From Onsite to Readout in 2 Weeks
Tips for Conducting Lean Research in the Field
A few weeks ago, we (Alexa Carleo and Marlana Coignet) trekked to Colorado to conduct onsite observations of 7 Verizon stores in 5 days. After receiving feedback from an employee survey, we knew we had to go out in the field to understand the breadth of our colleagues’ experiences. This was an opportunity for our young UX Research team to prove how powerful in-context research could be. We were joined by a Service Designer (Rachelle Jackson) and a Product Manager (Emmanuel Kavoori). Today we’re going to talk about what we have learned and share some tips to go From Onsite to Readout in 2 Weeks.
Wait, wait, wait, how do you even plan something like this?
Alexa: This onsite trip was extremely short notice so we had to hit the ground running. We used the short notice and high priority of the project to our advantage in a couple of ways.
First, the trip’s immediacy allowed us to quickly get all cross-functional hands on deck. We convinced the powers that be that including a larger cross-functional team in our travel would allow us to simply accomplish more. One lone researcher could only be expected to produce 8–10 hours of work a day. Our team of 4 could quadruple the daily person-hours and absolutely be worth the extra cost to the business.
Secondly, our tight schedule forced us to establish our end goals and stick to them. It was a lifesaver for us to have an endgame in mind and truly understand what our deliverables needed to be before we even started. Then as we collected data and analyzed, we simply slotted in our findings to the deliverables we had already imagined. We knew the middle was going to be fuzzy but as long as we had something solid to march towards our work we felt more in control.
Marlana: As a researcher, often times we are asked to answer questions that are either too specific (will a user find this shiny new feature helpful on Tuesdays) or too vague (what do users think about tables). This project fell in more of the latter. We were asked to go “Out West”. Yup, that’s it. Out West, as though this were some sort Adventure heading straight to Disney+.
With such vague guidelines, we took this opportunity to shape the research from a bottom up approach, instead of top down. We scheduled workshops with our stakeholders to better understand what kinds of information they would like us to bring back.
So with buy in from our stakeholders and a master plan, we were ready to head out west.
4 people and 4 schedules, how did you manage that?
M: In a previous role that had, I would coordinate similar travel plans, where myself and someone from product would travel out to a city and meet with 8–10 different companies. It can be a bit difficult to plan travel with 4 people from your own office, to 7 different businesses with their own schedule.
One of the biggest first steps it to just select dates. You don’t want to plan too far in advance, where the company may forget they planned scheduled to meet with you, but you don’t want to do it too last minute. The sweet spot can be around 2 weeks.
Once you have your dates selected, go ahead and map out the companies that you would like to go to. Try to schedule those closer to each other on the same day. Map out your drive to each one, to make sure you have given yourself enough time and set your schedule that way. You want to make sure that you can get the most out of your travel and see as much as you can.
After you have drafted your schedule, you are also going to need to a confirmation with the companies that the day and time that you plan to be there is okay with them. Have some flexibility in your schedule if you need to move somethings around, but it’s best to set the date and time yourself.
A: For a project like this, cross-functional was key! It allowed us to attack the problem from multiple lenses at once. We were only going on this trip once, therefore having UX research, Service Design, and Product representation allowed us to get the most bang for our buck. But even before our team of 4 set off, we spend as much time as possible brainstorming with our entire Product and Development teams to understand what they expected out of this trip. Aligning with everyone means you get less unexpected questions come readout time.
But don’t you gather so much information while doing onsite observations? How do juggle all of that, let alone analyze it so quickly?
A: Yes, you do gather SO MUCH INFO IT’S OVERWHELMING. But, we’ve got some tips on how we managed the onslaught of data.
Here at Verizon Connect we use the online service Rev to get transcriptions of our interviews. And by seeming divine intervention Rev launched a new mobile app days before we left that allows you to quickly record and transcribe straight from your smartphone. (Ditch the voice recorder if you can, it makes you look like a second-rate detective.)
The app coupled with our discovery of Rev’s Automated Transcription service meant we were able to get fairly accurate transcriptions of our interviews minutes after they occurred. Mind. Blown. As a disclaimer, Rev doesn’t know us, they didn’t pay us to say this, I am just begging you from the bottom of my little researcher heart to check out this service.
Even though we planned as best we could, we learned along the way that you truly have to be flexible when on site. Your best laid plans WILL fall to the wayside when you enter a real life environment. And that’s okay! We learned we had to milk what you can from every experience. Ultimately, we gained more if we allowed our participants to lead the observation.
As expected with 7 different location, we started hearing consensus across sites. We realized we needed to become more efficient as we went on. To streamline your data collection, sit down halfway through your trip and determine what you know you know, and what you don’t know. Adjust your protocol to focus on those unknowns. It’s always nice to get validation as you go along, but start digging deeper!
Debrief with your team literally whenever you can — between interviews, during dinner, while you’re riding from location to location. We found that especially when we were crunched for time, allowing our data collection time to bleed into our analysis time really helped. If the team can start recognizing patterns and gathering insights as you go, you are ultimately saving yourself time and effort in the long run.
M: Knowing that stakeholders were hungry for this research, we wanted to get something to them pretty quickly.
We planned a half day for analysis, as well as downtime in the airport, and during which we started drafting a topline report. A topline report is a summary of key findings to be shared amongst stakeholders. Basically the TLDR of a more comprehensive readout deck.
By the time we traveled back, the topline was mostly finished. We spent about an hour or so on Monday finalizing it, and it was ready to be digested by the masses. It’s very important to utilize the freshness in your minds.
Lastly, we treated the first few days after our return as though we were still on the trip. We continued heads down time until we felt we had completed the agreed upon deliverables.
How do you prepare a quality deck when you only have 1 week? Also, how do you make sure that people come and listen?
A: That topline report came in handy again once we were ready to create more refined readout. We utilized the topline to brainstorm key scenarios that highlighted all of those insights we had “data dumped” into the topline. We found that building a narrative around our insights really captured the attention of our audience. Plus, it mimics the way in which we uncovered those insights — by observing real life as it unfolded and listening to participants’ stories.
M: Getting aligned with stakeholders before the trip helped to increase their investment in the findings. Once we got back and informed them we would be reading out the findings on Friday, the readout already had legs to stand on. By the time Friday came, lots of people showed up and were engaged. We had a lively discussion and this deck has been shared throughout our organization.
Now that this project is all wrapped up, if you had to do it again, what would you do differently? And what would you do the same?
A: Bring business cards! Share that contact info! Those you’re observing may want to reach out and share more about their experience. Let your onsite observation be the beginning of a long term relationship.
Bring donuts! Especially if you are not compensating your participants, snacks serve as a great icebreaker. It signals to your participants that you “come in peace”.
Recognize that other projects may take a backseat. You cannot reasonably expect yourself to conduct 8 hours of onsite interviews/observations and be left with enough brainpower to deliver on all your other projects. Devote your time fully to your onsite work, YOTO (you only travel once). Just make sure you let other stakeholders know that their projects might be a little delayed.
M: When you travel with coworkers, you spend a lot of time together. Maybe you sit next to each other on the plane, maybe not, but you’ll be driving around all over the city, debriefing on the visits, and eating meals together. Long story short, you are going to be spending a lot of time with your co-workers, so why not make it enjoyable.
Use this time to bond with your co-workers and get to know each other. You can find something fun to do, like a sporting event, or something that you can only do in the area you are. For our fun activity, we played Music Bingo at our hotel. It was a lot of fun, and we won some cool prizes.
And remember, you can do it in 2 weeks, but you don’t have to. We had the perfect storm of support — if your project needs 3, 4, or 10 weeks that’s okay too!
Written by Marlana Coignet and Alexa Carleo
Marlana is a UX Researcher for Verizon Connect, specializing in surveys and other mixed method research. The self-proclaimed Costco Queen spends her free time in Costco, talking about Costco, or eating something she bought… at Costco.
Alexa is a User Experience designer turned researcher. She specializes in mixed method research including in-depth interviews, usability testing, needs analysis, and feature prioritization. Colleagues know her as Alexa “tell-me-a-little-bit-more-about-that” Carleo.
