Let’s talk about the end-to-end UX Research process
From project planning to playback to business
Let’s be honest — there is no guidebook for UX Researchers especially when they start as Researchers in large organizations. I am talking guides on how to plan a project, how to set expectations with stakeholders, what research method to use and when…I mean, nobody tells us these things.
I found that there’s a massive repository on the internet for those who want to learn how to conduct research or what research method to use. But I haven’t found everything under one umbrella. So, here’s what I did: based on my experiences and my readings, I have put together what an end-to-end research process looks like, realistically.
Let’s say you have just started working as a UX Researcher in an organization with low research maturity. You are fairly new to the UX space. You are thrown in the deep end in your first week of joining, and are given a usability testing to run. Where do you start?
First things first, establish a timeline and make sure your stakeholders are aware of how long it would take to complete the research and present the findings. A timeline looks somewhat like the image above. It involves Planning, Research, Synthesis, Delivery and Review.
Planning You start with identifying the need for this research — this means talking to designers, business analysts, your product guys or simply your reporting manager. Then you schedule a kick-off meeting with key stakeholder(s) to get more information on the project, if required. It’s fun to run the kick-off meeting in the form of a workshop too. Here’s a Mural template that I like using. This is what you collect all the information you need to create a research brief document. Then you document it all and prepare the research brief. At this stage, make sure you send the research brief to your stakeholders to make sure everyone is aligned on the goals of this research, objectives, recruitment criteria, approach and timelines. You may also want to send the research brief with the discussion guide based on what methodology you are using.
Research Then, you want to organize a session preview (a mock interview, if moderated), to test the flow of your prototype and time the session so you can make changes to the assets before you hit testing. The session preview is totally dependent on the nature of the project and the timelines. Trust your instinct and skip it if you feel comfortable without it. Somewhere around this time you would have recruited participants for your research. The next step is testing. Always make sure you have time to review and refine after one or two interviews.
Synthesis Then comes synthesis, which for me is the most fun part of research! You might want to review your draft once you’re done synthesizing and documenting the findings. Sometimes I get so involved in the project that my findings document contains information only I can understand. So, it always helps to have another eye look at it before you present it to stakeholders. And make sure you produce a report that can easily be understood by anyone opening the document even at a later stage. More on documenting research findings here.
Delivery When you present the findings to the business, the responses may not always be what you expect, especially when your findings reflect negatively about the brand/product/design. But hang in there, my friend. Dust it off your shoulders and move on knowing you have done a good job.
Review I find it very valuable to have a retro after every research project at least in the first few months. It gives you completely different views from all those involved in the project. Take it as a learning and keep improving your processes as you go.
After this, you might want to focus on activating research findings. More on this coming up in the next post. :)
Note: All the views shared here are based on my experiences being a UX Researcher. These processes may or may not work for you, so, improvise as you go based on your role, the structure of your team and organization and the nature of your stakeholders.
Mural template for project planning (I use my own version of this): https://app.mural.co/template/769242c6-4b0b-4386-bb5c-4e8e15e0ebeb/be463719-b532-4d0e-9ec5-e93fa6d3c56e
