3 Phases of Product Research
There are three phases of research to human centred product development. These phases are formative (also known as discovery, generative, or foundational) research, directive research, and evaluative research. Each phase of research provides data and insights to the cross-functional teams that, along with business goals, should be driving decisions. Each phase of research has a core set of questions that should be answered.
Formative Research Phase
In formative research, the goal is to define the solution requirements. In other words who are the users, what are their goals, what is the user’s context, and where are there unmet needs that can be leveraged. More succinctly:
What is the problem we are solving?
How is it solved today?
What is good/bad about current solution?
What contextual factors need to be considered in any new solution?
What is user’s priority of improvements?
Directive Research Phase
In directive research, we are narrowing between solution sets. We need to understand how any potential solution fits into the business landscape. We also need to ensure that the solution selected is actually more effective, more efficient, and / or more satisfying to the user. To do this we need to understand how our chosen solution will alter what the user does. We also need to compare that to the current solution. More succinctly, the product development team needs to answer these questions:
What are the business goals and constraints (cost, schedule, constraints)?
How will our solution change what the user does?
Is that change a good value for the customer?
What can go wrong?
How do we mitigate/prevent that error?
Evaluative Research Phase
In this final research phase, we need to ensure that any solution we put out is designed to be as user friendly as possible. Once it is released, we need to evaluate the business metrics and identify potential areas for improvement.
Is this design user friendly?
Are we hitting our KPIs, metrics, targets?
How can we improve KPIs, metrics, targets?
