My manager, the director of product and design, was instrumental during this stage — strongly advocating the value of research.