Strategic UX Research In International Companies
This is an after-event note from a webinar called “Strategic UX Research in International Companies” by Somia Research on Tuesday, August 1, 2023. There were three speakers in this webinar:
- Yoel K. Soemitro, Senior Director, Product Design & Research at Delivery Hero
- Larissa Rena Mansura, Global Senior Inclusive Design Researcher at IKEA
- Ketut Sulistyawati, Somia Founder
Summary 🔖
Strategic UX Research in international companies requires thorough preparation and considerations of ethnography, domain knowledge, and logistics. The IKEA case study demonstrates the importance of personalized products in achieving inclusive design. For companies with low UX maturity, seek out friends knowledgeable in UX to influence research and engage stakeholders in conversations with customers. As a researcher, know yourself and gather feedback on products being developed.
What is Strategic Research? 🤔
Research areas are divided into two types, namely:
- Strategic Research: Typically conducted in an unknown area and can determine where the business can move and find revenue. Thus, ultimately discovering what services can be provided.
- Tactical Research: Focuses on gaining early insights. Such as conducting usability testing, user testing, etc.
What distinguishes strategic research / tactical research?
- Strategic Research → Answers questions from the unknown to the unknown.
- Tactical Research → Answers questions from the unknown to the known.
What is the impact of strategic research on the company? 🤔
There are many impacts that strategic research can have on a company. Let’s start with a quotation from a talk show:
“Clients come to areas they are completely unfamiliar with. They might discover new gaps and new opportunities. For example, Kohler wants to create a new sanitary product and wants to find out about the Muslim market, such as ‘How do we enter the Muslim market?’ and ‘What methods can we use to meet the needs of new products in the Muslim market?’.” – Ketut Sulistyawati, Somia Founder
Based on the above quotation and the previous heading discussion, it is known that:
Therefore, the research outputs are very diverse, what are they?
- User ethnography issues
- New products to solve problems
- Appropriate promotional methods
- Appropriate service methods
- Transaction methods that meet needs
- Better after-sales service
- etc.
In general, the output of strategic research will always affect the business operations of a company and will no longer affect the products being developed.
However, because the effort in strategic research is also significant (cannot be completed in 2–3 weeks), various stakeholders choose to pay more attention to tactical research than strategic research.
Output of strategic research: Generates significant impact on the business strategies implemented and serves as an evaluation material for the progress made by the business thus far.
Why is strategic research rarely conducted?
Let’s start with a quotation by Yoel K. Sumitro:
“The nature of strategic research is not always reliable for managing research outputs. In my opinion, it’s pointless to provide deep insights but not know what to do with them.” – Yoel K. Sumitro, Senior Director, Product Design & Research at Delivery Hero
Actually, strategic research is something that needs to be done. However, it can be quite challenging if the Human Resources in a company have not yet reached an understanding of the true function of research.
In other words, the company may not have sufficient UX maturity.
Additionally, in another quotation by Yoel:
“That’s why currently there is more research done for tactical purposes only, because the outputs are easy and clear for what will be done. If it’s strategic, are they capable of handling the research outputs well?” – Yoel K. Sumitro, Senior Director, Product Design & Research at Delivery Hero
Looking at this, decision-making in strategic research is quite deep as it affects overall business operations. The option to conduct such research is relatively scarce.
Moreover, the lack of understanding from other stakeholders about whether it should be conducted also affects the company’s confidence in conducting strategic research.
Thus, strategic research is generally carried out in companies with emerging UX maturity.
How is strategic research conducted on an international scale?
According to the speakers, before conducting strategic research, there are questions that need to be asked, as stated by Larissa:
“Maturity in research planning in international markets should be considered. Will product changes affect the country or globally? Will they gain buyers from that country when those changes are made?”
Once both of these questions are answered, the preparation for global-scale research involves:
“What should be considered in international research? Logistics: Should the research use translators/researchers from the same country? Domain knowledge: What strategies are there for understanding the culture of that country? Decision: How should insights be presented?” – Yoel K. Sumitro, Senior Director, Product Design & Research at Delivery Hero
You might ask, “So, what preparations do we need from stakeholders?”
The answer is not much different from regular research, as outlined by Sulis:
“Aligning to adapt business and user needs from strategic research: Researchers understand what needs to be done in the research. Validation of problems to align with customer issues. Engage business stakeholders in conversations with customers / provide information updates to stakeholders and hold discussions.” – Ketut Sulistyawati, Somia Founder
Case study of strategic research on a global scale
What might a case study of strategic research on a global scale look like?
According to Larissa:
“IKEA has a vision to ‘To create a better everyday life for the many people.’ So, the products produced by IKEA should be able to help everyone easily.” — Larissa Rena Mansura, Global Senior Inclusive Design Researcher at IKEA
With a vision that reaches “many people,” the products produced by IKEA must also be able to reach everyone, not just the people of Sweden (the location of IKEA’s headquarters), but also all its global consumers.
Additionally, IKEA has two products:
- Software products: For e-commerce services. In software products, IKEA strives to personalize e-commerce to suit each region’s country.
- Physical products: For physical products, IKEA will attempt to adapt them to the needs of each country.
By creating personalized products, IKEA has become one of the companies implementing inclusive design and inviting a wider inclusive target to create products that meet user needs.
- Inclusive Design: Involving users in providing feedback on the products we (developers) are developing.
- Objective of Inclusive Design: Enhancing the diversity of products for the people we want to embrace so that our products can be more easily used by many people.
My company hasn’t implemented strategic research yet. What should I do? 😭
Assuming your current company still lacks high UX maturity, based on the experiences and advice from Larissa, you can take the following steps:
“Find friends who understand UX to influence research.” — Larissa Rena Mansura, Global Senior Inclusive Design Researcher at IKEA
Yoel, Senior Director, Product Design & Research at Delivery Hero, has a different opinion on this:
“Speak directly to the target stakeholders and convince them that the insights are valid.” — Yoel K. Sumitro, Senior Director, Product Design & Research at Delivery Hero
You might have a follow-up question, “I’m currently at a Junior level and haven’t gained the trust of my superiors, what should I do?”
Based on the discussion, Larissa provides some insights:
#1 Know yourself before knowing the product.
Each researcher has their own strengths, and the product becomes our medium to communicate with customers. Not all researchers excel in interviews; some may excel in usability. Understand the scope that we can work on to maximize product output.
#2 The researcher’s task is to find out. Do that first before informing your colleagues.
As a researcher, our main task is to find out something. Do this by communicating with users. With the insights obtained, inform stakeholders about competitors, socio-economic conditions, and anything else that will influence the product and the company.
Recognizing oneself and seeking validation for ideas are crucial when attempting to persuade colleagues to improve UX maturity at your workplace.
Hi, thank you for reading all these! My name is Danny Dakhrisman, a UX Research and Product Manager from Indonesia. Click here to learn more about me
