22. Establish your mission
Carefully picking and pursue strategic projects
Following a structured path, to being a strategic partner.
Notes de l'éditeur
A few years ago, I worked at a large publishing company:
It had a research team of 1.
They were genuinely interested, in growing the research practice..
They were risk averse, had been burned a few times with poor product <> market fit.
They saw more user research as a good solution to this.
.. pause
The current researcher already paved the way, for the relevance and need to invest in user research.
I was super excited,
We hired one more person onto the team, we were now 3 researchers
We radically expanded on the kind of projects we did
(expanding research methodologies) and working for more and more business units.
I was very focused on operational excellence; better briefings, deeper alignment with business, and visibility of the team (we had lunch sessions, taught interviewing, etc.)
… it was exciting….. pause
After about 8 months;
Get this feeling of being blocked, we weren’t really moving….
We had grown to a point, where the ”next phase” in our maturity was hard to reach.
Projects got very similar, we had created such demand - that the need for more validation type studies overwhelmed us (usability testing 70%).
We didn’t have time to do a lot of generative/explorative research.
I think this is probably recognizable for many of you.
Even though we grew to about 5 researchers then, I felt like I was failing.
I took a long vacation, and talked to a bunch of people, many of them in this room.
Got me inspired, there was still this tremendous opportunity space in the company to change the direction of core products.
We slowly started to implement changes.
Being much more mindful and strategic; why we are there, what kind of projects we work (and DON’T work on) and building a plan of where we want to be.
It took well over a year to transition out of where we were.
It took almost two years to really get to the place we wanted to be.
… pause
Since then I’ve coached many companies, on how to build and grow user research teams.
I will share the 3 main strategies I employ, to turn such spaces around.
We are all here; we see a lot of opportunity in our field and often in our respective companies.
… pause
<- I belief your also best capable, of starting this change …. To being that full-blown strategic partner.
…pause
Your time constrained, there is no clear path.
Today…
I want to share my thoughts on 3 strategies:
Mission - Creating business necessity – by establishing your mission in the company.
Strategic projects - Carefully picking projects, to allow for strategic projects to come in.
Following a structured path, towards strategic partnership.
One of the first challenges I often run into is:
…. Research is not a priority… like those airplane lines; your like boarding group 3 or 4.
You will need to fundament, your team’s – reason for being.
You! can pitch your contribution, but can your boss – or even more importantly her or his boss up a level?
Do they see you as more than the “user advocate” but the link between business and customer needs.
This might sound simple, but people around you have to buy-into why you are there.
I start here, because I often realized this much too late. Learning after sometimes more than a year, that important people to my success – don’t understand why my team exists.
-> Might even have wrong idea, a validation department or feel we are too humanistic, no real strategic impact on business.
Jared spool put this out: Business is basically only interested in these 5 things; whatever you do has to contribute to these factors (talking ”business” isn’t that hard)
…. pause
- Shaping your intent towards higher management. What your often pitching…. Is your actual value on these items.
- This very boringly means, is that when you make it tactical - you tie your contributions to management measurements methods such as OKR’s or other KPI’s.
- Strategically this also means, your contribution is not singular – and its not only reducing risk, you can actually drive new opportunities.
….
Honest here… this is somewhat on faith, its often quite hard to very fundamentally tie this to research studies. Not impossible.
…
pause
The second stage…
You have your team of 1, or even a few people.
You’ve done a great job at creating demand inside the company/clients
….. As, I mentioned at the start it… Gets a little boring….
Day to-to-day business, of running studies is overwhelming
Similar topics keep returning
No time, to work on things that really matter.
Your not finding the challenge, you kind had when setting up the team.
Intellectual boredom is clouded, by how busy you are.
The shift is to purposefully peruse those strategic projects.
Which project, when you apply your team to it really significantly moves the product your working on.
———
I will say, this shift –away from largely operational projects -- is not easy.
You have to
1) Identify the projects OR potential projects that could highly impact the organization/direction of product.
2) Pro-actively build towards these projects, quite often these projects do not get “asked by the org” you have to create the “ask”.
3) Over-deliver, and over share this work - to broadcast your ability to do this.
Not to do:
4) Do it without stakeholder sponsorship, on your own. People like presents, but few people really like research presents
———
At some point I typically assign targets : 40% strategic, 60% operational projects.
You can start planning your studies schedule on potential impact, and more systematically say “no”.
——
I’ve found even very mature teams, its worthwhile to take a step back from time to time and evaluate if you reaaaaly are working on impactful projects.
--- Third and last larger idea
The third challenge I run into is:
As you grow organically, it's hard to “level up” to a real different value to the organization.
Becomes increasingly harder to get headcount, especially as it starts involving supporting resources (for e.g. recruitment coordination).
Overwhelmed with all the things that come with increasing reach/impact (e.g. insights libraries, advocacy - sharing sessions)
The primary transition here is to be more intentional in how you grow.
To really move towards that “strategic partnership”.
Slight adaption of a model used by Adaptive path. Design maturity, the role you have in the org.
How you can move the following steps; towards research as a core competency of your business.
- Starts with Process
- Business
- Strategic
- Core competency
Every step is getting you closer to that strategic role.
It’s important to note, that you generally cannot abandon one role. If your strategic contributor, you are still doing parts of the process component.
Research is perceived as a cost to be contained as part of a larger process (usually the production of a product or delivery of a service)
Output focused; on-time, on-budget, number of studies.
Ad-hoc studies, A/B, Web analytics.
First step, most actually stay here - that is not a bad thing.
You typically ready to transfer to the next phase:
Continuous research; rhythm
Departments depend on you, and have continuous need for your services.
Typically team of 1-2.
Your connected to the business, important part of projects.
You can measure your impact alongside key business metrics (e.g. NPS)
In this phase typically:
You use data more extensively to fundament your key deliverables
You perform more deeper ethnographic research
You start working for more and more departments in the org.
Signs to expand into the next phase:
Focus more and more on strategic projects (40% strategy)
Seeing the need to bring fundamental pieces in; experience principles, to deep coordination across insight departments.
Typically 3-5 people.
Research alongside design, help solve business problems and help create the holistic fit between design and business.
KEY part of large strategic projects; things that involve core business changes.
In this phase you:
Buildout frameworks that support your work, involving in experience principles, value evaluation frameworks
You radically diversify your portfolio of methodologies, enabling more complex projects to be picked up
You start bringing up a central point for your insights (a database)
You start being able to really measure how well your insights are being used.
Signs to expand into the next phase:
No clear transition point
Fundamental contribution to company direction
Typically 8+
Were you can consider design, and research as the key thing that sets your company apart.
TRUE differentiator, driving company direction.
You can combine your data integrally with that of data science, marketing, etc.
You drive new developments (new products, new markets your entering).
People look to you as a key informer of company strategy.
I have only worked with one company who was here.
———
Is it is a graduation path. Your building on top of each phase.
You will do bits and pieces across, you cant do it all at once – it will come at a cost.
To transition between phases, I would schedule 10-12 months at least.
You can short track things with more people, but keep in mind that internal perception takes time to change.
<- I’ve learned that the hard way, changing too many things too fast.
——
FYI, this roadmap is more inside focused – its typically not great at convincing others in the org, what your value is.
It’s about making your path to strategic contributor more tangible, tactical.
To summarize
Creating business necessity – by establishing your mission in the company.
Carefully picking projects, to allow for strategic projects to come in.
Following a structured path, towards strategic partnership.
I hope this helps you, find the path in your organization.
We all have a lot of opportunities to grow our impact, and while the path may be steep – I think at least its worth it.
Kathleen; personal stories & struggles of making this step at her company.
That’s all for me, Thanks!
