“Your body isn’t just a body. It's an ecosystem.” - Douglas Coupland
“A tree is not just a tree. It is the most symbolic representation of an entire ecosystem on Earth. Can we imagine user researchers as a symbolic representation of users’ or humans’ needs that are impacted by technology?”
My background in research, design and critical thinking has always helped me to think from an ecosystem perspective rather than just focusing on the problem. It helps us draw a long-term vision, in addition, to understanding the problem at a deeper level which is interconnected with stakeholders and the environment. It helps us to stay away from this individualistic agenda of self-marketing and promotes the idea of collaboration with like-minded colleagues or peers in the ecosystem. User Research India as an initiative has gone through many iterations even before its launch. It went from larger community-building activities to narrowing the focus on enabling an ecosystem perspective and accessing shared resources. The factors that shaped the idea were many based on ecosystem challenges, team constraints and available resources. The idea is to start small with a bold vision. A vision to bring the quality talent of user researchers and product builders that makes an impact on business and users. A vision to build rigour and influence in our praxis as we constantly evolve.
The Challenge:
Given the existing business environment globally and in India, and the way 2023 is shaping up with the layoffs, we witnessed almost a reckoning of UXR. We cannot emphasise enough that these events remind us of the need to galvanise user research practitioners in India as a community. The challenges we face are many and the research ecosystem is at a nascent stage, similar to the nascent stage of the UX community in India from 2000 to 2010. Articulating three big challenges briefly which have been elaborated by researchers around the world and in India:
Business stakeholders still don’t understand the value and impact of user research
The work and impact of user researchers in the company or the larger ecosystem are not visible enough.
User research needs to adapt to new ways of working, scoping and engaging stakeholders with recent technological changes or disruptions like AI.
Each of these challenges has its context and not one solution for all. Product-tech companies in the B2C sector or SaaS platform companies or the consulting sector, the challenges mentioned above are common but the approach or solution varies. Could we support and learn from each other irrespective of our background, company or sector? The answer is obvious and resounding yes but how?
The Approach:
Understanding these challenges in depth led us to view this with a two-prong approach from an ecosystem point-of-view: Internal and external.
As researchers, we need to be closer to business (internal) The article, waves of research practice by Dave Hora very well structures the different stages of research that can take us closer to business. Researchers within organisations need to demonstrate research value and impact closely aligned to product/ business goals. This can help decision-makers expand the scope of user research beyond usability or UX research making the research team more deeply embedded into the product and business. User research needs to take up the scope in strategy, foresight and opportunity areas as much as problem definition, product strategy and development. To deliver strategy, opportunities and foresight, we need to be with or ahead of the product curve of thinking. This will require collaboration with business teams to understand market directions and consistently gain business context. This will enable us to collaborate with leadership, influencing their decision-making with insights.
Build organisational maturity in the ecosystem (external) Building organisational maturity towards user research requires evangelising our work in the broader tech ecosystem. The user research community in India needs to be more visible with its work and impact on the Indian tech ecosystem. This will require more events, workshops and engagement opportunities with business, product and engineering teams. Many teams and companies are not aware of the user research function and its value within an organisation. The term UX research creates a bias that research needs are met for design or user experience teams specifically for an evaluative scope of work. They often confuse it with market research or are unclear about where and when user research might add value. Research teams in India often spend much more bandwidth or time in helping stakeholders within an organisation to see the value of user research. An outside-in approach is sometimes more effective when you enable your company’s leadership and teams (business, product, HR, engineering) to engage with teams from other businesses that have leveraged user research more effectively. This consistent effort within the tech ecosystem will build an overall organisational maturity to integrate and leverage user research and sustain the function for the long term.
User Research India started with mapping the ecosystem to articulate the stakeholders and their role in the tech ecosystem. We also documented our history, the first publicly accessible mini-book, a historical perspective on UX Research in India. We are sharing UX research resources freely accessible on our platform and many more activities. We attempt to build a more intellectual rigour towards our praxis by sharing knowledge and resources. We will continue to spread awareness through a curated community of quality researchers to bring a critical POV through the platform. This can’t be done alone and has to be a consistent effort. The outcome hopefully would be more growth for research function, sustainable jobs or careers and a support system that can build a long-term influence on the tech ecosystem.
Referencing the way forward section in the UXR history mini-book, we as researchers ahead are not just tasked with delivering insights or influencing decision-making but also advice on governance, needs and privacy of users within companies. We are uniquely well placed in the ecosystem to bring an unbiased POV on balancing between business goals, user needs and global best practices of ethics.
Please join us as we can’t follow this endeavour in isolation, leaving you with a reflection, “If we look at the history of technological advancement, there is no growth or progress without the movement and support of an ecosystem of stakeholders with an unspoken common purpose.”
Achyutha Sharma
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Problem: Current challenges
Solution: Building a POV > Individual + community
Value: Focus on quality + rigour
Impact: Growth | Support | Influence | Sustain