Creating a Research Repository

Intro

Part of my role as a UX researcher in the internships I had at HackforLA and QuantumWorkplace, was creating research repositories. Due to the NDA, I can not release all the details for this project but I will include the most important parts of the processes in both companies.

Year: 2021, 2022

My Role: Product researcher

Timeline: June 2021, June 2022

Research Method: -Interviews-Surveys- Competitor analysis-

Research Type: Exploratory UXR

Initial Problem Statement

Research is all over the place, we need some research templates and research repository to keep out previous research.

GOAL:

To grow UX awareness and participation in UX work among leadership, product owners, and the organization at large
Support product research work, so product professionals may be more productive as they plan and track research

Methodology

1-Interview

2-Competitor analysis

2-Survey

1. In-depth interview

To clarify the research problem, I did an initial interview with different stakeholders who asked for a research repository, to understand why they need it, and what do they expect from a research repository. We did a thematic analysis for the interviews.

Refined Problem Statement

The research findings at the company are all over the place, making them difficult to locate. It has caused some repetitive customer calls, double work, and lost customer data. There is a need for a research repository, which includes all research data, and ensures universal access for everyone.

2- Competitor Analysis

I also did a competitor analysis to find out how other companies develop research repositories and what are the main features of the research repositories

Using the data I collected and the subsequent analysis, I crafted a user journey to gain deeper insights into the user's pain points, challenges, and potential opportunities:

We learned that affordability, searchability, shareability, and integrity of the repository with other software that the company use are the main important criteria for the possible repository.

Survey

Based on our initial research, we designed a survey to understand which criteria is more important for the users and what are their main concerns. the chart below shows that how they rate the proposed criteria:

Key Findings

I proposed three alternatives and scored them based on the proposed criteria and users' priorities. My final recommendation was to add features to an existing product that already has many of the features needed for the repository. This was also an alternative chosen by most of the stakeholders since it was affordable and had an easier learning curve. I made an instructional demo for the stakeholders on how we can take advantage of the current product as a repository for research. The result of integration between customers' touchpoints and the current product (Productboard) resulted in a 5X increase in customer touchpoints.