UX Research Essentials

✨ What if your research participants didn’t just answer questions, but helped shape them? In traditional research interviews, we often extract insights like miners with pickaxes. But participatory methods flip that script - inviting participants to co-create meaning, surface the unsaid, and dream about what’s possible. These techniques have become core to my practice. Whether I’m mapping a journey with a healthcare worker or asking a nonprofit leader to imagine their experience as a movie, I’ve seen how the right prompt unlocks a deeper kind of truth. Swipe through for 8 of my favorite participatory methods, including: 🌀 Sentence starters that bring out reflection 🎨 Collaborative journey mapping 🔮 “If you had a magic wand…” future-back prompts 🎭 Emotional check-ins and movie metaphors These tools are powerful in sensitive, complex, or cross-cultural research, and they create richer, more human interviews every time. Curious to go deeper? Let’s talk. (And thanks Wynde for the collab) #ParticipatoryResearch #UXResearch #DesignResearch #HumanCenteredDesign #AskBetter

With research teams shrinking from layoffs, PMs are now expected to do more with less. But without the right approach, PM-led session replays can lead to false insights. Here are the 4 costly mistakes to avoid for real progress: – 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗼𝗻 𝗣𝗶𝘁𝗳𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘀 Even experienced teams can fall into these traps. Here’s how to steer clear of them. 𝗠𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝟭 - 𝗙𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗕𝗶𝗮𝘀 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗽 ➔ What it is Confirmation bias happens when we unknowingly seek out evidence that supports our assumptions. It’s easy to go into session replays with a pre-formed theory about what users will do. ➔ What happens Instead of observing objectively, we end up interpreting every click and pause as “proof” of our theory. ➔ How to fix it Watch sessions with other team members who bring fresh perspectives and uncover what’s really happening. 𝗠𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝟮 - 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗠𝘆𝘁𝗵 ➔ What it is The assumption that only large-scale patterns or trends are meaningful. The classic “But it’s just one user!” trap. ➔ What happens Valuable insights are overlooked simply because they come from one or two users instead of thousands. ➔ How to fix it Focus on depth, not numbers. A single user’s struggle can reveal a critical friction point. Treat each session as a deep dive into the user experience. 𝗠𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝟯 - 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗤𝘂𝗶𝗰𝗸-𝗙𝗶𝘅 𝗧𝗲𝗺𝗽𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 ➔ What it is Product teams are naturally drawn to solving problems, so when we see an issue in a session replay, we want to fix it right away. ➔ What happens By jumping to a solution too quickly, we might miss underlying patterns or broader issues that would have become clearer with a bit more patience. ➔ How to fix it Slow down and watch at least three more sessions before you act. This will give you a better sense of whether you require a more strategic fix. 𝗠𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝟰 - 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀 ➔ What it is Session replays are only as valuable as the data they capture. Small but essential interactions, like mouse movements, and scroll patterns can reveal a lot about user friction. ➔ What happens If these details aren’t captured, you’re left with an incomplete picture of the user’s journey, missing key friction points. ➔ How to fix it Double-check that your session replay tool is configured to capture all critical interactions. – 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 The future of product management is about combining quantitative insights, qualitative depth (session replays - using tools like LogRocket), direct feedback (user research), and predictive foresight (AI). – If you want to stay ahead of the curve with advanced techniques and strategies for product management and career growth... Check out the newsletter.

Your research findings are useless if they don't drive decisions. After watching countless brilliant insights disappear into the void, I developed 5 practical templates I use to transform research into action: 1. Decision-Driven Journey Map Standard journey maps look nice but often collect dust. My Decision-Driven Journey Map directly connects user pain points to specific product decisions with clear ownership. Key components: - User journey stages with actions - Pain points with severity ratings (1-5) - Required product decisions for each pain - Decision owner assignment - Implementation timeline This structure creates immediate accountability and turns abstract user problems into concrete action items. 2. Stakeholder Belief Audit Workshop Many product decisions happen based on untested assumptions. This workshop template helps you document and systematically test stakeholder beliefs about users. The four-step process: - Document stakeholder beliefs + confidence level - Prioritize which beliefs to test (impact vs. confidence) - Select appropriate testing methods - Create an action plan with owners and timelines When stakeholders participate in this process, they're far more likely to act on the results. 3. Insight-Action Workshop Guide Research without decisions is just expensive trivia. This workshop template provides a structured 90-minute framework to turn insights into product decisions. Workshop flow: - Research recap (15min) - Insight mapping (15min) - Decision matrix (15min) - Action planning (30min) - Wrap-up and commitments (15min) The decision matrix helps prioritize actions based on user value and implementation effort, ensuring resources are allocated effectively. 4. Five-Minute Video Insights Stakeholders rarely read full research reports. These bite-sized video templates drive decisions better than documents by making insights impossible to ignore. Video structure: - 30 sec: Key finding - 3 min: Supporting user clips - 1 min: Implications - 30 sec: Recommended next steps Pro tip: Create a library of these videos organized by product area for easy reference during planning sessions. 5. Progressive Disclosure Testing Protocol Standard usability testing tries to cover too much. This protocol focuses on how users process information over time to reveal deeper UX issues. Testing phases: - First 5-second impression - Initial scanning behavior - First meaningful action - Information discovery pattern - Task completion approach This approach reveals how users actually build mental models of your product, leading to more impactful interface decisions. Stop letting your hard-earned research insights collect dust. I’m dropping the first 3 templates below, & I’d love to hear which decision-making hurdle is currently blocking your research from making an impact! (The data in the templates is just an example, let me know in the comments or message me if you’d like the blank versions).

Your team is probably overthinking user research. A simple flowchart could save you weeks of analysis paralysis. After helping brands optimize their digital experiences for over a decade, I've seen countless teams get stuck debating which research method to use instead of actually testing. That's why we created this rapid testing framework. The reality is most digital experience decisions don't need months of preparation. You need quick, actionable insights that move the needle on engagement and revenue. Here's how to choose the right method: ↳ Copy changes Start with preference tests or design surveys. Let users choose between options or give pointed feedback on specific elements. ↳ Navigation improvements Use tree tests to see if users can find what they're looking for, or first-click tests to identify where they naturally want to go. ↳ Layout changes Card sorting reveals how users mentally organize information, while prototype testing shows how they interact with new designs. ↳ Task completion Navigation tests walk users through actual workflows on your live site. The key is matching your research method to what you're actually changing. Don't use a prototype test when you just need to validate copy. Don't run a complex navigation test when a simple preference test will do. The best research method is the one that gets you answers quickly so you can start improving your customer experience today. TLDR; there is nothing stopping you from testing that change you've been debating for months. ____ Been debating that website change for months? Our rapid testing framework gets you from question to answer in weeks. Apply for a strategy call: https://lnkd.in/g-4CdVYq

Your competition is stealing your customers right now because they understand one thing you don't. Understanding your customers fully = building products people actually want to use. That's the goal. To get there, you can either: - Rely on your gut instinct and assumptions. - Actually learn what your customers need, think, and want. Just carry out these daily tasks: 1. Talk to your customers directly -  ↳ Give them easy ways to provide feedback through uninstall surveys, reviews, or customer support channels.  ↳ Reach out to power users and start conversations. Many customers actively want to help improve your product. 2. Make feedback frictionless -  ↳ Customers won't go out of their way to give feedback, so reduce friction with quick surveys after key interactions, in-app prompts for feature requests, open-ended responses in support tickets, and direct access to a real person. 3. Observe how customers actually use your product -  ↳ Data tells a different story than surveys.  ↳ Use analytics to see what features people use most, where they drop off during onboarding, and what actions lead to churn vs. retention. 4. Test and iterate based on customer input -  ↳ When feedback patterns emerge, act on them.  ↳ If feature requests keep coming up, prioritize them.  ↳ If customers are confused about a function, improve the UX. 5. Build relationships with your best customers -  ↳ Your most engaged users can become your best resource.  ↳ Keep in touch with them, get their input on new features, and make them feel heard. I had a user who loved our product so much that they actively shared feedback and even tested features before launch. They'll hop on a Zoom call with just 15 minutes notice. Now all you have to do is commit to customer research, and you'll build products people actually want to use. As you progress, incorporate: - Regular customer interviews - User testing sessions - Data analysis routines It's more effective than building in isolation based on assumptions. ♻️ Repost if you agree ➕ Follow me Blaine Vess for more

While it can be easily believed that customers are the ultimate experts about their own needs, there are ways to gain insights and knowledge that customers may not be aware of or able to articulate directly. While customers are the ultimate source of truth about their needs, product managers can complement this knowledge by employing a combination of research, data analysis, and empathetic understanding to gain a more comprehensive understanding of customer needs and expectations. The goal is not to know more than customers but to use various tools and methods to gain insights that can lead to building better products and delivering exceptional user experiences. ➡️ User Research: Conducting thorough user research, such as interviews, surveys, and observational studies, can reveal underlying needs and pain points that customers may not have fully recognized or articulated. By learning from many users, we gain holistic insights and deeper insights into their motivations and behaviors. ➡️ Data Analysis: Analyzing user data, including behavioral data and usage patterns, can provide valuable insights into customer preferences and pain points. By identifying trends and patterns in the data, product managers can make informed decisions about what features or improvements are most likely to address customer needs effectively. ➡️ Contextual Inquiry: Observing customers in their real-life environment while using the product can uncover valuable insights into their needs and challenges. Contextual inquiry helps product managers understand the context in which customers use the product and how it fits into their daily lives. ➡️ Competitor Analysis: By studying competitors and their products, product managers can identify gaps in the market and potential unmet needs that customers may not even be aware of. Understanding what competitors offer can inspire product improvements and innovation. ➡️ Surfacing Implicit Needs: Sometimes, customers may not be able to express their needs explicitly, but through careful analysis and empathetic understanding, product managers can infer these implicit needs. This requires the ability to interpret feedback, observe behaviors, and understand the context in which customers use the product. ➡️ Iterative Prototyping and Testing: Continuously iterating and testing product prototypes with users allows product managers to gather feedback and refine the product based on real-world usage. Through this iterative process, product managers can uncover deeper customer needs and iteratively improve the product to meet those needs effectively. ➡️ Expertise in the Domain: Product managers, industry thought leaders, academic researchers, and others with deep domain knowledge and expertise can anticipate customer needs based on industry trends, best practices, and a comprehensive understanding of the market. #productinnovation #discovery #productmanagement #productleadership

I was recently Featured in an article in @UX Designers.io about "How Has User Feedback Altered Design Approaches in UX" . More specifically, I discussed approaches in Prioritizing Elderly User Accessibility in Healthcare IT. In short, and for successful engagement, user-centered design is at the heart of our human-focused digital transformation consulting practice. As an example, though perhaps obvious, here's a powerful reminder of its importance and that you shouldn't assume anything until you have tested with the user group.: We designed what we thought was a sleek patient portal for appointment scheduling. User testing, however, exposed a crucial issue: elderly patients struggled with the limited text and small icons. Their feedback? Bigger fonts, increased color contrast, and clear labels were essential. This flipped our approach. Functionality became the priority. The redesigned portal featured larger buttons, step-by-step instructions, and even voice-activated search. Usability testing showed a dramatic increase in successful bookings, especially among seniors. Key takeaway: Design for ALL users, not just the tech-savvy. In healthcare IT, user feedback isn't a suggestion, it's the foundation for successful patient engagement. Our designs should empower, not frustrate, the people who rely on them most. Please feel free to share your thoughts and experiences https://lnkd.in/gbDS62BS #healthcareIT #userexperience #designthinking #accessibility #seniorcare

To succeed in a UX role, you must align your work with a business’s bottom line. Staying relevant means thinking and talking like a business stakeholder. Here are key ways to achieve this. 1. From Wireframes to Market Fit Crowd-pleasing UI isn’t enough. Your work needs to align with go-to-market strategies. Example: Consider a SaaS product redesign. The UX team used to focus on the sign-up flow and in-app navigation. Now, they’re also collaborating with product marketing to identify the most profitable customer segments, validating market fit before investing design hours. Business concept cheat sheet: ✅ Market Segmentation: Which user groups should we prioritize for maximum ROI? ✅ Value Proposition: How do we articulate the unique value that differentiates our product? 2. Driving KPI-Focused Outcomes UXers track usability metrics like clicks, conversions, time-on-task, and error rates, but business leaders focus on other KPIs: Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV), Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR), and Net Promoter Score (NPS), to name a few. We need to design experiences that drive these measurable outcomes. Example: You’re working on an e-commerce platform and propose A/B tests that measure conversion rates. Want to speak the same language as the CFO? Translate those numbers into anticipated revenue upticks or cost savings. Business concept cheat sheet: ✅ MRR, CLTV, CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) ✅ Unit Economics: Understanding the cost vs. revenue per user 3. UX as a Strategic Differentiator When UX truly resonates with end users, it can become a competitive moat. Example: Think of the premium Apple charges. Yes, the hardware is elegant, but what truly commands loyalty is the end-to-end experience that aligns with a brand strategy aimed at high-end markets. Knowing this means positioning UX as a differentiator for stakeholders, protecting market share, and expanding into new verticals. Business concept cheat sheet: ✅ Competitive Analysis: Evaluate how user experience stacks up against industry peers. ✅ Brand Equity: The intangible value gained from user perceptions and loyalty. 4. Earning Executive Buy-In No matter how brilliant your UX solutions are, you’ll need decision-makers – CEOs, CFOs, VPs – to champion the cause. Example: Communicate in business terms, build a compelling business case, and link your ideas to organizational objectives. Fail to do this? You’ll leave groundbreaking UX initiatives unfunded and abandoned. Business concept cheat sheet: ✅ Stakeholder Alignment: Understanding each executive’s priorities (e.g., reducing churn, increasing upsells). ✅ ROI Calculations: Be prepared to show how a redesign could drive X% revenue growth or Y% savings. The UX evolution sits between user centricity and corporate strategy. UX professionals who embrace this have the power to transform the bottom line.

❌ Being "good at your job" isn’t enough to build influence as a UXer. I worked with many senior UXers who felt stuck. Yes, they had: - Years of experience - A reputation for delivering great work - A solid seat on the team But when it came to decisions that mattered, they were always on the sidelines. So, what went wrong? They fell into one (or more) of these traps ⬇️ 🪤 : Staying in "delivery mode." 🪤 : Talking about the "what" instead of the "why." 🪤 : Waiting for permission to contribute strategically. Their work was solid... But it wasn’t opening doors to bigger opportunities or strategic discussions. Why? They were unknowingly playing small. Here’s what we did to change that ↴ Step 1️⃣ Stop being the "UX person" and start being the problem-solver. The title “UX designer” can box you in if you’re not careful. Instead of saying, “I improved the checkout flow,” they started saying, “I identified and eliminated checkout friction, simplified the checkout process to make purchases easier, which is expected to cut cart abandonment by at least 15%.” Small change. Massive impact. Step 2️⃣ Show the "why," not just the "what." Designers love to talk about WHAT they did. Stakeholders care about WHY it matters. For example ↴ WHAT: “We successfully redesigned the XYZ dashboard.” WHY: “Customers were overwhelmed by the old XYZ dashboard. Our redesigned version prioritizes key actions, reducing time-on-task by 30%.” The second statement proves you’re thinking strategically, not just checking boxes. Step 3️⃣ Speak like a leader, not a contributor. Most UXers default to talking about deliverables. Leaders talk about outcomes, risks, and opportunities. We worked on shifting their language↴ ❌ FROM: “I think [this design] solves [this problem]” ✅ TO: “Here’s what happens if we DON'T solve [this problem] - and why [this design] addresses it.” Instead of waiting to be invited into strategic conversations, they started leading them. And the result? They stopped being seen as "just another designer." They became the person stakeholders wanted in the room for every big decision. Building influence isn’t about being louder. It’s about being smarter with your visibility. Here’s the formula: 1️⃣ Speak to impact, not just design deliverables. 2️⃣ Frame your work as solving HIGH-VALUE problems. 3️⃣ Start owning the conversations that matter. Do this, and you won’t just be at the table... You’ll shape the direction! ↓ ↓ ↓ ♻️ Share if it resonated. 🧠 Follow Marina Krutchinsky to learn how to go from "high-performing" to "promotion-ready". ✍️ Join 6,000+ smart UXers receiving actionable career tips in their inbox twice a week: uxmentor.substack.com

If you're a UX researcher working with open-ended surveys, interviews, or usability session notes, you probably know the challenge: qualitative data is rich - but messy. Traditional coding is time-consuming, sentiment tools feel shallow, and it's easy to miss the deeper patterns hiding in user feedback. These days, we're seeing new ways to scale thematic analysis without losing nuance. These aren’t just tweaks to old methods - they offer genuinely better ways to understand what users are saying and feeling. Emotion-based sentiment analysis moves past generic “positive” or “negative” tags. It surfaces real emotional signals (like frustration, confusion, delight, or relief) that help explain user behaviors such as feature abandonment or repeated errors. Theme co-occurrence heatmaps go beyond listing top issues and show how problems cluster together, helping you trace root causes and map out entire UX pain chains. Topic modeling, especially using LDA, automatically identifies recurring themes without needing predefined categories - perfect for processing hundreds of open-ended survey responses fast. And MDS (multidimensional scaling) lets you visualize how similar or different users are in how they think or speak, making it easy to spot shared mindsets, outliers, or cohort patterns. These methods are a game-changer. They don’t replace deep research, they make it faster, clearer, and more actionable. I’ve been building these into my own workflow using R, and they’ve made a big difference in how I approach qualitative data. If you're working in UX research or service design and want to level up your analysis, these are worth trying.