User research is a vital part of any design project, because if you don’t know who you are designing for, how can you be sure you’re creating the right solution? They are your real boss, the ones who are the most affected if you do a good or a bad job… understand their needs will help you do more of the former and less of the latter.
Then there are the people who actually sign your paycheck… And many times those decision makers and managers will the need for user research. “We already know our customers, we spend X dollars a month in marketing research, we have online feedback forms, etc.” You are going to have prepare to make your case to these people, and here’s a few hints on how to do so:
Don’t play the “ROI” game
ROI stands for “Return on Investment” and it’s one of the more frustrating buzzwords in the business world. It’s often used as an excuse to take risks or spend money, a crutch middle-managers use to say no without taking responsibility.
It’s always tempting to try and force ROI arguments when you are discussing user research, but it’s a fools errand: you end up spending time and energy forcing a point that is hard to prove. Best to acknowledge that there is no direct traceable ROI that comes from user research and move on.
(I’m not saying that user research doesn’t provide value or ROI, I’m just saying it’s a very difficult thing to respond to and the time and effort spent trying to track and rationalize is better served designing.)
User research produces intellectual property
Another buzzword, but a good and accurate one this time! Doing user research increases your knowledge of the existing or potential customers for your the company’s products, and therefore will build the institutional knowledge and understanding. This is a great tact if you work ina a “data-centric” culture.
If we don’t do it, our competitors will!
This argument works a lot, and is an easy card to deal… Even easier if you can point to research results or white papers that the direct competitor has made public. It appeals to the competitive instinct, and user research can help keep up with or beat the competition.
The baseline is (always) shifting
We live in exciting times, with new products and technological innovations being released every day. While the core human needs of food, shelter and safety will never change, the specific needs and desires of people evolve in response to the new normal these innovations bring… a new baseline of human expectations User research – REGULAR user research – will provide insights and need standings into where people’s “heads” are at, so the offerings you produce can align and meet this baseline. Doing it once isn’t enough.
“You can’t make bricks without clay”
This is a variation of one of my favorite quotes, from the writing pen of Arthur Conan Doyle. In a train-car on their way to investigate a case, Holmes says this statement with some exasperation. He cannot come up with a theory to solve the case because he simply doesn’t have enough data… Which is why they are traveling by train to the scene of the crime. User research is very much the same thing… You cannot produce effective solutions and designs for users until you have a better sense of what the user needs.
Quantitative data and market research isn’t enough
This is an argument to rebut the “we already do consumer research” statement in the introduction… Lots of people think that marketing research is the same as user research. It’s not. Market research is, in most cases, one-dimensional… and as Dr. Gregory House once said, “people lie.” Direct interviews and observation will bring you deep insights and understandings that the results of a survey cannot.
(Please note that I am not “dismissing” marketing data… far from it. If you have data, use it. Analyze it from a UX perspective, pour through it. I was once on a project that had extensive legacy marketing data and research, and we reviewed it until our eyes were blurry – it gave us a lot of good ideas and informed areas to explore through formal user research.)
It can find new product or service offerings
I’ve done several studies that provided great ideas for new products or services, ideas that would never have been generated if not for the research. We are detached from the workflows of users, and what they do and need is often misaligned with the tools and products they use.
There you have it, a number of points you can make to build your case for user research. In a perfect world, the value and benefits of such research wouldn’t need to be “sold”… but this isn’t such a world.