The secret to higher ROI? Redefining UX research
People often describe UX Research as the centralized source of truth for what users want. This is false. If I were to ask you twenty years ago whether you would like to hop in a strangers car in New York City, instead of trying to hail a cab, you would probably think I was crazy, and yet, the ride-sharing market is now at a whooping $85.8B and projected to reach $185.1B in 2026 (Markets and Markets). Users do not know what they want and this is especially true for innovative and disruptive technologies. If your idea of UX Research is showing designs and asking users if this something they think they’ll like, you are limiting the growth of your business by inadvertently forcing it into a logical fallacy trap.
So what exactly is UX Research? According to the Interaction Design Foundation, UX Research is the methodic study of target users — including their needs and pain points — so designers have the sharpest possible insights to work with to make the best designs.
I don’t believe this definition is completely true either.
Organizations that put users at the center of their strategies provide higher returns to investors and are more likely to maintain higher returns during periods of market uncertainty (McKinsey Report, 2018). The key thing to note here is the word Organizations and not Design Teams. UX Research teams can help provide higher returns to an organization but only if their scope and insights extend to the wider business practice (i.e. finance, marketing, operations) and are not artificially confined to design and product teams.
I created the chart below, which shows quadrants depicting four states of UXR teams.
The bottom quadrants describe UXR teams that limit their impact to the design organization. These teams tend to be newer or prefer to isolate their large scope of research methods to design decisions. The upper quadrants show UXR teams that produce insights that impact nearly all teams in their organization. Specialized UXR teams tend to focus on a small number of methods (i.e. surveys and usability) and design their studies in a way that will take into account different cross-functional business objectives. The UXR teams that provide insights that eventually leads to higher ROI for the company are ones that operate on the top right quadrant. They are skilled in a wide repertoire of research methods and strive to influence a large number of organizations beyond design and product.
From my experience growing the impact and value of the research teams I lead, I also created this table to show the full scope of research, we as UX Researchers, should aspire to cover. I would like to caveat that this table is not meant to show an exhaustive list but rather to illustrate the expansive scope of a UXR team that has analytical leadership in their organization and helps provide higher returns to shareholders.
Designing a ride-sharing service is not enough. The service needs to launch and be priced in a way that makes sense to the market. It also needs to generate revenue, so it can continue to grow and evolve, as the markets continue to change. This means a realization that no team in an organization, especially research, can ever operate in isolation. As researchers, instead of waiting for features to test and asking “What are the user pain points?”, you should ask, “What does a delightful future look like for our users?” and “How can I make this future possible for users through utilizing all aspects of our company?”
The trick here is to stop thinking about your UXR team as a supporting organization that is reactive. Let’s break away from the limitations of usability and find ways to represent the voice of users in a way that truly makes meaningful differences in their lives.
