5 Tips for Building a Lean UX Research Team Fast
By Jess Holt-Carr, Associate Director of UX Research @ Chewy
This article is based on a presentation I gave to Boston-based UX designers and researchers at Wayfair’s Emerge event.
There are not many times in life when you get the opportunity to create something from scratch, mold the process, add the people you want to be around day in and day out, and create a culture and practice that people respect. This is an opportunity I had this year at Chewy, and it’s something I don’t take for granted.
About a year ago (Halloween 2018), I joined the Chewy team as a design manager, leading a small team of designers. We were a group in transition and growing. In March 2019, I started to grow and scale Chewy’s UX research team. In just over six months, we:
- Added seven researchers to our team
- Completed 60 studies
- Formed and solidified relationships across departments
- Established our processes and standards for our deliverables
- Created communication channels to share research findings across Chewy
We didn’t hire seven talented and diverse researchers and strategists and complete more than 60 studies just from wishing. We were successful because we were able to adapt and be flexible. It took a plan, a few missteps, and a lot of talented people to make it happen. Here are my tips for rapidly growing teams in any specialty.
Tip #1: Outline Challenges
How will you know what to change or build if you don’t have a firm grasp of your starting point? Just like any good UX project, audit the landscape and understand your barriers. Identify what you are up against. I like to take an old-school approach: Fold a blank piece of paper into three columns. Do a brain dump without over-thinking and get your thoughts on paper.
- Column 1: What is the challenge?
- Column 2: How are you going to solve it?
- Column 3: Rough timeline for when it will be done
You need to be honest with yourself about the challenges and whether they are in your control. For example, do you need approval to access a new tool? Do you need to collaborate with other teams? How will you tackle these challenges? Just like in your life, if you don’t outline your end goal and how to get there, it will just be an idea that never comes full circle to a tangible outcome.
Tip #2: Craft Your Mission
Once you have a good understanding of the landscape, you need to develop your story and your elevator pitch. This is important for both internal and external communication because it gives the ability to pitch your ideas and get approval and budget. It’s also the pitch you will use with external candidates when you’re hiring.
If you are hiring or looking for a job in the UX world, you know it truly is a buyer’s market. As a hiring manager, you are not just selling yourself and your company, but also the mission of the group. Candidates care about their long-term career track and the vision for the group in the organization. They will be interviewing you, so be ready with a well-thought-out mission.
Tip #3: Shape Your Team
If you need to hire or fill gaps in your team’s expertise, you need to understand and outline what skills are you looking for. Audit the level and skill set of your team members and look for opportunities to become more well-rounded. A diverse team can take on a variety of projects and give team members opportunities for mentorship. If you see gaps in your existing team members’ skill sets, can you get them additional training or resources to grow those skills?
Tip #4: Define Your Process
I’ve learned that as you scale, you need to have a solid framework and set of tools to draw from. When a team consists of a few people, it is a lot easier to have desk-side conversations, but as the team grows, it’s critical to have a solid way of working, an established set of tools, and expectations around intake and communication.
We outlined a general process and way to work with the research team. Anyone with a research need can submit a ticket to our JIRA board — it can come from design, research, product, execs, it does not matter — the ticket gives us something to get started with. Next, we assign the right researcher to the research request. When we are ready to work on it, the researcher assigned to the ticket schedules a kickoff meeting, and from that kickoff meeting, we recommend an approach and research methodology. This helps set expectations around what we plan to do, timelines, and expected outcomes or deliverables. When everyone agrees on the approach, we run the study. Next, we provide a preliminary summary of the research findings to help our fast-moving scrum teams iterate and design. We compile and synthesize the findings, share them with stakeholders, and document everything in our wiki, Confluence.
Aside from the process, we have also solidified our tools and nailed down what research tool we use in the various scenarios. For example, we use UserZoom, Qualtrics, WebEx, Survey Monkey, and UserInterviews.com to recruit for and run moderated user interviews.
Tip #5: Prove Yourself
Everyone on the team is on the hook to do solid work. Every project reflects back on the team, especially for a newly founded group trying to establish its credibility within the organization. Your first instinct may be to tell everyone about all the services you can provide, but the more impactful way to spread the word is to deliver positive outcomes and delight your stakeholders. When you provide value, people want to work with you and word spreads. Just provide value and the rest will flow organically.
According to Bruce Tuckman, teams go through various stages of formation. It’s natural to go through growing pains and establish processes, but the end goal is to get to a state where your team is performing.
There will be bumps and hurdles along the way, whether it be with process, team formation, or external factors. But stay the course and know that if you prove yourself and your team’s capabilities, the rest will fall into place.
by Jess Holt-Carr
Associate Director of UX Research @ Chewy
If you have any questions about careers at Chewy, please visit https://www.chewy.com/jobs
