Practical tips and tools for startups to practice design research with limited resources.

1. Get Started With Design Research

2. Design research helps us
understand the deeper problems.
It inspires us to create solutions
and make informed decisions.
No, it’s not market research.

3. To find a promising direction To co-create and prioritise To improve incrementally
When…
• You want to gain a broader
understanding about your users
• Entering a new market
• Create a non-existent service
When…
• You have a rough service/product
in mind and look for ideas to
differentiate
• Introduce a better [x]
• Combine [x] and [y]
When…
• You want to make sure your
product is usable
• Refine the current product
FOUNDATIONAL GENERATIVE EVALUATIVE
3 TYPES OF DESIGN RESEARCH

4. DAY 1 DAY 2 DAY 3 DAY 4 DAY 5
PREPARATION INTERVIEW / DEBRIEF DEBRIEF
• Define scope
• Recruit
• Prepare
materials
• Plan travel
• Incentives
• Paperwork
• Interview
• Debrief
• Refine materials
• Team
discussion
• Refine
hypotheses
5-DAY RESEARCH PLAN

5. HYPOTHESIS ON PRODUCT/SERVICE OFFERING
HYPOTHESIS RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
This will help [ target users ]
to [ solve x problem or gain y benefit ]
by [ how it works at a high level ].
• How do the target users think of the
the product/service offering?
• How important is XY for the target
user?
• Besides XY, what are other
problems/benefits that we haven’t
thought about?
• Who will be involved in providing
the services?
PREPARATION | INTERVIEW | DEBRIEF

6. HYPOTHESIS ON COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE
HYPOTHESIS RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
There are many players in the market,
such as [ competitors ],
but users will choose ours because
[ differentiation ].
• Who are the potential competitors?
• How can your product stands out?
• How clear can the user see the
differentiation?
•
PREPARATION | INTERVIEW | DEBRIEF

7. HYPOTHESIS ON INITIAL HURDLES
HYPOTHESIS RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
However, users might not use it
because [ risks ].
We could avoid it by [ solutions ].
• What are the potential risks? Not
just purely about the product, think
about mental hurdle, market access,
influencers…
• How can you pre-empt it?
PREPARATION | INTERVIEW | DEBRIEF

8. HYPOTHESIS ON BUSINESS MODEL
HYPOTHESIS RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
We can sustain the business by
[ business model ].
[ Paying party ] will be happy
to pay for it because [ benefits ]
• What are different charging
models / pricing framework?
• What does it take to make the
paying party pay for the service?
PREPARATION | INTERVIEW | DEBRIEF

9. PREPARATION
Objectives
What are the most important questions
need to be answered at this stage?
Team
2-4 people: interviewer, note taker,
photographer, translator
Recruit participants
4-6 people (Excluding friends/family)
Snowball, social media, social meetups
Interview locations / Travel
Home, office vs. lab/coffee shop
Remote interview
Incentives
Gift cards, donation, product coupons
Paper work (optional)
Data consent, non-disclosure agreement
Equipment
Notebook, pens, post-its, camera, business cards
PREPARATION | INTERVIEW | DEBRIEF

10. 10 mins 10-30 mins 20-40 mins
WARM UP CONTENT DEEP DIVE ACTIVITIES
• Explain why and
how
• Get permission on
photos and other
media recording
• Small talk/ ice
breaking -> Trust
building
• Start with a broader topics, then narrow it down
• Active listening and observing
• Areas to explore: functions, frequency, preferences (why),
workarounds, influence, marketing/brand, perception,
emotion…
• Don’t stop at what, the goal is to understand why
• What do you mean by [easy, good, difficult…]?
——————————————————————
• Treat discussion as a guide, not a shopping list
• Get used to awkward silence. Let the participant think
• Ask them to show how they do XYZ
• Using activities to get answers that
might not be easy to get out of when
just chatting
• Low-fi prototype or sketches are
more inviting for discussions then the
high-fi ones
• We are not asking users for a
solution. We are looking for the
reasons behind to inspire design
solutions
ONE HOUR INTERVIEW BREAKDOWN
PREPARATION | INTERVIEW | DEBRIEF

11. Would you use it?
Do you think it is helpful?
-> When asking ‘YOU’, you are putting the participants
on the spot. They will always say yes because they
don’t want to offend you.
What do you want?
-> not enough, need to know the why
How much will you pay for it?
-> hard to get a real answer
• See if the participant has paid for similar
product before, and ask how would they
compare those two.
LESS EFFECTIVE QUESTIONS MORE EFFECTIVE ONES
PREPARATION | INTERVIEW | DEBRIEF
• Who do you think this product is for?
• When/what do you think this product is for?
• How does it compare to your current solution?
• How would it fit into your current workflow?
• Why do you want X?
• Why is it important?

12. 3-STEP DEBRIEF
Step 1 Step 2 Step 3
WHAT CAUGHT YOUR ATTENTION YOUR INTERPRETATION
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR THE
PRODUCT/SERVICE
• Participant’s quote/opinion
• Observation
• Align/mis-alignment
• What do you think the
participant mean by x?
• Why did the participant
say/do that?
• Do you think this participant is
a general user or an outlier?
• Did you see a similarity share
with other participants?
• With the knowledge you just
gained, are your product
hypothesis still true?
• How could you refine the
hypotheses and product/service?
• Can we retire some of the
questions?
• How to improve the interview
process?
PREPARATION | INTERVIEW | DEBRIEF

13. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes.
It’s an iterative process.

14. twitter: @ihancheng
wechat:IHanSolo
Questions?

15. Google Design sprint
http://www.gv.com/lib/user-research-
quick-and-dirty
A list apart
http://alistapart.com/article/
interviewing-humans
Austin Center for Design
http://library.ac4d.com/
REFERENCE
GSMA mAgri Toolkit
• http://www.gsma.com/
mobilefordevelopment/magri-
design-toolkit