The most difficult environment in which to innovate is in a large enterprise. Once a company grows over a certain size, the internal politics and number of people involved in every decision increase so much that it becomes virtually impossible to stay focused on fulfilling user needs and business goals. Instead, the focus turns inward to the opinions and whims of individuals inside the company. When an abundance of stakeholders are involved in a product, user research is the only way to focus a whole team on the real needs and goals required for success. But it can be very difficult to get buy-in and conduct research in the enterprise environment—and even harder to get product recommendations on the roadmap. In this talk I’ll discuss some practical tips to address these challenges. First I’ll talk about why it’s often so hard to get support for user research in enterprises. Then I’ll provide some advice on how to sell the value of user research. Finally, I’ll offer some tips for addressing the subtle differences of conducting research in larger organizations. You’ll learn: - Why enterprises can’t afford to skip over user research - How to show stakeholders that good research results in increased revenue, reduced cost, and faster development cycles - How to plan, record, and analyze research to increase the changes of recommendations making it into the product User research is an immensely valuable tool to improve an enterprise product’s user experience and business value. For some reason many enterprises have unfortunately lost sight of this fact, and research got a bad name. This talk will help my fellow frustrated designers and researchers make some headway in their organizations to prove the value of research and restore it to its rightful and important place in the product development lifecycle.

1. Challenges and solutions for
the Enterprise
User research
@RianVDM

4. Enterprise
design
is
hard

5. User
needs
Biz
goals

6. User
needs
Biz
goals
User
research

7. Why it’s hard to get
support for user
research in
enterprises

8. How to sell the
value of user
research in
enterprises

9. How to improve
insight generation
of user research in
enterprises

10. Why it’s hard to get
support for user
research in
enterprises

11. It
takes
and it
costs
too long1

12. User research
shrinks to fit

13. What could
happen if
we don’t
do research

14. It’s expensive to build
products without research.
The time you “save” from
skipping the research phase
almost always comes back
to haunt you.

15. We know what’s
best2

16. Waterfalls Silos Bureaucracy

17. Discovery-based planning suggests that
managers
assume that forecasts
are wrong, rather than
right,
and that the strategy they have
chosen to pursue may likewise be wrong.
— Clayton Christensen

18. We
know
about users
enough3

19. The reason design projects
that neglect research fail isn’t
because of a lack of
knowledge. It’s because of a
lack of shared
knowledge.
— Erika Hall

20. How to sell the
value of user
research in
enterprises

21. Increased
revenue1

22. Source: Design Management Instititute

23. Reduced
cost2

24. From Software Engineering: A Practitioner’s Approach
Costofmakingchanges
1x
During
Design
100x
After
Launch
6x
During
Development

25. This is why it typically takes so many
companies three or more releases
over one to two years to get
something usable and useful. They
are using the engineering
organization to build a very, very
expensive prototype, and they
use their live customers as
unwitting test subjects.
— Marty Cagan

26. Faster
develop
mentcycles
3

27. If research slows down the
development process,
you’re doing it
wrong

28. Things might
appear
to move faster, but…

30. It’s all about
the right
argument
at the right
time

32. IA & CS Prototyping Visual Design Development
without research

33. IA & CS Prototyping Visual Design Development
with research

34. Start with
questions
instead of
answers
—Jennifer Brook, earlier today

35. How to improve
insight generation
of user research in
enterprises

36. Plan for
non-
buyers
1

37. Sold to
Used by
!=

38. Write a concise
research
plan
2

39. Background
Methodology and Schedule
Goals
Outcomes

40. Focus on
core
methods
3

41. Exploratory
Research
Uncover unmet needs
Field visits
Concept testing
Participatory design
Design
Research
Refine product ideas
Usability testing
RITE testing
Eye tracking
Useful = Utility Usability+
Surveys
Web analytics
Assessment
Research
Measure success

42. and
Record
docume
4

45. your work
Show5

47. Jive Internal
Summary
3 biggest issues
AAA Product forces diagram
Forces applied to Jive
Why Jive?
Integrations
Information organization
Recommendations
Better project management
Built-in workflows
Next steps
Ideation and testing
Training: usability testing
Primary work tools
Email
Calendar
Other 3rd party tools
Sharepoint
Lots of other repositories
What Jive is used for
Collaboration
Communication
Document repository
Project managements
Major work tool issues
Organization
Versioning
General crappiness
Jive issues
Information organization
My stuff
Integrations
Confusion
Connection streams
Notifications
Task management
Spaces
Editor
JiveX
JiveX used for
JiveX issues
Communication Documentation
Training
Support
Help with q’s
Dream: community solves each
other’s problems
Employee engagement Gives a sense of purpose
Engagement
Newsletters link back
Editorial calendar
When people give fee
What works
Issues
Need more help on what w
Community management
Moderator comments don’t g
anywhere
Console is overwhelming
Not many people know ho
up streams
Integrations
With CRM systems
With other tools like Evernote
Photos and events
Big need for photo albums
Event management needs to be
improved
Need to know who in the org
issue is assigned to
Want to do more things them
not have to rely on tons of ma
work or hiring a contractor
Metrics
So many things you can’t do
Have to make own reports
Create Exce
CMR data
Salesforce
Email systems
Jira

49. http://bit.ly/1PsaNca

50. Challenges and solutions for
the Enterprise
User research
@RianVDM