Lean UX, 2nd Edition

Chapter 6. Feedback and Research

Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.

—Zora Neale Hurston

It’s now time to put your Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to the test. All of our work up to this point has been based on assumptions; now we must begin the validation process. We use lightweight, continuous, and collaborative research techniques to do this.

Figure 6-1. The Lean UX cycle

Research with users is at the heart of most approaches to User Experience (UX) design. Too often though, teams outsource research work to specialized research teams. And, too often, research activities take place on rare occasions—either at the beginning of a project or at the end. Lean UX solves the problems these tactics create by making research both continuous and collaborative. Let’s dig in to see how to do that.

In this chapter, we cover the following:

• Collaborative research techniques with which you can build shared understanding with your team

• Continuous research techniques that you can use to build small, informal, qualitative research studies into every iteration

• How to use small units of regular research to build longitudinal research studies

• How to reconcile contradictory feedback from multiple sources

• What artifacts to test and what results you can expect from each of these tests

• How to incorporate the voice of the customer throughout the ...