It's Our Research

It's Our Research

by Tomer Sharon
Released March 2012
Publisher(s): Morgan Kaufmann
ISBN: 9780123851314

Read it now on the O’Reilly learning platform with a 10-day free trial.

O’Reilly members get unlimited access to books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial

Book description

It’s Our Research: Getting Stakeholder Buy-in for User Experience Research Projects discusses frameworks, strategies, and techniques for working with stakeholders of user experience (UX) research in a way that ensures their buy-in. This book consists of six chapters arranged according to the different stages of research projects. Topics discussed include the different roles of business, engineering, and user-experience stakeholders; identification of research opportunities by developing empathy with stakeholders; and planning UX research with stakeholders. The book also offers ways of teaming up with stakeholders; strategies to improve the communication of research results to stakeholders; and the nine signs that indicate that research is making an impact on stakeholders, teams, and organizations. This book is meant for UX people engaged in usability and UX research. Written from the perspective of an in-house UX researcher, it is also relevant for self-employed practitioners and consultants who work in agencies. It is especially directed at UX teams that face no-time-no-money-for-research situations.
  • Named a 2012 Notable Computer Book for Information Systems by Computing Reviews
  • Features a series of video interviews with UX practitioners and researchers
  • Provides dozens of case studies and visuals from international research practitioners
  • Provides a toolset that will help you justify your work to stakeholders, deal with office politics, and hone your client skills
  • Presents tried and tested techniques for working to reach positive, useful, and fruitful outcomes

Table of contents

  1. Cover image
  2. Title page
  3. Table of Contents
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. Foreword
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. About the Author
  9. List of Figures and Tables
  10. Case Studies
  11. Videos
  12. Online Presence
  13. Prologue
  14. Introduction
  15. Chapter 1. If life gives you limes, make mojitos!
    1. Introduction
    2. Types of stakeholders
    3. The perspectives of UX research stakeholders
    4. Difficult people, teams, and organizations: Fight or flight?
    5. Selling the value of research
    6. The Lean Startup movement
    7. Accept the fact that it might not work and that it’s okay
    8. References
    9. Takeaways
  16. Chapter 2. Mmm … Interesting; so what exactly is it that you want to learn?
    1. Introduction
    2. Initiation of a study
    3. The most important questions to ask your stakeholders
    4. Delay any discussion about methodologies
    5. Become the voice of reason
    6. Listening and sowing seeds
    7. Takeaways
  17. Chapter 3. If you pick a methodology first, something must be wrong
    1. Introduction
    2. Research plans
    3. Study goals
    4. Research questions
    5. The questions stakeholders ask and the ones they do not
    6. How many questions?
    7. Prioritizing questions
    8. Selecting a methodology and describing it
    9. The magic of injecting quantitative data into qualitative findings
    10. References
    11. Takeaways
  18. Chapter 4. What’s gonna work? Teamwork!
    1. Introduction
    2. Why collaborate?
    3. Plan together
    4. Recruit participants together
    5. Interact with users together
    6. Analyze together
    7. Color the experience
    8. Report results together
    9. References
    10. Takeaways
  19. Chapter 5. The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place
    1. Introduction
    2. Reports
    3. Presentations
    4. Other communication tools and techniques
    5. Soft communication skills
    6. References
    7. Takeaways
  20. Chapter 6. You can’t manage what you don’t measure
    1. Introduction
    2. Signs that research is being used well
    3. How to track the impact of research
    4. References
    5. Takeaways
  21. Epilogue
    1. Last piece of advice: if you want buy-in, do a great job
  22. Index

Product information

  • Title: It's Our Research
  • Author(s): Tomer Sharon
  • Release date: March 2012
  • Publisher(s): Morgan Kaufmann
  • ISBN: 9780123851314