I introduced user research as a practice into the Product Team and established it as a resource that everyone in the company can benefit from by hiring an expert researcher, promoting our principles, and formalising best practices.

Situation

As a Product team we were using user research sporadically and inconsistently as part of our product design process. The team were lacking confidence in their research skills and unconvinced that they were running studies as effectively as possible. Much of the insights we did gather went undocumented and lived in individuals’ drives, inaccessible to anyone else.

Additionally, the Product Team were keen to invite the wider Firefly team in to the user research process, but found other teams reluctant to get involved.

Objective

Hire a dedicated user researcher to teach the whole Product Team best practice in user research so that everyone has the skills and confidence to run user research studies and draw out insightful findings.

Make user research collaborative and inviting so that the wider Firefly team can get involved in user research, learn about our users for the benefit of their own work, and enjoy contributing to our product’s direction.

Approach

As a Product Team, we worked with Emma Boulton to identify our team’s unique user research principles, which I used throughout the interview process to find a User Researcher whose values and approach aligned with our own.

• I regularly promoted our research projects in internal communications to raise the visibility of user research in the company.

• I empowered our expert user researcher to run research projects as she saw best, teaching the rest of the Product Team along the way, and inviting the wider company to join in too.

• I encouraged formalising our research process to make it easy for the rest of the team to follow best practices and refer to in future.

• I continually challenge the Product Team to develop their research skills and help them step a little outside of their comfort zone each time.

Challenges

• Familiarising the Product Team to spot opportunities in the product design process when we might benefit from research.

• Setting up and running a thorough research study was time consuming for non-researchers.

Outcomes

• I hired an experienced User Researcher to guide us in best practice.

• Defined an efficient and effective research process, included as part of our Product Design Discovery Process.

• Upskilled the whole Product Team in user research techniques to maximise everyone’s contribution to product decision-making.

• Created learning opportunities by inviting representatives from across the business, including Leadership, into collaborative analysis sessions.

• Ensured each research project has ongoing value by building a structured research repository, for the team to reference time and time again.

• Saved time in the discovery process by producing a research toolbox with exemplary brief templates, discussion guides and reports for anyone can use as guidance.

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