Debunking seven common reasons for not needing UX research
Equip yourself with some ammunition to battle the user research naysayers.
Convincing business, organisation, or client stakeholders to invest in user research can sometimes feel like an uphill challenge. Furthermore, the UX naysayers raise the bar high when they have their set of preconceived notions on why not to include users in building things or making improvements.
But, fear not, there is still light at the end of the tunnel. Before you walk into battle, make sure you equip yourself with the following tips to debunk these seven common reasons for not needing user research.
1. Time and money
“We do not have the time and money to conduct any research.”
The problem
It is common for a stakeholder to associate user research with high costs and time. Since they are already working to a tight schedule and within a low budget, they will quickly dismiss the means to test and validate the solutions they are pushing for.
However, by ignoring user research, the stakeholder runs the risk of choosing the wrong features and making unnecessary improvements down the line. Misinformed product direction, fixing errors, and repairing gaps in the user journey attributes to technical debt and wasted development time and money.
So, how can you convince the stakeholder of the return on investment their business can generate through user research?
You could say
“User research can give insight into user needs, behaviours and motivations to inform the right product direction. This will help reduce development time and money and minimise technical debt.”
2. Market research
“But we already have the market research.”
The problem
It is not unusual for a stakeholder to confuse user research with market research — they are two different things!
As most of us are already aware, market research is used for discovering the viability of a new product or service and what potential customers value most. In contrast, user research is about obtaining insight into user needs, behaviours, and motivations to inform the right product design and overall direction.
A UX team will conduct user research to understand the problem spaces and whether or not the design solution will solve them. Whereas market research alone cannot validate an idea from a user-centred viewpoint before it goes into production.
You could say
“Market research tells us about what we need to know about customer demand, but it will not validate the usability and accessibility of our product or service.”
3. We are the user
“I am a user, so, therefore, I know what the user wants and needs.”
The problem
Whether it is the CEO or the designer, it is perfectly natural to assume what the target user will want based on their own preconceptions.
For example, if you create a spreadsheet for your own personal needs, you can design it in whatever way you feel is relevant. However, once you hand the same file to someone else to use, there will be no guarantee that they will instantly understand it and associate any real value with it.
You could say
“As users of the same product or service, we cannot assume that other people will think and behave in the same way. We need to gain a deeper understanding of what people want and need through user research.”
4. Empathetic design
“We already understand the user because we’ve put ourselves in their shoes.”
The problem
One aspect of user research involves empathy, which encompasses understanding the target user’s thoughts, feelings, and attitudes. It’s common to hear someone tell you that they put themselves in someone’s shoes, but that statement falsely claims they truly understand who their real users are and what their problems may be.
Regardless of our expert opinion, being empathetic is virtually impossible as we can’t get inside people’s heads and understand all their thoughts and feelings — we’re not psychic! However, user research empowers us to gain real insight into the abilities, skills, and needs of the people we’re trying to help.
You could say
“There are no magic shoes to understand what people are thinking and feeling. Empathy comes from speaking with people face-to-face and by observing their behaviours.”
5. Expert opinion
“Our solution is going to work, and we’re going to build it!”
The problem
The alternative to user research is to create long-lasting products or services by adopting meticulous planning and considering all the possible outcomes. However, in most cases, when you put all your eggs in one basket, so to speak, then putting all your faith into a single, untested concept and hoping that it will succeed and spare failure down the line is delusional.
Lots of teams tend to dive straight into creating the solution before the problem is even understood. They inject a lot of energy into their concept and insist that it’s too early to validate their thinking. The more time they spend mapping an approach, the more likely they’ll grow attached to it.
You could say
“It doesn’t matter how many years of experience we have working in the industry; we still need user research to validate a concept before investing too much time and money into building the solution.”
6. The process always works
“We’ve been doing it without research for years, and our process works every time.”
The problem
A business, organisation, or client may find it hard to detach itself from a process or framework perceived for its efficient delivery results. However, efficacy alone isn’t going to outperform the competition or give the target user what they need.
Without user research, teams responsible for building the product or service will have no means for testing new ideas. Sparing experimentation limits learning and creativity, which reduces the ability to disrupt the market.
You could say
“User research will enable us to explore new territories, understand what works and doesn’t, and identify gaps in the market that the competition is unaware of. Experimentation yields creativity. And creativity leads to innovation.”
7. Quantitative data
“The numbers from our analytics tell us everything we need to know.”
The problem
A stakeholder takes comfort and perhaps a false sense of security using just quantitative data, such as conversion rates, obtained from an analytics tool. Although this type of metric is essential to building a holistic view of a user journey, it does not explain enough about user behaviours.
When qualitative user research techniques, such as user interviews and usability testing, are factored into understanding more about the pain points in a user journey, the stakeholder is endowed with deeper, meaningful insight into why users think and behave in the way they do.
Furthermore, user research can complement existing reporting metrics by providing insight into why users struggle in certain parts of their journey.
You could say
“Quantitative insights can tell you where something is happening, but they cannot tell you what it is exactly and why it has occurred. However, qualitative user research can give insight into user behaviour and supplement existing reporting metrics.”
Advocating user research
The counterarguments to the seven common reasons for not needing user research are merely suggestions. They may not influence a stakeholder to change their product strategy at the drop of a hat, but they can inform them of the caveats of not running user research.
Advocating the importance of user research is a long, winding road that requires continuous education, evidence, and perseverance. But simply discussing the benefits of running user research with stakeholders always serves as a good starting point.
The future state for a product or service is a horizon that we can only work towards through user research. For now, many naysayers will give you plenty of reasons for not needing user research, but as long as we persist, then we will eventually win them over.
