This pages above are screenshots of pages in the company-agnostic version of my Research Playbook, a document I'd translate to the norms and toolsets of any company at which I was employed where I was expected to create a research program/culture. I made a branded playbook to start Flexcar's democratized research program - and when leaving Virgin Pulse in early 2022, I left by giving a presentation on the "state of research at Virgin Pulse" and sharing a prototype playbook.
The Playbook is meant to allow anyone at a company with some knowledge of a Product Development Lifecycle to understand what goes into UX Research - and to allow Product Team members to conduct research themselves, even if they're not researchers and lack a formal training.
Each Play contains who's who (via RACI), tools to complete the Play, the phase of research that the Play takes place in, a checklist of tasks to complete the Play, supporting text/graphics, and more.
The Plays that, by my Research Process, every method includes are:
1) Decide to do the Research - or not!
2) Plan out the Research
3) Decide the Methodology
4) Recruit Participants
5) Manage Research Logistics
6) Run the Study
7) Analyze Data
8) Write and Share your Story
2) Plan out the Research
3) Decide the Methodology
4) Recruit Participants
5) Manage Research Logistics
6) Run the Study
7) Analyze Data
8) Write and Share your Story
An example of the first page of a Play in the Playbook
These are the supporting pages for one of the more prescriptive Plays: Decide the Methodology.
By following the instructions here, you can determine appropriate Research Methods to answer your Research Questions.
Some Plays are prescriptive, with charts and instructions to either make decisions solo or to collaborate with an experienced, core UX Research team to achieve study success. Others are more descriptive, including Q&A style exploration of the Play and suggestions to make the Play easier or to avoid common pitfalls.
In a company-branded version of the document, I would modify the Playbook to ensure all Plays used whatever toolkits and norms that were available to Product Teams at the organization (meaning some methods of collecting data, recruiting participants, or data analysis might vary).
This "generic" Playbook is currently incomplete because my educational Figma license - the design tool I'm using to create the Playbook - expires this month (October 2023). However, if future employment includes professional licenses, I will use mine to make a "that company" Playbook, and I would also complete the generic version. The document's company-agnostic version is copy-complete and only requires visual design work to complete.
I am happy to share screenshots of current progress and discuss my Figma document design or presentation experience as needed!
