Build a user research culture

Build a user research culture

1. Define and share a set of user research principles.

For example, Yahoo has four principles: timely, believable, actionable, and surprising.

2. Send an internal message or make a presentation to employees on the business value of user research.

Provide information about the goals of user research, including customer satisfaction and brand advocacy, saving time and money in developmental stages, and reducing churn.

3. Build a user research team from employees in multiple departments, including sales, customer service, product development, design, ads and data, and accessibility.

If needed, find a project sponsor who can connect you to additional team members. Working across multiple departments provides access to different client issues and experiences.

4. Use team-building activities to unify your new team.

Corporate team building activities often include group dinners, office trivia, retreats, or other “getting to know you” events.

5. Show live or recorded user tests to employees throughout the company.

Encourage people outside the research team to provide feedback or impressions.

6. Send internal messages that summarize the learnings from user tests, notes from your internal team, and explanations on how the sessions affect product development.

7. Host informative lunch-and-learns to present user research best practices and highlight new findings to other departments and employees.