User research is essential to building products that solve real user problems. It is often a precursor to good design and excellent product development. User research comes typically with some clichés — “it’s so expensive,” “we need a dedicated research team,” or “the people that I work for don’t buy into it.” If you’ve experienced any of these negative stereotypes, or if research is already a part of your process and you want to arm yourself with a toolkit to execute it even better and clearly communicate its value, this talk is for you! Gabrielle will introduce a toolkit to help you inject research into everything you do and share her tips on how to turn constraints into opportunities. She will share stories and learnings from the field and send you off with actionable steps so you can begin developing solutions for the problems that your users actually care about.

1. Bootstrapping User Research
No Budget, No Buy-In, No Team, No Problem
GABRIELLE BUFREM

5. Toolkit

6. Product manager @ Pivotal Labs
Data geek
Coffee snob
Travel lover
Grab me for a during the conference and
let’s keep the conversation going
@gbufremsays
Hi, my name is Gabrielle Bufrem

7. How to Get Buy-In
PROBLEM #1

8. Show the benefits of user research through real use cases
@gbufremsays

9. Involve people you’re working with in the research process
Invite stakeholders to be a part
of the process Record - make it accessible
Add snippets of user research
in management presentations
@gbufremsays

10. Concretely share your findings in a way your audience understands
@gbufremsays

11. Develop a culture of psychological safety
Being able to be wrong is imperative for user
research:
Encourage your team to ask “How might we?”
and enable them to place bets
Start rewarding for learning and
experimentation instead of rewarding for being
right
@gbufremsays

12. How to Build a Team
PROBLEM #2

13. You are the team - Get out of the building!
@gbufremsays

14. Recruit your customers to be your researchers
Recruit them through a platform
they already use and speak their
“language”
Give them the resources to be
successful in a language that
resonates with them
Build a community of people that
are helping you with an easy way
for contributors to talk to you and to
each other
@gbufremsays

15. Train your Team
@gbufremsays

16. How to Deal with No Budget
PROBLEM #3

17. There are other types of currencies. Can you get access to them?
SWAG BETA Ambassador
Benefits
@gbufremsays

18. Show current results and show potential upside you could have achieved with a budget
@gbufremsays

19. Best Practices
FREEBIE

20. Have a map
@gbufremsays

21. Test hypothesis, not interactions
Users find relevant
having projects as
an entry point in the
homepage
Users can click on
the project on the
homepage
@gbufremsays

22. Clearly communicate the results and the “why”
Hypothesis Keep Kick Change
Concept works Concept does not work Concept works, needs small
changes
Users find relevant having
projects as an entry point in the
homepage
✔ Users don’t understand
what a project is - it is not
intuitive. Find another
entry point
Green, Yellow, Red:
Hypothesis John Bob Claire
failed inconclusive success
Users find relevant having projects
as an entry point in the homepage
“I don’t understand what
a project is. I’ll just pick a
random one”
Looked confused but still
clicked on the correct
project
“Are those related to my
projects?”
Keep, Kick, Change:
@gbufremsays

23. My go-to’s in user
research
● Test hypothesis, not
interactions
● Have a map
● Red yellow green
● Keep kick change
How to Build a Team and
deal with No Budget
● In the beginning, be your
own team
● Recruit your customers to be
your researchers
● Use other types of budget
● Showcase the potential
upside you could have with
a budget
How to Get Buy-In
● Explain the benefits of user
research through REAL use
cases
● Involve people you’re
working with in the research
process
● Concretely share your
findings in a way your
audience understands
● Develop a culture of
psychological safety
Buy-In Team Budget
Key takeaways
@gbufremsays
Best Practices