Background
As Dataquest's first user research hire, one of my first goals was to develop a user research function that would help us become a more aligned and user-centric organization.
Methods
- First, to identify how user research should fit into our organization, I held internal interviews with leadership. From the interviews, it was clear that user research needed to be collaborative and transparent, and embedded in the product team (rather than a shared service, for now!).
- Based on those insights, I built a user research repository and tagging taxonomy in EnjoyHQ where anyone could review previous interviews, easily find quotes, and search the EnjoyHQ stories to answer their questions.
- I also implemented lightweight process for recruiting and scheduling weekly user interviews, which anyone from the organization could observe.
- To keep the team engaged, I hosted collaborative user research activities such as post-interview debriefs and "mini-observation" sessions during our Monday status calls.
Outcomes
In the first six months, the Dataquest team observed more than 40 user interviews, and we are began to leverage user research to prioritize and build features and set long-term strategic direction.
