UNLOCK MARKET INSIGHTS WITH

DESIGN RESEARCH
Part two in “Exploring Design,” a series of eBooks for product professionals
on collaborating effectively with your company’s design function
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 “How can I collaborate on research with my design team,
without our stepping on each other’s toes?”

“How should I leverage the skills of my designers in my

NIHITO® research?”

“Can I use design research methods to bolster my

market conversations?”

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 UNDERSTANDING
MARKETS AND USERS
Product management and design share a mission: Understand the markets and users they
want to serve. Ensure that proposed solutions meet the market problems and user needs.

MAR

EXPLORATORY
RESEARCH

Start by learning about

users and their
problems
In the early STRATEGIC
stages of a project:
STRATEGY

Product teams spend time with their

market, identifying who they’re serving
and their problems. They bring that market
knowledge into the organization in order
to build solutions targeted to the needs of
users and buyers. Identify
concepts of
Design teams with research skills gather potential solutions
information from the field and distill user
insights for the organization. They focus
on the broader context around the “why.”
Understanding goals and pain points ABSTRACT
empowers designers to reframe problems CREATION
and craft innovative solutions.

PROD

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 Designers have a host of mindsets and tools that
help them uncover rich user context and learn more
across the full product development cycle.
Identify opportunities to leverage design research in
your own work.

KET

EVALUATIVE
RESEARCH

Evaluate potential
solutions with
users
In the EXECUTION stages
EXECUTION

of a project:
For product teams, there’s opportunity
to gather market feedback on promising
concepts. As the team builds out the chosen
solution, user feedback ensures it’s usable,
meets expectations, and that the market is
Design and willing to pay for it.
construct the
chosen solution Design teams have prototyping and
testing tools and techniques to gather user
feedback on in-progress solutions. Based
on that feedback, the team can make
CONCRETE adjustments to ensure the final product will
CREATION meet user needs and expectations.

UCT

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 DESIGN RESEARCH METHODS
Designers employ different research methods in each phase of the design process,
depending on what they need to learn about users, their problems and potential solutions.

STRATEGY
EXPLORATORY RESEARCH

Exploratory research helps you gain a better understanding of the people you
might serve and the problems you might solve for them. Designers typically
conduct exploratory research when looking into the possibility of developing
a new product or service. You can also use it when you want to completely
rethink current solutions. The techniques center on capturing the current state:
understanding users’ goals, context, processes and mindsets; and identifying
their key problems and current approaches to solving them.

Research Mindset: Planning

Whichever technique they use, designers carefully plan their research in
advance, just like product teams. They start by determining learning objectives
to better structure the intended technique.

How do users think about their work What do you want to know about your
and their challenges? target audience, their current work
patterns and their goals?

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 EXECUTION

EVALUATIVE RESEARCH

Evaluative research gives users something to react to, so you can gain a clearer
understanding of how well the proposed solutions fit users’ problems, context
and expectations. Designers employ evaluative research throughout the product
development life cycle—from early user feedback on a variety of potential
concepts before a solution is chosen to usability feedback on a solution that is
about to be released. In later stages, you can use evaluative research to identify
where the in-progress solution, or prototype, causes confusion or frustration for
users and make appropriate adjustments before market release.

Research Mindset: Learning Over Validation

Users don’t feel comfortable critiquing a prototype that looks complete. Build
the lowest-fidelity prototype that will help you learn what you need to know.

What’s the simplest prototype we How can we ask for feedback in a

can build to test our assumptions? way that allows us to learn more
about the user’s needs and context?

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 EXPLORATORY RESEARCH
TECHNIQUES

USER INTERVIEWING
A powerful technique in which researchers draw information from users through conversation (ideally in
the location where they experience the problems you might want to solve). Designers often ask users to tell
stories that provide insight into their goals and ask follow-up questions to probe more deeply into the “why.”

Interviewing Deep Dive

If you conduct Pragmatic-recommended NIHITO research with
buyers and users, you’re already practicing a form of exploratory
research. Use design interviewing best practices to make this
form of research even more effective.

OBSERVATION
Direct study of users in their workplace or home. In these settings, you can see their current process and how
they deal with common problems. This technique (familiar to Pragmatic-trained product managers) allows
designers to capture behaviors that users may not recall on their own in an interview.

SELF-RECORDING
When the researcher can't be present for observation, designers ask users to record their activities.
Self-recording can take several forms, such as:

Experience Mapping Diary Mobile Ethnography

Offer artifacts that let users visually Provide users with a diary in Ask users to use their mobile
map out their current experience which to capture their daily phones to capture their current
or work process, usually in an experience with the problems experience and record their
interview. An experience map is one you’re exploring. reflections and understanding of
such tool. It captures a target user’s what they currently do.
actions, thoughts and feelings in a
given scenario.

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 EXPLORATORY TOOL: User Interview Guide
Conversation guides ensure that researchers cover topics crucial to their learning objectives and have
well-framed questions at the ready. The guide will act not as a script but as a reference to keep the
conversation going.

SAMPLE INTERVIEW GUIDE

This interview guide supports healthcare providers tracking patient care. Key topics are highlighted and
have suggested open-ended questions for exploration. The interviewer can check off topics as they’re
addressed while remaining flexible with the conversation flow.

INTRO TREATMENT OPTIONS

“What does a typical day look like for you?” “What sources do you turn to for determining
treatment options?”
“How do you manage your patient caseload?”
“When can you rely on your own knowledge and
PATIENT EXPERIENCE experience? When do you have to draw on other
sources?”
“What does a typical patient encounter look like?”
“Who do you collaborate with to make that DOCUMENTATION
experience work?” “How do you document your patient encounters?”
“What kind or experience do you hope to create “What’s important to you about documentation?”
for your patients?”
“What’s frustrating about the documentation
“What stands in the way of that?” process?”

PATIENT CONTEXT CLOSING

“How do you prepare for a patient encounter?” “If I gave you a magic wand to improve your time
“What information do you like to have at hand?” with patients, what would it do?”

USER INTERVIEWING BEST PRACTICES

• Open by asking them to tell a story about • Stay flexible. Make space for digressions
their experience. This provides a natural way that might provide deeper insight into the
of structuring the conversation. (“What does user’s motivations and needs.
a typical workday look like for you?”)

• Use your guide as a reference, while taking • Close by letting them imagine the future. (“If
notes during the conversation. I were to give you a magic wand, what would
your ideal solution look like?”)

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 EVALUATIVE RESEARCH
TECHNIQUES
CONCEPT EVALUATION
With early-stage solutions, researchers can introduce low-fidelity sketches of concepts to gauge user reaction.
Researchers open by discussing problems the user currently faces and then provide concepts for them to react
to. They ask how the various concepts might fit into the user’s current situation, with follow-up questions to dig
into the context.

Concept Storyboard Deep Dive

If you’re looking for early-stage market feedback on concepts before
committing to development, storyboards help you understand what
solutions might resonate and why.

USABILITY PROTOTYPES
Create prototypes that articulate a solution’s interface and mechanics to gather feedback on the usability,
understandability and desirability of your product before investing in the full build-out. Such research can help
teams make adjustments before release, avoiding costly rework and speeding up adoption.

Paper Prototypes Clickable Prototypes Working Prototypes

Sharing low-fidelity paper Providing clickable prototypes Depending on your product, a
prototypes of your proposed of your proposed interface lets high-fidelity prototype of your
interface helps users envision how you see whether users can intuit solution with working data
the solution could support their how to use the interface, without will help users to determine
workflow, while still allowing you to the programming overhead of whether the solution addresses
make changes on the fly. building a working solution. a complicated market problem.

REAL-TIME MONITORING
By monitoring the live application, researchers can identify where users focus attention (through eye tracking)
or which design alternative leads to the desired outcomes (through A/B testing). Research insights are limited
to “what” is happening because researchers can’t probe the “why” behind a user’s choices.

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 EVALUATIVE TOOL: Concept Storyboard
In early-stage concept evaluation, you can create a storyboard to communicate how your proposed
solution might work. If you have several solutions in mind, create a storyboard for each and ask
users to compare and contrast. Through this research, you can gather market input on the perceived
value of different solutions before committing resources to bring them to market.

SAMPLE CONCEPT STORYBOARD

These storyboards support conversations with healthcare providers, like doctors and nurses.
By asking interviewees to read the storyboard aloud, researchers can watch for their emotional
response and ask them to explain how the solutions would fit with their need to track patient care.

1 2 3

4 5 6

GETTING FEEDBACK ON PROTOTYPES

• Have users read the storyboard aloud or complete a • Ask open-ended questions about how solutions
task in the clickable prototype. Look for excitement or might fit with their experience. Remember to follow
confusion along the way. up with “why?”

• People have a strong desire to please their interviewer.

Create a safe space for them to provide honest feedback. • Be open to learning that your proposed solution won’t
work for users. Take the opportunity to learn how it
• Watch for your own bias. Avoid “leading the witness” to could be improved.
your desired conclusion.

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 NEXT LEVEL:
COMBINING RESEARCH TECHNIQUES
Any given research session might combine both exploratory and evaluative research techniques,
depending on what you already know and what you want to learn. It’s important to be intentional
about your research structure.

MARKET PROBLEM SOLUTION FEEDBACK ON SOLUTION-

DISCOVERY CONCEPTUALIZATION: MARKET FIT

EXPLORATORY TECHNIQUES
Interview questions and observations

EVALUATIVE TECHNIQUES
Solution prompts and activities

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 In your early NIHITO research, leave ample space for exploring the user’s
context and goals before presenting solution ideas. Spending time exploring
the user’s story will lead to opportunities you might otherwise miss. True
innovation often happens when you listen to opportunities outside of your
assumed problem area.

MARKET PROBLEM DISCOVERY

Before you have identified potential market problems to solve, most of your research
will be exploratory.

SOLUTION CONCEPTUALIZATION
Once you have defined the key market problems to solve, return to the market to get
feedback on potential solutions. This often starts with an exploratory interview and
closes by asking the user to respond to several concepts.

FEEDBACK ON SOLUTION-MARKET FIT

Once you’ve chosen a solution concept, build refined prototypes to test for market
fit. It’s good practice to start with a few exploratory interview questions to better
understand the user before moving to evaluative techniques like prototyping.

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 ACTIVATE DESIGN
RESEARCH
Now that you've learned about different types of design research and a few tools to
support different learning objectives, you might be wondering ... what now?
There are two ways to navigate research terrain. You can:

PARTNER WITH • Determine design resources,

capabilities and interest
DESIGNERS
• Collaborate on interview guides

• Conduct NIHITO and user

interviews together

• Synthesize and find patterns in

research together

• Make space for user research at different BORROW DESIGN

moments across the lifecycle
MINDSETS AND TOOLS
• Create research objectives before heading
out into the market on NIHITO

• Employ conversation guides that discover the

"why" behind answers

• Begin to experiment with gathering market

feedback earlier with lower-fidelity prototypes

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 Partner with designers to Could your team use support
create innovative solutions crafting its research objectives
to your market’s problems. and conversation guides?
Register for our new Sign up for a Market
course, Design! Discovery Lab!

Read the first eBook in this series, “Exploring Design,” to discover

key design practices and capabilities, learn how they map onto the
Pragmatic FrameworkTM, and understand the design function at
your own organization.

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 ABOUT PRAGMATIC INSTITUTE
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