Don’t ask for permission to do User Research
By: Davis Levine
Tags: Usability, UX Design, User Experience, User Research, UX Research

Asking for permission to do user research turns it into a decision point for managers and executives. When faced with a decision, decision-makers will work through their own mental models to evaluate the benefits and risks. The risks will often outweigh the benefits. They will think of every scary scenario, calculate the extra costs, and factor in the extended timelines.

These conversations will naturally default to a “no”, or put more lightly “not right now”. It then becomes your job to further sell, persuade, and convince the decision-maker that user research is in fact a good idea. This is a disadvantaged position to be in. If you are asked to create a business case, you’ve already lost.

How you frame user research is important. Asking for permission frames the conversation around the question: “Should we do it?” The conversation you want to create is: “How should we do it?”

Here are some tips on how to frame user research as a natural and necessary activity that decision-makers can get behind.

Focus on the outcomes of research, not the activity

It’s easier for decision-makers to get behind user research when it’s clear why you are doing it. When there are clear research objectives and intended outcomes it’s harder to argue against it. Align the research to supporting business objectives or other performance measures. Focusing on the activity of research will misdirect the conversation towards talking about the activity itself and not why you are doing it.

Don’t isolate user research as a stand-alone activity

User research should be contextualized within how your organization operates around project and organizational planning. Figure out where it can fit within an upcoming project or how it could provide additional support to an ongoing initiative. You might need to be patient to find the right window of opportunity.

Position research as a risk mitigation strategy

User research is more of a perceived risk than an actual risk for an organization. Flip the risk excuse on its head. By creating a better understanding of what your end users need, what challenges they face, and what isn’t working, you are actually decreasing the amount of risk your organization is creating by increasing confidence in what it delivers.

Humbly listen, acknowledge and work through the concerns decision-makers might have

You might get push back in your plans, and decision-makers will still have some concerns. Don’t confuse questions or concerns as resistance, take these as opportunities to gain further understanding of their perspective. For some managers, this may be a new approach and they simply need to have a better understanding. Some of the concerns they have can be very real and they may have knowledge about a situation you are unaware of. Listen openly and work together to find a solution that best fits the situation. This might require reducing the scope of research in question, or limiting the types of people you’re able to conduct research with. Take these smaller wins to achieve longer-term goals.

For an organization that has doesn’t have a dedicated user research practice, starting one can be hard. But it’s not impossible. By framing user research appropriately you can start having the right conversations centred around tactics and approach rather than permissions and decisions.