Based on our learnings in 2006, we feel that the following considerations are important when implementing a systematic user research effort.

Step 1: Influence the IT organization to accept usage as a key decision driver.

The Three-Circle model in Figure 1 outlines the balance of business, usage, and technology needs. Without a good understanding of each area, decisions may not have the desired impact. This balanced Three-Circle approach weighs the various components of decision making and comes up with a compromise that will represent a positive outcome for the company. Generally, acceptance of usage as a key component of decision making can often be driven by doing a few pilot research studies that demonstrate the richness of the data gathered from utilizing a full complement of quantitative and qualitative research methods.

This step establishes the basic acceptance for the value of the research and ensures that the research will be used throughout the organization.

Step 2: Develop a research team focused on internal users (employees).

We propose a mix of qualitative and quantitative researchers. Many corporations have groups with related skills: business or market research, human factors engineers, social scientists, business process engineers, etc. A small research group aligned with these organizations can share skill sets and data in synergistic ways to ensure that decision makers get a full understanding of their users and usage through a comprehensive research analysis.

Step 3: Conduct research on two levels: foundational and directed.

Ideally, there are simultaneous layers of user research underway in an internally focused user research effort (e.g., ethnography of the company itself). The first layer is a broad or foundational layer of research that explores large themes or topic areas to start identifying the large picture of how and why people work the way they do. This research may cross job roles and organizational unit boundaries and focus instead on large thematic areas such as how people use and need mobility to complete their job tasks or how employees in different areas of the world collaborate across time zones. This layer can help an organization gain an overall understanding of the biggest issues that users have, to direct spending of limited IT dollars. The second level of research is directed or project-specific research that addresses specific research needs for a given project. This research may have been identified as a need through the foundational research or be requested by a specific project, based on findings from other kinds of research such as usability testing on a current capability.

Conducting research on these two levels allows projects to be provided with immediate support and results while slowly building a broad set of data on users over time. Both layers of research are important for building momentum around the user research effort. These layers are also important to the continuous augmentation of the user data set with both quantitative and qualitative research results. The results of all studies should be cross-analyzed to fully identify the top IT user priorities that can be addressed through improved processes, tools, and services, or organizational structure adjustments.

Step 4: Fully disseminate user research data.

The benefit of the two levels of research is that they provide both a basic and specific understanding of users in a given work process. Once the results are in, it is important to disseminate the results to the appropriate places.

Making the data visible in various outputs such as user profiles, scenarios, and flow diagrams that clarify and make the user come alive is one way that we have been ensuring the research data are utilized. These visualizations can then be used during the product life cycle for any capability. They can also be used during roadmap or long-term strategic planning efforts to identify the direction an organization needs to take, and they can be fully considered alongside technology and overall business needs.

Step 5: Determine the business value for the user research.

Once the top priorities are identified from this broad view of usage, business, and technology needs and fed into strategic, long-range planning and the development or the next release of capabilities, the user research effort needs to start determining the business value of the research. Business value is defined as the benefits for the business unit and the enterprise as a whole, represented in dollar terms, that is a result of IT solutions or services [5]. A clear understanding of where the research is disseminated and used as well as its impact on actual capability deployments will help an organization continue to conduct research that has the most impact.