When is the best time to conduct user research?

Q. When is the best time to conduct user research?

A. Yes.

Many people think that user research is a specific step in the product development cycle, but it's not. It's iterative. I think of myself as working alongside my product development and design teams, ideally one or two steps ahead of them. My goal is to continually collaborate, and think ahead, to curate and provide meaningful, “just in time” information in order for my teams make better, and more confident decisions.

User research in a UX mature organization is never actually “done.” We complete projects, yes, but the “practice” is ongoing. User research should be conducted early and often.

Let’s take Netflix as an example; they are a market leader, are a mature UX company and they also know their customers. But they are constantly doing research about how their customers’ needs and attitudes are changing, how the product landscape is changing, how technology is evolving and how the competition is adapting. None of those things are static. So even if you are the dominant leader in your category, you’re never done.

Ideally it's like breathing. (And we all know what happens when you stop breathing.)

PS. Yep, guilty! Who else binge-watched Netflix over the holidays?