We look at research from the perspective of mindset and impact. We examine:
• the research process
• the system that creates a user experience
• growth and development for researchers
5. 1. Impact starts with intent:
asking and answering
useful, relevant questions
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9. questions approach execution analysis synthesis follow-
through
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impact
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impact
starts here
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12. Impact starts with intent:
Our job is to figure out what the team
needs to learn to push the work forward.
Our language & mindset needs to be
focused on impact: how will learning
[this kind of thing] help make decisions
or change how we act?
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13. 2. We work with “experience,”
of the messy human variety
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15. We work with experiences:
When people ‘do activities’ through the
systems, products, and services we
offer, a “user experience” happens.
Consider: what types of data must we
gather to understand, support, and
improve these experiences?
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16. 3. Experience is a complex,
layered, dynamic system
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48. Experience is a complex,
dynamic system:
Experience arises from peoples’
experiences of interaction.
A map of this terrain will allow us
to be effective: to move forward
with intention and awareness.
49. 4. The people who produce
experiences (all of us)
lose sight of reality
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53. Intent
Action
Culture
& Context
Emotion & ExpectationYes: this can be too much for
product management and
user experience to handle:
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59. A need for user research:
The complexity of our experience-systems
increases—at an increasing rate.
Creating ‘good’ experiences is a huge
effort: Eng, PM, UX are not primarily
oriented to generate [useful] knowledge.
We have the tools and mindset to produce
actionable insight about the complex &
reality of human experience.
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60. 5. Our process is designed to
help our teams change how
they think: to see reality
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67. What research does:
We understand where the system is out of
balance, or our picture doesn’t match reality.
We ensure teams are aligned on useful
questions that frame those mismatches.
We Ask questions that, when answered, will
change how we think & what we produce.
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68. 6. E.g., a simple visualisation
of reality is a powerful
tool for change
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70. Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
Photo by LinkedIn Sales Navigator on Unsplash
71. Team 1:
Consumer
Behavior:
Using shopper app as
live shopping checklist
Goal:
Shop for correct items
quickly, find good
replacement items
Context:
In a hectic/busy store
Team 2:
Shopper
Behavior:
Checking / adjusting
order progress
Goal:
Visibility & control
for changes to order
Context:
Wide variety: work,
home, errands, etc.
Touchpoint:
Consumer app
Touchpoint:
Shopper app
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74. t=1
t=2
t=3
t=4
• User journeys
• Experience maps
• Service blueprints
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75. Team 1:
Consumer
Behavior:
Using shopper app as
live shopping checklist
Goal:
Shop for correct items
quickly, find good
replacement items
Context:
In a hectic/busy store
Team 2:
Shopper
Behavior:
Checking / adjusting
order progress
Goal:
Visibility & control
for changes to order
Context:
Wide variety: work,
home, errands, etc.
Touchpoint:
Consumer app
Touchpoint:
Shopper app
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80. Tell the team:
• What common themes did you find?
• What customer needs are unmet, problems unsolved?
• What new questions do you have about our customers?
(quant, qual)
81. Tell the team:
• What common themes did you find?
• What customer needs are unmet, problems unsolved?
• What new questions do you have about our customers?
(quant, qual)
83. Depicting reality:
If your team doesn’t have a clear
picture: the best first step is always
to understand the world as it is now.
There’s magic in visualizing sensibly-
scoped experience-over-time.
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84. 7. Everything changes more
slowly the farther we move
away from experience
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85. “HOW DO YOU ALL
NOT UNDERSTAND…
HOW TOTALLY
F**CKED THIS IS??”
88. changes slowlychanges slowly
changes rapidly
• Peoples’ thinking changes
according to pace of
corresponding layers
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89. increased distance from experience
= more human skills & PATIENCE
required to navigate the terrain
changes slowlychanges slowly
changes rapidly
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90. Understanding pace:
Change takes more time as we increase our
distance from experience.
Recognize how much time it will take to
act on higher-order insights. And then how
much more it can take to change minds.
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91. 8. Practitioners start at the
moment of truth and
grow outwards
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92. Researcher’s Path to Develop
•Technical Skills (craft)
•Human / Org. Skills (collab. & influence)
•Research Process Mastery
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94. Understanding and
gathering credible data
about experiences
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95. Developing approaches to
gathering data and transforming
it into useful insights
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96. Identifying meaningful questions
that lead to action—driving the
entire process forward
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97. *but actually…
we grow through this cycle
at different levels of scope
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102. Working as a researcher:
Ultimately, we grow in our ability to
move through & manipulate the system
that creates experiences.
It starts with technical basics:
getting the right data, then we learn
to leverage it for change.
craft skills + human skills + process mastery
= experience fluency & impact
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103. 9. Manager-work begins on
the outside, impact flows in
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104. Manager’s Frames & Levers
•The Organization (awareness & integration)
•The Team (structure, processes, & growth)
•The Work (Projects) (quality & impact)
•The Self
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105. Start here:
it’s [even more]
about working
with people
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107. oblique work: but a
sustained & amplifying
effects on experience
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108. Manager-ing a research team:
You’re a servant with two masters:
the needs of the larger org, and the
needs of your team members. Aligning
these incentives is crucial.
Consider impact as you choose which
work to take on: the most powerful
levers are ultimately the furthest
from the core of experience.
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109. 10. Making the work work is
how you work with the
people you work with
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110. Building and growing impactful research
in any organization requires people to
change how they think and how they act.
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111. Researchers:
• Be clear about what you’re all really trying to do,
and how your work will push that forward.
• Understand the experience, and understand your
team’s incentives. Ask and answer meaningful and
timely questions.
• Load your team’s mind with useful and provocative
[evidence/models/stories] of experience that will
drive action.
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112. Managers:
• Create the environment where the work will succeed.
• [org] understand and plant in the garden,
• [team] make sure the vines are growing well,
• [projects] keep the grapes ripe,
• [self] and always be sampling the wine.
• Recognize what’s important—higher leverage is further from
the core of experience. Do, delegate, defer, drop.
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113. Zoom out. See the larger picture of how the
organization produces the experience.
Choose your efforts with intention, and try
to make them work with and for your team.
If (and when) you don’t succeed, you have the
most important tools to move forward:
good intentions and the ability to learn.
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