User Research Via Slack

Ashim Joshi

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Feb 23, 2017 · 3 min read

I recently read a medium post by Jonathan Courtney titled “User Research is Overrated.” https://medium.muz.li/user-research-is-overrated-6b0fe101d41#.ne1ym139x. I found it interesting as he said, “ Up-front User Research is a form of Product Procrastination…It delays the need to make something tangible.”

He has a valid point in regards to the time delay. But, user research is 100 million percent useful and important.

I work for an Ad-tech company, ROKT based in Sydney with offices around the world, more specifically in Melbourne, New York, LA, Singapore, London and New Zealand. Our proprietary tool, One Platform serves both our clients and our internal sales & operation teams, therefore with different users comes different needs. ROKT is slowly becoming one of the most powerful Ad-tech startup in the world and I am happy to say that having joined 6 months ago, I have slowly but surely introduced the idea of User Research as we grow in this early stage of becoming a world-wide powerhouse.

So how would one conduct an internal User testing session with teams around the world?

I think I found something that works for me!

Slack makes it an easy experience to share anything and everything, from just a thought to a large design file, I have never experienced an issue with speed, process or receiving feedback. So why not try to conduct a User Test?

We set up a meeting room, with:

1. Moderator — Person that ask the questions verbally through video chat
2. Questionnaire — Person that organizes the slack channel ( Typing/Copy-pasting questions, pointing out important answers that requires the moderator to ask a follow up question)
3. Note Taker — Scribe important conversation points

Tools:

1. Laptop
2. Timer — Each question should be around 5 mins (Typing out answers + speaking to follow up questions)
3. Slack
4. Some form of video conferencing medium — I use hangouts.

Method:

1. Ask the question via video chat
2. Give 2 mins to type out the answer
3. Encourage people to read, like/hate (using emojis) or comment on any answers they see
4. When there’s a clear split answer (USE “ /poll ” integration… Its Awesome)
5. Ask Follow up questions if you see something you would want a participant to extend on

Having done a couple of these now, I found some Pros and Cons with this method.

Pros:

1. People actually feel more comfortable “voicing” their opinion through chat vs being intimidated in-person.
2. Very Quick and easy to moderate
3. Everything was documented as they are part of the chat
4. People often went back to the channel and commented on things they found interesting after the session

Cons:

1. When there was a heated topic, participants naturally spoke before typing, hence the moderators had to instruct them to type their thoughts into slack before speaking
2. Some participant edited their answer after reading other participant’s answer
3. Sometimes conversations went on a tangent as social media’s gifs and hilarious emojis played a role

In conclusion, Slack is dope and I loved doing this and looking forward doing more User Research via Slack. Would love some to hear some of your feedback and your unique methods!