Which positive effects do we see?
Empathy building: Engaging directly with users through interviews or observations and sharing insights with team members has helped us develop empathy for our users. Witnessing real-world problems and experiences first-hand has shifted perspectives and priorities. Team members have reported that seeing users interact with the product is invaluable for understanding what and how things must be improved.
Uncovering insights: The beauty of user research lies in its ability to reveal unexpected insights about how products or services are used. For us, this meant gaining a deeper understanding of our customers, how they use the app, and their gains and pains. These findings highlighted gaps in our current understanding and led to changes that make our customers’ lives easier. Furthermore, they inspired ideas for future innovations.
Fostering collaboration: Our user research initiatives have fostered collaboration with our team and stakeholders. By sharing our findings with them, we have established a two-way knowledge transfer, leading to a more comprehensive understanding of our customers. Our stakeholders now support research activities, contribute ideas, and help us recruit a diverse range of customers. This collaborative approach ensures everyone is working towards a common goal.
Development of research skills: As our team gains more experience in conducting user research, their expertise grows. This increasing proficiency leads to more sophisticated and frequent research initiatives. We are witnessing a successful shift towards user research within the organization, with team members considering it in their daily work, encouraging a more holistic approach to product development.
In which areas have we not yet reached our goal yet?
Integrating research into processes: While the value of user research is clear, incorporating it into regular workflows and project planning remains a challenge. We see two main reasons for that:
- Qualitative research is time-consuming, and even though we’ve automated many steps, it still requires effort from product owners and designers to allocate time for it regularly. While we have yet to achieve our goal of doing monthly discovery work, we have engaged in at least one activity every two months.
- External factors also affect our research process. Although we can conduct research activities, including generating insights within a month, external dependencies sometimes disrupt our timelines, so we conduct user research too late.
However, we are progressing and remain dedicated to improving our research integration to ensure that user research is not a one-off activity but a continuous, integral part of the development process. Despite these challenges, our team is committed to the research process, recognizing that any effort is better than none.
Final thoughts
Starting user research is a powerful catalyst for creating a more user-centric approach within an organization. By raising awareness of the importance of understanding user needs and demonstrating the tangible benefits of research, teams can build momentum and support for ongoing and expanded user research activities. This journey requires patience and adjustments but reveals its full potential over time.
We are happy that we took the effort and courage to start. The positive feedback from stakeholders and customers encourages us to continue, validating that our efforts are worthwhile. Initially, many doubted that customers would participate, but we proved them wrong. In fact, customers are grateful that the organization values their opinions, and almost all of them agreed to participate in future research, finding the experience educational and beneficial. It’s a win for both sides.
Final advice: If you want to implement continuous user research and discovery work, it must be a top priority in your organization. Consider having dedicated roles or hiring experts in the field depending on your goals and the amount of research you’d like to conduct. We might also go down that road in the future if we see the need for it.
Finally, thank you for your time and interest in our blog series. Your support encourages us to continue delivering valuable content. If you have any questions or would like to share experiences in the future, we would be happy to do so, as we believe in continuous learning. Reach out to us tba.