Lior Smith conducted a 10-week user research project for an IT department. The goals were to understand user needs across the organization and learn how to make improvements. Techniques included pop-up interviews, paper tools, photo journals, and personas. Stakeholders were involved through weekly showcases. Measures of success were that personas resonated with staff and a toolkit was found useful. Management support and testing outputs with stakeholders contributed to the project's success.

1. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
HS2 IT USER
RESEARCH
PROJECT
LUDDITES WON’T
LET ME SKYPE IN

2. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker

3. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
HELLO
• the project
• the engaging techniques
• measures of project success

4. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
10 WEEK USER RESEARCH
PROJECT
• broad and
shallow
• understand
IT users
across the
organisation
• learn
• make it stick

5. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
“IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT THE
USER NEEDS ARE, YOU WON’T
BUILD THE RIGHT THING.
DO RESEARCH, ANALYSE DATA,
TALK TO USERS.
DON’T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS.”

6. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
WORKING
OUT LOUD
INVOLVE STAKEHOLDERS
EVERY STEP OF THE WAY
PROJECT WALL
WEEKLY SHOW & TELLS

7. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
WEEKLY SHOW & TELL
• useful critique can come from
anyone
• even one attendee will lead to
opportunities
• staff feel heard and valued
• even people that don’t come
appriciate that we are
reaching out

8. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
INVOLVING
BUSINESS
ANALYSTS IN
RESEARCH

9. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
ON THE PROJECT WALL
DESIGN RESEARCH

10. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
ON THE PROJECT WALL
QUICK & DIRTY HAND DRAWING STUFF

11. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
ON THE PROJECT WALL
REFINED BRIEF 1/4 WAY THROUGH

12. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLING
PAPER DIAGRAM
• getting spread in directorates
was a hot topic
• working out loud
• easy to stay on track

13. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker

14. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
POP UP
INTERVIEWS
WE JUST ROCKED UP...
SO WE CONNECTED
WITH PEOPLE RANDOMLY

15. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
‘GUERILLA’ OR...
POP UP INTERVIEWS

16. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
WHY DO POP UP INTERVIEWS
• lots of people, quickly
• broad and shallow
• quick impressions pointing to
top of mind issues for further
research
• see people in their normal
environments
• contact with people we wouldn’t
have access to otherwise

17. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
WE GOT AWAY WITH...
GETTING EVERYONE TO DRAW AS AN ICEBREAKER
ter.
o is using
can
A picture of me
Three words to describe
my personality
Name
HS2 IT is about driving change by helping you to work better.
We are conducting research so that the IT team can deeply understand who is using
the IT systems. By finding out about what you need to do your job well, we can
strategise to give you the technology you need now and in the future.

18. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
PAPER TOOLS
IN INTERVIEWS
FUN FOR US ALL

19. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
WHY USE PAPER
TOOLS IN
INTERVIEWS
• less confrontational than
questions list
• visual & engaging
• feels safely structured despite
being wide open research
• helps prompt memory of the
working week

20. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker

21. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker

22. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker

23. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
PHOTO
JOURNALS
ARTISTICALLY
EXPLORATIVE

24. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
PHOTO JOURNALS
GETTING PEOPLE TO TAKE PHOTOS OF THEIR DAY
we got 150 photos from 9 people

25. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
CULTURAL
PROBES/
DIARY STUDIES
THOUGHTFUL &
DEEPLY INSIGHTFUL

26. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
‘A WEEK IN THE LIFE’ OR...
CULTURAL PROBES

27. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
WHY USE CULTURAL PROBES
• inspect minutiae of interactions -
logged at the time; less distorted
than reported through interview
• fun & engaging & beautiful
• detailed honesty - harder to get
in interview situation - insight
into culture & characters

28. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker

29. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
EXTRACT
FROM A ‘WEEK
IN YOUR LIFE’
RESEARCH KIT
(A CULTURAL PROBE)

30. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker

31. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker

32. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker

33. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker

34. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
TOOLKIT
SOMETHING TO LEAVE
BEHIND TO ENCOURAGE
CONTINUATION

35. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
WHY MAKE A TOOLKIT
(NOW ON GITHUB)

36. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
WHY MAKE A TOOLKIT
• start off practice of user
research
• co-write with others: ownership
• make process tangible even
though researchers are gone
• bespoke: specific to context;
more likely to make sense to
beginner

37. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
PERSONAS
MAKE THEM TOGETHER
MAKE RESEARCH EASY
TO ACCESS

38. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
SPRING 2016 HS2
USER PERSONAS

39. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
WHY DO PERSONAS
• simplify staff into manageable
categories that we can design for
• HS2 personas: types of
activities in roles - affects who
they interact with & how
• visual & empathy enticing
• made with staff members

40. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
MAKE SURE EVERYONE
UNDERSTANDS THE LINGO...
AND CALL IT SOMETHING
ELSE IF THAT HELPS

41. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
COMMUNICATING
OUTPUTS
SOCIAL & VISUAL
CHANCE TO ITERATE

42. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
WE GOT AWAY WITH...
NO REPORT
Just the wall we’d be working on all
the while, spruced up with outputs

43. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
WE GOT AWAY WITH...
ALMOST 2 WEEKS TESTING OUTPUTS

44. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
Sprint 1: Project Set-up Sprint 4: Analysis PhaseSprint 2 - 3: Research Phase Sprint 5: Conclusion
Stakeholder mapping
Guerilla interviews
Develop the brief
Work out next round of interview questions
Design interview tools
Book interviews
Conduct interviews
Survey
‘Week in your life’ research kit
User needs workshop
Review existing sources of information
Repeated thematic analysis throughout
previous phases and this phase to
articulate pain points and needs
Create project insights document
Create personas
Create toolkit
Create challenges document
Make ‘exhibition’ with project outputs
Presentation to key stakeholders
Show & tell to staff to sense check
Make film to document process
WE GOT AWAY WITH...
2 WEEKS TESTING OUTPUTS IS 1/5TH OF PROJECT
So you see, we really prioritised
engagement - and this made the
outputs better.

45. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
MEASURES OF
SUCCESS

46. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
MEASURES OF SUCCESS
• personas rang true with staff
• culture people engaged
• toolkit felt useful (+github)
• got back 8/10 cultural probes

47. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
WHAT THE CLIENT SAID

48. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
WHY IT WORKED
• management consistently
unblocking blockers quickly
• J2 comfortable with uncertainty
• over ambitious
• business analysts did interviews
• W9&10 for testing outputs only

49. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
engagement is valuable
both ways.
they learn about research, keep up to date with
the org, and get the changes they want.
we learn about them, and create more
representative outputs.
have fun and they will
have fun too.

50. Lior Smith @liorsmith Rainmaker
THANK YOU :)
@liorsmith
Github search: ‘HS2 toolkit’
or ’user needs toolkit’
www.sd-ldf.com