The value of User Research

Each level of UX-PM training will help you gain knowledge in the six dimensions of the UXalliance Design Maturity Model. Step-by-step, you will learn more about areas such as Research, Design, Metrics, People, Culture, Strategy, and Design Leadership. Today, we will focus on the Research.

Define your users’ needs

If you work on product development, you need to know who your users are. That’s why good practice is to create personas. It helps to imagine who and in what context will use your product. However, this is not enough. Besides defining your users, you also need to define their needs. That’s what research is all about. Becoming aware of what your users want will help you develop your product, implement improvements, and, ultimately, achieve better business results. For organizations with a high level of design maturity, doing research is standard. What is important, it is not enough to do the research once but to do it regularly. To ensure the results are correct, it is recommended to use different research methods. What methods can you use?

Types of research methods

There are many research methods. One of the concepts is to divide research into qualitative and quantitative. What is the difference between them? Qualitative methods focus on describing things. They are based on the opinions and feelings of respondents. The objectives of these methods are to discover new opportunities and develop ideas. In opposition, there are quantitative research methods that focus on measuring things. They are based on numbers and comparisons. Their objective is to identify facts. We can also divide the research methods into generative and evaluative. The first ones enable to explore the problem scope and learn about potential users. What techniques can you use in this area? Try out e.g. ethnography, IDI (in-depth interview), diary study, or focus group interviews. When it comes to evaluative research, use them if you want to validate design decisions and measure impact. Try techniques such as usability testing, A/B testing, or data analytics. Of course, these are not all available methods, but as you can see, there are many of them, so the key is to choose the ones that are the most adjusted to your needs.

Adjust the method to your needs

Try to adjust the method to the stage your product is currently at. If you are in the moment of creating a new product, you can use e.g. benchmarks or interviews with stakeholders. If you are planning to implement a new feature into your product, before you start preparing a prototype, think about a co-creation workshop. Is your prototype ready yet? At this stage, you may find usability testing useful. These are just examples, you can schedule your research plan in many ways.

Benefits

Knowing the expectations of your users will make your product even better. Remember, you are not creating it for yourself or your employees; what appeals to you may not necessarily appeal to your users. Each person on your team may have a different vision for the product, their opinion is important, but don’t forget to ask your users as well. If you want to learn more about User Research, join UX-PM Certification. For more information, click here: LINK