user-research

name	user-research
description	Conduct user research, usability testing, and gather insights to inform design decisions

User Research & Testing

Purpose

Conduct user research, usability testing, and gather insights to inform design decisions, validate hypotheses, and create user-centered products.

Capabilities

🎯 Tier 1: Foundation

Basic User Research

Conduct foundational user research and usability testing:

• User Interviews: Conduct 1-on-1 user interviews to understand needs and pain points
• Usability Testing: Run usability tests to identify usability issues
• Survey Design: Create and distribute surveys to gather quantitative feedback
• Persona Development: Create user personas based on research findings
• Journey Mapping: Map user journeys to identify opportunities and friction points
• Competitive Research: Analyze competitor products and user experiences
• Basic Synthesis: Synthesize research findings into actionable insights

Example:

"Conduct user research for our new productivity app:
1. Design and conduct 10 user interviews to understand current workflows
2. Create 3 user personas based on interview findings
3. Map user journey for core task (e.g., daily planning)
4. Run usability tests on our prototype with 5 users
5. Create and distribute survey to gather broader feedback (100+ responses)
6. Analyze top 3 competitor products and identify UX gaps
7. Synthesize findings into actionable design recommendations"

---

🚀 Tier 2: Advanced

Advanced Research Methodologies

Apply sophisticated research methodologies and analysis:

• A/B Testing: Design and analyze A/B tests to validate design decisions
• Card Sorting: Conduct card sorting to optimize information architecture
• Tree Testing: Test navigation structure with tree testing
• Diary Studies: Run longitudinal diary studies to understand behavior over time
• Field Studies: Conduct contextual inquiries and ethnographic research
• Moderated vs. Unmoderated Testing: Choose appropriate testing methodology for each context
• Statistical Analysis: Apply statistical analysis to quantitative research data
• Research Operations: Build processes and tooling for scalable research operations

Example:

"We're redesigning our navigation and need comprehensive research. Help me:
1. Design and analyze A/B test for navigation patterns (2 variants, 2 success metrics)
2. Conduct card sorting study with 30 users to optimize information architecture
3. Run tree testing to validate proposed navigation structure
4. Conduct 2-week diary study to understand long-term usage patterns
5. Perform field study with 5 users to understand context of use
6. Determine when to use moderated vs. unmoderated testing for different scenarios
7. Apply statistical analysis to survey and A/B test data
8. Build research operations toolkit (participant recruitment, incentives, scheduling)"

---

🌟 Tier 3: Anticipatory

Strategic Research Leadership

Lead research strategy and establish research-driven design culture:

• Research Strategy: Develop comprehensive research strategy aligned with product roadmap
• Research Maturation: Assess and improve team research maturity and capabilities
• Mixed Methods Research: Combine qualitative and quantitative methodologies for comprehensive insights
• Research Impact Measurement: Track and measure research impact on product metrics
• Research Advocacy: Build stakeholder buy-in and advocate for research-driven design
• Research Tools & Infrastructure: Build custom research tools and infrastructure
• Research Team Building: Build and manage research team and capabilities
• Ethics & Privacy: Establish research ethics guidelines and privacy protocols

Example:

"We want to become a research-driven design organization. Help me:
1. Develop comprehensive research strategy aligned with our 12-month product roadmap
2. Assess our team's research maturity and create capability-building plan
3. Design mixed methods research program combining qualitative and quantitative methods
4. Build system to track research impact on product metrics (conversion, retention, satisfaction)
5. Create research advocacy plan to build stakeholder buy-in (executives, product, engineering)
6. Build custom research tools and infrastructure (participant panel, research repository, analysis tools)
7. Build and manage research team (hiring, training, mentorship)
8. Establish research ethics guidelines and privacy protocols (GDPR, consent, data handling)
9. Create research culture with regular sharing, brown bags, and cross-functional collaboration"

---

Integration

Works Best With:

• prototype-review: Validate prototypes with user research
• design-trend-analyzer: Validate trend appeal with user research
• design-system: Validate design system decisions with research
• prototype-review: Inform design decisions with research findings

Designer Pack Skills:

• design-system ← Validate design system with research
• prototype-review ← Inform design reviews with research
• asset-optimization ← Test asset effectiveness with users
• style-guide-generator ← Document research-backed decisions
• design-trend-analyzer ← Validate trends with research
• user-research ← You are here
• handoff-manager ← Share research insights with developers

---

Best Practices

✅ DO:

• Start with research questions: Define clear research questions before starting
• Recruit the right participants: Match participants to your target audience
• Test with real users: Don't test with colleagues or people who aren't your audience
• Be unbiased: Avoid leading questions and confirmation bias
• Synthesize and share: Make research findings accessible and actionable
• Iterate: Research is continuous, not one-time
• Measure impact: Track how research influences product decisions and metrics

❌ DON'T:

• Skip research: Don't assume you know what users want
• Test with wrong participants: Colleagues are not representative users
• Lead the witness: Avoid leading questions and confirmation bias
• Ignore negative findings: Negative findings are valuable learning opportunities
• Skip synthesis: Raw data isn't useful without synthesis
• Research in isolation: Involve stakeholders early and often
• Forget ethics: Obtain consent and protect participant privacy

---

Common Mistakes

1. Testing with the wrong participants: Recruit actual users, not colleagues
2. Leading questions: Avoid biasing participants with leading questions
3. Skipping synthesis: Raw data needs synthesis to be actionable
4. Researching too late: Research should inform, not validate, design decisions
5. Ignoring negative findings: Learn from what doesn't work
6. Not sharing findings: Research is useless if not shared with stakeholders
7. One-time research: Research should be continuous and iterative

---

Quick Commands

Get Started:

• "Design a user interview protocol for [product feature]"
• "Run usability tests on our prototype"
• "Create user personas based on research findings"

Advanced:

• "Design and analyze A/B test for [design decision]"
• "Conduct card sorting study to optimize navigation"
• "Build research operations toolkit for our team"

Expert:

• "Develop comprehensive research strategy for our product"
• "Build research infrastructure and tools"
• "Establish research-driven design culture"

---

Example Workflows

Workflow 1: Basic User Research

1. Define research questions and objectives
2. Design interview protocol and usability test script
3. Recruit participants (5-10 for qualitative, 100+ for quantitative)
4. Conduct user interviews and usability tests
5. Create and distribute surveys
6. Analyze findings and synthesize insights
7. Create personas and journey maps
8. Share findings with stakeholders

Workflow 2: Advanced Research Methodologies

1. Design A/B test with clear hypotheses and success metrics
2. Conduct card sorting and tree testing for information architecture
3. Run diary study for longitudinal insights
4. Perform field studies to understand context of use
5. Apply statistical analysis to quantitative data
6. Choose appropriate testing methodologies
7. Build research operations toolkit
8. Synthesize mixed methods findings

Workflow 3: Strategic Research Leadership

1. Develop comprehensive research strategy
2. Assess and improve team research maturity
3. Design mixed methods research program
4. Build system to track research impact
5. Create research advocacy plan
6. Build custom research tools and infrastructure
7. Build and manage research team
8. Establish ethics and privacy guidelines

---

Success Criteria

✅ Tier 1 Success: Research informs design decisions and improves user experience ✅ Tier 2 Success: Advanced methodologies provide deep insights and measurable impact ✅ Tier 3 Success: Organization establishes research-driven culture and measures research impact

---

Session Requirements

• Minimum Session: session-16
• Recommended Session: session-17 for Tier 2, session-18+ for Tier 3
• Prerequisites: Strong understanding of research methodologies, statistics, and UX research principles