{"id":184778,"date":"2016-01-20T13:10:52","date_gmt":"2016-01-20T13:10:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.rm.gfolkdev.net\/?p=184778"},"modified":"2022-10-14T12:17:20","modified_gmt":"2022-10-14T12:17:20","slug":"whose-job-is-user-research-an-interview-with-tomer-sharon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rosenfeldmedia.com\/whose-job-is-user-research-an-interview-with-tomer-sharon\/","title":{"rendered":"Whose Job is User Research? An Interview with Tomer Sharon"},"content":{"rendered":"
This is part 2 in the series Whose Job is User Research. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n As part of my ongoing series of posts where I try to get to the bottom of who owns user research, I reached out to Tomer Sharon, former Sr. User Experience Researcher for Google Search and now Head of UX at WeWork. He wrote a book called <\/span>It\u2019s Our Research<\/span><\/i><\/a> which addresses this exact topic. His new book,\u00a0<\/span>Validating Product Ideas<\/a>,<\/span><\/i> is also now available. He\u2019ll be speaking at the upcoming <\/span>Product Management + User Experience<\/span><\/a>\u00a0hosted by Rosenfeld Media, designed to help\u00a0teams work together to learn more about their users. <\/span><\/p>\n Tomer\u00a0recently announced<\/a><\/span>\u00a0that UX at WeWork won\u2019t have a research department and what drove that decision. I took this opportunity to ask Tomer a few questions,\u00a0and to learn what\u00a0suggestions he has for creating a team that conducts research well and uses it wisely. <\/span><\/p>\n Possibly the most important lesson you can learn from Tomer is this: \u00a0stop asking the question \u201cwho owns research?\u201d \u201cEverybody owns research,\u201d he explains. \u201cResearch is a team sport. What research is needed is determined based on different sources\u2013decisions the\u00a0team is trying to make, known knowledge gaps, dilemmas and arguments among and between teams and more.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Research is a team sport. The team needs to decide what it needs to know together.\u00a0– Tweet This<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n He encourages people to use all of these sources to generate research questions. For example, if a team has trouble deciding on development or prioritization of new ideas, then a research question might be \u201cWhat are the top needs or challenges our users have?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cResearch questions are questions the team needs answers to, not questions that you ask research participants during a study,\u201d he says. That means that the team needs to decide what it needs to know together. <\/span><\/p>\n By making research a key part of everybody\u2019s job, it gets rid of the problem many teams have of ignoring research reports. Instead, research becomes a tool everybody can use to answer important questions. <\/span><\/p>\n Of course, that all sounds delightful, but it does bring up three important questions: <\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s good news for researchers among us. We\u2019re still needed, and we\u2019re not just going to let\u00a0completely untrained people take over our jobs! But instead of being a service organization, Tomer recommends that researchers become mentors, coaches, and facilitators of research. WeWork\u2019s UX team will still have well trained research professionals. In fact, those are some of the first hires that Tomer wants to make. The difference is that they will be embedded with product teams and work with everybody to help make sure research is conducted well instead of working alone in their own silo. <\/span><\/p>\n Of course, there are a few types of studies that professionals should lead. \u201cIn 90% of the cases,\u201d Tomer says, \u201cI\u2019d prefer a non-researcher doing research, supported by guidance and mentorship of a researcher. The remaining 10% are studies such as ethnography, surveys (yes, surveys), and highly complex quantitative studies, in which I\u2019d prefer a researcher leads the project.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n Other times when you may need to bring in specialized researchers include\u00a0cross-cultural studies: \u00a0where you learn about the behavior and needs of people in a culture very different than yours. If Tomer needs to learn about the needs of WeWork members in China or Indonesia, he partners with a local design research agency (not a market research agency!) to make sure the study runs smoothly and gets insightful\u00a0results. But even then, all the team stakeholders must be directly involved with the research. Learning about your users isn\u2019t something you should outsource.<\/span><\/p>\n Learning about your users isn’t something you should outsource. – Tweet This<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n Here\u2019s some more good news for those of you who don\u2019t enjoy writing twenty page research reports that are never read (or creating hundred slide\u00a0Powerpoint decks that colleagues\u00a0suffer through). Making research an integrated part of the design process gets rid\u00a0of the deliverables step. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cResearch must lead to design that then leads to more research,\u201d Tomer explains. That\u2019s why his favorite method of synthesis and communication is the design studio or design sprint. During a design sprint, the team comes up with a shared understanding of research outcomes and their design implications through sketching, critique, and quick research on team solutions. \u201cThe researcher or key decision maker in the team or company can facilitate a discussion in which the answers to the research questions are shared.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Research must lead to design that then leads to more research. – Tweet This<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n In other words, get rid of the Powerpoint, and focus on rapid synthesis of research results. Immediately turn them into ideas and designs. This can save you weeks of report writing, and it also means that your team gets a clearer\u00a0idea of the problems that you\u2019re trying to solve. <\/span><\/p>\n Obviously this is all easy for Tomer to say. He gets to build the WeWork UX team from the ground up. But what about those of us who work in companies where research is off in its own silo? Do we have to wait until we\u2019re in charge so that we can change the rules? <\/span><\/p>\n Tomer offers\u00a0insight on this_having spent a lot of his career working at a very large company with a very large research group. \u201cTalk!\u201d he says, \u201cApproach new hires and help them with something not related to research. Teach them how to find the best parking spot or how to change their profile picture on the intranet. The key here is trust and relationship building. From there, mountains can be moved and silos can be brought down.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n Even if we\u2019re put in silos by management, all of us, whether we\u2019re researchers, designers, product managers, or anything else, can reach out to our coworkers and build teams that transcend silos. It\u2019s not easy, but the results are worth it, since we end up with better team communication and products that\u00a0solve a need for our users. <\/span><\/p>\n Check out Tomer’s book Validating Product Ideas: Through Lean Research. <\/a><\/em>Or join us on October 11 for our<\/span> one-day remote conference User Research for Everyone, featuring 8 of the most respected experts in the field. Laura Klein <\/i><\/b>is a Lean UX and Research expert in Silicon Valley who teaches companies how to get to know their users and build products people will love. She’s a Rosenfeld Media expert and author of UX for Lean Startups (O\u2019Reilly). Her newest book, <\/span><\/i>Build Better Products<\/span><\/i><\/a>, is set for release later in 2016. Follow her on <\/span><\/i>Twitter<\/span><\/i><\/a> or subscribe to her blog and podcast at <\/span><\/i>Users Know<\/span><\/i><\/a>. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is part 2 in the series Whose Job is User Research. As part of my ongoing series of posts where I try to get to the bottom of who owns user research, I reached out to Tomer Sharon, former Sr. User Experience Researcher for Google Search and now Head of UX at WeWork. He … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rosenfeldmedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184778"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rosenfeldmedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rosenfeldmedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosenfeldmedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosenfeldmedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184778"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/rosenfeldmedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186675,"href":"https:\/\/rosenfeldmedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184778\/revisions\/186675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rosenfeldmedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosenfeldmedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosenfeldmedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Everybody Owns Research<\/span><\/h2>\n
Use Researchers as Facilitators and Coaches<\/span><\/h2>\n
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Turn Research Directly into Design<\/span><\/h2>\n
Break Down Silos (even if it\u2019s not your job)<\/span><\/h2>\n
Learn More<\/span><\/h2>\n
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