This document discusses the scaling and maturing of user research at a high-growth company. It outlines three key challenges: 1) defining business values for user research, 2) building bridges with other functions, and 3) planning and communicating transformation. User research matured from 10 to 62 members covering more expertise. The value of research is providing factual insights to save company time and resources. Researchers must become method-neutral to collaborate across functions using different approaches. Transformation requires investing in staff through cross-training and learning to ensure individual well-being during change.

1. Maturing User
Research in a
Unicorn:
Methods & Mindsets
UXSEA Summit 2019
Sakti Nuzan
Product Research Lead, Gojek

5. 1. The need to scale business
and leapfrog competition

6. 2. The scientific approach to
experiments and the data culture

7. 3. Speed as one of the core
organizational values

8. UX Research team
2017
10 members
two key expertise

9. 1. Uneven distribution of skills
across different products

10. 2. Researchers shying away due to
qual-heavy and inconclusive results

11. 3. The battle between answering
tactical or strategic user questions

12. UX Research team
2017
10 members
two key expertise
Research & Insights team,
2019
62 members
four key expertise

13. Qualitative researchers
Mix-methods researchers
Data analysts
Survey scientists
Design researchers
Market intelligence
….

14. Three key ideas for today
Principles in maturing and transforming Research as a function
1. Define your business values as a team
2. Build bridges with other functions
3. Plan and communicate your transformation roadmap

15. Challenge 1:
The term ‘user research’
appeals to many, but
practices vary; there is
no silver bullet
UX Researchers screaming about
user delight
Design Researchers when their
jargons get corrected

16. We need to answer for
ourselves:
what business values are
sustainable for user
research?

17. ~1.2 new product line a year
2 major redesigns in two years

18. User research’s value is to
save company’s time and
resource through factual
insights

19. Empathy
an intellectual capability
to know what people
think and do
to sharpen hunches
& educated guesses
Evidence
information, collated
and presented
to be weighed for
making decisions

20. Case study: Empathy

21. Case study: Evidence
Have you experienced one of this?
PMs and designers asking, “have you
got insights on…” seconds before
decisions are made
Research findings did not make it on
time and an internal blame game is
brewing

22. Case study: Evidence
Project Date Project Title Tags Key findings Link
May 2019 Product X ethnography project
Qualitative, product
roadmap
xxx bit.ly
Apr 2019 Feature Y usability test result Quantitative UT xxx bit.ly
Mar 2019 Feedback survey project X Improvement survey xxx bit.ly

23. Case study: Research repository

24. Challenge 2:
As other functions
champion different
expertise, we need to
build bridges

25. Design
decisions
Product
decisions
Business
decisions
Data teams Data teams
Growth teams
Business analyst teams
UX designers Product managers Business heads

26. Design
decisions
Product
decisions
Business
decisions
Data teams Data teams
Growth teams
Business analyst teams
User research User research User research
UX designers Product managers Business heads

27. First thing is to overcome
language barrier
between “traditional
research” and data
science
Traditional
Research Data Science
Surveys
Qual Studies
Internal database
Samples Population
SPSS SQL, Phyton, R
Data source
Framing
Tools

28. User research needs to
de-learn and become
method-neutral

29. Case study: quantitative user journey

30. Case study: quantitative user journey
Making a
booking
Discover
product
Waiting for
order
Post
delivery
Data
captured?
user funnel data
(drop off, happy path)
customer support data
user review data
customer satisfaction data
social media listening

31. Case study: quantitative user journey
Making a
booking
Discover
product
Waiting for
order
Post
delivery
Prioritized issues with PMs, Designers, Data, Business
(How big is the magnitude? How severe is the impact?)
Hypotheses for user research

32. Challenge 3:
Communicating change
to ensure quality and
individual wellbeing are
not left behind

34. qual
researcher
data analyst
market
researcher
survey
scientist
market
intelligence
research ops
design
researcher

35. Invest in the people you are
taking along with your
transformation

36. Cross-training with expertise champions
Internal sharing session on service
design
‘Masterclass’ on doing research
with driver-partners
Data analytics training

37. Cross-learning from on-the-ground approaches
Don’t do the mistakes we made:
sharing learnings between teams
Your problems are as important:
problem-solving session between teams

38. Summary: scaling and maturing your user research
Considerations Learnings
How should we define our business values to
the company?
User research’s value is to save the company’s time
and resource through factual insights
How should we build bridges with other
functions?
User research needs to de-learn and become
method-neutral
How should we plan and communicate our
transformation?
Invest in the people you are taking along via
cross-training and learning

39. Thank you!
productresearch@go-jek.com