Sharing how to write a research plan

This will help to begin your user interviews

Understand why conduct user research

Doing Pre-design research will help to understand the demand for the product and before you go through the design and development phase, it a very critical part to understand if we actually need a design or its a feature or technology challenge

to learn more about UX research methods refer to the below link

https://www.userinterviews.com/ux-research-field-guide-chapter/user-research-types

About Research Plan writing

A research plan is a guide to your research and it will help you drive success, it will help all stakeholders to get aligned and stay on the same page

Don't get started on the user interview directly follow the below structure

1. Stalk holder interviews
2. The Why
3. Research objectives
4. Questions
5. Plan the Strategy
6. Do screening and shortlist Participants
7. Participants and Recruitment
8. Interview script
9. Timeline

1. The Why

Prior to your research, recognize the key goal and intent of the research. To illustrate, let’s say you’ve been employed as a designer to understand whether there is a necessity for a company’s subscription product as the business has highly perceived that a number of users landing on their website have failed to convert.

Example problem: We want to know the reasons why users who visit our website are failing to sign up for our subscription including the barriers they face that prevent them from subscribing.

2. Research Objective

A research objective is a statement that understands what we wish to attain with our research. These are specific ideas you want to learn more about and the questions you want to be answered as part of the research in relation to the problem statement. It’s quintessential to describe these properly as they will form the core of your research questions.

Example research objectives:

• Find a user’s motivations behind visiting our website
• Know why users landing on our website are failing to sign up for our subscription
• Understand any pain points, users are encountering during the process when visiting our site and identify what refinements we can make to encourage them to subscribe.

3. Research Questions

As soon as you have defined your research objectives, further step to come up with research questions based on each objective. Note, that these are not the same as your interview questions. Example research questions:

Objective 1: Know the user’s motivations behind visiting our website

• How did users discover the website? What was their journey prior to landing on the page?
• What about the product/service led them to stay on the page?
• What other competitor products help to solve this problem? What do they lack?

Objective 2: Understand why users landing on our website are failing to sign up for our subscription

• Find if any points of confusion in the website offer as well as any sections that captured the user’s interest.
• Know what barriers users faced that stopped them from subscribing
• Assimilate what are the factors that influenced their decision-making.

Objective 3: Learn about any pain points users are encountering during the process when visiting our site and identify what improvements we can make to encourage them to subscribe

• Identify any pain points or frustrations when interacting with the website
• Discover if there are any areas of opportunity that we can make to the website experience or offering

4. Different Methods

As per the above objectives, you should then understand which of the following research methods will help you to answer the above questions. Your methods should complement each other so that the data you gather will help you to get a complete picture of the problem area. The key types of research methods include:

• Online surveys and questionnaires. These allow you to obtain a large volume of quantitative data in a short amount of time. Whilst they can be relatively quick and inexpensive to run, the downside to this is that you may lack deeper insights that you would normally get from in-person interactions.
• User interviews. A common qualitative research technique that can be conducted in-person or remotely. While organizing and analyzing findings from interviews can be time-consuming, the benefit of this method is that you can uncover insights from direct conversations with users than from surveys alone.
• Contextual observations. A method in which you observe people go about their day-to-day tasks in their natural environment. This allows you to truly empathize with your users as it forces you to put yourself in their shoes.

In recent cases, if you are trying to understand the WHY behind certain user motivations, exploratory user interviews are your best option as this allows you to engage directly with users and ask follow-up questions that may not be captured in questionnaires or observations.

5. Participants and Recruitment

When it comes to user research, it’s important to define who you want to talk to. According to a Nielsen Norman study, the industry standard is to interview a minimum of 5 users from the same cohort to achieve statistical significance and identify common patterns for analysis.

When you recruit participants, you should ideally have a clear idea of the types of users you would want to talk to who are most impacted by the problem. Consider the following criteria:

• Product usage: Do your participants need to be existing users of your product or are you looking to talk to those who’ve never used your product?
• Behaviors. Do your participants need to be looking to achieve certain tasks or goals?
• Demographics. Should your participant come from a specific country, be within a certain age group or have a certain occupation?

a. Screen your users

Screener questions are a good way to filter for the right people based on a set of criteria. In some cases, you might want to send out a screener survey to reach a wider audience before selecting your participants. It’s also important to consider who you do not want to talk to as this will help to narrow down the scope of your audience.

Example screener questions:

What do you know about [product/service]?

• I always use [product/service] on a regular basis = Accept
• I’ve never used [product/service] = Reject
• I often use [product/service] but on a needs basis = Accept
• I’ve never used [product/service] = Reject

When was the last time you [performed a task]?

• Recently, within the last 6 months = Accept
• At least 3 years ago or more = Reject
• Not that long ago, within the last 2 years = Accept
• I’ve never needed to [perform task] = Reject

Would you be interested in chatting with us?

• Yes, I’d love to = Accept
• No thanks = Reject
• I’m not sure, I’d like to learn more = Accept

b. Recruiting users

Some example recruitment tools you might want to consider when recruiting participants for moderated interviews include:

• respondent.io
• ethn.io
• usertesting.com

c. Send Email

If you have sent out a survey and have started to identify a few people who fit the participant criteria, remember to send them a follow-up email with a link to schedule an interview with you. Calendly is a great tool for scheduling interviews.

Example outreach email:

I’m [your name] and I work at [company].

I’m reaching out as I would love to understand on a deeper level how you [insert research purpose]. This would take the form of a [X minute] interview over a video call on [insert video conference tool].

As a thank you for your time we’d like to offer [incentive].

If you’re interested in having a chat, please select from one of the available time slots: [insert scheduling link here]

Thank you!

Kind regards,

[Your name]

d. Email Reminder

As soon as they schedule time with you, follow up with an email reminding them of the interview time and what to expect from the interview. Be sure to include a consent form so that they agree to be recorded.

Example follow up email:

Hi [participant’s name],

Thank you so much for agreeing to chat with us! I’d like to confirm our scheduled interview for [time and date]. You should have received a calendar invite via email.

Please be informed that:

1. The session will go for [X min] over a video conference call on [insert video conferencing tool]
2. We may ask you to share your screen to show us how you would use [product or website]
3. The session will be recorded with your consent (this is strictly for internal purposes).

If you’re happy to proceed with the interview, please reply back to this email with the consent form attached.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Kind regards,

[Your name]

Example consent form:

Thank you for agreeing to interview with us. We’d like to request your permission to let us record this session for internal note-taking purposes.

I agree to participate in the study conducted by [company]. I understand that the session will be recorded. I grant [company] permission to use this recording for internal use only for the purpose of improving [company’s] product.

Signature: ________________

Printed name: ________________

Date: ________________

6. Interview script

When it comes to interviewing participants, you should ideally give yourself about 60 minutes for an in-depth semi-structured interview. Below is an example structure on how to write an interview script.

Try not to be too structured with your approach as part of being a good researcher is to listen to what the user has to say and ask meaningful follow up questions.

a. Introduction

Introduce yourself, your role, and the purpose of the interview. Be sure to check that they have signed the consent form so that you can record the session for analysis afterward. Don’t forget to hit record!

Example intro:

Hi, my name is [your name]. Thanks for agreeing to take the time to chat with me. Today I will be conducting some research around [purpose] to understand how we can improve your experience with [product]. Before we begin, have you had a chance to read through and sign the consent form?

This session should take about 60 minutes. Everything you say here today will be completely confidential. Would it be okay if I recorded today’s session for internal use? Any questions before we begin? Let’s get started!

b. Warm-up questions

It’s important to ensure the participant feels comfortable before you hit them with a list of questions. Start by asking some warm-up questions to get them into the right frame of mind.

Example warm-up questions:

• Can you start by telling me a bit about yourself?
• What do you do for work or study?
• In the survey, you mentioned you were interested in [topic]. Can you elaborate a bit more on why you were interested in this?

c. Interview questions

Craft a script that is aligned with your research objectives based on the research questions you have outlined above.

Objective 1: Discover a user’s motivations behind visiting our website

• Describe the process you went through to discover this website? What led you to this website?
• What about the product/service interest you? What made you want to learn more?
• What other websites or apps did you consider as part of this process? Were there any particular features they were lacking or missing?

Objective 2: Understand why users landing on our website are failing to sign up for our subscription

• Describe your thought process as you were looking at the content on the website. Did you find anything confusing? Were there any sections where you wanted to learn more?
• What prevented you from signing up for the subscription offer?
• What key factors influenced your decision-making?

Objective 3: Learn about any pain points users are encountering during the process when visiting our site and identify what improvements we can make to encourage them to subscribe

• Were there any points of frustration as you were interacting with the website?
• If you had a magic wand, how would you improve the experience or offering of the website?

d. Wrap up

At the end of the interview, remember to thank the interviewee for their time and cover information regarding the incentive and whether they’d be interested in future research (if applicable).

Example wrap up:

Thank you so much for your time and feedback. I’m excited to share your insights with the team to see how we can improve [product]. I’ll also be processing your incentive later today. Would you be interested in participating in another research session in the future?

Your questions or feedback are welcome so please feel free to email me at any time. Again, thanks so much for your time and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day!

7. Timeline

A timeline is a good way to communicate to stakeholders approximately how long it will take to conduct the research from start to end. Depending on the circumstances, it can sometimes take up to four weeks to recruit, conduct and analyze interviews.

Example timeline:

• Research planning and review: Monday 1 March
• Recruitment begins: Wednesday 3 March
• Interviewing begins: Thursday 11 March
• Interviewing ends: Friday 19 March
• Synthesis begins: Monday 22nd March
• Synthesis ends: Friday 25 March
• Report presentation: Monday 28 March

Key takeaways

Writing a research plan is an important step to take before conducting interviews with users as it helps to align expectations, source feedback, and keep stakeholders in the loop on your research progress.