From insight to action

Save 60% of your UX research time without loosing any value. Here’s an efficient way to synthesise client and user feedback.

Making sense of client or user feedback can be a tricky task, and recently I learned how time consuming and painstaking it can really be.

Over an intense period of product improvement and innovation, we conducted numerous feedback sessions, trialing new methods and tweaking them along the way.

Traditionally, feedback sessions were recorded and involved two product designers asking questions and taking notes, sometimes a product manager, account manager and possibly another key stakeholder would join too (all of whom would also ask questions), and of course the client or user.

After each session the team would return to their desks full of thoughts and ideas. The product designer would listen back to the recording, to take further notes and digitally document anything missed in the session, acting as a resource for product managers and key stakeholders if they missed the session, or in case we needed to reference feedback throughout the project.

At the end of each round of feedback sessions (typically between 3–5 sessions per round), the team would synthesise the feedback in a workshop by tagging each insight with a category and then grouping insights into themes to look for trends.

The problem with this method is that it took way too long and caused a huge amount of frustration within the product design team. Each feedback session would take about 2 hours in total, with transcriptions needing a further 3 hours or so each. Further to that, insights from the discussion were quickly forgotten or misinterpreted by those not involved. Once all sessions in a round of feedback were transcribed, synthesising the insights could take the team a full day.

Session and transcription: 2 + 3 = 5 hours
5 hours x 5 feedback sessions = 25 hours
1 day synthesis = 6 hours
Total design hours per round = 25 + 6 = 31 hours (per product designer)

Total design hours per project (3 rounds) = 31 x 3 = 93 hours (per product designer)

93 hours worth of synthesis equates to over 16 days on a single project. This was simply not scalable, and when there’s multiple projects running simultaneously the problem is amplified. We had to find a better process to ensure we could work quicker, without sacrificing valuable learnings from our clients and users.

Before each feedback sessions we agreed upon a process, and held retrospective meetings after every one to see how we could improve. Each time we learnt more about our biggest pain points, adjusting the process bit by bit.

Finally we landed on a solution that stuck, here’s how it goes:

Preparation is key. There’s nothing worse than not knowing who you’re speaking to, what to say, their situational context (where/when they’d be using your product), why they’ve been chosen for the session or how you’re going to conduct the session.

Preparation tips:

Each session is restricted to one hour, which helps focus the conversation. Ask permission to screen record the session so the team can reference key quotes in presentations or send the recordings around if there’s a general interest from the wider team.

One product designer (UX researcher) leads the conversation with one other capturing key quotes or important insights by taking notes. We found that by having fewer people in the room our clients and users began to relax; sessions went from being overwhelming interrogations to a flowing conversation.

Feedback session structure:

Key stakeholders and anyone else that is involved in making design decisions follow the session through a conference call, digitally documenting notes of their own.

Research objectives might differ between team members, so to ensure everyone’s needs are taken into account individuals can ask questions by instant messaging the note taker in the room. When the appropriate moment arises the note taker asks the questions to the client or user.

Learning together shares the workload and eradicates the need for transcriptions all together, avoiding misinterpretation of notes and bias opinion.

If you’re running all 3–5 sessions in one day, you can skip this section entirely and jump straight to the synthesis.

Debrief session structure:

At the end of each round, the team holds a workshop to synthesise all insights that came from the feedback sessions. By collectively reviewing the notes in the shared document you’ll begin to notice some similarities. Grouping similar insights into themes helps identify trends in the data; what worked well versus what didn’t. These trends should then make it easier to inform next steps.

Every Product Manager is likely to have their own way of actioning feedback for improvement, but a great way to summarise each theme to help create a strong argument:

HMW statements are a way of framing problems as non biased and open-ended questions (e.g. How might we make our product look less like an advertising pop up?). They’re great because they avoid people jumping to conclusions of what possible features could solve the problem. Instead, they address how people could achieve their goals.

Once all this synthesis is done, the Product Manager can then go away and begin to prioritise the HMW statements, as well as plan tactics for how to tackle each one.

Synthesis workshop session:

Session and de-brief: 1 + 30 minutes = 1 hour 30 minutes
1.5 hours x 5 feedback sessions = 7.5 hours
Synthesis = 2 hours
Total design hours per round = 7.5 + 2= 9.5 hours

Total design hours per project (3 rounds) = 9.5* 3 = 28.5 hours

28.5 hours of synthesis seems much more manageable, equating to about 5 days for each project, This is a whopping decrease of around 60%.

Learning about problems, building possible solutions and measuring them can be applied to almost any situation. Design thinking can really help you improve your own process, so don’t forget to design for yourself sometimes too!

Sounds good? Try it out for yourself and let me know if it works for you too!

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