How to get user research right
The version of this that works is simpler than the version most people imagine. The short answer to user research is that it is mostly a sequence of small decisions, not one big one.
Strategy work is mostly deciding what not to do, and writing it down so it stays decided. The version that survives contact with a real deadline is the simple one.
What it costs to ignore
Five conversations beat a hundred assumptions. It is worth being explicit about, because assumptions differ quietly. Doing this properly once is usually cheaper than doing it approximately three times.
The steps
- Establish what you have today before changing anything
- Watch what people do, not only what they say
- Talk to the people who did not buy
- Write down the decision so the next person does not re-litigate it
Talk to the people who did not buy. None of that requires a large budget, only a decision and someone to own it. Doing this properly once is usually cheaper than doing it approximately three times.
Turning this into a decision
In practice
The projects that go badly are rarely the ones with the hardest technical problems. Three things worth confirming about user research before you move on:
- Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
- Five conversations beat a hundred assumptions — and you know whether that is true here
- There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped
None of this needs a rewrite. Most of it is a morning's work once someone decides to do it.