97 Things Every UX Practitioner Should Know

Chapter 72. Educate Your Product Team for Successful User Research

Rachel Young

Your moderator guide is reviewed and the prototype is built, but does your product team understand what to expect during a research session and the role you want them to play in it? What is obvious to an experienced UX practitioner may not be obvious to others. With education and support, you can help make the research process more transparent to your product team.

Educate on What Research Can and Cannot Answer

Your product team will comprise members from product management, development, marketing, and training organizations, each with their own questions about user needs. As you formulate your research plan, involve your team so everyone is aligned on what research can and cannot answer.

• Gather questions from all team members to ensure you’ve included various perspectives.

• Map your teams’ questions to the research methods best suited to answering them. For example, when testing a medical device, the following methods might be appropriate:

  • User interview: to gather users’ perceptions of the device’s usefulness, color, and content

  • Usability study: to test comprehension of the instructions and mechanism for loading medication into the device

  • Tree test: to measure the intuitiveness of the device’s navigation menus

• Provide an overview to your team, explaining the different methods, how they address ...