User research intro

User research is at the heart of creating services that truly meet the needs of your users

Why conduct user research?

“We think we know our users…but do we really?”

User research is at the heart of creating services that truly meet the needs of your users. Without it, teams are left guessing—unsure of the problems they’re solving, what to build, or whether the final product or service will benefit users. The absence of user research leads to significant risks; building the wrong solution, burdening users, and squandering time, money, and resources on systems that fall short.

Understanding your users isn’t just a competitive edge, it’s an ethical obligation. Failing to conduct proper research can result in decisions that do not serve users’ best interests, leading to products that are inaccessible or unusable. Accessibility is crucial. Research helps identify and address the unique needs of all users, including those with disabilities, ensuring your product/service is inclusive by design.

Moreover, user research should inform the strategic direction of your product. By aligning user needs with business goals, research ensures that your design decisions are both user-centered and business-relevant.

Prioritising user needs

User needs are the specific requirements users have from a service, which must be met for them to achieve their desired outcomes. Services designed around these needs are more likely to succeed because they:

  • Are more frequently used by their target audience.
  • Help more people achieve their intended outcomes, fulfilling strategic goals.
  • Cost less to operate by reducing the time and money spent on resolving issues.

The importance of continuous user research

To maintain agility, teams must continuously:

  • Update their understanding of users and their evolving needs.
  • Test new design ideas to ensure they work well for all users.
  • Identify and resolve problems users encounter.

This continuous feedback loop allows teams to:

  • Save time by focusing only on what users truly need.
  • Mitigate risk by quickly learning whether what you’re building works for users.
  • Respond to changing user behavior and feedback, leading to ongoing improvements in the service.

My general approach to user research

My approach to user research is grounded in several key principles:

Collaboration

Research is a team sport. Involving stakeholders and team members from various disciplines ensures a shared understanding and a better integration of insights into the product development process. This collaborative approach leads to more holistic solutions that address real user needs.

Business relevance

While exploratory research is valuable, it’s essential to tie research activities to specific business outcomes. This alignment ensures that the research is not just interesting from an academic perspective but also practically valuable, driving meaningful impact on the project.

Continual and iterative process

Research should not be a one-time activity. Instead, it should be a continual, iterative process, with insights being refined and updated as new data emerges. This approach allows for flexibility and responsiveness to user needs as they evolve.

Risk management

User research is also a powerful tool for managing business risk. By aligning research activities with the level of business risk—whether it’s high-risk with many unknowns or low-risk with established knowledge—you can make more informed decisions about where to focus your efforts.

Steps

Planning

Effective research starts with careful planning. Begin by identifying gaps in your understanding. What do you assume about your users, and what hypotheses can you test? This phase involves hypothesis generation, framing research activities, and creating research briefs. Additionally, understanding the broader environment through ecosystem mapping ensures that your research is contextually grounded.

Select research methods

Selecting the right research methods is critical. Depending on what you need to learn and the resources available, you should choose methods that provide a comprehensive understanding of your users’ needs and priorities. A mix of quantitative and qualitative methods often yields the best results.

My top four methods are:

  • Contextual Inquiry - Observing users in their natural environment to gain deep insights into their behaviors, challenges, and needs.
  • Semi-Structured Interviews - Engaging users in a flexible yet structured manner to gather rich qualitative insights.
  • Task-Based User Testing - Assessing how users interact with the product or service to identify usability issues and areas for improvement.
  • Surveys -Surveys are also valuable for quantitative research, often following qualitative research to validate insights and gather data at scale. This approach ensures that the terminology used is understood by users and that questions are relevant to the context.

Conduct the research

Capture data through the chosen research methods, directly engaging with and observing users. This hands-on approach ensures that the data collected is relevant and actionable.

Synthesis and analysis

After gathering data, the next step is to synthesise and analyze it to form insights. This process helps create a shared understanding among the team, ensuring everyone is aligned on user needs and how best to address them.

Playback and prioritisation

Once the research data is analyzed, it’s crucial to playback and prioritise the insights based on their impact on the project. Evaluate which findings are most critical to address and which can be deprioritised. This ensures that the most important insights drive the design and development process, keeping the focus on what truly matters to users and the business.