Learnings as a UX Researcher
Perspective Taking is essential. When doing your interviews, you have to remember that it’s not your story. You have to look beyond your own point of view and actively listen to the person you are talking to.
If there’s one word to best explain it, you really need to have Empathy. It is vital to the process of understanding people as it allows you to step outside your own biases to figure out exactly what the user wants.
When you take their perspective, you’ll be able to better grasp who they really are! You’ll know what motivates them, you’ll understand the problems they face, you can really see what frustrates them, and find opportunities to focus on what’s best for that user.
Patience is key. Patience is your extra power. There are times when some respondents can’t seem to drive the point or really explain what they want to. Will you say it’s over? Should you feel frustrated, should you make them feel that you look bored, or annoyed? Nope. Never!
I think you have to feel encouraged and hopeful instead.
When in-depth interviews or focus group discussion becomes challenging, it is the perfect opportunity to find areas on how you can also improve the way you ask questions to your respondents. You can look for ways to frame certain questions to make it easier to the person you are talking to.
You can also simply wait. Sometimes, you just need to give them time to cool down and feel more comfortable in the environment or space they are in.
You’ll be surprised that they can share more than what you expected and get real insights.
Clearly Communicate.
When starting an interview or getting feedback (may it be a remote session or not), you have to make sure that they understand why they are called or being interviewed. You need to do introductions properly , you must set the tone, make them feel welcome, and build rapport with the respondents. You have to be polite and start by thanking them for giving you some time and effort. You also have to carry yourself and show that you are interested about who they are.
Aside from your respondents, you also have to consider certain product leaders and stakeholders who will act as final decision makers. When you present the information or insights gathered from your interviews, you have to make sure that they understand it well. You can’t make them read everything! Get the highlights from your interviews that will drive your point. Make sure that you won’t drown them with so much data or words. Try to learn about Data Visualization! It helps!
Another example, when you are presenting results to designers and developers, you need to properly communicate the context and intent so that they would understand how to translate that into a function, service or product.
Practice. Practice. Practice. It will never be perfect but you’ll get better! Make sure that you are doing test runs! But why? It is to assess if you framed the questions properly. It will help you see if your flow seems weird. It will make you discover your flaws. It will allow you to check your readiness. It will also give you time to prepare and refine your questions if necessary. Best of all, It will make you feel more confident when you do the actual interviews.
These are just some of the key learnings that I’d like to share with you. If you are just starting with your UX research career, then I hope that this would be useful for you!
P.S. Don’t forget to enjoy when doing your research.
