Dive deeper into participant responses with segments

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In the rapidly evolving world of user experience research (UXR), demonstrating value and impact has become more crucial than ever. While traditional metrics like Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) scores and Net Promoter Scores (NPS) have long been the go-to measures for UX professionals, they often fall short in capturing the full scope and depth of UXR's impact. As organizations increasingly recognize the strategic importance of user-centered design, it's time to explore more comprehensive and nuanced approaches to measuring UXR's contribution.

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Limitations of traditional metrics

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CSAT and NPS, while valuable, have significant limitations when it comes to measuring UXR impact. These metrics provide a snapshot of user sentiment but fail to capture the direct influence of research insights on product decisions, business outcomes, or long-term user behavior. Moreover, they can be influenced by factors outside of UXR's control, such as marketing campaigns or competitor actions, making it challenging to isolate the specific impact of research efforts.

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Another limitation is the lack of context these metrics provide. They don't offer insights into why users feel a certain way or how specific research-driven improvements contributed to their satisfaction. This absence of depth can lead to misinterpretation of data and missed opportunities for meaningful improvements.

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Alternative measurement approaches

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To overcome these limitations, UX researchers are exploring alternative approaches to measuring impact. One promising method is the use of proxy measures that more directly tie to research activities. For example, tracking the number of research-driven product improvements implemented or measuring the reduction in customer support tickets related to usability issues can provide more tangible evidence of UXR's impact.

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Another approach gaining traction is the integration of qualitative data into impact measurement. By combining quantitative metrics with rich, contextual insights from user interviews and observational studies, researchers can paint a more comprehensive picture of how their work influences user behavior and product success.

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Linking UXR to business outcomes

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Perhaps the most powerful way to demonstrate UXR's value is by directly connecting research insights to key business outcomes. This requires a deep understanding of organizational goals and close collaboration with stakeholders across functions. For instance, if a key business objective is to increase user retention, UX researchers can focus on identifying drivers of user loyalty and track how research-driven improvements impact retention rates over time.

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Risk reduction is another critical area where UXR can demonstrate significant value. By validating product concepts and designs before launch, researchers can help organizations avoid costly mistakes and reputational damage. Tracking the number of potential issues identified and resolved through research can provide a tangible measure of this impact.

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Case studies of successful impact measurement

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While standardized metrics for UXR impact remain elusive, some organizations have successfully implemented innovative measurement approaches. For example, one technology company developed a "research influence score" that tracks how often research insights are cited in product decision-making processes and the subsequent impact on key performance indicators.

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Another case study involves a financial services firm that implemented a "research ROI calculator." This tool estimates the potential cost savings and revenue increases associated with research-driven improvements, providing a clear financial justification for UXR investments.

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These case studies highlight the importance of tailoring measurement approaches to the specific context and goals of each organization. By thinking creatively and collaborating closely with stakeholders, UX researchers can develop meaningful ways to quantify their impact and demonstrate the strategic value of their work.

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As the field of UXR continues to evolve, so too must our approaches to measuring its impact. By moving beyond traditional metrics and embracing more holistic and business-aligned measurement strategies, we can ensure that the true value of user research is recognized and leveraged to drive organizational success. The future of UXR lies not just in conducting great research, but in effectively communicating its impact and cementing its role as a critical strategic function within modern organizations.

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Maximize UXR ROI with Optimal 

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While innovative measurement approaches are crucial, having the right tools to conduct and analyze research efficiently is equally important for maximizing UXR's return on investment. This is where the Optimal Workshop platform comes in, offering a comprehensive solution to streamline your UXR efforts and amplify their impact.

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The Optimal Platform provides a suite of user-friendly tools designed to support every stage of the research process, from participant recruitment to data analysis and insight sharing. By centralizing your research activities on a single platform, you can significantly reduce the time and resources spent on administrative tasks, allowing your team to focus on generating valuable insights.

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Key benefits of using Optimal for improving UXR ROI include:

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• Faster research cycles: With automated participant management and data collection tools, you can complete studies more quickly, enabling faster iteration and decision-making.

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• Enhanced collaboration: The platform's sharing features make it easy to involve stakeholders throughout the research process, increasing buy-in and ensuring insights are actioned promptly.

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• Robust analytics: Advanced data visualization and analysis tools help you uncover deeper insights and communicate them more effectively to decision-makers.

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• Scalable research: The platform's user-friendly interface enables non-researchers to conduct basic studies, democratizing research across your organization and increasing its overall impact.

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• Comprehensive reporting: Generate professional, insightful reports that clearly demonstrate the value of your research to stakeholders at all levels.

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By leveraging the Optimal Workshop, you're not just improving your research processes – you're positioning UXR as a strategic driver of business success. Our platform's capabilities align perfectly with the advanced measurement approaches discussed earlier, enabling you to track research influence, calculate ROI, and demonstrate tangible impact on key business outcomes.

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Ready to transform how you measure and communicate the impact of your UX research? Sign up for a free trial of the Optimal platform today and experience firsthand how it can drive your UXR efforts to new heights of efficiency and effectiveness. 

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Our exciting new feature, segments, saves time by allowing you to create and save groups of participant responses based on various filters. Think of it as your magic wand to effortlessly organize and scrutinize the wealth of data and insight you collect in your studies. Even more exciting is that the segments are available in all our quantitative study tools, including Optimal Sort, Treejack, Chalkmark, and Questions.

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What exactly are segments?

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In a nutshell, segments let you effortlessly create and save groups of participants' results based on various filters, saving you and the team time and ensuring you are all on the same page. 

A segment represents a demographic within the participants who completed your study. These segments can then be applied to your study results, allowing you to easily view and analyze the results of that specific demographic and spot the hidden trends.

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What filters can I use?

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Put simply, you've got a treasure trove of participant data, and you need to be able to slice and dice it in various ways. Segmenting your data will help you dissect and explore your results for deeper and more accurate results.

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Question responses: Using a screener survey or pre - or post-study questions with pre-set answers (like multi-choice), you can segment your results based on their responses.

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URL tag: If you identify participants using a unique identifier such as a URL tag, you can select these to create segments.

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Tree test tasks, card sort categories created, first click test and survey responses: Depending on your study type, you can create a segment to categorize participants based on their response in the study. 

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Time taken: You can select the time taken filter to view data from those who completed your study in a short space of time. This may highlight some time wasters who speed through and probably haven’t provided you with high-quality responses. On the other hand, it can provide insight into A/B tests for example, it could show you if it’s taking participants of a tree test longer to find a destination in one tree or another.

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With this feature, you can save and apply multiple segments to your results, using a combination of AND/OR logic when creating conditions. This means you can get super granular insights from your participants and uncover those gems that might have otherwise remained hidden.

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When should you use segments?

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This feature is your go-to when you have results from two or more participant segments. For example, imagine you're running a study involving both teachers and students. You could focus on a segment that gave a specific answer to a particular task, question, or card sort. It allows you to drill down into the nitty-gritty of your data and gain more understanding of your customers.

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How segments help you to unlock data magic 💫

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Let's explore how you can harness the power of segments:

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Save time: Create and save segments to ensure everyone on your team is on the same page. With segments, there's no room for costly data interpretation mishaps as everyone is singing from the same hymn book.

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Surface hidden trends: Identifying hidden trends or patterns within your study is much easier.  With segments,  you can zoom in on specific demographics and make insightful, data-driven decisions with confidence.

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Organized chaos: No more data overload! With segments, you can organize participant data into meaningful groups, unleashing clarity and efficiency.

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How to create a segment

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Ready to take segments for a spin?  To create a new segment or edit an existing one, go to  Results > Participants > Segments. Select the ‘Create segment’ button and select the filters you want to use. You can add multiple conditions, and save the segment.  To select a segment to apply to your results, click on ‘All included participants’ and select your segment from the drop-down menu.  This option will apply to all your results in your study. 

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We can't wait to see the exciting discoveries you'll make with this powerful tool. Get segmenting, and let us know what you think! 

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Help articles
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How to add a group tag in a study URL for participants
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How to integrate with a participant recruitment panel

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A great user experience (UX) is one of the largest drivers of growth and revenue through user satisfaction. However, when budgets get tight, or there is a squeeze on timelines, user research is one of the first things to go. Often at the cost of user satisfaction.  

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This short sighted view can mean project managers are preoccupied with achieving milestones and short term goals. And UX teams get stuck researching products they weren’t actually involved with developing. As a result no one has the space and understanding to really develop a product that speaks to users needs, desires and wants. There must  be a better way to produce a product that is user-driven.  Thankfully there is.

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What is user research and why should project managers care about it? 👨🏻💻

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User research is an important part of the product development process. Primarily, user research involves using different research methods to gather information about your end users. 

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Essentially it aims to create the best possible experience for your users by listening and learning directly from those that already or potentially will use your product. You might conduct interviews to help you understand a particular problem, carry out a tree test to identify bottlenecks or problems in your navigation, or do some usability testing to directly observe your users as they perform different tasks on your website or in your app. Or a combination of these to understand what users really want.

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To a project manager and team, this likely sounds fairly familiar, that any project can’t be managed in a silo. Regular check-ins and feedback are essential to making smart decisions. The same with UX research. It can make the whole process quicker and more efficient. By taking a step back, digging into your users’ minds, and gaining a fuller understanding of what they want upfront, it can curtail short-term views and decisions.

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Bringing more user research into your development process has major benefits for the team, and the ultimately the quality of that final product. There are three key benefits:

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1. Saves your development team time and effort. Ensuring the team is working on what users want, not wasting time on features that don’t measure up.
2. Gives your users a better experience by meeting their requirements.
3. Helps your team innovate quickly by understanding what users really want.

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As a project manager, making space and planning for user research can be one of the best ways to ensure the team is creating a product that truly is user-driven.

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How to bring research into your product development process 🤔

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There are a couple of ways you can bring UX research into your product development process. 

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1. Start with a dedicated research project.
2. Integrate UX research throughout the development project.

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It can be more difficult to integrate UX research throughout the process, as it means planning the project with various stages of research built in to check the development of features. But ultimately this approach is likely to turn out the best product. One that has been considered, checked and well thought out through the whole product development process. To help you on the way we have laid out 6 key steps to help you integrate UX research into your product development process.

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6 key steps to integrate UX research 👟

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Step 1: Define your research questions

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Take a step back, look at your product and define your research questions. 

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It may be tempting just to ask, ‘do users like our latest release?’ This however does not get to why or what your users like or don’t like. Try instead:

• What do our users really want from our product?
• Where are they currently struggling while using our website?
• How can we design a better product for our users?

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These questions help to form the basis of specific questions about your product and specific areas of research to explore which in turn help shape the type of research you undertake.

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Step 2: Create your research plan

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With a few key research questions to focus on, it’s time to create your research plan.

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A great research plan covers your project’s goals, scope, timing, and deliverables. It’s essential for keeping yourself organized but also for getting key stakeholder signoff.

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Step 3: Prepare any research logistics

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Every project plan requires attention to detail including a user research project. And with any good project there are a set of steps to help make sense of it.

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1. Method: Based on your questions, what is the best user research method to use? 
2. Schedule: When will the research take place? How long will it go on for? If this is ongoing research, plan how it will be implemented and how often.
3. Location: Where will the research take place? 
4. Resources: What resources do you need? This could be technical support or team members.
5. Participants: Define who you want to research. Who is eligible to take part in this research? How will you find the right people?
6. Data: How will you capture the research data? Where will it be stored? How will you analyze the data and create insights and reports that can be used?
7. Deliverables: What is the ultimate goal for your research project?

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Step 4: Decide which method will be used

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Many user research methods benefit from an observational style of testing. Particularly if you are looking into why users undertake a specific task or struggle.

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Typically, there are two approaches to testing:

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1. Moderated testing is when a moderator is present during the test to answer questions, guide the participant, or dig deeper with further questions.
2. Unmoderated testing is when a participant is left on their own to carry out the task. Often this is done remotely and with very specific instructions.Your key questions will determine which method will works best for your research.  Find our more about the differences.

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Step 5: Run your research session

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It’s time to gather insights and data. The questions you are asking will influence how you run your research sessions and the methods you’ve chosen. 

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If you are running surveys you will be asking users through a banner or invitation to fill out your survey. Unmoderated and very specific questions. Gathering qualitative data and analyzing patterns.

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If you’re using something qualitative like interviews or heat mapping, you’ll want to implement software and gather as much information as possible.

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Step 6: Prepare a research findings report and share with stakeholders

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Analyze your findings, interrogate your data and find those insights that dive into the way your users think. How do they love your product? But how do they also struggle?

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Pull together your findings and insights into an easy to understand report. And get socializing. Bring your key stakeholders together and share your findings. Bringing everyone across the findings together can bring everyone on the journey. And for the development process can mean decisions can be user-driven. 

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Wrap Up 🥙

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Part of any project, UX research should be essential to developing a product that is user-driven. Integrating user research into your development process can be challenging. But with planning and strategy it can be hugely beneficial to saving time and money in the long run.