The State of User Research Report 2018
Survey design and analysis by Erin May. Writing and graphics by Carrie Boyd.
User research is on the rise. More and more companies are putting user feedback and insights in the place the belong — front and center. This is a great thing, a trend we’re happy to be part of and help celebrate.
To kick off the year, we wanted to zoom out, and take stock of the state of user research as it stands right now. In our first annual State of User Research Report, we heard from 169 professionals who spend at least 10% of their workdays closely involved with user research. We probed into how they [perhaps you] spend their time, what they love, and don’t love, about practicing user research today, their hopes for tomorrow. The results have already been helpful for us internally, as we seek to build better products and experiences for research professionals, and we hope they’ll be enlightening for you as well.
Here are some highlights of our research, followed by more detailed analysis, and ending with an appendix containing charts galore.
TL;DR
1. More research please
75% of our respondents said their companies didn’t do enough research. The same percentage said they could do more to use the research they are doing to make smarter decisions. As the industry moves forward to conduct research more habitually, an important aspect of its success will be making sure teams are empowered to maximize the use of the research that’s happening.
2. Research helps teams understand customer needs and make better decisions
Our respondents’ favorite thing about research is the ability to make decisions with better evidence(40.7%). The top goals of their research programs overall? To understand customer need, rated at a 4.6 out of 5 in terms of importance, closely followed by validating early stage solutions, a 4.4 out of 5. We were happy to see understanding customer need come in #1.
3. Researchers think their programs are effective overall
On average, our respondents rated the effectiveness of their research at a 7.5 out of 10. There’s a high correlation between how effective researchers view their efforts and how fulfilled they are in their roles. Those who reported they are more fulfilled at work (5 out of 7 or more) rated their effectiveness at a 7.9 while those who feel less fulfilled rate it at a 6.5. Which came first, fulfillment or effectiveness? We can’t say, but we dive into what makes teams feel effective and fulfilled below.
4. Validating early-stage solutions is a key use case for research
88.7% of respondents said they conducted research during the design and prototyping phase, once they already have something for users to look at or test. Nearly as many, 84.5% are conducting research before designing or prototyping anything. The best time to understand customer need — the top goal of research — is before designing anything. While the differences are very slight (88.7% versus 84.5%), we would hope to see pre-design, discovery research approach 100% over the coming years.
5. Researchers deploy many methods to answer questions
Our respondents typically use a mix of methods to conduct their research sessions, but two types rise above the rest. 95.6% of respondents conduct at least one user interview a month, and 91.1% conduct at least one moderated usability test. However large or small your team, anyone can get up and running with both of these methods with a small budget and limited amount of time.
6. Researchers most often rely on their own users as participants
While 30.2% of our respondents conducted more than half of their research with outside participants and 54.6% conducted more than half of their research with their own participants, 74.5% used a mix of both kinds of participants. We always say, the best kind of research is the kind you’ll actually do, so taking advantage of the users right in front of you is a great way to do regular research. But, prospective users have a wealth of insights unbiased by familiarity with your product, and they’re easier to reach than ever.
7. Research isn’t just for “researchers”
50.5% of our respondents said there were more people doing research at their company than there were dedicated researchers. On top of that, 35.7% of respondents said research wasn’t relegated to just one group or team. 35% of our respondents did not have research related titles, but are still doing lots of research. We love this topic as it’s a fun messy one, but in large, we are happy to see professionals across the spectrum participating in generating and using user insights!
8. Research budgets are a top frustration
The most popular frustration for our respondents was budget. 22.1% of respondents said their biggest frustration with research at work was not having enough budget or resources to get the job done. On top of that, 20.5% of researchers said their research budget was between $0–99 a month. You can do great research on a small budget, but if you want feedback outside your own user base and tools to collect and make sense out of the raw qualitative data, you won’t get far with $99 or less a month.
9. Generally researchers are pretty fulfilled
When asked how fulfilled they felt at work — on average — our respondents rated their fulfillment at a 5.1 out of 7. A whopping 75.2% of our respondents rated their fulfillment at a 5 or higher. Factors like remote work, smaller companies, and prioritization of research correlated with stronger ratings here.
