Lessons I have unlearned as a UX Researcher in 1 year: Part 1
Almost a year ago I completed my Bachelor of Design from IIT Guwahati, India. But unlike most of my peers, I was always interested and fascinated by the “research phase” of the design process which got me into taking up the job as a UX Researcher at Makemytrip. One year at Makemytrip was full of learning. But as they say, sometimes to learn a thing it is important to unlearn a few. So, here I am presenting to you the things I unlearned in my one year. Wait but before that, letting go of things or thoughts doesn’t just come easy and it requires timely syncing in. So instead of telling you everything all at once, I will be diving this piece into two parts. I hope you can learn from this so you don’t have to spend time unlearning them like me 🤷🏻♀️🤞🏻.
Unlearn 1: You could blindly rely on external recruitment 🤓🕵🏻♀
After trying different recruitment methods I had built an understanding that external recruitment(recruiting your users through an external agency) is the quickest and smartest choice and if the budget allows and one should go with it right away. It is reliable and will save time.
But there was a twist in the story and soon, I had to unlearn it. We were conducting research on the MakeMyTrip Bus funnel, and in one of the sessions that I was moderating something happened.
The conversation goes as follows:
Me: Would you mind telling me about your last trip where you traveled on a bus, where did you go?
User: I went to Bhopal from Delhi.
[we were ready with our weapons already as there was no direct bus from Delhi to Bhopal on any of the travel platforms]
Me: Oh are you sure, was it a direct bus?
User: Yes
Me: How much time did it take?
User: 10–12hrs
Me: Where did you book the tickets from?
User: Paytm
[and then I threw the trump card]
Me: Sir, so there is no direct bus from Delhi to Bhopal. Are you sure you booked one? Would you mind showing the booking details?
“Then what, obviously he was faking it. He didn’t have the details! I was also told, that once the company was carrying out research on business class travelers and they got a user who claimed to travel in business class. However, when asked on which airlines, he said Indigo. Lol….they don’t have a business class.”
So, because of the incentive sometimes users try to fake themselves or the agency itself sends in trained users. Imagine the adulteration in the research you might be getting even after spending hours on making a research plan. Coming to the moral of the story.
Take away 1: “Be Sherlock Homes with externally recruited users 🕵🏻”
Unlearn 2: Include all stakeholders in the study 👯♂ 👯♂
There is no doubt that including more and more stakeholders in and around your study is going to positively impact the UX Maturity of the org.
For example, we included one PM as part of our study, after the session was complete he got quite interested in our work and actually saw value in it. And soon he came with a new research request for his LOB. So, our overall awareness increased as we are a fairly new team.
Take away 2.1: But you need to be careful of when whom and how to include.
For example, during one of our UTs sessions, we had shared the zoom id with other stakeholders for observation purposes. However, after a couple of sessions the product folks, based on insights from just a few sessions had changed the interface during the course of the study without realizing the effect it would have on the analysis.
Take away 2.2: A small briefing helps a lot in these situations
Unlearn 3: Research isn’t about problem-solving 🙇🏻♀🤔
I had a fear that research wasn’t about problem-solving. But once I started facing actual research projects I realized that research is so much more about finding the right set of methods to solve a problem, than it is about the actual solution.
Take away 3: Research in most cases is contextual.
There are always different kinds of constraints like culture, geography, time, budget, etc and the formulas you learned from previous research will not apply in the same way to the next even though the briefs look similar. You need to be clear with the basics of experiment design. It is more like being a doctor for the UX. You know the medicines but every patient might not have same the symptoms from the same diseases.
Unlearn 4: Practice makes you perfect 🔍 🧙🏻♀
Now that I have established that it is about problem-solving and not the solution always, let me tell you that this problem-solving ability requires plenty of practice. It’s only through continuous practice that you understand research methods and the best ways to implement them.
Take away 4.1: Practice doesn’t make you perfect it makes you better
Advice for people getting into this field:
Try and look for projects involving different kinds of research methods in your early career so that you have tried and tested all the medicines for the UX and you know the prescription of which one to give for what symptoms.
When I got into the field Mix Method approach was the new black, writing these prescriptions you realize every situation is different, and most often things always end up being mixed methods.
Take away 4.2: Most of the research plans are eventually mixed methods
Unlearn 5: Research isn’t as creative as design-design 😏
Okay, so let’s just accept it there are existential lows in no matter what you do. Coming from a design background, and seeing designers playing around and coming up with cool innovative solutions, I used to miss being a designer or feel that research isn’t creative. Until I read about this sketch method research: https://www.intercom.com/blog/videos/understanding-your-users-mental-model/
And then I also planned and conducted a food brainstorming session to measure the experience of food during one of my internships. The highest point of realization came when we came up with a research plan in order to figure out the info, users valued the most on a redesigned page of our train’s funnel using the Dollar Value Method or in Indian Context Rupee Value Method. The users were asked to buy the 3 most important pieces of information using the money they were given and how much they would pay for each.
Take away 5: Tomorrow will be an another day, and don’t forget to regularly feed yourself with the cool stuff researchers do.
I think that is it for Part 1. If you found it valuable stay tuned and don’t forget to check out Part 2 of this blog. But remember, only after you have worked on unlearning these 💆🏻♀️🕺🏻☝🏻
A significant amount of these unlearning and learning came from deep discussions with my Manager. Thanks, Yatin 🙏🏻 for taking out time and patience to answer questions of a young head full of doubts 🙇🏻♀️
