Time for a fun (I hope) wrap-up and recap of some of the UXR knowledge dropped in Fuel Your Curiosity newsletters and UX Lex Term Tuesdays emails in 2021. Can you ace my quick 10-question quiz? (Answers are at the bottom of this newsletter; colored blocks below each question are an opportunity to learn what you may have missed in the past year!)

Q1. When is the best time to recognize your biases?

1. During your daily personal “bias check”

2. Before you write your research plan

3. Before you begin your participant sessions

4. During a mid-study “bias check,” to see what patterns may have emerged

5. When editing your final presentation

Q2. How long should you spend on authoring the initial draft of your user research plan?

1. No more than 2 hours

2. 24 hours

3. At least one week

4. No more than one week

5. At least 30 days

Q3. When should you recruit more participants than you actually need?

1. Whenever the budget is large enough to pay more participants

2. When participant profiles indicate they may be unreliable

3. During a pandemic

4. Always

5. In winter months, when weather conditions may prevent participants from showing up

Q4. Why is it important to test your surveys on multiple platforms?

1. Most stakeholders aren’t tech savvy

2. Many study participants have out-of-date technology

3. Because mobile, tablet and desktop devices surface the survey questions and responses in very different ways

4. So you can choose the best platform for your survey

5. To ensure compliance with international data privacy laws

Q5. What’s the difference between UXR / User Experience Research and CX: Customer experience / CX research?

1. CX research is concerned with a customer’s perception based multiple interactions with an organization; UX research is more specific to the customer’s experience or expectations of the offered product or service

2. CX research is not about actual products or services. It’s more focused on quantitative data such as NPS scores

3. UX research covers multiple touchpoints; CX covers a single point in time

4. UX research is concerned primarily with technology, not service design or hardware

5. CX research and UX research are the same thing

Q6. When should you pilot your user research studies?

1. When you are new to the subject matter

2. If conducting usability studies with interactive prototypes

3. You or your stakeholders are unfamiliar with the process

4. It’s not clear if you can get through your question set in the time allotted

5. All of the above

Q7. Why do we need stakeholders involved in our research?

1. To see what additional research they might invest in

2. To ensure the research supports the stakeholders’ existing plans

3. Stakeholders provide absolutely critical information and perspectives

4. To show stakeholders the value of the research process

5. Somebody’s gotta hold the steaks

Q8. What is the difference between a prototype and a MVP / Minimum Viable Product?

1. Prototypes are only used in technology testing

2. Prototypes are more mature product versions than MVPs

3. MVPs are early versions of services; prototypes are early physical products

4. MVPs are fully branded/designed; branding is masked on prototypes

5. Prototypes are not intended to be released to the market

Q9. Why is storytelling important when reporting on your research learnings?

1. Longer presentations create the impression of more thorough knowledge

2. Raw data is meaningless to stakeholders

3. Generating an emotional response increases memory of your key points

4. Statistics can be misleading

5. Modern audiences expect to be entertained

Q10. How does a case study presentation differ from a research share out with the team?

1. Share-outs only cover parts of a study

2. Case studies cover multiple research projects

3. Share-outs are less formal presentations than case studies

4. Case studies are external to an organization; share-outs are internal

5. Data is not anonymized in a share-out

Upcoming Events

• Jan 13th - 9:30 am PT: Delta CX live webinar micro lesson on Note-taking strategies. Tune in here. [free]

• Jan 27th - 9:30 am PT: DeltaCX Podcast: The Rise of Research Ops. Tune in here. [free]

• Feb 1st - 5 pm PT: Live Info Session about Ask Like A Pro with Alumni. [free]

• Feb 7th - 6:30 pm PT: CPHUX Event: How to document and present research learnings. Register here. [free]

• Feb 16th - 11 am PT: Product Management Today webinar: Turning UX Research Insights into Action: How to Increase Your Research Efficiency and Move You From Insights to Action, Faster. Register here. [free]

Speak up, get involved, share the love

• Follow me on LinkedIn for more UXR tips and UX discussions.

• Read about Curiosity Tank workshops (the next Ask Like A Pro series begins in February!)

• Participate as an On-Demand, or as an Observer, for less!

• Forward this email to someone who you think might enjoy it. Better yet, sign them up here. It will be the gift that keeps on giving.

• Ask us questions related to user research. Seriously, bad research keeps us up at night!

Quiz Answer Key - How’d you do?

1.B | 2.A | 3.D | 4.C | 5.A | 6.E | 7.C | 8.E | 9.C | 10.D

And that’s a wrap!

We try to alternate between a theme and UX/UXR jobs, events, classes, articles, and other happenings every few weeks. What do you think? We're constantly iterating and would love to hear your input.

Stay curious,
- Michele and the Curiosity Tank team

PS: The next Ask LIke A Pro Workshop series starts in February. We’re only offering two public cohorts this year, so click here for details and to grab your spot! Have questions? Schedule time with Michele to find out if Ask Like A pro is right for you, here.