Introducing our user research principles

Research principles are often intertwined with those of other teams. However, there is a real power in setting them out separately. They also need to work for us, in our context, as people who do research at Arnold Clark.

Since starting as user research lead, I could see some great ways of working for us to build on, and a few things we needed to do differently. I also had some pain points from the product managers and product designers to throw into the mix.

Marrying up these views, I knew some simple research principles would help guide our approach.

Where did I start?

I set about having a look at what was already out there. First point of call was the design principles we have in Arnold Clark. That gave me a good frame of reference and a way to set things out. I then looked for other inspiration, reading up on the Co-Op as an example from the private sector and the Department for Education as one from public sector.

I made my first draft.

I’d mentioned to a couple of colleagues I was working on this, and a few others reached out and asked if they could help. Amazing. I’m a real believer in the value of a team approach and other perspectives and skills.

So now we have our own set of user research principles.

Lets that a look at them

Do the best research you can in any given situation. Focus on the right problems, as you can’t research everything

Ask yourself:

• Have you looked at what research and data already exists (in the business or elsewhere)?
• Are you managing research and insights so that you, and others, can see how your product has developed over time?
• Do you have clear and well-defined research goals and questions?
• Do you know your riskiest assumptions?

Never do research alone. Involving others at all stages promotes empathy, reduces bias, and brings the user into the room

Ask yourself:

• Are you developing your research plan with others?
• Does everyone have a shared understanding of the goal?
• Are the research tasks clear and understandable to everyone?
• Have you supported, or joined up your research with another product squad?
• Have you invited stakeholders and colleagues to observe the research sessions or take place in any sense making?

Research often and use a mixture of methods to help inform you. Start with the research question, not the method

Ask yourself:

• Do research goals get planned in as part of the ongoing sprint cycles that the wider team can see?
• Do you know when you last spoke to the users of your product or service?
• Do you use a mixture of qualitative and quantitative research methods?
• Do you ship and learn when you can because the risk is low?
• Do you do in-depth research when the problem is unclear, and the risk is high?

Focus on what users do, not just what they say. It helps us understand their motivations and needs

Ask yourself:

• Are you getting out of the office and researching with our users in their natural environment?
• Have you written realistic scenarios for users to interact with, so you test tasks rather than features?
• Don’t ask users if they like or dislike something to understand if it’s useful.
• Don’t take what users say at face value. Dig deeper to understand their real needs

Be a champion for research as a craft. Work in the open, it makes things better for everyone

Ask yourself:

• Are you representing users, and their needs faithfully. Do you say when user needs aren’t being met?
• Are you telling an authentic story, linking your experiments to facts, and then to insights?
• Are you sharing what you think you have learnt with a wide range of other people?
• Can this research be found easily in the future?
• Do you constantly develop your research skills?

Always respect the privacy and integrity of our users and protect their personal data. Make sure our users know who we are, what we’re doing and how we’ll use their information

Ask yourself:

• Are you making it as easy as possible for all user groups, with varying accessibility needs, to be involved?
• Do the participants feel as safe as possible before, during and after the research session?
• Are you getting informed consent (verbal or written) and being honest about the purpose of the research?
• Are you anonymising our research, and presenting findings not attributed to individuals?

What next?

The first thing is to share the principles. Not just across the product area but with my engineering colleagues too. Then wider. Ultimately, we should all care about designing the right thing, and then building the thing right.

I want these to work for us. So I’ll be looking for feedback and the one thing that is certain is that they will, and should, continue to evolve.