Rapid Research
Process Creation & Project Management
Process Improvement
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Project Management
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Leadership
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Team Formation
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UX Research
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Process Improvement 〰️ Project Management 〰️ Leadership 〰️ Team Formation 〰️ UX Research 〰️
Forming a team and creating a research process that delivers customer insights, rapidly.
Company
Verizon Connect
Role
Senior Manager
Project Summary
The Problem at Hand:
As our team’s embedded researchers had more opportunity to conduct the strategic and foundational research they had always dreamed of, our stakeholders needed coverage for tactical, immediate research questions.
Solution:
I spun up and lead a subset of the UX Research team that approached research a little differently - more standard processes, more rigid timelines, less overhead.
The Rapid Research team can intake a research request from any part of the business, scope it, execute on it, and deliver customer insights in 2-3 weeks.
Impact:
The Rapid Research team completes 50+ research projects a year from stakeholders beyond our usual sphere of influence spreading the good word of customer insights.
Understanding the Problem
All good process improvement begins with research!
I spent time with researchers, designers, and stakeholders to understand where the current research process was working for them and where they were experiencing gaps. I found:
Messy Intake:
Lots of assumptions by the researcher and the requestor about the who, what, why, and when of the research.
Vague Timelines:
Due to our cross functional teams’ focus on strategic research, our stakeholder had lost a sense of how long tactical research should take. When should then engage with us?
Painful Pivots:
Projects dragged as scopes crept. When things went “wrong” our researchers were finding a bespoke solution with their cross functional teams - but that realignment takes a long time.
Defining a Process
I designed an end-to-end research process and created a variety of templates that I hypothesized would allow us to conduct research rapidly.
Friendly Intake Form:
I crafted the “Chipotle” of research request forms. It offered variety with finite, therefore feasible and repeatable, options.
It also served as a teaching moment to help requestors better understand what context was needed.
✔️ Solved messy intake
First In, First Out Queue:
I built a visible, FIFO project queue which meant we were protecting against fire drill research and allowing each requestor an equal opportunity to engage with customer insights.
As our project timelines are a standard 2-3 weeks, the queue allowed us to provide very accurate estimates of project start and end.
✔️ Solved vague timelines
Killer Project Kickoff:
I developed a standardized kickoff workshop that allowed researchers and requesters to get aligned very quickly meaning researchers could spend less time planning and more time doing research.
Along with the usual scope and timeline details, the workshop also determined pivot plans. Discussing what we would do if something went wrong meant less headache down the road and more autonomy for researchers.
✔️ Solved painful pivots
Team Formation & Leadership
I recruited 2 incredible researchers who were junior to industry but senior in research experience to try out this new process.
Pair Programming
I utilized an idea stolen from my computer science days. I had always observed that researchers worked quicker and found more inventive solutions when they had a buddy. Therefore I assigned all Rapid Research projects a research lead and a partner - someone to bounce ideas off of, help with notetaking, assist with analysis, etc.
Team Rituals
In order to allow autonomy but keep the machine well oiled and predictable for stakeholders, I kept the team on a standard schedule:
Monday - kick off new projects,
Thursday - assign projects for the next week and do a team standup,
Repeat!
Rolling It Out
Behavior change is never easy. But imagining our new process as a shiny new product helped me design a rollout plan that maximized adoption.
Nailed the Elevator Pitch:
Dedicated to doing research, rapidly.
Now we needed to “sell” our service - it was important to summarize the value of this type of research succinctly and clearly as we were aiming to serve a wide variety of stakeholders.
I developed presentations, taglines, blurbs, pitches, infographics, etc to serve as education and advertising.
Treated as a Brand:
We weren’t “the new research team”, or “that research intake form” - we were the Rapid Research team using the Rapid Research intake form to provide you with Rapid Research!
I developed a brand that was embedded everywhere - in my Slack bio, in my email signature, in every team meeting, in newsletters, etc.
Improved Rapidly, Too:
Like any good design process, I gathered feedback and I iterated.
I led quarterly retros with Rapid Researchers and requestors, implementing feedback for the immediate next set of projects.
Impact
~50
Projects a Year
Ranging from 2 week usability tests to 3 week in-depth-interviews and focus groups.
Increased volume of customer contact and customer insights
40+
Unique Requestors
Research requests come in from the UX team, Product, Marketing, Engineering, Employee Success.
Provided the entire organization with a path to the customer
100%
Project Capacity
The first in, first out queue has been full since our launch in 2022 - the appetite is there!
Filled a gap, met a need
40%
Of All Projects
40% of research projects completed in 2023 were led by 2 Rapid Researchers vs the remaining 60% by 8 strategic researchers.
Decreased time to customer insights
Freed our embedded researchers to tackle strategic questions