How I work
My UX research process
Over the past five years, I have conducted UX research across public and private sectors, tackling everything from short-turnaround sprints to long-term strategic initiatives. Navigating these varied constraints inspired me to build a repeatable, scalable research process that brings structure to any project, no matter the scope or stakeholder.
Step 1: Stakeholder Alignment & Expectations
This is a frequently underestimated step in the research process, but I consider it the most critical. Meeting with stakeholders early allows for an open discussion to align on project expectations, investment level, and definition of success.
During this kickoff, I focus on uncovering:
Roles & Dynamics: Defining stakeholder roles (internal vs. external) and identifying how they can champion the project (e.g., assisting with participant recruitment or driving internal buy-in).
Agile & Research Maturity: Gauging their familiarity with agile workflows and the value of user-centric design to tailor how we collaborate.
By the end of this meeting, the product team and stakeholders are completely aligned on the project roadmap, methodologies, and communication cadence.
Step 2: Knowledge Mapping Workshop (Assessing the Knowns & Unknowns)
Typically conducted with the core product team (and occasionally key stakeholders), this workshop ensures we aren’t duplicating effort. I adapt the format based on the product’s maturity:
For New Products: We align the team’s baseline knowledge. We synthesise insights from desk research, historical documentation, and our initial stakeholder meetings to ensure the team starts from a unified vantage point.
For Established Products: The focus shifts from historical review to gap analysis. We brainstorm what we don’t know, transforming those blind spots into targeted research questions.
Step 3: Defining Research Goals & Questions
Synthesising inputs from the stakeholder kickoff, the team workshop, and foundational desk research, I establish the overarching research goals and granular questions for upcoming sprint cycles. Naturally, these goals pivot based on the project’s current lifecycle phase whether we are navigating Discovery, Alpha, Beta, or Live environments.
Step 4: Continuous Documentation & Knowledge Management
I have received positive feedback of delivering highly praised research documentation and insights. My logic is to document continuously rather than scrambling at the end of a lifecycle. I use Living Decks dynamic, real-time repositories that evolve alongside the project.
How I adapt this artefact depends on the project type:
Short-Term Projects: The Living Deck acts as an internal research diary. At the project’s conclusion, I extract and refine this data into a polished, high-impact final report tailored for executive consumption.
Long-Term/Embedded Projects: The Living Deck serves as the single source of truth for the product team. It houses the research roadmap, active plans, methodologies, and emerging insights in chronological order, giving the team immediate visibility into past and future research activities.
Parallel to this, I establish robust, intuitive file structures for digital workspaces. This ensures the product team has seamless access to research artefacts, consent forms, and session recordings, while maintaining strict adherence to data privacy and security standards.
Here is an example report and living deck:
Report vs. Living Deck Artefacts
As shown in the attached examples, the Research Report delivers high-level findings and strategic insights tailored for non-design stakeholders and executives. Conversely, the Living Deck captures granular, tactical data, including sprint-by-sprint research plans, specific design recommendations, and foundational domain knowledge.
Step 5: Participant Recruitment & Sampling Strategy
With clearly defined research goals, I break the project down into targeted research rounds and initiate participant recruitment. My approach to recruitment adapts entirely to the project’s ecosystem:
B2B & Government/Internal Sectors: Having extensive experience in public sector and government projects, I use internal networks, other researchers, and stakeholders to coordinate recruitment. I manage the end-to-end logistics, from securing line-manager permissions to ensuring a diverse, representative sample of civil servants or internal users.
B2C & Public-Facing Products: For consumer-facing products, I frequently partner with external recruitment agencies. This allows us to screen for specific demographics, behavioral traits, and accessibility needs to ensure a robust, unbiased participant pool.
Step 6: Research Execution & Cross-Functional Engagement
While conducting the research is straightforward, my core focus during this phase is fostering a culture of observation within the product team. I actively encourage designers, developers, and product managers to shadow live sessions as observers or note-takers.
To manage team engagement, I adapt to their availability:
Fostering Buy-In: If team members are hesitant, I advocate for the value of direct user exposure, showing them how firsthand observation accelerates decision-making.
The Rota System: To maximize participation without overwhelming the team, I implement an observer rota. This gives team members advanced notice of their assigned slots and builds a shared sense of ownership over user insights.
Step 7: Analysis, Synthesis, & Insights Playback
Data synthesis is tailored to the methodology and scope of the research round:
Exploratory & Generative Research: This requires collective brainpower. I facilitate collaborative synthesis workshops with the product team using a “silent generation then group discussion” framework to eliminate groupthink and uncover deep, thematic patterns together.
Usability & Evaluative Testing: For tactical UI/UX testing, I typically drive the analysis independently to identify usability friction points, patterns, and bugs.
Every round concludes with an interactive playback session. I present the findings and insights to the team, and we collectively map the research to our product backlog, prioritising design iterations based on user impact.
Process Agility & Project Closeout
This framework is inherently cyclical and agile; steps can be adapted, scaled, or bypassed depending on sprint velocity and project constraints. Establishing this rhythm early helps the cross-functional team understand exactly how to collaborate with me throughout the product lifecycle.
When closing out a project or transitioning between phases (such as Discovery to Alpha), I synthesise the overarching research into high-impact, reusable artefacts. Depending on the scope, these deliverables include:
User Archetypes & Empathy Maps
End-to-End User Journey Maps
Service Blueprints & Maps
Validated User Needs Documentation
Comprehensive Living Decks & Executive Reports
Please find examples of my previous work below:
