Conducting Synthesis Sessions Remotely
I recently conducted 15 interviews for a client to discover what modifications they may need to make to a current DevOps process in order to move to continuous integration and delivery (CICD).
The team started holding synthesis sessions to review the interviews in person and we were making great progress. However, living in Atlanta during the winter can bring ice storms. Southerners do not know how to handle ice or snow. We had our synthesis scheduled for a Friday, when the Governor of Georgia called a State of Emergency the day before and asked for people to be off the roads by 4 p.m. the next day.
I decided to experiment with holding the session remotely. Before I started our session, I reviewed David Ghent’s Using Trello for User Research Synthesis blog. (https://medium.com/product-labs/using-trello-for-user-research-synthesis-fb1abdfc7c4b#.8ngfmv248)
David’s board was setup slightly different because his team was conducting usability tests. Our team did discovery work around a business process. In addition, we had already had reviewed 3 users in person, so I had to incorporate that data into our remote session.
The Setup
Skype for Business — I setup an online meeting with Skype to screen share the videos with the team. You could use Google Hangouts too or any other screen sharing tool.
Tip: If you try to review videos with a team that is remote and in person, make sure to dial in to a conference for better audio.
Trello — I setup a board in Trello and shared the link with the team.
Trello Columns
I created 2 columns similar to David’s post.
First Column: Interviewee Name and Role
Each interviewee was assigned a label, if you name the label you can quickly assign it by using the # when entering a card
Second Column: Interview Notes
I put a card that explained the process and added a Trello sticker to make this card stand out.
Third Column +1: When we reviewed the cards, we created additional columns as themes started to emerge.
Tip: If using Chrome browser, install the plugin to assign numbers to the cards. It makes it easier for everyone remote to see which card you are talking about.
Review of Cards
After we listened to the interview, we started at the top of the column and read what the team member wrote. We decided after the first interview to change how we went through the cards. We assigned roles to move through the data quicker; One team member moved cards that were similar next to each other; another team member would create new columns and move cards to the appropriate column.
By the end of our meeting, we had captured new themes and organized cards into the themes.
Trello does allow you to print the cards, but it’s a PITA to then reorganize if you move back to your physical board of stickies.
The team really enjoyed this method of synthesizing our interviews. I personally feel like the team was more engaged than when we did the other interviews in person.
Another thing I enjoyed about using a digital format was our team didn’t have a dedicated room, so I had to constantly roll up the post its and re-hang them every time we had a session. :( I highly recommend if you have a lot of interviews to have a dedicated room for your synthesis sessions.
Want to learn more about Product Discovery and Lean User Research? Check out The UX Labs for workshops.
