More and more design organizations actively embrace a range of user-centered methods, including ways of getting input from users: surveys, A-B testing, focus groups, usability testing. But for many teams, when it comes to leaving the office environment and going out to meet and observe customers, there is significant resistance.
In this talk, Steve Portigal draws from his 17 years of selling contextual research into organizations, as well as primary research he's conducted with internal champions and change agents to break down the cultural, resource, and other factors that inform this resistance.
Steve will suggest ways to address these challenges and look at how you can maximize the result of every small victory, turning every fieldwork experience into an opportunity to do more!
2. Introduction: Where this comes
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Consultant for 18 years
• Hired by organizations that have at
least some buy-in
• Observe their best practices
Interviewed corporate leaders
Part 1: Getting to do research
Part 2: Maximizing the impact
• Because success sells
Starts high level, but gets
more specific
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3. Part to edit Master title asking
Click1: This is not about style for permission
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4. Position yourself
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Upon hire
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5. Position yourself
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Upon hire
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6. Can to succeed, given your
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7. Can to succeed, given your
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8. Joseph edit Master title Hero’s Journey”
Click to Campbell’s “Thestyle
Image: Wikipedia
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9. Kotter’s Change Model
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Image: changecards.org
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10. Prochaska Master title style
Click to edit& Diclemente’s Stages of Change
Image: @symplicit and @jodiemoule
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11. Diagnose, then target response
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Tactics: http://www.cellinteractive.com/ucla/physcian_ed/stages_change.html
Image: @symplicit and @jodiemoule
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12. Diagnose the organization to
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Image: Jess McMullin, bplusd
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13. Organizational culture
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14. Culture edit Master title style
Click to defined
How a group of people make sense of the world, through
common
• Experiences
• Beliefs
• Knowledge
• Values
• Attitudes
• Behaviors
• Meanings
• Patterns
• Symbols
•
•
•
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15. Company cultures
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Belkin, 2012
Belkin, 1982
Belkin, 1983
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16. Change the culture
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To start a culture change we need to do two simple things:
1. Do dramatic story-worthy things that represent the
culture we want to create. Then let other people tell
stories about it.
2. Find other people who do story-worthy things that
represent the culture we want to create. Then tell stories
about them.
We can change our stories and be changed by them.
A Good Way to Change a Corporate Culture, Peter Bregman, http://blogs.hbr.org/bregman/2009/06/the-best-way-to-change-a-corpo.html
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17. Thought leadership
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Through thought leadership, create
influence outside the company to
grow your credibility internally.
Benchmark your efforts against
those of your peers.
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18. Develop alliances
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Reach out – across
organizational hierarchies –
to others who also advocate
for contextual research
• Newly hired leaders bringing in
certain best practices from previous
jobs
• Isolated designers/researchers
elsewhere in the corporation who
are looking for peers
• Managers who know there must be
a better way to reach users but don’t
know where to start
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19. Treat this like a design style
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20. Make the case (for title style
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Don’t lead with “We have to talk
to customers!”
First investigate to understand
• What information does the team need
to do their work?
• Do they have that information?
• What has been tried? What worked?
What didn’t work? Why?
Your recommended approach
must be rooted in that context.
Your emphasis is on solving
the business problem.
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21. Consider resources
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2-3 weeks 2-3 weeks 2-3 weeks
Who do you What do you Do
want to talk want to do Fieldwork something
to? with them? with the data!
Screening Methodology, Interviews, self- Analysis,
criteria, recruiting field guide, reporting, synthesis, design
stimuli debriefs
Educate others what it takes to accomplish this. Resistance may be
based on naïve assumptions (e.g., seeing “every” customer).
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22. When time Master title style
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1 day?! 1 day?! 2 days?!!
Who do you What do you Do
want to talk want to do Fieldwork something
to? with them? with the data!
Who can you Wide-eyed Small sample, Debrief
get? Co-workers, observation, massively
intercepts on the winging it parallel data
street or in the gathering
mall, etc.
Make your stakeholders aware of tradeoffs. Develop expertise in
project planning and propose the right-size approach.
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23. Treat this like a special style
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Beyond “talking to people”
this thing you are advocating
for is its own thing
• Training for you can give credibility
• You can train (or bring in training) to
give method credibility and lead
through empowering others
When partnering with
external research vendors,
highlight their expertise
(mobile, teen media
consumption, medical, etc.)
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24. Proactively Master title style
Click to editfind opportunities to learn about users
Don’t wait for requests
• These may be tactical, not strategic
Instead, look for design and
business questions
• Propose research that will serve
multiple teams and future initiatives
Siloed research that turns
out to be redundant is the
enemy of adopting these
methods.
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25. Part to edit Master title impact
Click2: Maximizing your style
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26. Engage the Master title style
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Pull your colleagues in
throughout the process
• Setting the research agenda
• Detailed planning of a study
• Joining you in the field
• Reading transcripts
• Analysis and synthesis
• Topline reporting
• Final reporting
• Ideating on impact to design/business
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27. Take them Master title
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28. Make your process title style
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When a client couldn’t get a meeting
room for a massive fieldwork
debrief, they took over a kitchen
area. Many people walked by and
peeked in, intrigued, to see what
was happening.
Image: Norman Rockwell’s “Tom Sawyer (Whitewashing the Fence) “
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29. Make your process title style
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30. Make your output relevant
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Will you have the most impact
by (say) telling stories or by
defining needs or by
specifying requirements or
by producing prototypes?
• From Users need it to be easy to
clean to Use elastomeric surfaces and
ensure all part joins are flush
• Another team added a high-fidelity
prototype master who delivered
research findings exactly as the
developers needed them
This is on you to figure out.
Don’t wait for requests.
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31. An example of delivering research findings
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http://www.portigal.com/blog/reading-ahead-research-findings/
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32. “Research” Master title style
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Understand Create
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33. “Research” Master title style
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Create
Understand Create
Create
Create
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34. “Research” Master title style
Click to edit playing nicely with “design”
Understand
Create
Understand Create
Understand
Create Understand
Create
Also see: http://www.slideshare.net/andrewharder/critique-dont-complain-talk-by-andrew-harder
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35. Make ideation part title style
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36. Make outputs and outcomes
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37. Make outputs and outcomes
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38. Make outputs and outcomes
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Another client of mine built a
“museum” from our research in
Japan that included miscellaneous
consumer items and household
equipment, pamphlets and
advertisements, photographs, and
printed pages from our research
report. This display was in place for
over a year and prompted
conversations for years beyond that.
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39. Get face time with teams that
Click to edit Master title style will use your research
Spend some time each week
in their location, if it’s different
than yours.
Sit in on meetings, even if you
aren’t “invited.”
As topics come up, share the
insights you already have.
Be on the lookout for
opportunities to gather
additional insights.
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40. Coming in October!
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A book by Steve Portigal
The Art and Craft of User Research Interviewing
http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/user-interviews/
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41. Let’s to edit Master title style
Click discuss
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42. Click to edit Master title style
Thank you!
@steveportigal Portigal Consulting
steve@portigal.com www.portigal.com
+1-415-894-2001
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