I am not a designer or UX researcher. However, as a field reporter for investigative journalism, I have leveraged my on-site experience and applied phenomenological shifts in corporate issues and ethnographic thinking to foster a shared understanding with stakeholders within the organization. In this era of rapidly increasing AI application in the workplace, I believe that this perspective and attitude of seeking to understand humanity are more crucial than ever in strategically establishing a place within organizations.
Today, I will be sharing observations that those who strive to fulfill similar roles in the field might relate to, based on the changes I have witnessed in the work environment and my personal reflections on how I have tried to cope with and apply them.
1. No one wants our 'strategy'.
While this might be a slightly exaggerated statement, it serves as the most helpful starting point when considering the method and process of conveying the findings. Many stakeholders believe they are providing strategic insights through their experience and role in their respective jobs. Therefore, there is no reason for others to prioritize our insights strategically simply because we are researchers or investigators. Consequently, if we start a conversation assuming that our insights should be prioritized due to our immersion in the investigation process and results, we might come across as arrogant and increase the likelihood of failing to establish or exercise influence throughout the project.
Instead, focusing on the role of a messenger who conveys the emotions of the initial target audience might be a better option for fostering harmonious relationships.
2. The voice of the 'consumer' alone is not enough.
The silence that filled the conference room when I presented the research results on the core consumers of a product before kicking off the annual marketing campaign planning is still vivid in my memory. I believed I had sufficiently explained the project background and how the questions about the target customer's life were linked to the moments that revealed the product's value. However, I was so engrossed in the process that I failed to fully acknowledge that the operational team already had a basic planning direction and message in place.
In short:
How rigorously the research was conducted and how fascinating the process of deriving insights was were completely irrelevant. If the project stakeholders cannot understand it from their perspective, it means they will not empathize with it, and identifying this blind spot is our most critical role.
So, how can we deliver the results effectively?
1. Help internalize insights through storytelling.
Verifying the overall narrative is highly helpful in minimizing differences in interpretation among various stakeholders. Additionally, confirming which format of results, such as video or photos, would help stakeholders share insights with others related to their work and providing it accordingly can be a good response.
2. Deliver concisely.
It is beneficial to provide specific materials that enable the team to quickly absorb the insights and apply them to their work. Consider simple visual diagrams and frameworks that help define the global ecosystem related to the research topic, the overall flow within the ecosystem, and potential actionable opportunities to consider. Alternatively, providing a brief explanation of the market situation and competitor product features to identify product differentiation factors can also be effective.
3. Approach based on the work situation.
Instead of forcing the team to stop their workflow and adapt to our process, we can check where their work is at, identify priorities, short-term and long-term goals, and try to understand what can invigorate and provide momentum to the current progress. Then, we can revisit the insights, recategorize them into subsets, and consider what form of results would be most helpful to the stakeholders and whether the insights can be reorganized accordingly. This might be the most appropriate approach.
Ultimately, it boils down to summarizing the results concisely and prioritizing immediate relevance in our suggestions. This seems to be the core concern and essence of this work that we need to address and excel at.
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