Effective Remote Research: How to build trust
We are starting our remote Sprint Retrospective. If your are not very familiar with Scrum framework, Sprint Retrospectives are opportunities for the team to “inspect itself and create a plan for improvements to be enacted during the next Sprint” — Scrum.org. During these sessions, the team can share what they think went well, wrong or can be improved.
So, going back to the story, I log in to the team platform and post the very first idea of the session. Everyone reads it on their screen with MY NAME on it!… “I thought this was Anonymous!” I post in the chat window. Everyone starts laughing. I go and proof-read my own idea to make sure I didn’t write anything compromising. No need to say that no one posted anything else until the session was switched to Anonymous.
I’ve been working with the team for a few months already. I know everyone in person and I work with them on a daily basis. But still, in this session when we have a chance to talk about opportunities for improvement, we hold ourselves to share our thoughts if we know that the statement will be tied to us. And maybe it doesn’t completely hold us, we may still share but then we go and change WHAT we say or HOW we say it.
Think about this. Our behavior is different when we are alone compared to when we are surrounded by people. Why? Because then our subconscious alert reminds us the social rules and standards we should follow. We become aware of what is expected from us as social beings.
The same happens when expressing our opinions. When they are tied to ourselves, we become self-conscious about consequences. What if it is not politically correct? What if my manager is there and thinks I am too negative, or what if the team thinks I complain a lot, or what if my idea is just stupid? Then we are more concerned about how our ideas will be received and the conversation changes completely.
To facilitate removing these apprehensions from our meeting, we share ideas anonymously.
My work as Service Designer and Design Researcher requires constant engagement with users in different ways, tests, surveys, interviews, shadowing sessions, workshops, etc. The end goal of primary research is to get first-hand insights from end-users. Therefore, honesty and openness from them is key. But often, if you have not met your participants before, or have just met them recently, it can be a real challenge to build the trust that will lead to honesty and openness. If, on top of that, you are doing research remotely, you have another layer of complexity.
What is the worst case scenario? That you or your company spend time and money in Research that results in inaccurate insights, leading to base the rest of the creative process in inaccurate statements, leading to inaccurate business decisions, inaccurate products and services that do not address accurate needs.
Depending on the size of the project and the resources invested, the results can be catastrophic and expensive.
But, how is the story above related to this? Well, when engaging with users, we want them to be open and honest, but this will not happen unless they feel that they are in a safe environment, in the exact same way as the Sprint Retrospective story.
Users need to know that they will not be judged because of what they say. Complaints or negative statements will not be tied to their names if they don’t want to. Tests are not meant to tell if they are smart enough. Workshops are not to discover who is the coolest and most creative in the room. They need to feel safe and confident.
If this is complex with people that work with you on a daily basis, you can imagine how much more complex it can be when you engage with people who have never met you before.
So, how can we build trust and go beyond the surface when doing remote research?
I am on a project that was supposed to be just 30% remote. After a few months, it turned out to be 100% remote after a global pandemic forced us to work from home.
Thus, I’ve managed to do Research from home with people in different countries. Fortunate enough, my previous project on Employee Experience was also remote, so I’ve kind of found the way.
A lot has been said and written about design research methods and there are hundreds of resources out there to learn. I’m not going to talk about any specific method. Instead, I’d like to share a few ideas that can get you closer to the user, regardless of the method you use. This post is focused on remote sessions but some ideas can also be applicable to face to face sessions. I hope you find them useful.
Before the session
1. Find allies — It is always easier to trust some who is introduced to us by someone we already know than trusting someone who comes and introduces oneself. So, whenever possible, ask someone that knows you and your participant(s) to introduce you, even if it is just by email. If you don’t know anyone who can do this for you, then you will have to meet a couple of users the traditional way and once they know you and trust you, ask them to introduce you to other potential participants. Think about Sales agents. Their success rate is increased when people have received personal recommendations from friends and family rather than trying to sell to people who have never heard of a product or service. That intermediary person acts as the initial confidence builder.
With potential participants, something similar happens. When introduced by someone they know, they immediately release some uncertainty about who you are and why you are talking to them. Then it’s easier.
2. Limit the amount of evaluators — Putting someone in the spotlight with 4+ people looking while doing a test can be intimidating. Thus, limit the amount of evaluators to a maximum of 3. I personally prefer 2, myself and a note taker. If there are several sessions, then we alternate roles. It will be easier for the participant to open up with 2 people in a relaxed environment than in front of 5 looking and taking “who knows what notes”.
3. Provide context prior to the session — Don’t wait until the time of the session to start building confidence. One way to do this is by providing context prior to the session. If you made the invite by email, introduce yourself, provide context about the project and be explicit about the goal of the session or test. Indicate how long it will take, what will happen during the session, how you will use the data and what will be the outcome. You can include an interesting fact about you in your introduction so that the participant feels there is a human on the other side, not a machine sending emails from a template.
During the session
4. Turn your camera on — Not everyone likes this one, specially if you are working from home in you pajamas, but I can tell you it totally makes the difference. The more we know about a person, the more confident we feel and around them and the more we trust. If we are just hearing a voice, we probably wonder who the person is, what the person looks like, what is happening on the other side. If you as facilitator immediately turn your camera on, you will be adding a layer of confidence providing them more information about you, they know who you are now, your name and why you are there. It is like they are finally meeting you “in person”. Once they see a friendly face on the other side, they might go and turn their camera on too. Just don’t push if they don’t want to turn theirs on.
5. Smile — Yes, this makes a difference. Studies have shown that smiling makes other people to perceive us as more reliable, relaxed and sincere. Also, when we see a person smiling, the region of our brain responsible of creating stimulus of reward is activated. No wonder why they say that smiling is contagious. So, be friendly and make your participants feel comfortable :)
6. Be explicit about what the goal is and what it is NOT — You were supposed to have explained this prior the session (No. 2), but it makes no harm if you explain it again during the session. Be very clear about the goal, whether it is testing a product, know their experiences on a certain matter, observe their reaction to certain stimulus, etcetera. And very important, confirm what the goal is NOT — like judging right or wrong, measure how smart they are, find out who the best participant is… That is definitely not our objective when reaching out to users.
In a recent Heuristic Evaluation I held with a colleague, our participants were fellow UX professionals from another office. One might think that they already know the “rules of the game” but interestingly we found out that putting them in the role of a “participant” role subconsciously place them in a vulnerable position, making them feel like they are being observed and tested. One of told us: “Did I do very bad? I’m sorry I failed to several tasks”. Another one asked how the other participants had performed in the test, wondering if he had done poorly.
Your participants should never feel that they are wrong, that they failed the test, that they were not good enough.
7. Inform participants what you will be doing while they speak — This is particularly applicable to tests. Ideally for interviews, you would have someone in the team supporting you with notes or recording the session. For tests, you can also record, however, 1. you are not always allowed to record, and 2. it takes a lot of extra work and time to do transcripts after tests. So my personal preference is asking a colleague to take notes or take notes myself. In order to do this, you should be able to write or type fast. Then make sure you inform the participant what you will be doing while he speaks or performs the test, and that is, taking notes. This way participants won’t get the wrong impression that you are distracted or even replying a chat message while they do the test.
After the session
8. Follow-up after the research session — Besides giving participants what you agreed as reward, a Thank You note is always a good gesture. We don’t want people to feel like we don’t care after we got what we need. Adding to this point, people appreciate a lot when we follow-up with them as the project progresses. They feel excitement when they know how their contributions helped shaping the project. As far as your project permits, share with them the findings and what you did with those. If by the end of the project you can share with them the final outcome, that will be their best reward.
Although you cannot control how your users will feel during a research session, you can create an environment that facilitates building trust between you and them. Following these recommendations will not guarantee you an open and insightful conversation with all users, but at least you increase your chances. Create your own method and give it personal touch, try new ways, identify what works for you and what doesn’t. Iterate. We are always learning.
One of our challenges as Researchers is to establish credibility with our Stakeholders. We want our work to provide them confidence about their business decisions. If we are fortunate enough to work with a team that already believes and trusts in our work, then we want our work to prove them right. We can do that by engaging better with users, building confidence, gaining trust, being truthful and authentic. Our ultimate reward will always be helping users finding better ways, making goals achievable and shaping better futures.
The points covered in this article are a combination of work experience and personal opinions. If you have any additional tips, please share them in the comments below, I’ll be happy to read them and try them next time.
Priscila Avila is a Research and Service Design Consultant @Accenture Technology. She enjoys writing personal reflections and professional learnings but often leaves them as Drafts.
