‘What exactly is UX Research again?’
It’s a question I used to get asked all the time when I joined TransferWise. Along with:
‘What is UX Research?’
‘Why do we need this kind of research?’
‘Why haven’t we had this before?’
‘How is this better or more reliable than analytics?’
All great questions.
In a lot of ways, I was quite fortunate being brought in as the first UX Researcher at TransferWise. While it has been and still to an extent remains an engineering- and analytics-heavy company, people here are motivated, open-minded, and curious. With proper explanation and justification why something should be, most will give it a chance if not accept it. Sure, there are remaining skeptics, but I was given the chance to prove why UX research matters and why TransferWise needed it, and succeeded beyond expectation.
But to start this story from the beginning — the biggest challenge I had to deal with was convincing people why UX research mattered and therefore why they should care about it.
I approached this by pumping up the visibility and education around qualitative research. Most of the hesitancy was around not knowing what UX research and qualitative research was, rather than outright hostility or disagreement with it (thank goodness).
So I started with psychology. What is the best way to get people on board? Show them how and why this this would benefit them. Show them empathy and understanding in how it would make their work and lives easier, better, and more impactful. And that’s what I did.
Teaching UX Research 101
One of the first things I did once I realized that the problem was around lack of knowledge and exposure was educate people around what qualitative research is. I held monthly 45-minute classes where I went over the basics of what UX research is and its limitations, the differences between qualitative and quantitative research, when and how you should use UX research, and the types of questions it will help answer.
The classes were open to everyone in the company . Of course my original intent was to target those in product teams, especially those in the engineering team where I’d traditionally had the most pushback, but in the end I decided it was better to let everyone who was interested attend. Why not? Knowledge is meant to be shared and true to research principles, I tried not to assume who would benefit most. I’m glad I did it this way as teams I would have never thought of, like our HR/People team, Affiliates, and even our Office team, have approached me to learn how they can utilize research in their work.
Teaching these classes was one of the easiest ways to communicate a lot of information about the benefit of UX research to the whole company. I taught these classes at several of our offices worldwide, beyond our headquarters in London.
Making research visible
Beyond teaching classes I set up several Slack channels (our preferred method of communication) so people could follow research, get feedback about their own research, and ask questions. Several channels were set up, including open platforms for people to ask questions on how to set up their studies, how to use our remote testing tools, and a dedicated place where user testing results could be shared for discussion and knowledge sharing.
Since this initial Slack set up I’ve also created a live user testing calendar, so whoever wants to follow research can dial into the streamed call and observe. For many sessions we also have viewing rooms so anyone who is interested in watching the sessions live in their offices can watch remotely and ask moderators to pass along their questions to the participants without disturbing the flow. This also facilitates group note taking and live discussion on what was just observed. I will be writing another, more detailed article about this later this year.
Being honest about the limitations
To cement the credibility of UX research, I’m always honest about what qualitative research can and cannot help with.
Can it help measure usability and how easy it is to use a product?
A: Yes.
Can it help define different user segments and how their needs might be different?
Yes.
Can it help fully determine all the personas available in a given population?
A: It can help but it will need additional quantitative data.
Can it predict the absolute success of one version of a design over another?
A: No, unfortunately not, but it can help guide which one will most likely perform better based on comprehension, usability, and other metrics that will likely make a difference to a user.
And on and on. There are so many things it can help with, but in order to make the benefit of qualitative research reliable, realistic, and tangible, it’s best to be truthful about what it also can’t do. Make it clear what it’s really for, and people will use it correctly and have less reason to doubt.
Giving research an actual face
Alongside making research and its benefits more visible in TransferWise, it was also helpful to make myself, my face, more visible as well. How could I expect people to come to me for help around research if they didn’t know who I was, what I looked like, or where to find me? While I enjoy my ‘research cave’ (we sit in an open-plan office and I sit in the corner of the room so I can people watch while I work), a large portion of the tests I help set up and run are initiated by someone running into me in the communal kitchen, chatting with me after meetings, or direct message Slacking me when they have questions. They wouldn’t be able to do this if they didn’t know who to contact, and so I make myself as approachable as possible.
Making it easy to love research
Beyond education, one of the best ways to get someone sold on research is to get them involved so they can see it all firsthand.
In order to make the barrier to entry as low as possible, I got teams to own their research and truly live the full research process. As well as helping them, I also have them do many of the ‘smaller’ tasks needed to set up research. I think immersion is key.
Need to get customers into the office to speak to you for live interviews? Great! Here is how you do that, let’s do it together so you’ll know how to in the future and streamline your team’s research. I don’t want to be the bottleneck to any team’s research, so teaching them these processes is invaluable to getting them upskilled and knowledgeable about the logistics needed around research. It also sets more realistic expectations on how long it takes to set up and then run research sessions (it is usually longer than teams would like).
Remote user research and its quick turnaround have also helped a lot. I chose a tool that allows the team to easily set up their own tests so they can learn and experience it themselves. Though I still retain admin rights to check and then approve setting their tests live, they are doing the thinking, planning, and execution of the tests themselves. I am there for guidance and advice.
Giving the teams this power and control over their testing means they’re more involved, more bought in, and more enthusiastic about moving the needle on their projects.
And beyond
Things are constantly adapting and evolving at TransferWise, and likewise the pathway for research is also changing. These were the strategies I deployed to get the teams to understand what qualitative research is and really buy into it. But there’s still more work to do and as the research team grows, the face(s) of research will change, as will our priorities and ways of working. I’m excited to see what that looks like as we continue onwards.
Want to join the TransferWise UX research team? Check out our open positions here.
