Research Methods For Innovators Navigating The “Tech Quagmire”

Hello INNOVATEwest Community,

Building great technology requires deeply understanding user problems. And that requires high-quality research. But too many innovators either over-rely on certain methods or don’t collect the right data. Speaking with INNOVATEwest, Sheila Mackenzie, Partner and Director of UX at Spatial Research + Design, shared the research methods she uses for innovation projects.

Key takeaways:

• In all user interviews, take a specifically neutral approach; questions should only be about understanding the person rather than guiding them to a conclusion.
• Observational research can help uncover insights that might get glossed over in an interview or forgotten about in a survey.
• Contextual inquiry gives you a chance to truly see a “day in the life” of your user and provides the opportunity for value judgments.

Dave Tyldesley
Co-Founder/Producer SAAS NORTH & INNOVATEwest
Editor INNOVATEwest PULSE

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As technology becomes easier to build, it’s increasingly important to solve the right problem.

But organizations often get stuck in what Sheila Mackenzie, Partner and Director of UX at Spatial Research + Design, calls the “tech quagmire.”

Here’s what it looks like: You know you need to change and innovate, but it’s a complex transformation process that involves multiple cross-functional stakeholders orienting toward a vision. This is particularly true in enterprise environments, said Sheila, where teams can struggle to break out of entrenched ways of work.

While a vision can come from an internal group, innovation against it won’t make sense unless it stems from a deep understanding of users or customers.

And in this process of understanding people, there’s also a risk of bias or improperly designed research that can lead to incorrect conclusions.

The only way out of the quagmire is high-quality research, becoming a “curious observer” of human behaviour.

Speaking with INNOVATEwest, Sheila shared three research methods innovators can use.

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Research methods for innovators

Beyond surveys, stats, third-party papers on the subject, and other “desk research,” Sheila said it’s critical to gather first-party information about your users.

1. Neutral interviews

In-depth interviews get you in front of potential users with the opportunity to ask questions about their challenges, problems, and perspectives on solutions.

“A lot of people can be surprised when they hear directly from people who are true representatives of their audience segments,” said Sheila.

The key to success, though, is neutrality. The reality is that many innovators can inadvertently bring bias into the conversation, asking leading questions to excitedly confirm their hunches. On the other hand, humans typically want to be good and kind to others—which can lead to interviewees giving people-pleasing answers rather than honesty.

When you ask questions in a neutral way—prioritizing honesty over looking for any specific answer—you’ll get higher-quality insight.

“If you find that you know you’re not feeling neutral [when you ask a question], your queries are not going to be neutral either,” said Sheila.

2. Observational research

Observational research means watching someone as they work, understanding their behaviours from a distance.

Sheila likes the AEIOU method—Activites, Environments, Interactions, Objects, and Users.

For example, Spatial was asked to help design a productivity-boosting technology solution for a large brand’s call centres. During an observational research day, she noted most people had a pad of sticky notes on their desks. Through follow up questions, they found out team members were managing multiple non-integrated systems with no way to document quick notes such as passwords, follow up tasks, or asks of colleagues. The sticky notes became the proxy for the true problem—the need for an integrated system.

While seemingly simple, it had gone undetected because everyone just did their work and moved on; simple user interviews may not have uncovered this as a true hurdle to productivity.

“[Observational research] gives you the opportunity to understand and unpack why they’re using that tool,” said Sheila. “You can’t do that with surveys.”

3. Contextual inquiry

Contextual inquiry is like a merger between in-depth interviews and observational research.

Here’s what the multi-step process looks like:

1. The interviewee walks you through their entire work process how they use the tools available to them.
2. The researcher asks open-ended follow up questions to understand the significance of the task overall, how each step helps complete the task, and the significance of the order of action.
3. The researcher can also ask for value judgments, such as if the person feels the overall goal is valuable, if they like doing the task in a certain way, or if they feel something better is possible.

“[Contextual inquiry] gives you an idea of where pain points are—and pain points can lead to innovation depending on how big the pain point is,” said Sheila.

These research methods help validate hypotheses and more deeply understand users. From there, innovation teams can actually begin creating solutions—and continue to get feedback.

“It becomes easier to do the design because you’re armed with all these facts about how you need to design it,” said Sheila. “The designer really steps in at that stage, experimenting with different approaches—then taking it to users and saying, ‘Okay, how do these work for you?’”

Continuous testing

In Sheila’s experience, innovation always comes from a user-centred process. More to the point, she doesn’t believe in the tech lore of a genius innovator with an idea that becomes an impactful innovation for humanity.

While someone may have a brilliant idea, true innovation comes from filling a need—and to do that, you have to understand what motivates people and what their desires are.

“You can’t [innovate] without understanding people, what motivates them, and what their desires are,” said Sheila.