September 3, 2024
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3 min

The value of risk mitigation in UX research: how to quantify prevention

In the fast-paced world of product development, risk is an ever-present factor. From potential user dissatisfaction to costly redesigns, the stakes are high. User Experience Research (UXR) plays a crucial role in identifying and mitigating these risks, but quantifying its preventive value can be challenging. Let's explore how UXR contributes to risk mitigation and how we can measure its impact.

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Understanding risk in product development ๐Ÿ˜ฌ

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Product development is an exciting yet challenging journey that requires careful navigation of inherent risks. Teams invest significant time and resources into creating solutions they hope will resonate with users, but this process is far from a guaranteed success. When embarking on a new product venture, teams are essentially making an educated guess about what users want and need. This inherent uncertainty brings several considerations, including substantial time investments, allocation of financial and human resources, and the need to adapt to constantly evolving user preferences and competitive landscapes.

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The challenge lies in aligning all these elements to create a successful product. Getting it wrong can have significant consequences that extend beyond mere disappointment. Wasted development efforts can result in resources being spent on features or products that don't meet market needs. There's also the potential for negative impact on brand perception if a product misses the mark, potentially affecting how customers view the company as a whole. Furthermore, missed opportunities in the fast-paced world of product development can allow competitors to gain an advantage, affecting a company's market position.

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However, there's a powerful tool that can help mitigate these risks: user research. As one industry leader noted in our research, "In periods of change, those who maintain a deep connection with their customers' evolving needs are best positioned to adapt and thrive." This insight highlights a crucial strategy for navigating the uncertain waters of product development.

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By prioritizing user research, teams can gain valuable insights that guide their decision-making process. This approach allows them to identify genuine user needs and pain points, potentially uncovering issues that might have been overlooked. It also provides an opportunity to spot potential problems early in the development process, when changes are less costly and easier to implement. Moreover, deep user understanding can uncover opportunities for innovation and differentiation that might not be apparent without this research.

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While user research doesn't eliminate all risks associated with product development, it provides a compass that can guide teams through the process with greater confidence. In the dynamic world of product creation, the biggest risk often comes from operating without these user insights. By integrating user research into the development process, teams can navigate uncertainties more effectively and increase their odds of creating products that truly resonate with their target audience.

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Successful product development is ultimately about finding the right balance between innovation, user needs, and calculated risk-taking. It's a complex dance of creativity, market understanding, and strategic decision-making. By maintaining a strong connection to user needs and preferences throughout the development process, teams can mitigate risks and increase their chances of success. This user-centric approach not only helps in creating products that meet market demands but also positions companies to adapt and thrive in periods of change and uncertainty.

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UXR's role in identifying and mitigating risks ๐Ÿ”Ž

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User experience research plays a crucial role in identifying and mitigating risks throughout the product development process. Acting as an early warning system, UX research helps teams pinpoint potential issues before they evolve into costly problems. This proactive approach allows organizations to make informed decisions and adjustments early in the development cycle, potentially saving significant time and resources.

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By engaging with users throughout the development process, researchers gain invaluable insights that can shape the direction of a product. These interactions enable teams to validate product concepts and designs, ensuring that the final output aligns with user expectations and needs. Through various research methodologies, UX researchers can identify usability issues and pain points that might otherwise go unnoticed until after launch. This early detection allows for timely refinements, resulting in a more polished and user-friendly final product.

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Our survey findings underscore the value of integrating UX research into the product development process. Organizations that have fully embedded UXR into their workflows demonstrate a superior ability to navigate uncertainties and make user-centered decisions. This integration allows for a more agile and responsive approach to product development, where user feedback and insights directly inform strategic choices.

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Download the report

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Methodologies for quantifying prevented issues ๐Ÿงฎ

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In the space of user experience research, one of the most significant yet often overlooked benefits is its ability to prevent issues before they arise. This preemptive approach can save organizations substantial time, resources, and potential reputational damage. However, quantifying the value of something that didn't happen presents a unique challenge. How do you measure the impact of problems avoided? This question has led to the development of various methodologies aimed at quantifying the value of UX research in issue prevention.

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  1. Issue tracking: Keep a detailed log of potential issues identified through research. Categorize them by severity and potential impact.

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  1. Cost estimation: Work with product and engineering teams to estimate the cost of addressing issues at different stages of development. Compare this to the cost of conducting research.

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  1. A/B Testing: Use controlled experiments to compare the performance of research-informed designs against alternatives.

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  1. Predictive modeling: Develop models that estimate the potential impact of issues on key metrics like user retention or conversion rates.

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  1. Historical comparison: Analyze past projects where research was not conducted and compare their outcomes to research-informed projects.

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One effective approach is to use a research ROI calculator that estimates potential cost savings and revenue increases associated with research-driven improvements. This provides a clear financial justification for UXR investments.

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Communicating preventive value to stakeholders ๐Ÿ“ข

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To effectively communicate the value of risk mitigation through UXR, consider these strategies:

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  1. Speak the language of business: Frame research findings in terms of business outcomes, such as potential cost savings, revenue impact, or risk reduction.

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  1. Use visualizations: Create compelling visual representations of prevented issues and their potential impact.

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  1. Share success stories: Highlight case studies where research prevented significant issues or led to successful outcomes.

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  1. Involve stakeholders: Engage key decision-makers in the research process to build understanding and buy-in.

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  1. Provide ongoing updates: Regularly communicate how research insights are influencing decisions and mitigating risks throughout the development process.

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Remember, as one research manager in our study observed, "When I hear that a company is downsizing, I immediately wonder how it will affect their research capabilities."

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This highlights the importance of consistently demonstrating the value of UXR in risk mitigation.

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By quantifying and communicating the preventive value of UX research, we can shift the perception of UXR from a cost center to a critical investment in risk mitigation and product success. As the field continues to evolve, developing robust methodologies for measuring this preventive value will be key to securing resources and support for UXR initiatives.

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Ultimately, the goal is to create a culture where user research is seen as an essential safeguard against costly mistakes and a driver of informed, user-centered decision-making. By doing so, organizations can navigate the uncertainties of product development with greater confidence and success.

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DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT

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Maximize your risk mitigation efforts with Optimal ๐Ÿ‘ฉ๐Ÿป๐Ÿš’

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Ready to elevate your UX research and risk mitigation strategies? Optimal Workshop's comprehensive platform offers powerful tools to streamline your research process, from participant recruitment to data analysis. Our suite of user-friendly solutions enables you to conduct more efficient studies, uncover deeper insights, and effectively communicate the preventive value of your research to stakeholders.ย 

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With Optimal, you can quantify your risk mitigation efforts more accurately and demonstrate the ROI of UXR with greater clarity. Don't let potential risks threaten your product's success.ย 

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Try Optimal Workshop today and transform your approach to UX research and risk prevention.ย 

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Clara Kliman-Silver: AI & design: imagining the future of UX

In the last few years, the influence of AI has steadily been expanding into various aspects of design. In early 2023, that expansion exploded. AI tools and features are now everywhere, and there are two ways designers commonly react to it:

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  • With enthusiasm for how they can use it to make their jobs easier
  • With skepticism over how reliable it is, or even fear that it could replace their jobs

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Google UX researcher Clara Kliman-Silver is at the forefront of researching and understanding the potential impact of AI on design into the future. This is a hot topic thatโ€™s on the radar of many designers as they grapple with what the new normal is, and how it will change things in the coming years.

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Claraโ€™s backgroundย 

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Clara Kliman-Silver spends her time studying design teams and systems, UX tools and designer-developer collaboration. Sheโ€™s a specialist in participatory design and uses generative methods to investigate workflows, understand designer-developer experiences, and imagine ways to create UIs. In this work, Clara looks at how technology can be leveraged to help people make things, and do it more efficiently than they currently are.

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In todayโ€™s context, that puts generative AI and machine learning right in her line of sight. The way this technology has boomed in recent times has many people scrambling to catch up - to identify the biggest opportunities and to understand the risks that come with it. Clara is a leader in assessing the implications of AI. She analyzes both the technology itself and the way people feel about it to forecast what it will mean into the future.

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Contact Details:

You can find Clara in LinkedIn or on Twitter @cklimansilver

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What role should artificial intelligence play in UX design process? ๐Ÿค”

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Claraโ€™s expertise in understanding the role of AI in design comes from significant research and analysis of how the technology is being used currently and how industry experts feel about it. AI is everywhere in todayโ€™s world, from home devices to tech platforms and specific tools for various industries. In many cases, AI automation is used for productivity, where it can speed up processes with subtle, easy to use applications.

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As mentioned above, the transformational capabilities of AI are met with equal parts of enthusiasm and skepticism. The way people use AI, and how they feel about it is important, because users need to be comfortable implementing the technology in order for it to make a difference. The question of what value AI brings to the design process is ongoing. On one hand, AI can help increase efficiency for systems and processes. On the other hand, it can exacerbate problems if the user's intentions are misunderstood.

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Access for all ๐Ÿฆพ

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Thereโ€™s no doubt that AI tools enable novices to perform tasks that, in years gone by, required a high level of expertise.ย For example, film editing was previously a manual task, where people would literally cut rolls of film and splice them together on a reel. It was something only a trained editor could do. Now, anyone with a smartphone has access to iMovie or a similar app, and they can edit film in seconds.

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For film experts, digital technology allows them to speed up tedious tasks and focus on more sophisticated aspects of their work. Clara hypothesizes that AI is particularly valuable when it automates mundane tasks. AI enables more individuals to leverage digital technologies without requiring specialist training. Thus, AI has shifted the landscape of what it means to be an โ€œexpertโ€ in a field. Expertise is about more than being able to simply do something - it includes having the knowledge and experience to do it for an informed reason.ย 

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Research and testing ๐Ÿ”ฌ

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Clara performs a lot of concept testing, which involves recognizing the perceived value of an approach or method. Concept testing helps in scenarios where a solution may not address a problem or where the real problem is difficult to identify. In a recent survey, Clara describes two predominant benefits designers experienced from AI:

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  1. Efficiency. Not only does AI expedite the problem solving process, it can also help efficiently identify problems.ย 
  2. Innovation. Generative AI can innovate on its own, developing ideas that designers themselves may not have thought of.

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The design partnership ๐Ÿค๐Ÿฝ

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Overall, Clara says UX designers tend to see AI as a creative partner.ย However, most users donโ€™t yet trust AI enough to give it complete agency over the work itโ€™s used for.ย The level of trust designers have exists on a continuum, where it depends on the nature of the work and the context of what theyโ€™re aiming to accomplish. Other factors such as where the tech comes from, who curated it and whoโ€™s training the model also influences trust. For now, AI is largely seen as a valued tool, and there is cautious optimism and tentative acceptance for its application.ย 

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Why it matters ๐Ÿ’ก

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AI presents as potentially one of the biggest game-changers to how people work in our generation. Although AI has widespread applications across sectors and systems, there are still many questions about it. In the design world, systems like DALL-E allow people to create AI-generated imagery, and auto layout in various tools allows designers to iterate more quickly and efficiently.

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Like many other industries, designers are wondering where AI might go in the future and what it might look like. The answer to these questions has very real implications for the future of design jobs and whether they will exist.ย In practice, Clara describes the current mood towards AI as existing on a continuum between adherence and innovation:

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  • Adherence is about how AI helps designers follow best practice
  • Innovation is at the other end of the spectrum, and involves using AI to figure out whatโ€™s possible

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The current environment is extremely subjective, and thereโ€™s no agreed best practice. This makes it difficult to recommend a certain approach to adopting AI and creating permanent systems around it. Both the technology and the sentiment around it will evolve through time, and itโ€™s something designers, like all people, will need to maintain good awareness of.

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1 min read

Stakeholder integration: the key to communicating UXR valueโ€

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In the rapidly evolving landscape of User Experience Research (UXR), one challenge stands out consistently: effectively communicating the value of UXR to stakeholders across the organization. As our recent whitepaper "The Value of UXR in 2024" reveals, the success of UXR initiatives often hinges not just on the quality of the research itself, but on how well its insights are integrated into decision-making processes. Let's explore how stakeholder integration can be the key to unlocking the full potential of UXR.

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Identifying key stakeholders and their needs ๐Ÿ•ต๏ธ

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The first step in effective stakeholder integration is identifying who your key stakeholders are and understanding their specific needs and priorities. These stakeholders might include:

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  1. Executive leadership: Interested in high-level insights that tie directly to business goals and ROI.
  2. Product managers: Looking for actionable insights to inform product roadmaps and feature prioritization.
  3. Designers: Seeking detailed user feedback to inform design decisions.
  4. Developers: Needing clear, implementable recommendations.
  5. Marketing teams: Interested in user perceptions and preferences to inform messaging and positioning.

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As one UX leader in our study noted,

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"Understanding the unique perspectives and priorities of each stakeholder group is crucial for effectively communicating the value of UXR."

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Techniques for effective stakeholder engagement ๐Ÿฆ„

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Once you've identified your key stakeholders, the next step is to engage them effectively throughout the research process. Some proven techniques include:

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  1. Early involvement: Include stakeholders in the research planning phase to ensure alignment with business objectives.
  2. Observational opportunities: Invite stakeholders to observe user research sessions firsthand, fostering empathy and understanding.
  3. Regular check-ins: Schedule frequent touchpoints to share interim findings and gather feedback.
  4. Collaborative analysis: Involve stakeholders in data analysis sessions to leverage their expertise and build buy-in.

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Our survey revealed that organizations with high levels of stakeholder engagement throughout the research process reported significantly higher perceived value of UXR.

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Tailoring UXR communications for different audiences ๐Ÿ“ฃ

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One size does not fit all when it comes to communicating UXR insights. As one research manager in our study observed,

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"When we started tailoring our research reports to different stakeholder groups, we saw a dramatic increase in the adoption of our insights."

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To maximize impact, it's crucial to tailor your communications to different audiences:

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For executives ๐Ÿ‘ฉ๐Ÿ’ผ

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When communicating with executives, it's crucial to get straight to the point and demonstrate the business value of UXR:

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  • Highlight key findings that directly impact business goals (e.g., user retention, conversion rates, market share)
  • Use executive summaries that can be quickly scanned (no more than one page)
  • Create clear, impactful data visualizations (e.g., dashboards, infographics) that show trends and comparisons
  • Provide concrete examples of how UXR insights have led to measurable business improvements
  • Include ROI calculations where possible, showing the financial impact of UXR-driven decisions
  • Use benchmarks and industry comparisons to contextualize findings
  • Anticipate and address potential business implications and strategic questions

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For example, instead of detailing usability issues, present a graph showing how addressing these issues could potentially increase customer satisfaction scores by X% and reduce churn by Y%.

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For product teams ๐Ÿ“ฆ

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Product teams need comprehensive insights that can directly inform their decision-making:

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  • Present detailed user personas and scenarios to bring user needs to life
  • Use user journey maps to illustrate pain points and opportunities across the entire user experience
  • Provide specific, prioritized feature recommendations based on user needs and preferences
  • Include case studies of similar products or features to provide context and inspiration
  • Present quantitative data on feature usage and user preferences
  • Offer clear next steps and actionable items for the product roadmap
  • Use interactive prototypes or mockups to illustrate potential solutions

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For instance, create a user journey map that highlights key pain points in the current product, then overlay recommended features or improvements at each stage of the journey.

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For design teams ๐ŸŽจ๐Ÿ–Œ๏ธ

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Designers need rich, detailed feedback on the visual and interactive aspects of the product:

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  • Provide specific user feedback on colors, layouts, interactions, and other design elements
  • Use heat maps and click maps to show how users interact with designs
  • Include video clips of usability testing sessions to show real user reactions and behaviors
  • Highlight powerful user quotes that capture emotional responses to designs
  • Present before-and-after comparisons to illustrate the impact of design changes
  • Use annotation tools to pinpoint specific areas of designs that need attention
  • Organize feedback by design principle (e.g., consistency, accessibility, simplicity) to align with design thinking

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For example, create a gallery of video clips showing users struggling with a particular interface element, paired with quotes expressing their frustration and suggestions for improvement.

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For development teams ๐Ÿ‘พ ๐Ÿ‘พ ๐Ÿ‘พ

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Developers need concrete, implementable insights:

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  • Provide a prioritized list of usability issues, bugs, or areas for improvement
  • Use technical specifications and measurements where relevant (e.g., load times, error rates)
  • Include device and browser information for reported issues
  • Utilize developer-friendly formats like issue trackers or ticketing systems
  • Provide clear acceptance criteria for recommended changes
  • Include code snippets or pseudocode to illustrate potential solutions where appropriate
  • Use flow diagrams to illustrate complex user interactions or system behaviors
  • Highlight any technical constraints or considerations uncovered during research

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For instance, create a prioritized list of usability issues in a format that can be directly imported into the development team's project management tool, complete with severity ratings, reproduction steps, and suggested solutions.

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By tailoring your communication in these ways, you ensure that each stakeholder group receives the information they need in a format that resonates with their priorities and workflow. This targeted approach increases the likelihood that your UXR insights will be understood, valued, and acted upon across the organization.

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Building long-term stakeholder relationships ๐Ÿ—๏ธ

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Building long-term stakeholder relationships is crucial for effective UXR integration, and it's an ongoing process rather than a one-time effort. Successful strategies include consistent follow-up to track the impact of research insights, celebrating wins and positive outcomes resulting from UXR, providing continuous education through workshops and training sessions, and maintaining open feedback channels for stakeholders to share their thoughts on the research process and outputs.ย 

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Our whitepaper findings highlight that organizations fostering strong, long-term relationships between UX researchers and other stakeholders typically demonstrate higher levels of research maturity and seamless integration of UXR into product development processes. This underscores the importance of nurturing these relationships to maximize the value and impact of UX research within the organization.ย 

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By investing in these long-term connections, UX researchers can ensure their insights continue to drive meaningful change and innovation across the company.

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Stakeholder integration: the cornerstone of impactful UXR

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Stakeholder integration is not just a nice-to-have in UXRโ€”it's a critical factor in demonstrating and maximizing the value of user research. By identifying key stakeholders, engaging them effectively, tailoring communications, and building long-term relationships, UX researchers can ensure that their insights drive meaningful impact across the organization. As we look to the future of UXR, the ability to effectively integrate stakeholders will become even more crucial in our increasingly complex and fast-paced business environment.

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Ready to transform your UXR practice and unlock its full potential?ย 

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Optimal Workshop's comprehensive platform is designed to support effective stakeholder integration at every step of the research process. From collaborative planning tools to customizable reporting features, our suite of UXR solutions helps you engage stakeholders, tailor communications, and build lasting relationships that drive innovation.ย 

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Don't let valuable insights go unnoticed or unusedโ€”take the first step towards maximizing your UXR impact today. Start your free trial with Optimal Workshop and discover how easy it can be to bridge the gap between user insights and business decision-making, positioning your organization at the forefront of user-centered innovation.

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1 min read

How to conduct a user interview

Few UX research techniques can surpass the user interview for the simple fact that you can gain a number of in-depth insights by speaking to just a handful of people. Yes, the prospect of sitting down in front of your customers can be a daunting one, but youโ€™ll gain a level of insight and detail that really is tough to beat.

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This research method is popular for a reason โ€“ itโ€™s extremely flexible and can deliver deep, meaningful results in a relatively short amount of time.

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Weโ€™ve put together this article for both user interview newbies and old hands alike. Our intention is to give you a guide that you can refer back to so you can make sure you're getting the most out of this technique. Of course, feel free to leave a comment if you think thereโ€™s something else we should add.

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What is a user interview?

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User interviews are a technique you can use to capture qualitative information from your customers and other people youโ€™re interested in learning from. For example, you may want to interview a group of retirees before developing a new product aimed at their market.

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User interviews usually follow the format of a guided conversation, diving deep into a particular topic. While sometimes you may have some predefined questions or topics to cover, the focus of your interviews can change depending on what you learn along the way.

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Given the format, user interviews can help you answer any number of questions, such as:

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  • How do people currently shop online? Are there any products they would never consider purchasing this way?
  • How do people feel about using meal delivery services? What stops them from trying them out?
  • How do ride sharing drivers figure out which app to use when theyโ€™re about to start a shift?

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Itโ€™s important to remember that user interviews are all about people's perception of something, not usability. What this means in practical terms is that you shouldnโ€™t go into a user interview expecting to find out how they navigate through a particular app, product or website. Those are answers you can gain through usability testing.

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When should you interview your users?

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Now that we have an understanding of what user interviews are and the types of questions this method can help you answer, when should you do them? As this method will give you insights into why people think the way they do, what they think is important and any suggestions they have, theyโ€™re mostly useful in the discovery stages of the design process when you're trying to understand the problem space.

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You may want to run a series of user interviews at the start of a project in order to inform the design process. Interviews with users can help you to create detailed personas, generate feature ideas based on real user needs and set priorities. Looked at another way, doesnโ€™t it seem like an unnecessary risk not to talk to your users before building something for them?

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Plan your research

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Before sitting down and writing your user interview, you need to figure out your research question. This is the primary reason for running your user interviews โ€“ your โ€˜north starโ€™. Itโ€™s also a good idea to engage with your stakeholders when trying to figure this question out as theyโ€™ll be able to give you useful insights and feedback.

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A strong research question will help you to create interview questions that are aligned and give you a clear goal. The key thing is to make sure that itโ€™s a strong, concise goal that relates to specific user behaviors. You donโ€™t want to start planning for your interview with a research question like โ€œHow do customers use our mobile appโ€. Itโ€™s far too broad to direct your interview planning.

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Write your questions

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Now itโ€™s time to write your user interview questions. If youโ€™ve taken the time to engage with stakeholders and youโ€™ve created a solid research question, this step should be relatively straightforward.

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Here are a few things to focus on when writing your interview questions:

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  • Encourage your interviewees to tell stories: Thereโ€™s a direct correlation between the questions you write for a user interview and the answers you get back. Consider more open-ended questions, with the aim of getting your interviewees to tell you stories and share more detail. For example, โ€œTell me about the last car you ownedโ€ is much better than โ€œWhat was the last car you ownedโ€.
  • Consider different types of questions: You donโ€™t want to dive right into the complex, detailed questions when your interviewee has barely walked into the room. Itโ€™s much better to start an interview off with several โ€˜warm-upโ€™ questions, that will get them in the right frame of mind. Think questions like: โ€œWhat do you do for work?โ€ and โ€œHow often do you use a computer at home?โ€. Answering these questions will put them in the right frame of mind for the rest of the interview.
  • Start with as many questions as you can think of โ€“ then trim: This can be quite a helpful exercise. When youโ€™re actually putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and writing your questions, go broad at first. Then, once youโ€™ve got a large selection to choose from, trim them back.
  • Have someone review your questions: Whether itโ€™s another researcher on your team or perhaps someone whoโ€™s familiar with the audience you plan to interview, get another pair of eyes on your questions. Beyond just making sure they all make sense and are appropriate, they may be able to point out any questions you may have missed.

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Recruit participants

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Having a great set of questions is all well and good, but you need to interview the right kind of people. Itโ€™s not always easy. Finding representative or real users can quickly suck up a lot of time and bog down your other work. But this doesnโ€™t have to be the case. With some strategy and planning you can make the process of participant recruitment quick and easy.

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There are 2 main ways to go about recruitment. You can either handle the process yourself โ€“ weโ€™ll share some tips for how to do this below โ€“ or use a recruitment service. Using a dedicated recruitment service will save you the hassle of actively searching for participants, which can often become a significant time-sink.

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If youโ€™re planning to recruit people yourself, here are a few ways to go about the process. You may find that using multiple methods is the best way to net the pool of participants you need.

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  • Reach out to your customer support team: Thereโ€™s a ready source of real users available in every organization: the customer support team. These are the people that speak to your organizationโ€™s customers every day, and have a direct line to their problems and pain points. Working with this team is a great way to access suitable participants, plus customers will value the fact that youโ€™re taking the time to speak to them.
  • Recruit directly from your website: Support messaging apps like Intercom and intercept recruiting tools like Ethnio allow you to recruit participants directly from your website by serving up live intercepts. This is a fast, relatively hands-off way to recruit people quickly.
  • Ask your social media followers: LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook can be great sources of research participants. Thereโ€™s also the bonus that you can broadcast the fact that your organization focuses on research โ€“ and thatโ€™s always good publicity! If you donโ€™t have a large following, you can also run paid ads on different social platforms.

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Once a pool of participants start to flow in, consider setting up a dedicated research panel where you can log their details and willingness to take part in future research. It may take some admin at the start, but youโ€™ll save time in the long run.

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Note: Figure out a plan for participant data protection before you start collecting and storing their information. As the researcher, itโ€™s up to you to take proper measures for privacy and confidentiality, from the moment you collect an email address until you delete it. Only store information in secure locations, and make sure you get consent before you ever turn on a microphone recorder or video camera.

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Run your interviews

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Now for the fun part โ€“ running your user interviews. In most cases, user interviews follow a simple format. You sit down next to your participant and run through your list of questions, veering into new territory if you sense an interesting discussion. At the end, you thank them for their time and pass along a small gift (such as a voucher) as a thank-you.

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Of course, there are a few other things that youโ€™ll want to keep in mind if you really want to conduct the best possible interviews.

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  • Involve others: User interviews are a great way to show the value of research and give people within your organization a direct insight into how users think. There are no hard and fast rules around who you should bring to a user interview, just consider how useful the experience is likely to be for them. If you like, you can also assign them the role of notetaker.
  • Record the interview: Youโ€™ll have to get consent from the interviewee, but having a recording of the interview will make the process of analysis that much easier. In addition to being able to listen to the recording again, you can convert the entire session into a searchable text file.
  • Donโ€™t be afraid to go off-script: Interviewing is a skill, meaning that the more interviews you conduct, the better youโ€™re going to get. Over time, youโ€™ll find that youโ€™re able to naturally guide the conversation in different directions as you pick up on things the interviewee says. Donโ€™t be discouraged if you find yourself sticking to your prepared questions during your first few interviews.
  • Be attentive: You donโ€™t want to come across as a brick wall when interviewing someone โ€“ you want to be seen as an attentive listener. This means confirming that youโ€™re listening by nodding, making eye contact and asking follow-up questions naturally (this last one may take practice). If you really struggle to ask follow-up questions, try writing a few generic questions can you can use at different points throughout the interview, for example โ€œCould you tell me more about that?โ€. Thereโ€™s a great guide on UXmatters about the role empathy has to play in understanding users.
  • Debrief afterwards: Whether itโ€™s just you or you and a notetaker, take some time after the interview to go over how it went. This is a good opportunity to take down any details either you may have missed and to reflect and discuss some of the key takeaways.

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Analyze your interview findings

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At first glance, analyzing the qualitative data youโ€™ve captured from a user interview can seem daunting. But, with the right approach (and some useful tools) you can extract each and every useful insight.

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If youโ€™ve recorded your interview sessions, youโ€™ll need to convert your audio recordings into text files. We recommend a tool like Descript. This software makes it easy to take an audio file of your recording and transform it into a document, which is much faster than doing it without dedicated software. If you like, thereโ€™s also the option of various โ€˜white gloveโ€™ services where someone will transcribe the interview for you.

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With your interview recordings transcribed and notes in-hand, you can start the process of thematic analysis. If youโ€™re unfamiliar, thematic analysis is one of the most popular approaches for qualitative research as it helps you to find different patterns and themes in your data. There are 2 ways to approach this. The first is largely manual, where you set up a spreadsheet with different themes like โ€˜navigation issueโ€™ and โ€˜design problemโ€™, and group your findings into these areas. This can be done using sticky notes, which used to be a common ways to analyze findings.

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The second involves dedicated qualitative research tool like Reframer. You log your notes over the course of several interview sessions and then use Reframerโ€™s tagging functionality to assign tags to different insights. By applying tags to your observations, you can then use its analysis features to create wider themes. The real benefit here is that thereโ€™s no chance of losing your past interviews and analysis as everything is stored in one place. You can also easily download your findings into a spreadsheet to share them with your team.

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Whatโ€™s next?

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With your interviews all wrapped up and your analysis underway, youโ€™re likely wondering whatโ€™s next. Thereโ€™s a good chance your interviews will have opened up new areas youโ€™d like to test, so now could be the perfect time to assess other qualitative research methods and add more human data to your research project. On the other hand, you may want to move onto quantitative research and put some numbers behind your research.

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Whether you choose to proceed down a qualitative or quantitative path, weโ€™re pulled together some more useful articles and things for you to read:

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