How to find good partners for international UX research

Many digital products today are designed with a global market in mind. A "one-size-fits-all" approach to the UX design will often do the job to get an MVP on the road, however cultural particularities in different markets can quickly pose barriers to growth. User testing in the major foreign markets is a must if you want to avoid these pitfalls.

Finding qualified international UX research partners can be a challenge though.

You have to make sure to find like-minded partners who understand your topic, know international research standards and help you interpret local findings with their culture and market knowledge. It is not always easy to tell whether all vendors meet your needs, especially in markets not familiar to you.

If you run an international user study for the first time, you can find good first contacts at resources like the UXPA directory. A good alternative is relying on an international user research network like UX Fellows, which has defined quality levels for its members. A network usually offers you one point of contact and will offer you turnkey multi-market studies. Instead of setting up an international tender by yourself and verifying and dealing with various partners individually, you can have these networks do this job for you. In the bidding stage this service usually comes at no extra cost.

Should I run a fully-fledged tender or rely on a network quote?

A competitive tender will give you the best possible prices and you can choose the partners that seem to fit best for each market. On the other hand, your transaction costs (e.g. find suitable vendors, answer questions, review all bids in different formats) can be notable and consume the cost benefit.

When speaking directly to a network, you probably won't get the lowest possible price, but usually one on fair market level. On the other hand you can be sure to deal with partners who have worked together previously and who know how to assure the quality in international studies.

How specific should my RFQ be?

If you already know how to proceed with you methodology it is a good idea to spend some extra time in defining the needed services and amounts as precisely as you can. This will allow your partners to calculate their budgets with less buffers and thus will usually give you better prices. If you are not so sure yet how to go about, especially in markets that are new to you, it is a good idea to rather describe your objectives and let your partners come up with their methodological ideas. You might need to negotiate afterwards to make their bids fit your budget.

How to manage multi-market UX studies

If you are planning a multi-market study you can decide whether to deal with all partners individually or to commission a general contractor who does this for you. While this service has to be paid for, it can save you some hassles like registering more than one new international vendor, plan and brief all team members and make sure all timings and logistics are in place.

In my experience, multi-market studies come with two particular challenges:

1. Double work (or multiple work for that matter): All partners write their own reports and documentations in their markets. This might bloat your budget and lead to extra work on your side due to different report formats, conclusion quality and missing topics.
2. Lost in translation: You can't always expect the same level of ownership and comprehension of your project from your research partners abroad. Hence, they might not look for the same insights and report things that are irrelevant for you.

In order to deal with these challenges I usually recommend working with a general contractor

• They will take enough time to understand your product and research topics
• They will observe the explorations in all markets and gather the culture- and market-specific conclusions from the local partners in a suitable way
• They will summarize and report all international findings in a "digestible" way, i.e. local findings are only pointed out if they differ from the other countries.