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How to get stakeholders excited about user research
Hold a watch party and let your users do the talking.
One of the biggest challenges that UX researchers face is convincing stakeholders of the value of their research. Long reports on qualitative research like interviews and are rarely read, and the benefits of user research are difficult to measure in the short term.
Working in a new company that doesn’t have a strong user research culture, I faced an uphill battle convincing management and product teams of the value of my research.
But we already know who our users are!
Companies that have gotten by without user research are often convinced that they have a pretty good idea of their users, and that user research is unnecessary.
The best way to convince stakeholders of the benefits of user research is to let them hear directly from users, and be surprised by what they have to say.
There is nothing more powerful than coming face to face with your users and hearing what they think about your service.
If stakeholders don’t have the time to experience interviews first hand, a watch party, where video footage of user interviews is shown, can be a powerful alternative.
After conducting some user interviews, I created a highlight reel and held a watch party — where stakeholders could come and hear what users had to say.
I found that stakeholders who were unsure about user research became more interested and willing to cooperate after witnessing the interview process and seeing how their idea of a typical user differed from the actual users being interviewed.
How to hold a watch party
- Get permission and conduct interviews — Ensure that your interview participants are okay with being filmed. Create a simple release form to sign making it clear that the video will be used internally only.
