25th September 2019
There are 3 levels of data collection:
- High level – academic research – useful if you are working in a big company and/or have a lot of time.
- Intermediate level – one example is a diary study: users write their experiences daily in a diary.
- Quick and easy to set up – collect data over a cup of coffee at the café.
Depending on your objectives and limitations, choose the type of research you want to carry out.
It’s simple, but it’s not easy
The first set of data you have to collect is with your team to identify the challenge and the context. First of all, follow this pre-work checklist and identify the big picture:
- So who are the stakeholders?
- What was done before?
- What are we trying to achieve?
- What data we need to collect (it will allow us to make a decision).
- What will be the deliverables?
- What’s the schedule?
- Finally, make sure all stakeholders on the same page according to the previous steps.
How to plan it?
- Take the first day to figure out the most important questions.
- The time you will spend collecting user data will depend on your goals.
- Use five days to do the first wireframes and test the MVP.
- Spend five days to do a style guide.
- Take five days to develop the high fidelity prototype and test it.
- Keep testing and improving it.
Remember:
Putting your users first is key to have a great product. Think about the job to be done.
“The longer people spending meeting rooms sharing ideas and drinking late the quality of the work decreases – Gerry McGovern
How do you present data to the team?
You can do this by adding all the data to a spreadsheet. Use qualitative data for storytelling and quantitative data to compare ideas stimulating problem-solving. Make it easy for your coworkers to use the data you gathered, be empathetic, to their needs.
Cool, get out of the building, get out of your head and go collect some data 🙂
Claudia Loch 