I did a contextual inquiry — now what?

Using data to drive progress

I did it! I convinced my company to spend the time and money to let me talk to users. I invested the time in consolidating all the feedback into sequence data, flow models, and an affinity wall. Stakeholders flew in from all over to take in the user data and generate visions. We even held a celebratory dinner after the fact during which everyone excitedly talked about all that they had learned thanks to the magic of user research.

And then, in a week or two, the glow of user-centricity seemed to fade and silently pop like a soap bubble returning to equilibrium.

Of course it did! It’s my job to keep the lather alive! How do we keep the words of our users front and center as a friction point preventing our development process from slipping back into business as usual? Here are some specific tactics I’ve employed to keep user data fresh in the minds of stakeholders and team members with limited attention spans.

Re-frame, re-present

I pulled the qualitative data into other methods of presenting user feedback. Our company also wants to conduct System Usability Scoring to get a numerical grade from our users. I presented the SUS score breaking down our averages based upon role, what organization the user was from, and comparing our score to the known SUS scores for other products our users work with. Then I went back to the user data and pulled in quotations from the users that coincided with the scoring feedback. The voice of our users thus came back into the picture and rounded out the “why” behind the SUS scores we were seeing.

I also dove back into the data looking for “Jobs to be Done” to see what commonalities our users possessed independent of their roles. I wanted to find a new way to present the users’ story which would make it even more consumable and memorable than the walls of consolidated qualitative data everyone had reviewed previously. I sat down with the consolidated models once again to tease out a clearer story. Who does the user want to be? What actions do they take as professionals to support who they want to be? What struggles hamper what the user is doing thus blocking who they are trying to be? What are they hiring our software to solve? All of this was present within the affinity wall and simply needed structuring and distilling into a story. I was able to pair the hiring statements with specific visions our stakeholders had developed during our time together. Presenting Jobs to be Done kept the user data alive in the minds of stakeholders and gave them more of a narrative to frame the data.

Build on the data and constantly pull it forward

When I am called upon to design and present new capabilities, I frame these within the workflow sequences recorded as part of the contextual inquiry. The actions I witnessed drive brainstorming sessions. “Remember user #15 and all of her notebooks? She was hiring paper to manage work because it gave her flexibility. We have to be better than her notebooks.”

I also maintain a persona library. After any research, I go back through the data to see if new personas have emerged or if I have a new quotation to fill out an existing one. Personas are presented with working prototypes to build a complete picture of whom we are building this software.

Know the data

I know the sequences and affinity wall by heart as much as possible so that their voice is always ready to be introduced in a meeting. I have found this comes in rather handy. People with zero connection and who have never watched a user test will have the temerity to start sentences with “Well users want…”. I must always be ready with the facts to knowledgeably affirm or counter such statements. This not only guides a discussion, but it also raises the consciousness of other team members that there is user data to be mined for information. Soon some will ask about it and I will again share the consolidated user data models.

Share shamelessly

I am always looking for more ways to get eyeballs on user data. The visioning session initially held after user data consolidation very likely did not include all of the parties that would have benefitted from being present. Lead architects, senior developers, and tech leads often eschew participating in a two-day-long UX event. But these are exactly the people I want to see user data.

I tackle this a couple of ways. First I pull the affinity wall and other consolidated models into a digital format so that it can be shared online. This is helpful with offshore teams…especially now when I cannot travel to present it to them personally.

I also just take every chance I can to promote looking at the data. In the case of my current work situation, I picked another time to hang the data on the wall and get everyone in. I found a slow Monday when some team members had come into our Chicago office from India. I commandeered a room, hung up the data back on the wall, and grabbed people in to take a look at it.

I am also still asking if I can go on a personal visit to our offshore offices to present the data from our contextual inquiry and hold visioning sessions in each location. For the moment COVID-19 has put a damper on my plans.

So what to do now that I have all of this user data and am a sole advocate for user-centered thinking on a product team? I just keep talking about it and finding new ways to put the data under noses. I pull it into the design work and advocating for the user at every turn.

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