Not everything is a user research problem

Here are 7 reasons NOT to conduct user research. Not everything is a user research problem people...

1. If you can better answer a question with analytics, use analytics. How often does someone abandon their shopping cart? Analytics can tell you.

2. If time doesn't permit it, don’t rush into UX research. Example: in two days, you cannot conduct a diary study about the college application process.

3. If you’re only trying to sell your design, don’t mask it as user research. That’s unethical and largely ineffective. We do research in service to the user, not ourselves.

4. If the research question is too broad/narrow, given the type and scope of the information that you need, don’t proceed. Right size the question(s).

5. If you don’t have a good idea of the type of people you should gather feedback from or about … ’nuff said.

6. If you don't know WHY you’re doing the research, and HOW and WHEN the learnings will be applied. Pause right there.

7. If you don’t have stakeholder buy-in. IMHO, this is the #1 indicator of whether you’ll move successfully from insights to action, or not. Remember user research is a team sport!

Help me out here… what circumstances have you encountered in which others wanted to do UX research when it didn’t make sense?