Skills Scratchpad: UX Research (Making sense of your Research Data)

The goal of Skills ScratchPad is to help make UX Research as a career path feel more accessible to career switchers. New here? Catch up on previous articles Series Launch, Crafting a Research Protocol and Engaging In Difficult Conversations - Tips For Qualitative Interviews.

Last week, we discussed conducting qualitative interviews, specifically focusing on difficult conversations. This week, we'll delve into what it means to make sense of the data from interviews through a process called research synthesis.

Research synthesis is the process of identifying patterns and themes that help answer key questions from your research objectives. I think about it like a puzzle where you connect the pieces between what people said in interviews in order to generate an insight or a point of view on a subject. It’s important because it forms the foundation for what key actionable findings and recommendations you’re going to share with your team.?

For a long time I used to find it daunting. However, like any skill, the more I’ve practiced, the more my confidence has grown and the less daunting it’s felt. Below, I share some tips that have made synthesis feel more approachable:

• Start synthesizing right after an interview: While the conversation is still fresh in my mind, I try to take the time to jot down key takeaways, questions or even surprising ideas that came up during the interview. This helps me retain nuances and initial gut reactions from the interview where possible. Capture all those initial impressions and surprises from the interview immediately.
• Collaborate with your teammates: This not only ensures diverse perspectives but also builds consensus and shared understanding of the findings. One prompt I’ve found helpful to facilitate conversation during synthesis has been “I wonder if this means…” Inspired by a technique from Prof Meenu Singh at the Stanford d.school,?known as the “parallel inference synthesis technique”, I capture key quotes from interviews (example template below.)

In sessions where I’ve facilitated this well, I’ve had different members of the team coming up with different perspectives on the same quote. We then discuss thoughts together and come up with a shared set of findings. Here’s a fictitious example of what this could look like.

Generate a set of insights statements: My main output from my synthesis sessions is typically a draft list of insights statements which I can then go ahead and refine for my presentation. I leverage the framework “what, so what, now what” to help me craft these statements. An example draft insight statement could be “Career switchers faced a steep learning curve in acquiring new UX methodologies, highlighting the importance of offering specialized training and mentorship programming?for a smoother transition.”? The what is “they faced a steep learning curve”, “so what” is the implication of how it affects the transition into the field and the “now what” could be how the team needs to think about potentially “offering training and mentorship programming”.

With practice, research synthesis has felt more accessible and enjoyable for me. Developing this skill will not only make you a valuable asset in UX Research but also help you to present persuasive findings that can drive product improvements! Next time, we’ll wrap up this series with how I refine these insight statements and communicate them to the team in a research presentation.