Insights are like a fine brandy.

Insights are like a fine brandy.

It's the end of a research project, and the presentation is tomorrow.

You've heard that insights should be inspiring, but your insights look like trash. Here is your first one:

1: "Users are complaining about the new UI update"

?????? While it might be true, it doesn't feel like an "Aha!" moment. It feels more like an "Mmhmm" moment.

What's missing:

  • What are the users complaining about?
  • Which users are complaining?
  • What in the UI update caused this?

"Users are complaining about the new UI update" is more of a finding than an insight. What's the difference?

Findings vs. Insights

Oxford defines insight as an accurate and deep understanding. Wikipedia defines it as the understanding of a specific cause and effect within a particular context.

One of the most common mistakes of novice researchers is thinking a finding is an insight. Here's a handy breakdown from my course on UX research:

Findings vs. Insights in UX research
by Jeff Humble

It's hard to tell when something is a finding vs. an insight. Hopefully, that chart helps. Let's revisit the example:

"Users are complaining about the new UI update."

To take it to the insight level, we need to do more digging. Users seemed confused about our tool's UI, so let's look into the research to see if we can figure out "why." You know that Google's material design system heavily influenced the result of your UI update. Looking back at the interviews, you realize something startling: users actually think your tool is from Google! Hmmm, does the similarity to Google's UI cause users to have certain expectations about price? Many users expressed concern about the payment. After reviewing the data, you realize the similarity to Google in the users' eyes contains a real insight.

Let's put all of that new thinking together:

Finding: "Users are complaining about the new UI update."
Finding: "Users think our tool is from Google."
Finding: "Users don't expect to pay for Google tools."
Insight: "Users think our new UI is a Google tool because it looks so similar, causing them to complain when the tool isn't free."

What's different between our original finding and the new insight? We figured out "why" the finding was happening and looked deeper to find patterns of findings that might be transformational.

You need to "distill" your findings and research data to get to the insight.

How to Distill UX Insights

Brandy starts its life as wine, but after a special distillation process, you're left with a purified version of wine we call Brandy. Insights should go through a similar process.

Distilling insights process of finding to insight
by Jeff Humble

You might need a lot of findings to end up with those precious few insights. It's a process that goes from quantity to quality.

When you're trying to force a 3-month research project into 3-5 final insights overnight, you really need to crank up the heat.

The magic in forming insights lies in what happens in the distillation activities.

Some distilling activities:

  • Do more research.
  • Cluster all of your findings together and re-organize them.
  • Look for the "why" behind your findings.
  • Cluster and re-sort your research data in a Miro board.
  • Talk through your findings with someone outside the project.
  • Do some desk research using the Pomodoro method.
  • Ask Chat GPT to re-write your findings until an idea sparks.
  • Make a quick visual to represent the finding/insight.
  • Review your research goals.
  • Do even more research.
  • Take a walk.
  • Come back and keep editing.

Pick three from the list above and get started. The important is to start because no insights is worse than underwhelming insights. There's nothing worse than staring at a blank page when you need insights fast.

Hopefully, you see how your findings can become insights with a little work.

A Template for Writing Insights

If you want a head start with your insights, check out the template I made called the Insight Card. It's very pink and very useful.

insight format template
A template for insights by Jeff Humble


It includes the findings vs. insights breakdown and a handy checklist to help you improve your insights. Once you download, drop the template in Miro or Figjam and start distilling those insights!

In no time, your insights will taste like an aged French cognac on a cold autumn night. Mmmmmm...

Download the Insight Card (Free)

Enjoy!

-Jeff Humble


P.S. I re-named the newsletter from Beyond Aesthetics to Jeff's Newsletter. I'm going to start writing this newsletter monthly, so subscribe to get an article like this every few weeks. 5,000 designers have already done it! ??

要查看或添加评论,请登录

Jeff Humble的更多文章

  • How to Shift from Reactive Design to Strategic Design

    How to Shift from Reactive Design to Strategic Design

    Some people spend their whole careers reacting to other people's moves. I remember being in this position as a design…

    2 条评论
  • Chasing Competitors Instead of User Needs

    Chasing Competitors Instead of User Needs

    Have you ever had a CEO overly obsessed with beating the competition? I know I have. Usually, this obsession comes at…

    2 条评论
  • Designing an AI-Powered Automation System with Activepieces & Discord

    Designing an AI-Powered Automation System with Activepieces & Discord

    If you’ve ever used Zapier, Slack, or an AI agent to manage work, this article is for you. I hacked this automation…

    4 条评论
  • 28 Testing Methods That Are Not A/B Testing

    28 Testing Methods That Are Not A/B Testing

    Dear Product Person, Today I'm thankful for all the ways you can test that are not A/B tests. Executives and product…

  • Spirit of Halloween Costume Meme Special ??

    Spirit of Halloween Costume Meme Special ??

    Dear Designer, This year, I went a little crazy with the Halloween memes. So today, it's all about ridiculous designer…

    18 条评论
  • The Secret Killer of Strategic Projects

    The Secret Killer of Strategic Projects

    Strategic projects can fall into a million difficulties, but one thing takes down more projects than any other, and the…

  • 5 Ways to Do Strategy Research

    5 Ways to Do Strategy Research

    You may have done some user research and thought, what does the next level of research project look like? Well…

  • The 4 Signs of a Good Strategy

    The 4 Signs of a Good Strategy

    I teach a strategy course for designers, and one of my jobs is giving feedback on strategies. And it is NOT easy.

  • The Big Lesson Behind Figma AI

    The Big Lesson Behind Figma AI

    Designers are on the frontlines of something every software worker will soon be going through. It’s a question you…

    7 条评论
  • Why Designers Should Align to the Business Strategy

    Why Designers Should Align to the Business Strategy

    by Jeff Humble Dear Designer, Lots of designers never "get" their company's business strategy. And to the executives…

    2 条评论

社区洞察

其他会员也浏览了