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Democratize User Research in 5 Steps

Kara Pernice / NN/g | Reading time: about 12 min

Many organizations are embracing democratization of UX, especially of UX research. Democratization of user research means making it acceptable and possible for anyone, no matter their role, to do user research.

Here are two terms we use in this article when discussing democratization:

• Professional Researchers: People who have the capabilities — experience, education, and responsibility — to do user research
• People who do research (PwDR): People who do research, even though they are not researchers by profession

Benefits of Democratization of User Research

There are many advantages to democratizing user research, including these:

• Getting research done. The obvious benefit of making it possible for more people to do user research is that it increases the likelihood that more research will be done, especially in organizations that have nobody in research roles or where professional researchers cannot meet demand. For example, imagine you’re a designer on a team with no professional researchers. You believe user research is necessary, so you get creative and resourceful and find a way to get research done. That is commendable! Even imperfect user research is usually much better than no research at all.
• Increased job satisfaction. Some designers, product managers, developers, content editors, and people in other roles enjoy doing user research. They appreciate the exposure to customers, use the findings to drive their decisions, and welcome a variety of tasks in their job. Enabling them to do research ultimately helps them learn new skills, increases their perception of growth and their value to their teams and the organizations.
• Increased knowledge about user research. Each time a person plans, runs, and follows through on a user study, they become more aware of the effort and complexities involved. They also sometimes share this new knowledge with others. Even those who don’t pick up on all nuances involved or make mistakes will probably realize there is more to research than initially meets the eye.

Dangers of Democratization

In some circles, democratization of user research has come to mean that anyone can do user research — even people who don’t know much about research or who have no accountability and responsibility for doing it. However, just as with anything else, user research can be conducted at different levels of skill, which lead to a different quality of insights. As an analogy, most people can microwave a frozen meal, but only a trained, skilled chef can devise a menu for a 4-star restaurant.

Good research requires time and involves many aspects:

• Choosing the best method for the goals of the study
• Recruiting participants and conducting the study
• Keeping participants’ information safe
• Analyzing the data
• Involving the team in research
• Turning observations into insights that shape design
• Tracking and sharing of research findings

When people with no knowledge about any of these do research, they are set up for failure. Democratization of user research done this way can bring with it the following negative byproducts:

• Underestimating the value of research training and professional experience:  User research seems easy if you’re watching someone else doing it. And, unlike some other tasks, basic user research can, in fact, be done by almost anyone. A person can read a few articles to gain the skills and the confidence needed for a simple user interview or qualitative user test. Because of that, some may assume that research democratization means that anybody can do any type of research. Wrong! Complex research-related tasks — like determining the best research method, identifying research questions, planning a contextual inquiry or quantitative study — will be done well only by someone with education, experience, and skills.
• Poor research resulting in poor design: Have you ever used a bad design and wondered how it ever got out the door? It was probably based on poor research, which can take many forms. Some teams analyze data badly. Others chase quantitative measures but do qualitative research. Still others ask questions and probe study participants when they should be observing them. Some craft leading questions or ones that are too narrow in scope. Others recruit the wrong users. These types of mistakes reap poor user data. Teams use it to make decisions, which result in bad designs.
• Lack of accountability for UX research: When no one has explicit responsibility for user research, serious issues can arise. Research can be deprioritized, so it doesn’t get done. If nobody has explicit responsibility, people may believe that someone else will take care of doing research. Or, multiple people and teams may do the same or similar research. This duplicated work results in wasted time and effort and decreased job satisfaction.
• Misuse of resources:  When the task at hand doesn’t match the ability of the person doing it, resources are wasted. Some examples:
  • Someone with expert research skills may do simple research studies that others could be doing. The result is wasting a highly skilled researcher on low-skill tasks.
  • Someone in a high-paid role does research. The result is spending more than necessary for research and possibly putting off tasks important to that role. Organizations should conserve high skills and people with high pay for the tasks that only people with those abilities or in those roles can do.
• Halted growth in UX maturity: Teams with low UX maturity may believe that any user research is good and enough. While some research is usually better than none, poorly conducted research is unlikely to help the organization grow and advance to the next level of UX maturity. Organizations that can afford research roles but don’t hire them probably do not understand the complexities and the value of good research. Leaders at organizations doing a few last-minute user tests may say, “Yes, we do user research.” But they could be doing more and better if they grew PwDR, took on a ResearchOps framework and roles, and hired or appointed full-time researchers.

Democratization to Support Good Research

Some researchers fear that democratizing research will dilute the collective understanding of the skills and knowledge needed to be a researcher. They want to protect the progress that professional researchers have made and the influence they have earned. Even though some may feel that the existence of UX as a profession is threatened by democratization, most probably just want to ensure that expectations are set, research is done well, and everyone respects user research as a craft. Democratization doubters would probably become advocates if they knew that it results in good research. But what is good research?

Many factors make up good research. But let’s focus on the V.I.S.E (Viable, Influential, Sound, and Efficient) model of user research. This model assumes that good research is not only about how the research is done, but also about whether user research as an activity is stable at a given organization, so that, even if the best researcher or a strong research champion leaves the organization, research will persist. The four components of the V.I.S.E model are:

• Viable: Research is mature, embedded, expected, ongoing, and so much a part of the culture that it will endure. Job descriptions, careers, teams, and budgets account for research. Benefits of research are identified, tracked, communicated, socialized, and respected.
• Influential: Research insights drive design ideas, iterations, and changes. Leaders support thorough research. Designers and stakeholders actively participate in research. Researchers are perceived as an essential part of the project team. Research and professional researchers are referred to regularly and at key times in the project.
• Sound: Research questions are stated and the most fitting research methods are used to answer them. Data is earnestly collected and analyzed, and insights aptly represent what was observed or heard during the research. Research participants are treated ethically and fairly, and their personal information is kept safe.
• Efficient: Researchers promptly plan, conduct, and analyze research; and share and track insights. Research is done at opportune times using proven, shared methods and tools, which are improved and redefined over time. Project schedules include time for research — planning, doing, and analyzing user research; acting in response to findings; and sometimes running multiple rounds of research on the same design.

The V.I.S.E. model of user research defines good research as s viable, influential, sound, and efficient.

How to Make Democratization of User Research Work

This section outlines 5 areas of focus to help you implement effective research democratization.

The 5 steps to democratization research include: 1) identifying the research demand, 2) classifying the skills of available people who do research, 3) doing a gap analysis and matching the supply with the demand and filling the gaps, 4) sharing and agreeing with team members and stakeholders about who will do which research, and 5) assessing how the process went and coming up with ideas for improving.

1. Identify: Evaluate the demand for research.

Take inventory of the organization’s user research needs. Go beyond what is currently done. Count the completed research as well as the unmet requests for user research. Consider both strategic and reactionary research. Planned strategic studies are, for example, discoveries at the inception of projects and iterative user testing on areas related to top tasks. Reactionary research is research that comes up unexpectedly during a project, such as a user test of a prototype for a new feature requested by a large customer. Prioritize the research items. Then summarize the skills needed for each research item.

2. Classify: Determine the supply of professional researchers and PwDR.

Find out who is available and wants to do user research. Once you know there are people who want to and have time to do research, see which research skills they have now.

3. Fulfill: Find and fill the gaps between demand and supply.

Figure out the research needs of your organization. Then determine the kinds of training that can be done to improve research skills. Your goals should be both bringing people up to the most basic skill levels and growing advanced researchers. Some self-education and practice can go a long way. For example, most people can learn to run a simple qualitative user test and how to improve a design by themselves.

Examine also the existing coaching resources that you already have — people with UX research experience who may be able to train others.

Last but not least, look at how well the organization matches skills with user-research tasks and attempt to correct any inefficiencies and make sure that everyone is used to their full potential. Also, make sure that people interested in doing research know how to join those projects that have a need for research.

Are there employees who can train people, regularly, to do user research?

Are there avenues for making connections between available PwDR and the places that need them? For example:

• Designers test each other’s designs
• Connect a network of designers to test one another’s work
• Interns and research assistants
• References or partnerships with external consultants

4. Sync: Align on responsibilities.

Teams and individuals should agree on who will do research.

5. Revise: Reassess and improve.

Look back at how research has been done and how successful the current process is.

Summary

Good user research requires many skills, and most of these come with experience and education. The good news is that a lot of these skills can be easily learned.

Experienced researchers should strive to grow their own research skills and tools, but also those of other researchers and PwDR. Do only the more complex research tasks; provide coaching and resources for easier research tasks.

PwDRs should keep practicing and educating themselves. Take on research challenges while also trying to identify tasks above your current ability. Seek resources and assistance.

Leaders should support the development of research capabilities for people in research and non-research roles. Don’t get caught in the trap of believing that people without training, experience, or knowledge can do research well; but do support research assessment, education, coaching to enable PwDRs.

Learn more about user research democratization in our full-day course on ResearchOps.

This article is based on a research study conducted by the Nielsen Norman Group. Originally published January 2021.