UX Research Strategy for Product Design

The core value of UX Design is the practice of finding problems that impact business goals and designing intuitive solutions to solve them. Then finding problems in these designs, and coming up with intuitive designs to solve those problems, and repeating the cycle.

The problem with finding the problems is that it’s often overlooked, not done efficiently and effectively, or just skipped. I understand why. Creating new designs are exciting. If the problems are arbitrarily thought up, it adds a level of appeal, like a designer that tapped into a higher power and knew best.

This article will touch on different UX research methodologies that I’ve found to be the most effective and efficient, some of which I always tap into as the very first step when starting up a project with a client, whether they’re Fortune 100 or a startup. The idea isn’t to cover everything that’s textbook, the idea is to cover things that have worked for me in the real world over my 10 year career. The output of these various research methodologies provide clarity on what should be tackled and prioritized, and in turn determine the rest of the product design process. 

This UX research strategy is effective for redesigns, as well as designing whole new features. Different combinations of each tool will uniquely be packaged based on what stage the software in question is at, its unique goals and access to various resources that are required to carry out the research. This article will have links to other blog posts I have written that further detail each methodology.

The alternative to following this type of UX Research strategy is working off of assumptions, which can lead to designs that solve the wrong problems, or fix what wasn’t broken. This wasted effort can be a huge expense that then needs to be fixed at a later point through another redesign effort, creating a cycle of bad design. A lot of tech companies reach out for my services after having made this mistake.
Given enough time, unaddressed UX issues accumulate and translate to a decrease in revenue or increase in costs. Small UX issues add up and end up being big business problems.

UX Research Methodologies for the real world

UX Listening Tour

What is it?

A listening tour consists of the UX Researcher identifying the key stakeholders and decision-makers for the software and interviewing them on one-on-one calls in free-flowing conversations. The interview format consists of specific questions with certain points of focus, with the researcher probing and digging in when necessary. A good listening tour feels like a great, informative and entertaining podcast episode.

What are the deliverables?

The deliverable is a document outlining key takeaways and discoveries that focus on stakeholder priorities, ideas, goals, and perceived challenges.

User Discovery Interviews

What is it?

User Discovery Interviews are similar to a listening tour but differ in the sense that they are focused on talking to existing users or potential users. Potential users are individuals who match a certain important persona trait, such as job title, expertise, or simple demographic information.

What are the deliverables?

The deliverable outlines key take-aways that focus on the status quo of how users (who are typically not using the software) are solving the problem at hand. Specific discoveries about the problem at hand are critical, such as how they perceive the problem, whether the problem actually exists, and how it impacts them. The deliverable might also include takeaways about how users (who are currently using the software) perceive the software on a high-level basis, with a focus on their perceptions of the problem at hand.

Remote Contextual Inquiry

What is it?

Remote Contextual Inquiry or User Shadow Sessions consist of connecting with potential users based on important persona data, such as expertise or job title, and having them do a screen-share while they go through their existing process to solve the problem at hand. Part of the shadow session includes pre-determined specific questions to identify more high level perceptions of the problems, but the focus is probing them as they go through their work flow to understand problems with their current solution. This research method is extremely powerful when it comes to designing SaaS applications, designing data visualization software and any software that solves business problems, as it will reveal a very thorough understanding of the existing processes that are in place for that industry.

What are the deliverables?

The deliverables consist of a document identifying points of frustration within their current work-flow, software and technology that’s currently used, which could be hacked together processes including phone calls, email, Excel to industry dominant software that no one likes. Clips from the screen-share sessions might also be shared with the stakeholders and viewed separately or in a watch party format, as different stakeholders might catch different issues based on their areas of expertise.

UX Audit

What is it?

A UX Audit consists of the UX Designer going through the existing implementation of the software, utilizing UX heuristics to identify usability issues at hand.

What are the deliverables?

A typical UX Audit deliverable consists of a PDF document with screenshots of the main happy-path user flow, overlaid with annotations identifying specific usability issues and points of friction.

Remote User Testing

What is it?

Remote Usability testing involves having users who have never seen the software before, but who fit the user persona, sharing their screen as they go through the software or a clickable prototype for the first time. The UX Researcher will have specific tasks, and questions, probing and digressing off-script in a free-flowing format when necessary. A great user test sounds like an informative yet entertaining podcast episode.

What are the deliverables?

The user testing deliverable might also include key user quotes from each iteration of the clickable prototype or version of the software that was tested, key learnings, new features tested, and potential barriers to adoption. An optional reel of the most important usability problems might also be included and viewed separately by stakeholders or in a watch party format as different stakeholders will catch different issues based on their respective domains of expertise.

UX Workshop

What is it?

UX workshops involve getting all stakeholders on the same page, literally, onto a collaborative whiteboard tool to align on business problems and potential solutions that should be further explored. The workshops might include certain frameworks for idea generation and certain methodologies to create focus and constraints amongst various stakeholders.

What are the deliverables?

The deliverables include the shared whiteboard, as well as a summary of the key takeaways, which usually include prioritized problems and prioritized high-level solutions.

User Analytics Tracking

What is it?

User Analytics testing is way bigger than just connecting Google Analytics, it requires creating an Analytics Tracking Plan, which indicates user’s actions that need to captured, and specific information about each user’s action. It also creates a naming convention so that this data then becomes legible for decision makers in the analytics tool. I will be writing more in depth about this topic in the future.

What are the deliverables?

The deliverable is the Analytics Tracking Plan, which is given to the developers to implement. Once implemented, every important user action can be tracked efficiently, in a way that is useful to making product decisions.

How to use these to form a UX Research Strategy

One or any combination of the above can be used to kick off software redesign and shed light on the steps forward for prioritizing these problems, designing solutions or whether further UX research is required in a different capacity. The produced outputs of the above will be referred to in conversations about new designs, specific design decisions and will align all the stakeholders. These outputs also serve as a great asset for the client and allow them to make intelligent Product Management decisions and adjust the overall product or startup strategy with less guesswork and concrete research.

Rules of thumb for which UX research methodology to use and when

B2B, industry specific products, products that solve business problems

• Remote Contextual Inquiry / User Shadow Sessions

• User Discovery Interviews

• User Testing

• UX Listening Tour

B2C and consumer products

• User Analytics Tracking

• User Surveys

• UX Listening Tour

Redesigning existing software

• UX Audit

• UX Listening Tour

• User Analytics Tracking

Designing new software from scratch

• UX Listening Tour

• User Discovery Interviews

• UX Workshop

• Remote Contextual Inquiry

UX Research Strategy leads to a prioritized UX Roadmap of what to design and how, so it is the pillar of how projects are approached at Cakewalk Labs, whether it’s for startups to Fortune 100. Reach out to learn about what combination would be uniquely packaged for your specific software goals. You can also read some of my UX research case studies.

UX Workshops: Uncover and Align on Business Problems

Benefits and Goals

UX Workshops are oftentimes an overlooked User Research tool. The purpose of running a UX workshop is to align all of your stakeholders in your organization on business goals that can be solved through design. It can also aim to align your stakeholders on possible high-level solutions that tackle these prioritized problems, specifically, solutions that will be explored through UX design. UX Workshops are especially useful for larger organizations with more of a bureaucratic culture where stakeholder buy-in is a bottleneck for innovation.

Who to Involve in a UX Workshop

The key decision-makers and stakeholders from your business should be involved, this could include stakeholders from different business divisions within your organization, or a group of influential individuals with somewhat conflicting or unique perspectives. Within a startup environment, this could be the head of various teams, such as the head of Product, the head of Engineering, and the head of Marketing. Each individual could have different domain expertise, different insights, and sometimes different goals which may be conflicting.

How it’s Done Remotely

Various remote whiteboard tools can be used to conduct a Remote UX Workshop. These tools allow the stakeholders, in real-time, to generate ideas, vote on solutions, and prioritize problems, as the UX Designer moderates and guides the session. Several frameworks and templates might be introduced to create constraints and focus, in order to make the session more effective and efficient. These frameworks might include empathy maps, affinity clustering, and difficulty/importance matrices. At Cakewalk Labs we’re very cautious about using textbook tools just because a textbook says so; we instead prefer to modify such tools based on what we’ve found to be more effective and efficient in the real world.

Deliverables and Outcomes of a UX Workshop

The deliverables and outcomes of the UX Workshop will be prioritized business problems that should be explored separately through design solutions by the UX Designer. Additionally, it could include high-level ideas for solutions generated by the group, that the UX Designer will consider and further investigate in the design solution phase.

If you want to find out if a Remote UX Workshop is appropriate for your organization’s needs, feel free to reach out to us! Subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with our series on UX Research Roadmaps.

The Key to Excellent Remote User Testing

Benefits and Goals

Excellent User Testing uncovers gaps in user expectations versus reality. It reveals how users perceive specifics within your software, app, or prototype. It sheds a spotlight on gaps in how users actually use your product (or prototype) versus how they’re supposed to. These gaps are what defines friction for users, which in turn results in frustration and low user retention. These gaps in user expectations versus software reality are what define user (un)happiness.

Who to User Test

Your current users are a great resource to user-test new ideas, and new features with, especially if this is done at an early stage clickable prototype stage. However, current users are not recommended for testing your existing live product, because of their level of familiarity. To reveal gaps and opportunities with your software’s existing implementation, it’s best done with individuals who fit your key user personas, but who haven’t seen your product before. For B2B or Enterprise SaaS applications the key user persona is typically a combination of job title and level of technical expertise. For Consumer applications, this is more lifestyle-related demographic information. Data to identify the key user personas can come out of User Discovery Interviews.

How User Testing is Done Remotely

I have written more extensively about how to conduct remote User Testing. My view is that it’s more effectively conducted by a UX professional or even any team member within your organization, rather than outsourced to third party user testing platforms such as usertesting.com because the gold nuggets are revealed in probing questions and digging in deeper, rather than watching videos of users walking themselves through tasks in a linear fashion (which is the output of user testing platforms). User testing is not a linear exercise, it's a free-flowing conversation based on guidelines and scripts that test existing hypotheses, with many tangents that lead to insights. It’s like therapy, you never know where you’ll end up, and sometimes won’t remember how you got there.

Deliverables and Outcomes of User Testing

The deliverables include a document outlining takeaways and findings from each round of user tests, which typically consist of 5-7 user tests. A full transcript of the user tests is included as well since various stakeholders within your organization might catch different issues based on their perspectives and expertise. A UX Watch Party might be part of the output as well, consisting of various recordings of users' struggles as well as key quotes capturing the key takeaways.

If you want to find out if Remote User Testing is appropriate for your organization’s needs, feel free to reach out to us! Subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with our series on UX Research Roadmaps.

Benefits of User Discovery Interviews within UX Research

Benefits and Goals

User Discovery Interviews are an effective UX Research methodology that serves to gain an understanding of the industry, mindset, values, and goals of the end-users without getting into specific processes, which is what UX Contextual Inquiry or UX Shadowing is for. Simply put, the goal of User Discovery Interviews is to validate the problem that your software is trying to solve while creating empathy with the end-users.

User Discovery Interviews are most effectively done after a UX Listening Tour, but before digging into your software regardless of whether the goal is to add new features or to optimize existing features. The idea is to validate general product and problem space hypotheses before doing any designs. This ensures that what is being worked on is the correct thing, which in turn saves money and time down the road and reduces wasted effort.

Who to Involve In User Discovery Interviews

Your existing end-users are a great starting point. They also have access to their peers, who might be potential end-users. The latter is a better subset to prioritize because the former tend to think within the constraints of the existing software, rather than sharing their whole end to end high-level thinking and goals. This minor issue can be mitigated with good instruction and explanation to the research participants.

How User Discovery Interviews Are Done Remotely

UX Discovery Interviews are done on one-on-one video calls once the participants are identified, sourced, and scheduled. There is a User Interview Guide consisting of questions designed to test specific hypotheses, although the actual interview should be free-flowing and should feel like a Late Night Talk Show host who happens to be a very curious therapist, digging deeper in the perfect moments. This balance is an art that’s perfected over time.

Deliverables and Outcomes of User Discovery Interviews

The deliverable will include key takeaways from the interviews finding commonalities in user priorities, thinking, goals, values, and high-level processes. As well as answers to specific hypotheses that were formed and included as part of the conversation guide. Journey Maps might be included as part of the deliverables to visually depict the end to end process of the end-users with regards to their goals, as well as any other visual tools deemed appropriate to the findings. The output of User Discovery Interviews can also be used to form User Personas, which can be used to further identify research subjects for other forms of UX Research that might follow.

If you want to find out if User Discovery Interviews are appropriate for your organization’s needs, feel free to reach out to us! Subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with our UX Research series.