One of the biggest challenges of user research is getting the wider organisation to buy in to the work you are doing.
Too often we hear complaints from digital teams that senior management do not understand the value of their work, meaning actions from user research are side-lined.
Engaging important stakeholders in user research has always been a fundamental part of our approach – watching users struggle to use your website or digital service is a great way to ram home the message that change is needed.
But getting these individuals to watch the research can often be a challenge, especially when it is out of the office.
Like the rest of the world, we have been working and conducting all our usability testing and user research remotely since March.
As well as discovering a number of research benefits to this new way of working, we believe it has made getting organisational buy in to research outcomes easier.
Remote research fits into everyone’s schedule
Conducting research remotely makes it much easier for people in your organisation to engage with user testing.
By live streaming the testing there is no longer a need to take a full day out of the office and travel long distances to attend.
Teams can dip in and out of testing to suit their schedules and are more inclined to engage if you’re only asking for an hour or two of their time.
By watching just one or two research sessions, colleagues gain a deeper understanding of the users’ needs and digital interaction. This, in turn, helps them understand what needs to be done in order to positively influence user experience and more inclined to support actions that come out of the research.
More often than not, individuals who planned to just stay for one session end up watching a lot more research because they find it so compelling. And the best thing is it’s all from the comfort of their homes!
Your digital touchpoints are more important than ever at the moment. User research can help you ensure these touchpoints are effective and meeting the needs of your customers. And engaging your senior management in the testing process ensures you can move quickly from insight to action and implement changes without organisational resistance.
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