A presentation that ties together business strategy and UX design strategy into a program for actionable results from user research.

1. Building a User Research Program

3. I don’t want a UX research program
• Not UX, for the sake of UX
• Instead, UX for the sake of solving customer
and consumer problems in a way that
improves our bottom line

4. If these are these our goals?
• Sustainable growth
• Great product reviews
• Loyal customers who happily spend more
money with us
• Consumers who rave about us

5. What do you want users to say

6. Secret answer is D

7. When the product is amazing…

8. Why are people promoters?
When people think they are
amazing, they promote your
product.

9. Why do they tell their friends?
People don’t recommend your
product because they like your
product.
They recommend it because
they like their friends.

10. This is the UX

11. This is the post-UX UX

12. Never just design for great UX
Instead, design for what
happens after the clicking and
swiping is done.

13. Dashboard ux
Selling the American Dream!
Homes Connect
is awesome!
I can turn leads into
sellers and buyers like
no one’s business.

14. They want to be excellent at the
bigger
context

15. Product design the new way
***

16. Design for the post-UX UX because…

17. Source: Bain Capital Research
The numbers are in

18. • The National Institute of Standard Technology (NIST) in
2002: Cost of fixing one bug at production stage = 15 hrs
versus 5 hrs at coding stage.
• The Systems Sciences Institute at IBM: cost to fix an error in
production 4-5X cost of discovery in design phase. Up to
100 times more when discovered during maintenance

19. What are we doing now?
UX happens

20. Genius design

21. Principle-based design
• Write design principles
• Distill to the entire team
• Create pattern libraries
• Police and enforce

22. So, that’s how we do UX now

23. How do we know it’s good UX?

24. When it’s (almost) done
The user doesn’t show up to check out the
product until it’s too late:
• QA testing
• Beta testing
• Customer feedback
• A/B testing

25. How do we fix this?

26. Destination: Improve bottom line
by making users awesome: design
for the post-UX UX
UX Strategy

27. Does this product or feature make customers
and consumers awesome at what they do?
Always be asking

28. Ladder of UX Goodness

29. In short

30. Always be asking
(the questions users ask)
1. Can I use it?
2. Should I use it?
3. Do I want to use it?
4. Do I value using it?

31. People can use the product
User hierarchy of needs

32. People trust the product is useful to them

33. People want to use it more than other products

34. People value using it

35. The D Word Problem:
What does desirable & delightful mean?

36. 1. Tools
2. Skill sets
3. Process
In order to ask those questions

37. Do we know it’s good UX?

38. • Bring users into process sooner
• Users before it even gets to the design
team
• When we get really good, we bring them in
even before formal requirements gaterhing
(Definitely bring users in before we get to
engineers)
Good UX: research + process

39. Analytics
A/B tests
Usability tests
Prototyping tests
User testing
Contextual inquiry (fieldwork)
Design thinking
Empathy
Persona research
Journey Mapping
Competitive usability tests
Net Promoter Surveys
User journey mapping
TACTICAL UX
STRATEGIC UX
Good UX: research + process

40. What and how much?
Usability testing costs (in-house)
Remote user testing

41. For $X/month (+ $1700 fixed costs ) we get:
1. Usable products BEFORE we go live
2. User testing cheaper than developer time
3. Method to prioritize fixes and features
Measurable Results:
1. Reduce bounce rate
2. Increase repeat visitor rate
3. Increase engagement metrics

42. Field Research (all product lines)
Design thinking workshops
Survey research
What and how much?

43. For $X/month we get
1. Quickly validate ideas at concept phase
2. Validation testing cheaper than developer time
3. Resolve design indecision
4. Slash design meeting overhead (e.g., Remax)
5. Evidence-based road maps and priority matrices
6. Traditional R&D: discover market needs, monetize
Measurable Results:
1. Reduce churn
2. Increase engagement metrics
3. Improve NPS Score
4. Improve team throughput

44. Net Promoter Surveys
What and how much?

45. For $X/month we get:
1. Reduce customer churn
2. Locate pain points that impact bottom line
3. Optimize marketing spend: turn neutrals into
promoters for free marketing
4. Prioritize $ customers/product roadmap for best ROI
5. Valuable consumer data on the consumer journey –
worth money to advertisers/third parties/partners

46. For toal of $X/month ($X/yr)
1. Usability Testing Program
2. Validation Testing (entire product and SEO team)
3. Design thinking training, process improvements
4. Field research training, process improvements
5. Net Promoter: 2x/year relationship survey
6. Net Promoter: Ongoing transaction surveys
around lead conversion, MyHomes signup, Connect
Onboarding
6. Quantitative surveys of customer and consumer
behavior

47. Let’s talk

48. What other measurable results?
• Aside from the specific tracking metrics listed,
what other benefits are there?

49. 1. Decreased development costs: we build
the right thing
2. Increased leads
3. Improved lead quality
4. Increased repeat visitor rate
5. Improved number of page views
6. Improve NPS = build our fan base
7. Higher loyalty scores = lower marketing
costs
Measurable results - consumers

50. 1. Increases in customer spend
2. Higher NPS and Customer EZ Scores
3. Deliver more and better quality leads
4. Discover market problems = new revenue
opportunities
5. Reduced IT development costs
Measurable results - customers

51. 1. Focused: Customer-centered, small business
ethos, artisanal
2. Urgent: validate ideas early, pivot when
needed, answer customers needs quickly
3. Collaborative: design-thinking = everyone puts
customer satisfaction at center of job
Mature UX fufills our mission

52. Insights we’ved discovered
• With just a screwdriver and butter knife in our
toolbox, we’ve managed to discover and put
to use insights useful for the product team
• Better tools will give us actionable insights
from marketing, SEO, customer service, sales,
design, branding, engineering

53. Insights – what we’ve discovered so far
1. Map search testing – redacted
2. Detail page usability – redacted
3. Detail page usability and popups –
redacted
4. Feedback form research – redacted
5. Intercept research – redacted

54. More insights in action
6. Mobile testing: users want choice, then
smart defaults
7. Mobile testing: search by current location
results (redacted)
8. Mobile testing: research on rental and
buyer crossover (redacted)
9. Mobile icon research (redacted)

55. Insights in action
10. Connect CRM: research changed in app
messaging
11.Connect: research changed approach for
the new agent persona
12. Survey results: insights into important of
imagery (redacted)
13.Research confirmed existing assumptions
about photos

56. Research findings we still need to act on:
1. Research on agents use of screeners and
qualifiers.
2. Research on home buyer and q/a design
pattern
3. Research on home feature preferences
(clustering and power law curve)
4. Research on gender
5. Research on five most important features of
the home itself
6. Research on consumers and terminology

57. Surprises (for me)
1. Preponderance of identity issues
2. Preponderance of non-traditional singles
3. Use of the app during the post-UX UX