March 3, 2016

By Sonya Bentovich, Senior Associate, Research & Consulting

It was so exciting to partner with XX+UX to host a meetup and share our passion for research -- our raison d'être. Even more exciting was to feel the reciprocal excitement from attendees and observe their shared interest in understanding their customers.

XX+UX is a group and monthly meetup of women working in user experience started by Google in 2013. Every month a different company can host an event on a related topic, and this month Sachs opened up the doors to our research facility.

We’re all about experiential learning here at Sachs, so we decided the best way to share our love of research was to give attendees the chance to step into the shoes of a researcher and to look at products through the lens of their target customers.

We did this by facilitating a guerilla-style research boot camp.

First, we discussed the ways research can be used to identify your audience, understand how you can meet their needs, engage, and delight them.

Next, we presented best practices for conducting interviews with users so you can get at the information that will help you enhance your product or business (remember, no leading questions!).

Finally, everyone put their newfound interviewing skill to the test with what we like to call “interview speed dating”. Those in a first group assumed the role of designing a restaurant app and approached their research objective by learning how others search for nearby restaurants. The second group pretended to be working on an events app and approached their research through the lens of finding a concert in the city. Armed with a 5-minute discussion guide of questions, people from each group took turns interviewing each other on their respective topic.

It was incredible to move through our office space and see everyone light up as they interviewed each other and learned about methods, resources, and decision-making behavior that was different from something they personally experienced.

Why did we decide to use this approach? A majority of the attendees in the room with us were designers working at start-ups or agencies where they are tasked not only with design, but with research as well. While they are extremely talented designers from top design schools, we realized that many have not been given the tools they need to identify and research who they are designing for.

They are themselves consumers, but are not necessarily the consumer audience for the product they’re working on (for example: one attendee was a young woman working on a men’s health app) and they understand the importance of speaking to users to fill in the gaps. Their eagerness to learn more about the work we do and to translate it back into their daily life created an overwhelming, tangible electricity.

Understanding your target customers is absolutely critical for the evolution, acceleration, and success of a product or company - we see businesses fail simply because they have skipped this crucial step. We are excited to help fuse research and design skills.

Thanks again to everyone for coming and sharing our passion!

Learn more about XX+UX through their website or Twitter and host at your own company or attend an event in your city. For more research resources and future events at Sachs, check out our Twitter, Facebook, and website!