How to avoid research debt
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This document discusses research debt and ResearchOps. It provides tips for avoiding research debt through proper organization and reuse of research findings. Research creates both tangible and intangible outputs that should be preserved. Best practices include setting aside time at the end of projects to organize findings, identify insights, and document learnings. This allows the research to benefit future work rather than creating extra work later. The workshop presented ideas for ResearchOps sprints and project close-downs to systematically pay down research debt.
How to avoid research debt
- 1. How to avoid research debt a workshop on ResearchOps for user research in service design Caroline Jarrett Stephanie Rosenbaum cj@effortmark.co.uk stephanie@teced.com #SDinGov
- 2. Caroline Jarrett @cjforms Stephanie Rosenbaum @teced User research is crucial for service design https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/service-standard
- 3. Caroline Jarrett @cjforms Stephanie Rosenbaum @teced What happens after user research? • Decisions made, do you move on and forget it? • Do you preserve that research for re-use? • How to you communicate research to someone new? Image credit: https://picryl.com/media/goodby-mother-goodby-sweetheart-song
- 4. Caroline Jarrett @cjforms Stephanie Rosenbaum @teced ResearchOps is work that we do to do good research
- 5. Caroline Jarrett @cjforms Stephanie Rosenbaum @teced “ResearchOps is the mechanisms and strategies that set user research in motion. It provides the roles, tools and processes needed to support researchers in delivering and scaling the impact of the craft across an organisation.” @teamreops / @katetowsey https://www.slideshare.net/uxbri/what-is-researchops-kate-towsey
- 6. Caroline Jarrett @cjforms Stephanie Rosenbaum @teced “our user researchers are only actually researching about 30% of their time” • “We work with the team to improve the service” • “We communicate what we know” • “We prepare for research” • “We look at site analytics” Leisa Reichelt https://userresearch.blog.gov.uk/2014/09/10/what-user-researchers-do-when-theyre-not-researching/
- 7. Caroline Jarrett @cjforms Stephanie Rosenbaum @teced There can be a surprisingly large quantity of pieces of paper after an evaluation Jarrett, C (2001) “Unit 7: Evaluation in Practice” in Open University course M873 User Interface Design and Evaluation
- 8. Caroline Jarrett @cjforms Stephanie Rosenbaum @teced Missing items? • We review previous research for relevant insights • “We work with the team to improve the service” • “We communicate what we know” • “We prepare for research” • “We look at site analytics” • We organise what we have done for reuse later
- 9. Caroline Jarrett @cjforms Stephanie Rosenbaum @teced Research debt is work that we assign to our future selves
- 10. Caroline Jarrett @cjforms Stephanie Rosenbaum @teced Technology evolves, people move on https://web.archive.org/web/20170429074727/ https://servicemanual.hackpad.com/User-research-on-design-patterns-di8PSAAShG1
- 11. Caroline Jarrett @cjforms Stephanie Rosenbaum @teced https://twitter.com/Lorna_Wall/status/1006441548488331269
- 12. Caroline Jarrett @cjforms Stephanie Rosenbaum @teced This workshop is in three parts 1. Describe: What things does research create? 2. Compare: What do we currently do with those things? 3. Improve: What does best practice look like? Image credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/8557193567
- 13. Caroline Jarrett @cjforms Stephanie Rosenbaum @teced Describe – on your own at first • What things does your research create? • Consider: Tangible: such as objects, things you pick up / set down / back up Intangible: such as decisions, opinions, empathy, ‘lightbulb moments’ Immediate: answers to the research questions, explorations of hypotheses Longer-term: deeper understanding of users, better ideas about how to meet their needs
- 14. Caroline Jarrett @cjforms Stephanie Rosenbaum @teced Pair up and swap ideas • What things does your research create? • Consider: Tangible: such as objects, things you pick up / set down / back up Intangible: such as decisions, opinions, empathy, ‘lightbulb moments’ Immediate: answers to the research questions, explorations of hypotheses Longer-term: deeper understanding of users, better ideas about how to meet their needs
- 15. Caroline Jarrett @cjforms Stephanie Rosenbaum @teced Pool ideas in larger groups • What things does your research create? • Consider: Tangible: such as objects, things you pick up / set down / back up Intangible: such as decisions, opinions, empathy, ‘lightbulb moments’ Immediate: answers to the research questions, explorations of hypotheses Longer-term: deeper understanding of users, better ideas about how to meet their needs
- 16. Caroline Jarrett @cjforms Stephanie Rosenbaum @teced Compare – on your own at first • What things do you (or your organisation) currently do? 1. We have a clear policy for this and we do it immediately 2. We have a policy and we get round to it occasionally 3. We don't have a policy but we wish we did 4. We don't have a policy and we don't see any need for one
- 17. Caroline Jarrett @cjforms Stephanie Rosenbaum @teced Improve: What does best practice look like? • What are your ideas for making this happen regularly?
- 18. Caroline Jarrett @cjforms Stephanie Rosenbaum @teced Tips for a good handover - Nadia Huq • Write down names and job titles of everyone involved in the build, from senior management to developers to contacts at GOV.UK. • Keep a list of additional functionality or design changes you would have explored if you’d had the time. • If you can, put together a map of the end to end journey. They’re great for quickly getting a bird’s-eye view of a service. • If you do a heuristic review of an existing service, include screenshots of it at the time of review. Years down the line, without screenshots, it can be really tricky to work out what you were looking at. • Save everything in one place, with a clear taxonomy and naming conventions. https://hodigital.blog.gov.uk/2017/10/27/take-note-why-you-should-keep-records-of-service-decisions/
- 19. Caroline Jarrett @cjforms Stephanie Rosenbaum @teced Idea 1: The Research Debt Sprint (mainly for agile teams working in 2-week sprints) • Set aside one sprint each quarter for paying research debt • No new research • Organise and clear up the stuff • Think about the insights and gaps • Write some reports, publications, blog posts
- 20. Caroline Jarrett @cjforms Stephanie Rosenbaum @teced Idea 2: The Project Close-Down (mainly for agencies working on specific engagements) • Set aside a week of close-down time after each • Organise and clear up the stuff • Do a retro on the project – What went well – What went badly – What we’ll do more of next time – What we’ll avoid next time • Write a whitepaper, case study, marketing literature
- 21. Caroline Jarrett @cjforms Stephanie Rosenbaum @teced Keep in touch Caroline cj@effortmark.co.uk Stephanie stephanie@teced.com
Editor's Notes
- #3: Successful service design integrates ongoing user research and usability testing throughout the design process, to continuously improve the service.