Kickstarting the collaboration with stakeholders as the first research hire

Starting a research function from scratch can be exciting and challenging at the same time. You’ve got setting up research ops, team hiring, defining a team strategy, evaluating success, and more on your to-do list.

Needless to say, one can easily become overwhelmed by this list!

Before jumping into that list, take the time to understand the state of UX research (UXR) at your organisation. 40-minute interviews with stakeholders are a great way to start. These short chats will help you grasp how they see research, and how user/ customer feedback is currently collected and utilised.

You might think that there is no “state of user research” if you are the first research hire. Believe me, after conducting these interviews you will find out that, some kind of “research”is taking place — whether effective or ineffective, rigorous or messy — regardless of the lack of a structured function.

Hearing from stakeholders will help you spot any misconceptions and knowledge gaps from the start. Plus, you’ll get input for setting up the function for success, tailored to your company’s unique context.

Stakeholder interview guide: The state of UXR

This is a rough interview guideline for you to structure conversations with stakeholders, aiming at understanding the state of research.

• Section 1: Introduce yourself and the session
• Section 2: Previous experience with UX research
• Section 3: The role of UX research at the company
• Section 4: Expectations and recommendations for collaborating
• Section 5: Questions and final thoughts

Section 1: Introduce yourself and the session

Short and sweet. This section should not take longer than 5 minutes. Introduce yourself and why you are running these interviews.

After the introductions, identify if the stakeholder has had any experience working with UX research. If they did, understand to what extent. This information will help you guide the interview onwards.

Example question:

• Could you describe what has been your experience with UX research?

Section 2: Previous experience with UX research

If stakeholders have had experience working with a UX researcher in the past, they will usually mention or describe specific projects. Make sure to guide the conversations with the questions below, tailored to the projects the stakeholder mentioned.

Example questions:

• What was the experience like during [project name]?
• Who was involved and what roles did they play?
• What were the tasks and responsibilities for UX research?
• How would you describe the collaboration between the team, specifically with the researcher?
• What were the outcomes of the [project]?
• How involved was UX research in delivering those outcomes?
• Was this experience similar or different to the others you mentioned?

For stakeholders who haven’t worked with UX research, you can ask the following:

Example questions:

• What words come to mind when you think about UX research?
• Tell me about a previous project (from another company) where things were uncertain.
• How did you handle those uncertainties during that project?
• Were there any takeaways/ learnings for you from that project?

Section 3: Current UX research experience at the company

In this section, you want to understand how stakeholders currently conduct UX research efforts in the company. Even if some think they are not, there is usually some customer/ user input feeding the product development cycle. It is crucial for you to find out when and how this input is being used.

Example questions:

• What are core metrics for your tribe/squad/team?
• Please walk me through the last time you built your product roadmap.
• How is the user/ customer perspective taken into account during these (development cycle and roadmap) processes?
• What sources of user/ customer feedback do you currently have access to?
• What tools do you currently use to collect user/ customer feedback?
• How do you use these tools?
• Can you tell me about a project where user feedback informed your decisions?
• Tell me about a project where there was little user feedback involved.

Section 4: Expectations and recommendations for collaborating

Next, you want to understand stakeholder’s expectations about working together with research. Use the chance to ask for recommendations on how to navigate the company as a newbie. This will help you adapt your ways of working to different stakeholders and departments.

Example questions:

• How do you envision the collaboration between your team and UX research?
• How do you expect the researcher to support you?
• What do you imagine your role will be when conducting a UX research effort?
• How would you measure the success of a UX research effort?
• What is the best way to communicate and collaborate with you?
• Do you have any recommendations on information, documents, or people I should look at or speak to during my onboarding?

Section 5: Questions and final thoughts

Before closing the session, give the stakeholder time to ask you any specific questions and share other thoughts they may have.

Example questions:

• Is there anything else you would like to share with me?
• Do you have any questions for me?

At the end of the session I share my next steps with them. I’ve found this helpful in providing transparency and reducing uncertainty.

I use the learnings from these interviews to define my strategy for setting up the research function. These conversations are also the foundation to create a presentation to introduce research to the org.

Check our Introducing a UX research function template to learn how you can do this too.

Remember, these are example questions. The important thing is to start a conversation and relationship with the people you will be working with elbow to elbow everyday (hopefully!).

Good luck 🙂

We would love to hear your experience with the guide or any other questions that you consider relevant. Feel free to comment in the section below. We try to answer all your messages.