Slides from Hillary Pitts' Denver Startup Week Session: Just Enough Research.

1. Just
Enough
Research.

2. TITLE SPONSORS
TRACK SPONSORS

3. HEADLINE SPONSORS
PARTNER SPONSORS MEMBER SPONSORS
Granicus
Hogan Lovells
Meyer Law
Photomadic
Slifer Smith & Frampton
Swiftpage
AutoDesk
Bradford, ltd
CenturyLink
City & County of Denver, OED
Colorado House of Pod
The Commons On Champa
Cooley
DCPA - Seawell Ballroom
eTuk Ride
General Assembly
Hired.com
Husch Blackwell
ImageSeller
Intelivideo
Luna Gourmet Coffee & Tea
Mass FX Media
Nanno
Netsuite
Nordstrom
OfficeScapes
The Passport Program
Peak Beverage
Perficient
Slalom Consulting
Spectrum
Test Double
Verizon Wireless
Workiva
Xactly
Zayo

4. Housekeeping Items
1 Hour
or Less
Questions at
the End
Available on
SlideShare

5. Hi, I’m Hillary.
I’m a Product Manager & Marketer based
in Denver. I cooking, cryptocurrency,
& cats.

7. Just
Enough
Research.

9. Background
What is research? Why do we need
research? Why is it worth investing
in? Who should conduct it?
Research Methods
Quick & dirty versions of qualitative
& quantitative research that can
lead to clarity.
How to mine for insights in the
data when you’re strapped for
time.
Getting Started
How to implement research
components into your process
without adding to timelines.
1
2
3
4
Synthesis

10. What is
Product
Research?
Background Methods Synthesis Getting Started

12. When
Should I Do
Research?
Background Methods Synthesis Getting Started

13. Credit: Interaction Design ‘17

14. Why
Invest in
Research?
Background Methods Synthesis Getting Started

15. • User input helps build more
inclusive product
• Bugs can be identified & worked out
before going into production
You Are Not the User

17. • 0.08% of Snapchat’s user base
purchased spectacles
• Less than 50% of the already small
portion of Snapchat’s user base that
purchased kept using spectacles
after 1 month
• Stock price is down ~67% from
opening price
• Trying *again* with spectacles v2
Validate
Before You Build

18. Gain Empathy

19. Who
Should do
Research?
Background Methods Synthesis Getting Started

20. Designer Product
Manager
Research
Analyst

22. What is
Product Research?
When Should I Do
Research?
Why
Invest in Research?
Who Should do Research?
Background Recap
Research helps create clarity & clearly define
the problem, so you can design the best
solution for the intended user base.
Throughout the product design & development
process, but especially at the beginning &
throughout design.
Build user-informed products that, as a result,
are higher quality & more inclusive. Save money
by proving (or disproving) ideas early on.
At a minimum, the design team. Ideally,
everyone from the team who has bandwidth to
participate to some degree.

23. Research
Methods &
Hacks
Background Methods Synthesis Getting Started
The Quick & Dirty
Version

24. UX - U = X
User Experience User Experience

25. Meet with One Customer Each Week1
• Great for generative research &
ongoing usability testing
• Since you’ll likely be scheduling
these in advance, you can bake in
more pointed concept tests
• If you have trouble recruiting
customers, onboard new hires to
your product and capture their
thoughts/reactions

26. • Great for concept validation
• Gives you more structured
responses vs. open-ended
interviews
• Rather than send out a survey, you
can host individual, moderated
Kano sessions with 7-12 people that
match your user profile
Conduct a Quick Kano2
Credit: Smashing Magazine

27. • Great for evaluative research
• Three ways to facilitate “attack the
concept”:
• Host a weekly meeting where you
can share designs and get
feedback
• Post designs in a prominent,
physical part of your office with
sticky notes next to them for
feedback
• Maintain a dedicated Slack
channel for feedback
Facilitate Internal “Attack the Concept”
Opportunities
3

28. Meet with One
Customer a Week
Conduct a Qualitative,
Quick Kano
Facilitate Internal “Attack
the Concept” Opportunities
Methods Recap
Great way to get ongoing feedback for whatever
concepts, features, & new designs you have.
Helps to put more structure around a user
interview & can add qualitative color to the
responses you would typically get from this
survey.
If recruiting potential or existing users is not a
viable option, hosting feedback sessions with
team members (outside the core product team)
can bring a fresh perspective.

29. Synthesis
Background Methods Synthesis Getting Started
Mining for Insight
Gold

30. Skip the Note Taking

31. And if You Do Take Notes…

32. • If you’re short on time, have a
discussion & takes notes on the key
learnings to add to the product
roadmap or backlog
• If you have a ton to go through, put
insights & evidence on sticky notes
& group these into themes
Debrief after Each Session

33. Keep Track of Themes in a
Rainbow Sheet
Use Empathy Maps to Share
Digestible Summaries
Host Debriefs after Each
Session
Synthesis Recap
Rainbow sheets can create a visual
representation of common themes & insights
that come up across multiple interviews.
Instead of sharing a bulleted list of notes, use an
empathy map to communicate user feedback.
For both large and small groups, schedule a
debrief immediately following feedback sessions
to ensure everyone heard the same thing.

34. Getting
Started
Background Methods Synthesis Getting Started
Implementing
Research into your
process

35. 1 Start Passively Building Your Panel

37. 2 Build a Backlog of Your Assumptions &
Hypotheses

39. 3 Participate in Other Research

40. Implement Passive Ways to
Build your User Feedback
Panel
Keep Track of Hypotheses &
Assumptions
Participate in Research
Hosted by Other Companies
Getting Started Recap
Use a callout on your website, social media, on
boarding email, in-app messaging, & more as
evergreen panel growth efforts.
Maintain a shared repository of questions you
want to get feedback on from users. Avoid
circular conversations by adding questions to
your testing backlog.
Sign up for other company’s panels & one-off
research opportunities to borrow ideas for your
own recruiting process, expand your question
bank, & get inspiration on how to improve your
overall research practice.

41. Helpful User Research Tools

42. Thanks for
Joining!
Hillary@FullContact.com
@hillstwitts