Your Org’s Strategic Direction Is Based on Research
This article was written in conjunction with Kunyi Mangalam.
Research is knowledge-creation. Organizations need knowledge and create it in a variety of ways, from pricing models to audits, customer feedback to employee reviews, or competitor analysis to brand awareness. If you are involved in creating solutions, services, or products, then you are familiar with research having to do with the solutions and the people using them. You are probably familiar with two types of research in this solution/people sub-domain: market research and user experience research (UX research). There’s a third type that you’ll want to know about.
Background First
Market Research
Market research is how orgs understand how people relate to their solutions. Orgs want to know:
- What are people looking for in a product?
- How much do they think it’s worth?
- What sets our org’s solution apart from our competitors?
Market research helps answer these questions so that the org can sell (or provide) more of their solution. It’s big picture data that guides an org for a while. Orgs gather this data when needed.
UX Research
UX research can refer to strategic knowledge-building as well as tactical. Agencies who market UX research services typically lean toward the tactical side, helping orgs find and fix problems in their solutions. So this definition of UX research likewise leans toward answering questions such as these examples:
- Is the prototype behaving as people expect it to?
- Do users find the solution acceptable?
- What part of the experience do users have problems with?
- How do we fix these problems?
UX research is used to plan work that needs to be addressed in future iterations or releases. It is fast-cycle research: the knowledge is specific to a version of a prototype or solution, and it is applied to change the current version. When a new release occurs, the research is usually no longer relevant and is archived.
To find problems, UX researchers wield evaluative methods such as usability tests, prototype assessments, tree testing, card sorts, eye-tracking, etc. To fix problems, UX researchers wield generative tools such as participatory design, A/B tests, interviews, diary studies, deep listening, field observation, etc. (Some of these methods span across different classes of research.)
Fixing problems in a solution also benefits from the third kind of research:
Design Strategy Research
(*design strategy research is know by many names; scroll to the bottom to see a few lists)
Design Strategy research is knowledge created to answer long-range strategy questions like:
- How do we measure our impact (outcome, effect) helping people/communities address their purposes, their way?
- Where are gaps or harms across a variety of thinking styles that we can address?
- Where can our competition find a wedge in our market? (And how can we wedge into their market?)
- What new/nuanced solutions can fill these gaps to solidify or extend our reach?
- How can we ensure long-lasting, sustainable profit?
Design Strategy research influences an org’s strategic direction. It uncovers people’s patterns of thinking and approaches that the org has inadvertently skipped, providing powerful vision into opportunities to support the hidden half of a market. It is slow-wave research that is gathered when needed, guiding an org for decades.
Design Strategy researchers wield tools that help them drop their own point of view (and that of their org) in order to absorb a variety of people’s perspectives, and represent them with the least amount of bias possible. These tools include listening sessions, contextual inquiry, diary studies, and ethnography. (Some of these methods span across different classes of research.)
The value of Design Strategy research is that it provides awareness of assumptions and the variety of previously-unknown approaches people have to a defined purpose. It illuminates the broader picture of how people accomplish a goal or satisfy a need, as they stitch together their social, memory, manual, mechanical, in-person, and digital solutions. Importantly, it stimulates discussion about the bullet points above. The goal is to measure how well a solution supports a person addressing their goal, their way. The goal is to move that needle to increase the number of people within a market, supporting the hidden variety of how people accomplish the same goal. This kind of inclusive innovation also rewards an org with stronger creativity and social attention.
Strategic Planning
Strategic direction at an org is influenced by a lot of things. It’s influenced by leadership and by board members. Certain kinds of investors provide direction, as well as hired consultants. These people are in turn influenced by articles they read, scientific papers, airport books (lol), tech innovations, social influencers, cultural movements, and political or economic events. The list of influences is different for each org. Most orgs include various types of internal research in their strategic decision-making, such as market research.
More and more orgs are including Design Strategy research in their strategic planning. This growing group of orgs includes many who have been around for a long time, such as orgs in B2B, B2C, healthcare, community work, higher education, and government. These orgs also tend to do their work in ways that also support equity, justice, community, ethics, sustainability, and future-generation thinking.
Research is about creating knowledge.
knowledge = power
You can help power your organization’s strategy with long-wave, periodic Strategic Design research, and you can use this knowledge to supplement the work of finding and fixing problems in UX research.
It’s worth the investment.
*Design Strategy research goes by many names. We haven’t settled on a name yet because we’re still illuminating the value of this research, and helping orgs understand what questions they have not yet asked. Let’s embrace the common concept behind these names, and eventually one of these names will become well-recognized and valued.
- Strategic UX Research — see Jared Spool’s article: “Instead of trying to force a one-size-fits-all product into the market (and meeting nobody’s actual needs), they’d understand how investing in an adaptable solution accommodates all varieties …”
- Foundational research
- Discovery research
- Needfinding (via Design Thinking / Stanford)
- Futures research (borrowed from the field of ethics)
In my own methods, I have called it several things, as well:
- Problem Space research
- Purpose-Focused research
- Opportunity maps
- Gap analysis
- Thinking Styles research
