Is your user research looking inwards, at how your service works, or outwards, at the lives of those it affects? The right research in the right direction at the right time can truly add value - but there’s usually no point in running a survey of 10,000 people in discovery or waiting until beta to look for high-level user needs. This session, run with Clara Greo at the 2020 Service Design in Government conference, was a chance for colleagues to share their research questions, and think about how to map them to the right methods.

1. Inwards and
outwards research
SDinGov 2020
Caroline Jarrett Clara Greo
@cjforms @claragt

2. We are testing an idea
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3. Inwards means
“looking at the service or thing
that you’re making”
Outwards means
“looking at the real world,
finding out about users,
their needs and behaviours”
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4. Inwards research looks at
the service
For example, a usability test
• Asking the participant to try a task you have constructed
• Using a specific aspect of a service
• Often in your own controlled environment
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5. Outwards research looks at
the users and their world
For example, listening to live calls in the call centre
• Low number of calls
• Not set any direction
• Accept whatever turns up
• Looking for the big picture, broadest patterns
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6. The Service Manual describes
four stages in a service
Discovery understand the problem
that needs to be solved
Alpha try out different solutions
Beta pick your best idea
and build it for real
Live support the service in a
sustainable way; iterate and
make improvements
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7. Discovery research looks
outwards to what people do
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8. Alpha research continues to look
outwards and starts on ideas
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9. Beta research mostly looks
inwards at one probable idea
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10. Live research mostly focuses
outwards again
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11. Each stage of a service has a
different research focus
Discovery Alpha Beta Live
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12. Each stage needs different
types of research questions
Some questions focus outwards,
looking at the real world, finding out
about users, their needs and
behaviours.
Some questions focus inwards,
towards the service or prototypes
you’re building.
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13. Research methods also
focus inwards or outwards
Aim to align your research questions
with the stage and focus.
Then choose a research method that
works for that research question.
More on this later. 13

14. What counts as ‘inside’ or
‘outside’ your service?
Outside (or ‘scope’)
• Who are your users?
• What do they do that touches your service?
• What constraints do you work within?
Inside (or ‘thing’)
• What does this service offer to users?
• Does this service make it easy for users to
do what they need to do? 14

15. Write down the name of the
service you’re working on
• Take a worksheet
• If you’re working on more than one
service, chose one
• Write down the stage the service is in
(discovery, alpha, beta or live)
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16. Describe the scope of the
service that you’re working on
• If you’re not working on a service, choose anything
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17. Example: some recent
questions from a research brief
• Who are the users who need this?
• To understand/validate user needs
• Is it where users expect it to be?
• Do users understand it?
• Do users find it useful?
• What do users think might be
missing? 17

18. A research question can look
outwards or inwards
Outwards
• Who are the users who
need this?
• To understand user needs
Inwards
• Is it where users expect it
to be?
• Do users understand it?
• Do users find it useful?
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19. Some research questions
are tricky
• What do users think might be missing?
– Expects users to recall what they need, predict
future needs, and consider gaps between what they
see and what they might need.
• “To validate user needs”
– We think this means “check that our understanding
of user needs is correct”.
That understanding is part of our service.
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20. Write a Post-It note for
each of your research questions
• Put your name on each Post-It
• Plot each of your questions on the
scale of inwards - outwards looking
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21. Stick your note(s) on the
service stage
• Left hand and right hand of the room
• Four service stages where we are
collecting notes on each side
• Outwards is exploring the world/users
• Inwards looks at a service
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22. Each stage of a service has a
different research focus
Discovery Alpha Beta Live
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23. Let’s have a look at questions
that don’t fit their service stage
• Inwards questions in discovery?
• Outwards questions in beta?
• Any other mismatches / discussion
points?
• This can be an indication of a wider
problem in the team.
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24. There are 3 things you can do
with questions that don’t fit
1.Change the question so it better suits
its’ stage
2.Postpone the question to a stage
where it fits better
3.Accept this question where it is
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25. Inwards research looks at
the service
For example, a usability test
• Asking the participant to try a task you have constructed
• Using a specific aspect of a service
• Often in your own controlled environment
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26. Outwards research looks at
the users and their world
For example, listening to live calls in the call centre
• Low number of calls
• Not set any direction
• Accept whatever turns up
• Looking for the big picture, broadest patterns
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27. Is this mainly inwards
or mainly outwards?
• Interviews
• Work observation
• A/B testing
• Highlighter (“pens of power”) test
• Diary study
• Workshops
• Eyetracking
• Customer feedback
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28. Plot the research methods that
you use on the in-out scale
Is there a good match?
– Inwards questions and inwards methods?
– Outwards questions and outwards methods?
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29. Key ideas to take away
• Think about whether your service is at a stage that
focuses inwards or outwards
• Consider whether your research question matches the
stage
– Change the question
– Postpone the question
– Accept the question
• Choose your method to match the questions and the
stage
• Don’t expect any single method to deal with every
question at a particular stage.
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30. Caroline Jarrett Clara Greo
Twitter @cjforms Twitter @claragt
http://www.slideshare.net/cjforms
carolinej@effortmark.co.uk
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