Research: Analysis

Even for a project for which a startup claims the concept behind its product or service is unique and one of a kind, the chances are that there are already similar products that do similar things. By conducting a competitive analysis, you can understand the products your competitors have created and how they created them; compare the functions, strengths, and weaknesses of your product against theirs; and understand how your competitors are solving the problems of their target audience.

Competitive analysis is a way of collecting data about other platforms that have fully or partially solved similar problems for the same target audience as yours—perhaps using different methods. Marketing research and your analysis of the features, strengths, and weaknesses of your competitors can all provide useful metrics. Read More

You’ve just completed a readout of your latest ground-breaking research, presenting an hour-long slideshow, and hopefully, you’ve wowed your audience with what you’ve shown them. But all too often, after you’ve reported your research results, everyone returns to their workspace and develops a serious case of insight amnesia. Stakeholders quickly forget the juicy morsels of information that would make your company’s products better. Your insights remain stuck in your slide deck and may never again see the light of day.

There are two questions that arise from this dilemma: First, how can you make your research insights more readily available to product teams so they don’t have to slog through your deck to find them? There are multiple, well-known solutions to this problem. The second problem, which is the focus of this article, is how can you ensure that your product team uses your research insights? Read More

As UX researchers, we provide two main types of information: findings and recommendations. The findings describe both the existing state of problems and opportunities a researcher has identified. Recommendations describe how to solve those problems and take advantage of those opportunities. While it’s very important for your audience of stakeholders to understand the findings, it’s even more important for them to know what actions to take based on that understanding. In this column, I’ll discuss how to provide effective UX recommendations that get implemented correctly.

What to Consider

Some considerations that can affect the types of recommendations you provide are the audience, the research method you’ve used, whether you’ll remain on the project after delivering your recommendations, and whether you or someone else is the UX designer. Read More