HUU: Research Agenda and Meeting Minutes

[nlvan]

Agenda and Minutes 2024-10-16

Prework

Roll Call

• Jazmyne
• Nicci
• Sam

Discussed agenda:

Right now our priorities are to (1) complete drafts of provisional personas and (2) develop a research roadmap for HUU.

Provisional personas
As a group, the research team needs to sort purple interpretation cards in FigJam. We are going to do this Tuesday in our break out room if time allows. Prior to our meeting Tuesday, it would be good for each team member to review quotes and their interpretations so they are familiar with the material. We need to review the existing Host and Guest personas Lola found in Figma and validate any components we plan on keeping.
Provisional persona work will need a research plan. A plan will outline our methods and also help us outline what information we are still lacking, which can be used as justification for interviews with external stakeholders.
Research Plan Template: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g_gco-d8tHjbZK5Ukk7eILwC2eO5_2M_igLFtQGjH1U/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.pnsb4dkl35id

Research Roadmap
Research roadmaps are plans that outline the research goals for a project and strategies for meeting these goals. Research goals are at the center of research roadmaps and guide how the research team prioritizes specific research requests, chooses appropriate research methods, and develops research timelines. Researchers need to clearly define and present their research goals to other teams to align stakeholders around a shared set of priorities.
https://medium.com/design-ibm/how-to-build-a-compelling-ux-research-roadmap-227448005c82

Stakeholder interviews are one of the ways we will begin to define the goals of the HUU research team. We are not able to conduct interviews with external stakeholders at this time but Bonnie is an internal stakeholder with knowledge about the project’s history, long-term goals, and current priorities. We need to develop a Research Plan (template linked above) and protocol for stakeholder interviews. Once we have developed interview protocols, we can schedule a meeting with Bonnie.
At our next Research Team Meeting, Nicci will be presenting on best practices for research.

[lola3736]

Agenda and Minutes 2024-10-23

Prework

Roll Call

• Jazmyne
• Nicci
• Sam
• Lola
• Jaime
• Jon
• Jasmine
• Jazmyne
• Nihan
• Paul
• Ariel
• Jasika

Discussed agenda:

Meeting Purpose

• Review UX research framework and process for Home Unite Us project

Key Takeaways

• UX research aims to frame the right questions and find answers to inform business strategy and drive goals
• The "Incredible" framework helps align stakeholders and researchers on study scope and learning objectives
• Research process involves 5 phases: align, plan, collect data, analyze, and deliver findings
• Team should engage research when unsure about assumptions or needing to validate decisions

Topics

• UX Research Overview
  • Not clinical/market/academic research, but applied research to inform business strategy
  • Focuses on framing right questions and finding answers to drive business goals
  • Mostly qualitative, aiming to fill knowledge gaps with high confidence information
  • Goal is to empower designers/PMs with actionable, confidence-building insights
  • The "N Credible" Framework
    • 2x2 matrix to align on study scope: Discovery, Exploratory, Definition, Validation
    • Input axis: How much knowledge team has going in (agenda-driven vs. unclear objectives)
    • Output axis: Learning about people vs. informing product decisions
    • Helps deconstruct stakeholder questions and uncover true learning objectives
    • Used in workshops to plot questions and build research roadmap

Research Planning Process

• Stakeholders submit inquiries via form ahead of time to force reflection
• Workshop to plot questions on framework with researchers facilitating
• Builds roadmap of study scopes to plan research goals/strategy
• Typically done 1-2 times per year when many questions arise

Research Execution Process

• 5 phases: Align, Plan, Collect Data, Analyze, Deliver
  • Align: Use framework to prioritize objectives and get approvals
  • Plan: Develop methodology, sampling, protocols
  • Collect: Recruit participants and gather data
  • Analyze: Code and synthesize findings
  • Deliver: Report and present insights to team

Applying to Home Unite Us Project

• Currently working with 4-year-old assumptions/data
• Need to validate assumptions but balance with making progress
• Can't directly access homeless youth, may need to use proxies (e.g. college students)
• Research team developing personas currently
• Will focus on usability testing once MVP is ready

Next Steps

• Create GitHub template for submitting research inquiries to team
• Meet with Bonnie to identify potential subject matter experts to interview
• Research team to explore no/low-budget participant recruitment options
• Design/PM teams to collect questions and assumptions to validate as they work
• Submit research inquiries to team as questions arise during product development

Action Items

• Meet w/ Bonnie Thu; ask re: contacts for research team to reach out to in homeless youth/host space - Lola Sarumi
• Create GitHub template for stakeholders to submit research questions; share link with team - Nicci Van