How N-able UX plan and conduct contextual inquiry research sessions

In the rapidly evolving landscape of information technology (IT), Managed Service Providers (MSPs) play a crucial role in delivering proactive and scalable IT solutions to businesses.

In this article, we’ll explain how the N-able UX team uses the research technique of contextual inquiry to get closer to our customers and uncover valuable insights.

What is contextual inquiry?

Contextual inquiry is a qualitative research technique used to understand how people work and interact within their natural environment.

It involves observing users as they go about their tasks, asking questions, and gathering insights directly from their experiences. Unlike traditional interviews or surveys, contextual inquiry focuses on capturing real-world behaviours, challenges, and needs in context. By immersing researchers in the users’ environment, contextual inquiry provides valuable insights into the users’ workflows, pain points, motivations, and decision-making processes, which can inform the design and development of products or services that better meet their needs.

Here at N-able we arrange contextual inquiry research activities with Managed Services Providers (MSPs), who we refer to as our “partners”.

We always start by running through a checklist which we need to ensure a successful partner visit, this is broken up in three stages, pre, during, and post-visit. Each stage includes a range of different activities, which we’ve set out below.

Our partner visit checklist

1. Pre-visit

This stage include the following activities:

• Defining Objectives: We start by clearly outlining the goals and objectives of our partner visit and determine the insights or information we aim to gather. This could be observing MSP’s using specific N-able products in their day-to-day role or sharing new concepts for early feedback. Often it will be both.
• Performing background research: After this we carry out some preliminary research on the MSP we plan to visit, including their size, the services they provide, and the products they use. We also collaborate with our Partner Success Managers (PSMs), who have existing relationships with many of our MSP’s, to get a clear understanding of the partner we plan to visit and how we can provide value to them on the day
• Arranging a meeting: Having conducted our background research we’ll schedule a call with the partner to validate our timeline for the day and make any amends based on the feedback we gather. Communication here is key so that everyone is aligned and has clear expectations of the visit.

2. During the visit

While on-site we look to break things down into four areas:

• Welcome and Introductions: When we arrive at our partner’s office, we introduce ourselves to their team and get an initial tour of the office space to learn more about the structure of their business. This is an opportunity for us to take notes and observe how they operate within their different departments. This initial tour can vary in the length of time it takes based on the size of the company. Sometimes we visit small MSPs who are working out of a confined space. You’d be amazed how efficient they can be with a small team and office size!
• Meet the Team: After a tour of the office, we then meet with the various team members, including IT technicians, support staff, and management. This helps us to gain insights into their roles, responsibilities, and areas of expertise, as well as how they operate in the space they use.
• Observations: Now for the most important part of the day where we’ll spend at least an hour or two with our partners watching them as they use our products as part of their daily routines. The insights you can gather from these sessions is invaluable and you might find that you have a sore hand with all the notes you end up taking, but it’s more than worth it. If we’re taking photos or videos, we’ll need to ask our partner to sign a consent form so that we have permission.
• It’s also worth remembering that because we are conducting research in our partner’s environment we need to act as a silent observer. If we have any questions, we try and ask them when there is an opportunity that doesn’t interrupt their tasks at hand.
• Sharing product development: Visiting our partners in their office presents an opportunity for us to share with them new concepts that we are working on, in order to gather early feedback. We can also share with them our roadmap plans for the future. It’s a great way to give something back for the time that they have given up hosting us, and it helps to validate our priorities.

3. Post-visit

Once we return to our office we do the following to stat to understand the data we have gathered:

• Reflective session: After we conduct a partner visit, we take time to reflect on our observations, insights, and experiences. We’ll organise a meeting and discuss anything we think could be improved for the next time.
• Synthesise our findings: We usually have a lot of information which we’ve taken from our day observing our customers and taking notes. So, we make sure that we give ourselves the right amount of time to synthesise all your findings and make sense of what we’ve learned. At N-able we often use a Miro canvas to organise all our assets including the schedule of the day, concepts, roadmap videos, and some of the observations taken from the visit.
• Share our insights: Once we’re done synthesising all our observations and gathering all the feedback, we present our insights back to both our UX colleagues and other key stakeholders. This is important because we want to not only sell the benefits of conducting contextual inquiry research to senior colleagues outside of our team, but also to highlight potential opportunities to improve the user experience of key products and features that our scrum teams are working on.

Conclusion

Contextual inquiry research is an excellent method of gathering valuable insights from our partners and complements existing research activities that we carry out.

At N-able we love to be a fly on the wall and meet our partners in their own environment. The number of insights and behaviours we can gather that would otherwise go unnoticed in a Teams meeting is incredible. A well-structured office visit to an MSP can provide invaluable insights into their operations, methodologies, client engagement strategies, and the other third-party products they use to help them in their day-to-day roles.

We also get to observe first-hand the frustrations, workarounds, and pain points encountered when we’re acting as a ghost member of their team for a day.

So, the next time you want to gather rich insights from your customers or to uncover pain points your customers experience in their everyday roles using your products, why not get out of your office and go and visit them. You’ll be amazed at the insights you can gather!

Julian Taylor
Senior UX Researcher