Chatting through User Research
By: Monique Ho
Tags: User Research, User Experience Design, Business Analyst, User Experience, Business Analysis

A summary of an event of BA Slash, sharing from a User Research subject matter expert. Targetting those who are new to the topic.

Setting the scene

Based on the survey responses, the first ‘Ask & Solve’ event was organised in October 2020 over Zoom for the BA/ community. We encouraged people to join the session with a problem and/or an open heart to bounce ideas, hoping they would leave the event with some options/considerations and new connections.

There were two themes in the first event, business case writing and user research. (You can see more about business case writing in the previous article.)

I was very delighted to invite Helena Bishop to the event as the subject matter expert. Helena is an Experience Designer at BAE Systems Applied Intelligence. We crossed our paths on a telco permissions & preference project a few years back. She is so patient & talented — it’s amazing to work with her. 😃

Most participants were new to the User Research discipline, therefore we had a focussed discussion on some fundamentals:

What do User Researchers do in a site visit?

User Researchers practise the ‘Master & Student relationship’ with users. They observe how the activities are carried out by the users. It’s particularly interesting to see workarounds and shortcuts that are not in the book.

User Researchers also ask ‘why-s’ to understand underlying reasons. These are very useful information to the project sponsor, showing the reality of what doesn’t work and why is not working.

Mindset of User Researchers

Empathy is key.

The interactions with users not only provide an understanding of the processes and systems they use, but also build trusted relationships, inviting users to go on the journey to avocate changes.

Whilst User Researchers have great expertise knowledge, user input add enormous values on usability, branding, etc. Make the users your best allies to drive changes!

Frustrating moments for User Researchers

It can be very frustrating when user researchers are only engaged at the end of a product delivery, where the project may need a ‘user experience rubber stamp’ for sign-off.

‘Helena, what would you do in this scenario?’

‘Since I don’t know the users, I would make sure the product is genericly usable,’

For example, make sure that the size of device is taking into account —long row of text doesn’t go well with the mobile user interface (UI). Think about attention span and decide how much should be put on a page.

How would good business analysis help user researchers?

There are 3 things that Helena, a user research practitioner, would highly appreciate:

Workshop facilitation —When working in a duo, Business Analysts add value when handling behaviours of participants, making sure everyone is heard in the workshop and feels good. Linking business KPIs to requirements — it’s important to know how the delivery of a feature contribute to the wider success and benefits. The context helps User Researchers use their creativity to fulfil them. Requirements prioritisation — A good prioritisation helps User Researchers stay focus on the right things at the right time.

Resources

Helena recommended two for those who would like to learn more about User Research. They are free, quality resources: