How to track UX research impact? Mapping the impact of UXR on product development provides insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the UXR team. What is the state of the UXR practice in the organization? Jake Burghardt shares in his article a viewpoint in which he maps the impact on product development by identifying three levels of impact*: 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 – providing new understanding that could shape multiple product decisions 𝗦𝘆𝗺𝗯𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 – providing data to support a decision in flight 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹 – providing data that leads to an improvement of a concrete product/service All three levels have their value. Examples Jake provides to clarify: 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 - “After watching the overview on that customer type, I brought a different perspective to every meeting.” Or “That model and the insights behind it give us a lot to think about as we’re going into our next planning session.” 𝗦𝘆𝗺𝗯𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰 - “This research illustrates why our current plan addresses a real customer unmet need.” Or “We were planning on updating how we track beta feedback. Post-launch research also confirmed the need to revisit our process.” 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹 - “Based on research insight X, we are designing and creating a plan for feature Y.” Or “We heard from customers that X was a real challenge. With feature Y, we’ve got you covered.” How does this help? By examining the product development cycle from foundation to validation, the UXR team can map the type of impact they have on each of the stages. Is there mainly symbolic justification at the start of a product? Or does the team impact conceptual knowledge that leads to strategic decisions? Does validation lead to instrumental changes? Or mere symbolic justification? And what happens with the conceptual insights? Etc. The different levels of impact can be matrixed to the basic stages of the product development process. This gives you an overview of where UX research impacts the process and where you should make adjustments to steer towards the desired situation. Check out the full article for more details on how to map, the stages of product development, and the opportunities this can bring: https://lnkd.in/eS67gNGA Thanks to Carol Rossi for sharing the article #UserResearch #UXResearch #Impact #MeasuringImpact #UXR *These categories are defined by a group of authors whose focus was on the impact of research on health policy. However, we can also apply these categories to product development. The full article contains more about the authors and links to their study.
Insightful
Author: Stop Wasting Research | Consulting: Integrating Research
2moThanks for sharing, UXinsight! Giving credit where it's due -- In the article, I point to the originators of this framework: "Through Brigette Metzler’s writing, I learned about the work of John N Lavis, Dave Robertson, Jennifer M Woodside, Christopher B McLeod, and Julia Abelson, who developed a particularly useful framework for categorizing impact: Conceptual, Symbolic, and Instrumental."