Providing remote user research guidance
Editor’s Note: Uneeba Mubashsher and Audrey Keim are both members of the Experience Design Chapter at the Ontario Digital Service. Below they’ve shared some of their reflections working in the Ontario User Research (OUR) Lab and the work that has gone into supporting the lab’s transition to remote drop-ins for public servants across Ontario.
In February, the Ontario User Research (OUR) Lab completed its first remote drop-in session.
The Lab is a team within the Ontario Digital Service (ODS) that strives to provide user research leadership and support for the Ontario Public Service. Our approach is influenced and informed by the Digital Service Standard and the methodologies found in our User Research Guide.
Whether a project is in pre-discovery, discovery or the alpha/beta stages, as user champions, we are happy to collaborate with other public servants thinking through ways to reach and engage users.
Offering remote drop-in sessions
OUR Lab drop-ins have traditionally provided a dedicated, in-person collaboration session, facilitated bi-weekly at ODS HQ in Toronto.
We had been planning for almost a year to introduce some kind of remote option to expand access and convenience, but it was hard for us to imagine how it would go because our ‘normal’ was pretty well set and settled. We kept asking ourselves:
● Can we still maintain a casual and collaborative environment online?
● Will participants feel like they can “drop in” and out as they choose?
● Will two-way discussions flow?
● Will observers and casual listeners feel as welcome?
After many internal brainstorms, we came out with our minimum viable product through our first remote drop-in pilot in February. The launch demonstrated for our team that a different way — running remote drop-in sessions — is possible.
Fully remote drop-in sessions
Like so many other teams, COVID-19 forced us to jump more quickly into a remote way of doing things, and for us to fully offer remote-only sessions as of mid-March 2020.
We are lucky that we had done some experimenting before being required to go fully remote, but we are still iterating and improving as we move along.
Our ultimate goal is to support as many public servant teams across Ontario and to create a space to freely ask their questions with respect to user research — regardless of the format.
Here’s how we’ve been hosting remote drop-ins
1. It’s all in the preparation
We send out an invitation to our mailing list, as well as providing tips for successful remote meetings and a tutorial for the conferencing software.
2. Establish drop-in etiquette
We established remote conferencing etiquettes (as adopted by our routine remote team huddles) to ensure everyone gets their chance to hear and to be heard. To receive an introduction to this etiquette, check out Professional Etiquette for Videoconference Meetings and Conference Calls.
3. Designate a moderator
We also designate a moderator within the team to monitor participants entering the conference to ensure cyber safety, as well as to keep track of the chat and make sure everyone gets a turn to speak or ask questions.
4. Use a digital sign-in form
We send each attendee a digital sign-in form to fill in, which allows us to keep track of basic attendee information, such as ministry, contact information, their inquiries and their location. Having all of that information is helpful for us because we want to modify our outreach to target attendees across Ontario. Having a remote drop-in allows us to access public servants we might not have been able to access with just in-person sessions.
4. Allocate time for introductions
We receive a variety of project questions, and the conversations address various subjects because of the diverse nature of the projects.
We allocate time to let teams introduce their project where we ask basic questions like:
● where the team is from
● the context of their project
● what advice they may need to conduct user research for their project
These introductions are the foundation for how the lab provides feedback. In a virtual setting, it can take a bit of prompting and warming up to get folks chatting and sharing their projects, but once they do, conversation flows, and we’ve also found many attendees listen in engaged.
Allocating time for feedback is key
Our goal is to then make sure we allot time to not only understand the guests’ project but also offer meaningful feedback. The feedback portion of the discussion is where the important brainstorming, insights, and ideation take place, which is crucial when trying to articulate what the team’s next steps should be.
We love to hear from the wider Ontario Public Service, to understand and engage in their varied projects. There is a mutual information dissemination, which creates not only an exchange of information, tools and strategies but also provides opportunities for collaboration, validation and a greater appreciation for the individuals and the work that is being done.
Next steps
It seems that the majority of the public servants reside in the greater Toronto area just by the nature of their jobs. We have recently started actively tracking location via the sign-in form.
We are currently working on iterating some aspects as we learn from each session, with a focus on:
● improving engagement, especially amongst those individuals tuning in just to listen and learn
● identifying effective tools we can incorporate to facilitate workshopping
● continually fostering accessibility and inclusion
Putting together a virtual space for user research collaboration is a dream for user research advocates like ourselves.
