Boosting UX Team Bandwidth and Influence
A leading ecommerce company asked us: How do we get more user research done while maintaining quality and flexibility? O...
AnswerLab built an end-to-end user research program for a leading Fortune 100 client to help them meet growing demands for research at the speed of their demanding development cycles, and make meaningful product decisions at every step.
In today’s environment, Product and UX leaders are constantly challenged to do more with less and at the speed and cadence of development. The demand for research is higher than ever, but resource constraints, expertise gaps, and limited capacity can make this a challenge to navigate internally while trying to make informed, data-driven product decisions.
AnswerLab began partnering with a prominent global client in 2010, helping them uncover user insights and lead complex research projects on an ad hoc basis. But, as we’re seeing with many global brands, their demand for user insights began growing rapidly, and they needed to re-evaluate.
The client’s design and product management teams within a major business area needed substantial research support to help them make informed product and design decisions for their users. But they lacked the internal capacity to meet their needs. They looked to us as a strategic partner to bring in a scalable, dedicated team, conducting research across product workstreams, audiences, and markets - managing all of their global user research from end to end.
Moving from one-off projects to rolling research
We developed a research program with consistent, repeatable research processes that ensured all teams had access to user research. We also built a dedicated core project team of a mix of qualitative and quantitative researchers, research ops, and support from AnswerLab’s strategy and research management functions.
Starting out with a robust roadmap, AnswerLab met with product teams to scope, plan, and begin to execute research. But, we soon realized the volume of work they needed wouldn’t be met with just three researchers. As a result, we pivoted, adding three additional qualitative researchers to finish out the year.
Over two years, both within the United States and internationally, we conducted UX research programs encompassing:
- 40 studies across dozens of topics
- 500+ qualitative participants
- 3,000+ quantitative participants
- 20 different segments
- 10 countries
Our ability to scale up quickly and seamlessly kept their research on track, without missing a beat in their development cycle.
Our research program expanded access to research for a number of product teams, enabling them to make human-centered product decisions on a global scale based on insights and findings from:
- cultural nuances across regions
- mental models
- common behaviors
- usability findings
- accessibility concerns
- and more...
To help synthesize findings, our team compiled horizontal insights across product workstreams and studies to provide insight into common themes and help influence future product and study design.
Learn more about how our UX research services can help you achieve more with your existing resources.