A Decision Framework for UX Resourcing

A strategic and adaptable decision framework for optimizing impact

As the demand for research continues to surpass the capacity of UX researchers (UXRs), especially in maturing organizations, the role of research democratization has become a hot topic — essentially, exploring the ways that non-UXRs can contribute to research.

Over the years, I’ve seen the UX field evolve and grow as our work ecosystem evolves. Leading research at our connected health company during a period of rapid growth brought a new challenge for us, although common in the UX field, our team couldn’t hire new members as quickly as the needs of the business and the number of product teams. I knew I had to look at short-term solutions that could adapt as we evolved. Scaling a research team meant addressing new challenges such as this and evolving our Research Operations, particularly focusing on the 6th pillar of Research Ops, Organizational Context, to best support researchers and scale our impact.

The challenge

Maturing organizations with limited UXRs must be deliberate when deciding their role for a study. For example, you may have team members who get caught up in trying to do it all and applying more than enough rigor to a project. However, this may lead to losing sight of the big picture, such as meeting the needs of users and your team, creating a positive user experience, and advancing UX maturity.

Some teams might take the stance of focusing researchers on strategic research to uncover new problems and opportunities, while others run evaluative research to evaluate solutions, such as concept or usability testing. Here, there’s a risk in quality that may undermine research ROI and negatively impact the team, as well as users. As a result, stakeholders may not see the immediate value of research, and this hinders growth and maturity.

In addition, there are teams where the company is not at the maturity level that goes beyond evaluative research. They may be stuck in usability land and need a way to free up their time to level up. In today’s world, researchers are considered a luxury for some, and teams are limited when it comes to hiring more researchers.

Researchers offer so much value through their expertise and craft. Not anybody can step in and do research with the same level of quality and impartiality. However, in all the above situations and others, the problem remains — UX researchers can’t give 100% to all projects.

Select your role

Photo by Abigail Keenan on Unsplash

As we often hear, research is a team sport. This stance and mindset are critical to succeeding in research influencing stakeholders. To address researcher capacity issues, select and adapt to a role that is most appropriate for a particular study. To define the roles that researchers could play in the study, consider the following:

• The size of the research team
• Budget for outsourcing work
• The existence of non-researchers with interest in and experience in research

Drawing from Behzod Sirjani’s roles, I defined 5 potential sports-inspired roles that a researcher could fill for a particular study. This primary role would then help to define roles for others:

A Team captain leads the study and the team as it relates to the study.

• The UXR defines the research questions, selects the methods, runs the study, unpacks the data, and delivers the findings
• Aligns the team and assigns tasks to them for support

A Coach will guide a non-researcher in leading the study throughout.

• Adjusts specificity of their direction based on the skill set of the individual
• Oversees the work of the individual leading the study and provides feedback

The Spectator is not playing an active role in the study and is completely hands-off.

• Observe and stay informed throughout
• Consumes the findings at the end of the study
• Someone else is leading the study

The Sports Manager is working with external vendors to outsource the study.

• Provides requirements and statement of work
• Works as an SME for the vendor throughout the study
• The vendor would be leading the study

The Player is working with a non-UXR (who has the required skills) to either run the study together, or is supporting the non-UXR with various activities such as:

• Planning
• Taking notes
• Analyzing data
• Observing participants

Think about what options are available to you and what roles make sense for your current environment. Include your team in this process to gain different perspectives and alignment.

Strategize

Once you define your roles, use a decision framework that asks important questions to decide the most appropriate role for yourself, the study, and the team.

If you are already using a research prioritization framework, such as Carol Rossi’s Prioritizating Research for Impact, GitLab’s Research Prioritization Calculator, or Christopher Geison’s R.O.A.M, some of those questions and answers could feed into your role decision framework.

A role decision framework in conjunction with a prioritization framework can help you maximize UXR value by selecting a role to take on for a project and thus, determine the amount of time and effort to commit to.

Below is a starter framework for deciding a researcher’s role on a project. You can adapt it to best fit your needs.

The role decision framework focuses on 5 key areas:

1. Capacity–Who has capacity?
   – How much capacity does the researcher have?
   – How much capacity do other team members have (e.g., junior researchers, designers, product managers, and engineers)?
2. Effort and complexity–How complex is the study?
   – What UXR skills are needed?
   – What methods will be used? Is there a method that can reduce time and effort without affecting quality?
   – How complex is the domain space?
   – Will the study or findings involve or inform multiple teams?
3. Career or development opportunity–Is this a beneficial opportunity for the researcher? And are non-UXRs interested in developing their skills?
   – Is the project an opportunity to develop or grow the researcher’s skills?
   – Is this a high-profile opportunity that will provide exposure for the researcher and/or demonstrate research value?
   – Could this lead to new or more opportunities?
   – Is this an opportunity for the non-UXR to learn and build empathy for researchers?
4. Business impact–What is the impact on the business?
   – Will this impact many teams, the roadmap, the strategy, etc.?
   – What is the cost or risk to the business or users if a researcher is not running the project?
5. Budget–Is there a budget to outsource?

Reflecting on the questions under each area will help guide you in deciding what role to take on for a particular project. You can create a decision tree that looks something like the following:

Game mode

Once you adapt the starter framework for your situation, look at how you can best incorporate it into your current workflow. Let’s take this workflow from my company as an example:

An existing research workflow demonstrating how the role decision framework can be added as a step

• Step 1: Research opportunity identified
  – UXR and/or stakeholders identify and initiate research opportunity
• Step 2: Assessment and/or intake meeting
  – UXR team assesses against known business priorities
  – UXR partner (where one does not already exist) is assigned to new projects.
• Step 3: Research Prioritization Framework
  – UXR aligns with stakeholders on priorities if there is a conflict
  – UXR coordinates with other research partners such as Market or Clinical Research and determines if there are opportunities to collaborate
  – If the project is deprioritized, UXR pauses or declines the project with minimal consultation
• Step 4: UXR Roadmap updated
• >>>Step 5: UX Research Role Decision Framework <<<
  – UXR determines their role in the project
• Step 6: Kick-off Project

In this example, the decision framework has been added as Step 5 after the updated roadmap and before the project kick-off.

Be sure to test out your framework and iterate if needed.

You win

A decision framework makes it easy to decide on a role because you’ve already determined the most important questions to reflect on. You can reuse this for every opportunity that arises. By using a framework, you:

• Play an important role in the decision-making process
• Take care of your well-being by balancing your workload appropriately
• Feel good about your work overall because you’re spending your time where it matters most to you and the organization, thus, maximizing your impact
• Help the organization mature while still meeting current needs

Final thoughts on the role decision framework

Organizations with limited researchers are often already inundated with projects and requests. To help with this, we can vary the researcher’s role to maximize research time, effort, and impact without sacrificing quality. We must be strategic when deciding the researcher’s role.

Using a decision framework that asks important questions helps us make the best decisions for everyone involved. Solve for what your organization needs now while you work towards your vision of how you’d like your research team to operate in the future. You can adapt this framework as your team evolves. For example, once the research team is larger, you can use the framework to decide when to delegate to junior or mid-level researchers.

When looking at Research Operations, various factors inform the right operations for your team at that time. Use this information to address challenges and maximize opportunities as changes like growth happen.

There isn’t one solution that fits all, but I hope the framework can help you get started when it comes to managing the many projects and requests. Just make sure that the team buys into the idea and revisits it periodically to adapt as the company matures and grows.

Credits

Thanks to Kat Thomson, Nelson Taruc and Jan Seifert for served as content volunteers for this article.