How we do research at Common Good — Part 2
Previously I posted our approach to research. This is the second part where I’ll talk about purpose and decision-making to use those methods.
The research purpose
Before we leap into the methods we use, it’s important to start at the beginning and uncover more about our thought process. So what is the purpose of the research and how do we plan what methods we’re going to use in-line with research objectives?
We write a research brief containing further information on the business objective, primary research objectives, hypotheses and assumptions, audience and customer segments, tasks to achieve and timings of deliverables. This drives the methods we use in relation to our research objectives — what are the big questions we need to find out.
We often challenge briefs and reframe problems from a customer perspective. We then figure out who or what is involved in the research, considering who the target audience is, who we want to participate and how we select them.
Deciding on the methodology
Once the team are all clear on what we’re trying to find out and why, we decide and plan how the the research should be conducted.
- Which combinations of primary and secondary research to use?
- What do we do in terms of quantitative and qualitative methods?
- What methods and tools should we use?
At Common Good we always embark on a mix of primary and secondary research. One of our first tasks is often to find existing information about the challenge or problem. It’s amazing what you can uncover with some good desk research, databases and systems, before even getting out of the building. We use it as a starting point to understand the industry, trends, market and competitors.
Primarily, we lead with qualitative research. There is no better way of immersing yourself in a problem than getting out of the building and engaging with the people (more about this here). That said, we understand the importance of data and statistical analysis and work alongside experts in data science and analytics to evaluate existing data. We help find themes, patterns and tell stories with this.
There are lots of methods in our toolkit, so I’ve selected a couple that I find particularly useful to share.
Drawing on anthropology, psychology and sociology we use tools to help carry out field studies — these can be in people’s homes or places of work — and uncover underlying goals and behaviours. We decide on sites to visit, spend time with participants observing and listening to them and understand existing experiences to uncover real issues for people. Here are three methods that work well for conducting field research.
Service safaris
We use service safari’s to understanding existing services. Our researchers experience the service or services first-hand to discover and document touch-points and highlights. It is also important for us to take inspiration from other sectors and services to see what learnings we can apply to the given problem. This typically involves us documenting the experience of good and bad areas. (No animals are involved in service safari’s — we had to clarify this with a client!)
When working with the NHS Blood and Transplant project we wanted to experience friendly and welcoming atmospheres, so we visited waiting rooms in different settings from dentists to coffee shops. After a safari we create an inspiration wall in the studio with photos, field notes and themes to visual and share the findings with the team.
Contextual inquiry
This method is particularly valuable in gathering information on people in their natural environment. It involves a mix of interviews with people and behavioural observation. This is essential to get a well rounded picture of what people do via first-hand observation, and why they do it. It’s important to note that when we talk about customers, we mean all types of people involved in a service or experience.
Improving the experience for donating blood involved visiting different donation centres across the UK to engage with donors and staff .This enabled us to understand the overall experience, audit existing spaces in different locations and understand differences in donors coming into the centres. We discovered pain points and how we might design solutions to alleviate them.
Expert interviews
We’re a talented small team working on big challenges but we don’t and can’t know everything there is to know in the world! That’s why we need to get subject experts involved to make our research as robust and thorough as possible.
We’ve collaborated with experts in interior design, industrial design, colour psychology and packaging production houses — they allow us to uncover valuable expertise in niche areas that feed into our design process and know-how.
Next time
We’re experimenting with all sorts of other tools at the moment to fill our toolkit, ranging from mobile diaries to machine learning.
Next time I’ll go into methods of research analysis and synthesis to pull key insights that help facilitate and strategically drive design objectives.
