34
Field Research at the Speed of Business: What, Why, and Some How Paul Sherman February 18, 2015

Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

Page 1: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

FieldResearchattheSpeedofBusiness:What,Why,andSomeHow

PaulShermanFebruary18,2015

Page 2: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

UserResearch

Whatit is

Whydo it

Howto do it (intro)

2

Page 3: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

UserResearch

The method goes by many names…

3

Page 4: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

MyTerm

I use the term “customer observation” or “user observation” research.

It keeps the focus on two things:

The customer

Observing them in the real world

4

Page 5: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

UseTheTermThatWorksForYourOrganization!

At a former company, we referred to it by two acronyms…

FMO FMH

Any guesses?

5

Page 6: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

WhateverWorks

“Follow Me to the Office”

“Follow Me Home”

Part of the UX practitioner’s job is to align the team and build user-centered research and design activities into the product development life cycle.

Use words that resonate with your stakeholders.

6

UX

Page 7: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

WhateverYouCallIt…

Customer observation is a method of understanding your target users’ goals, workflows and context.

It reveals how they work (or play), why they do what they do, and how your solution fits – or might fit - into their current patterns of behavior.

7

UX

Page 8: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

WhyObserveUsersInContext?

Because Content Context Is King

8

Page 9: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

ContextIsKing

Imagine you’re talking to some target users.

Where will you learn more about how they work?

Here? Or Here?

9

Page 10: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

WhyObserveUsersInContext?

Because Behavior Doesn’t Lie

10

Page 11: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

WhyObserveUsersInContext?

People (usually) don’t mean to lie.

But people are bad at recounting the details of things they are expert at and do every day.

11

Page 12: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

WhyObserveUsersInContext?

Bonus…

When you watch people in context, you can ask follow-up questions about things that never would’ve occurred to you in a lab or meeting room.

12

Page 13: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

CurrentSolutionOrNewOne?

Most observation projects are run either to watch how people use an existing product or service…

Or to identify how people currently perform an action…and assess whether there’s an opportunity to provide a new product or service.

13

Page 14: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

TypicalObjections

The project manager: “It takes too long.”

14

The founder: “We don’t need to talk to customers, I know what they need.”

The marketer: “My team can run a focus group.”

Page 15: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

CounteringTypicalObjections

“It takes too long.”

Quality user research can be done in as little as two or three calendar weeks. Think of it as “sprint zero.”

“I know what customers need.”

There are other users besides you. Do you really want to build a product without ensuring that you’re meeting your target users’ needs?

“We can just run a focus group.”

Observing the target customers in context will reveal rich details about workflow and motivation that focus groups can’t uncover.

15

Page 16: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

WantToSeeAnExample?

16(Video shown to attendees)

Page 17: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

Here’sAnother

17(Video shown to attendees)

Page 18: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

What are the chances I would’ve learned as much if I

just brought those people into a lab?

18

Page 19: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

HowToDoCustomerObservations

Philosophical considerations

Practical considerations

19

Page 20: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

PhilosophicalConsiderations

Open your mind

Own your ignorance

Ask open-ended questions

Ask questions because you want to know the answer, not because you want to show how much you know.

20

Page 21: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

PracticalConsiderations

Above all…decide what you want to investigate.

It’s OK if you just want to go out and look for problems to solve.

But be explicit that that’s your goal.

21

Page 22: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

AnExampleGoalStatement

During discussions with [client], we identified the following goals and constraints for this effort:

Goals• Study and document current users’ workflows, and establish where [product] impedes

workflow efficiency.• Uncover users’ wants and needs for increased workflow efficiency and data presentation.• Redesign [product]’s existing workflows where necessary, as well as design new workflows

and features to better meet user needs and counter competitive threats.

Constraints• Do not “disconnect” from the installed base. The redesigned workflow, views, and

normalized terminology must not put any training burden on the current user base or cause more than mild and transient disruption to current customers’ efficiency levels.

• Wherever possible, preserve the existing shortcuts and accelerators. Some users of [product] use the application often, and have developed ingrained habits of use for certain common workflows. The redesigned application will to the greatest extent possible preserve the users’ means of interaction and workflow habits.

• The application UI will be browser-based, OS-independent, and usable on a tablet form factor. The application will be entirely browser-based. It should be designed to work on the latest versions of the top 4 common browsers (IE, Chrome, Firefox, Safari). In addition, it should be usable at a typical (logical) tablet resolution of 1024x768.

22

Page 23: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

MakeAProjectPlan

You won’t regret it if you do. You will regret it if you don’t.

23

Page 24: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

WhatTypeOfDataDoYouWant?

Structured observations

Record behavior with a coding scheme.

“Participant entered transactions 7 times during her shift. Each took two

minutes.”

24

Unstructured observations

Just watch what’s going on.

Ask follow-up questions in the moment.

Looser, more conversational.

Page 25: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

RecruitingUsers

Get access to real users, not the users’ bosses.

Seriously. They have to be real target users.

25

Page 26: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

StartingYourObservations

You’re not going to feel prepared.

That’s OK. Just go with the flow.

26

Page 27: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

CollectingYourData

Use a format that works for you!

27

Page 28: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

SummarizeDaily

Daily reports are your friend.

28

Page 29: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

SummarizeDaily

Daily reports are your friend.

29

Page 30: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

SummarizeDaily

Daily reports are your friend.

30

Page 31: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

AnalysisandReporting

Affinity diagramming is useful to identify commonalities and trends.

31

Page 32: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

AnalysisandReporting

Reporting is really up to you. Research some reports!

32

Page 33: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

Caveats

Adjust for agile: user research is often “sprint zero” work. But it can also occur mid-cycle.

You can do it quickly, but don’t expect to shoehorn it into a single dev sprint. (Maybe two though!)

33

Page 34: Ethnography At The Speed Of Business

[email protected]

+1.512.917.1942

QUESTIONSANDCONTACTINFO