Gabrielle Bufrem — Bootstrapping User Research: No Budget, No Team, No Buy-in, No Problem (Turing Fest 2018)

User research is essential to building products that solve real user problems. It is often a precursor to good design and excellent product development. User research comes typically with some clichés - “it’s so expensive,” “we need a dedicated research team,” or “the people that I work for don’t buy into it.” If you’ve experienced any of these negative stereotypes, or if research is already a part of your process and you want to arm yourself with a toolkit to execute it even better and clearly communicate its value, this talk is for you! Gabrielle will introduce a toolkit to help you inject research into everything you do and share her tips on how to turn constraints into opportunities. She will share stories and learnings from the field and send you off with actionable steps so you can begin developing solutions for the problems that your users actually care about.

Transcript

1. Bootstrapping User Research No Budget, No Buy-In, No Team, No Problem GABRIELLE BUFREM
5. Toolkit
6. Product manager @ Pivotal Labs Data geek Coffee snob Travel lover Grab me for a during the conference and let’s keep the conversation going @gbufremsays Hi, my name is Gabrielle Bufrem
7. How to Get Buy-In PROBLEM #1
8. Show the benefits of user research through real use cases @gbufremsays
9. Involve people you’re working with in the research process Invite stakeholders to be a part of the process Record - make it accessible Add snippets of user research in management presentations @gbufremsays
10. Concretely share your findings in a way your audience understands @gbufremsays
11. Develop a culture of psychological safety Being able to be wrong is imperative for user research: Encourage your team to ask “How might we?” and enable them to place bets Start rewarding for learning and experimentation instead of rewarding for being right @gbufremsays
12. How to Build a Team PROBLEM #2
13. You are the team - Get out of the building! @gbufremsays
14. Recruit your customers to be your researchers Recruit them through a platform they already use and speak their “language” Give them the resources to be successful in a language that resonates with them Build a community of people that are helping you with an easy way for contributors to talk to you and to each other @gbufremsays
15. Train your Team @gbufremsays
16. How to Deal with No Budget PROBLEM #3
17. There are other types of currencies. Can you get access to them? SWAG BETA Ambassador Benefits @gbufremsays
18. Show current results and show potential upside you could have achieved with a budget @gbufremsays
19. Best Practices FREEBIE
20. Have a map @gbufremsays
21. Test hypothesis, not interactions Users find relevant having projects as an entry point in the homepage Users can click on the project on the homepage @gbufremsays
22. Clearly communicate the results and the “why” Hypothesis Keep Kick Change Concept works Concept does not work Concept works, needs small changes Users find relevant having projects as an entry point in the homepage ✔ Users don’t understand what a project is - it is not intuitive. Find another entry point Green, Yellow, Red: Hypothesis John Bob Claire failed inconclusive success Users find relevant having projects as an entry point in the homepage “I don’t understand what a project is. I’ll just pick a random one” Looked confused but still clicked on the correct project “Are those related to my projects?” Keep, Kick, Change: @gbufremsays
23. My go-to’s in user research • Test hypothesis, not interactions • Have a map • Red yellow green • Keep kick change How to Build a Team and deal with No Budget • In the beginning, be your own team • Recruit your customers to be your researchers • Use other types of budget • Showcase the potential upside you could have with a budget How to Get Buy-In • Explain the benefits of user research through REAL use cases • Involve people you’re working with in the research process • Concretely share your findings in a way your audience understands • Develop a culture of psychological safety Buy-In Team Budget Key takeaways @gbufremsays Best Practices