Episode 12: UX Research

UX research as a field, what it means and how your org can measure its maturity

Yael Schweiger Senior Product Owner @Careship and Raz Shuty Head of Engineering @Wikimedia DE are happy to host Anne UX researcher @Careship and they are talking about UX research as a field, what it means and how your org can measure its maturity

We mentioned in this episode

Anne’s reading recommendations:

Must have –

UX Maturity Model: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-maturity-stages-1-4/

Nice to have –

The role of a user researcher: https://medium.com/@stonecrops/the-researchers-journey-leveling-up-as-a-user-researcher-a85cd35b53f5

Research Ops community: https://researchops.github.io/www//

Dovetail, my research repository: https://dovetailapp.com/

Our episode today:

Introduction to the episode and Anne
Introduction to the role of UX research
- What exactly that is
- Why even have one, and not just incorporate research into your role
- How is it different than doing research as part of another role (designer, product manager…)
The motivation for doing it
How does it look like in the day to day
- For Anne
- For others
UX Maturity / How to live a user-centered approach in any organization

The UX Maturity Model
“User-centered” is a buzzword your organization uses? The time or an honest self-assessment.
1. As their UX approach matures, organizations typically progress through the same sequence of stages, from initial hostility to widespread reliance on user research. (NN Group, Nasdaq)
  E.g. scope, purpose, staffing
2. Cultural topic but also needs a monetary investment
Creating awareness and exposure hours
Experience precedes essence – you’ve got to get out there!
1. “Evangelizing” takes time, building relationships
2. In the end, you just have to do it and grow into it
3. UXR dashboard: # people participated, # days since the last contact, % of a team conducting research within last 3 months
4. The team has its own insights = most beautiful moments for me
Processes & scaling
Everybody owns user research.
1. Empowering teams
2. ReOps
Making data actionable:
Maybe not everybody’s a designer – but everybody contributes to the customer experience.
1. Tailored to organizational needs, lean & jtbd vs scientific
2. Research repositories
3. Journey maps and OKRs
Educated decisions
Sometimes there is no right or wrong decision – but it’s always wrong to make an uneducated decision.