{"id":679455,"date":"2019-04-24T09:00:27","date_gmt":"2019-04-24T16:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/?post_type=msr-blog-post&p=679455"},"modified":"2020-07-27T14:44:21","modified_gmt":"2020-07-27T21:44:21","slug":"give-your-research-skills-away-why-coaching-product-teams-wont-put-you-out-of-a-job","status":"publish","type":"msr-blog-post","link":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/articles\/give-your-research-skills-away-why-coaching-product-teams-wont-put-you-out-of-a-job\/","title":{"rendered":"Give your research skills away: Why coaching product teams won\u2019t put you out of a job"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Nancy Lincoln Perry (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Photograph

Note: This article was originally published on April 24, 2019, on Medium<\/p><\/div>\n

User researchers shouldn\u2019t hesitate to share what we know\u2014we have the skills, experience, and knowledge to lead the way<\/h3>\n

The era of customer obsession presents an interesting problem for user researchers. On one hand, product teams are hungry for more customer connection, so we\u2019re seeing a high demand for our skills as more companies take a customer-led approach.<\/p>\n

But the ratio of embedded researchers to product owners remains notoriously low in startups and large-scale companies alike. If all user research went through us, we\u2019d be totally overwhelmed.<\/p>\n

Teaching customer engagement and research skills to product teams is a solution that many companies are turning to. Depending on the model and the context, research training programs may be popular, controversial, or both. When we approach them strategically, these programs can produce valid research, as well as foster respect for the discipline, and free up embedded researchers to do more high-level work.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s get more valid research done<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In my experience, no one pushes back on customer connection programs that focus on increasing direct interactions and empathy, even if the participants are novices. But once an activity is deemed \u201cresearch\u201d or is used to gather insights to drive key decisions, some researchers get a little nervous.\u00a0Were the insights accurate? Will product teams think they have all the tools they need without us?<\/p>\n

It makes sense to ask these questions. I myself have asked them. Luckily, I\u2019ve seen and learned a lot in my 20+ years in research\u2014which include overseeing research coaching for organizations like Windows and Edge at Microsoft.<\/p>\n

Our comprehensive approach involves more than just offering trainings and resources.\u00a0We provide a hypothesis-driven framework for integrating customer input, plus a dedicated coach who supports the entire process.<\/p>\n

Having seen the results of this program, I believe it\u2019s entirely feasible for those not in the user research discipline to gather accurate insights. Here are a few best practices that lead to more valid research:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Research plans follow human-centered or hypothesis-driven design, and interactions with customers are framed in an open and unbiased way.<\/li>\n
  2. Those engaging with customers have been trained in core foundational skill sets such as how to talk to customers without bias, active listening, problem framing, and sense-making.<\/li>\n
  3. Researchers (or trained customer engagement coaches) consult from the planning stage all the way through to data analysis and reporting.<\/li>\n
  4. Existing data and research are consulted, reviewed, and integrated early on.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    It\u2019s certainly possible for research performed by novices to do more harm than good.\u00a0But we should remember that validity is about whether research is conducted in a reliable, deliberate, nonbiased way, not\u00a0who\u00a0does the research.<\/p>\n

    How coaching breaks down silos and benefits customers<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    At Microsoft Customer Insights and Research, our coaching program is building appreciation for the discipline and changing how we make products. Unlike similar programs that only facilitate evaluative research, we enable and encourage our stakeholders to interact with customers throughout the product cycle.<\/p>\n

    \"Graphic<\/p>\n

    In our approach, we focus on two principles to guide us:\u00a0building the\u00a0right thing\u00a0and\u00a0building the\u00a0thing right.<\/p>\n

    Participants can use our program to set up customer engagements in either phase, but\u00a0we emphasize the early phases focused on building the\u00a0right thing, since generative research is so critical to understanding customer needs and can lead to less wasted development work down the road.<\/p>\n

    One of the first things we noticed when we launched our program was that it seemed to be enhancing our stakeholders\u2019 respect for user research.\u00a0Far from thinking they no longer need us, they\u2019ve started to understand the amount of time and resources involved in even narrowly focused studies as they learn research skills. When we teach our partners how to drive their own research, suddenly they\u2019re behind the curtain, hearing feedback from its source and getting closer to customer needs.<\/p>\n

    In addition to the empathy that they build with customers through this process, they\u2019re also building empathy with us, aligning the researcher-stakeholder relationship in a more cooperative direction.<\/p>\n

    The studies have also produced solid results. We\u2019ve seen our product teams capture significant insights regarding online safety for kids, voice typing in creative contexts, and preferences around human-AI interaction, to name just a few.\u00a0Our impact measurement shows that 92 percent of our initial studies resulted in changes that will steer our products toward meeting customer needs.<\/p>\n

    Training product partners frees up researchers to do more<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    As we scale this model, some of the day-to-day work of user research will be distributed, giving full-time researchers more time for more strategic, specialized work.\u00a0For any who feel nervous about whether coaching other disciplines might threaten their job security or sense of professionalism, I would emphasize that there\u2019s no shortage of this kind of work to be done.<\/p>\n

    As the embedded research experts on our teams,\u00a0we can be looking out to industry or competitive trends, or curating our current insights into\u00a0a durable body of knowledge<\/a>. We can gain a deeper understanding of customer habits and behaviors over time through longitudinal work or conduct exploratory research to identify new opportunity areas.<\/p>\n

    So don\u2019t hold back. Look forward to a future in which user research is no longer the voice of the customer but one of many customer voices\u2014and give your research skills away. Our discipline may be changing and reinventing itself, but it\u2019s not going to disappear.<\/p>\n

    Are you sharing research skills in your organization? <\/strong>Tweet us @MicrosoftRI<\/a> or like us on Facebook (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> and join in on the conversation!<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Nancy manages a horizontally focused user research team that empowers product teams with customer-driven practices, tools, and data\/insights\u2014and ultimately increases the scale and visibility of research and customer engagement across the organization. Her team runs regular customer programs, drives iterative usability and benchmarking research, and is also leading research around culture change to understand customer-driven behaviors. Nancy has been at Microsoft for 19 years, driving UX strategy and conducting research for a range of products and experiences such as Surface Hub, Windows Hello, Microsoft Advertising, Xbox Kinect, HoloLens, and BizTalk\/SQL Servers. She’s also the mom of an 11 and 13-year-old who are both into sports. Her family is also passionate Seahawks’ fans and season ticket holders!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    As more companies take a customer-led approach, product teams are eager to understand customer connection and research skills. But giving away these skills can be controversial. In this story, we’ll take a look at how this style of collaboration, when done properly, can be helpful, strategic, and produce valid research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39057,"featured_media":679500,"template":"","meta":{"msr-url-field":"","msr-podcast-episode":"","msrModifiedDate":"","msrModifiedDateEnabled":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","msr-content-parent":616842,"msr_hide_image_in_river":0,"footnotes":""},"research-area":[],"msr-locale":[268875],"msr-post-option":[],"class_list":["post-679455","msr-blog-post","type-msr-blog-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","msr-locale-en_us"],"msr_assoc_parent":{"id":616842,"type":"group"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-blog-post\/679455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-blog-post"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/msr-blog-post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39057"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-blog-post\/679455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":679509,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-blog-post\/679455\/revisions\/679509"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"msr-research-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-area?post=679455"},{"taxonomy":"msr-locale","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-locale?post=679455"},{"taxonomy":"msr-post-option","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-post-option?post=679455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}