After 10 years of consumer research, primarily focused in brand development and strategy, I decided it was time to pivot.
Working at IBM Design Studio has given me the opportunity to use my B-C (Business to Consumer) research experience, in the B-B (Business to Business) world. Pivoting into the world of enterprise technology is essentially stepping into The Matrix. It's a complicated, fast-paced, ever-changing world. Everything you know, is still not enough to master your user's expertise. It's enough to scare a novice techie into submission, but considering I don't scare easy, I took the "red pill" and entered this new world of IT Innovation. (If you haven't seen the movie The Matrix, these references might not make sense, in which case, why haven't you seen that movie?! It's a classic! Add it to your Netflix queue now!)
From creating research plans based on key objectives and goals, to synthesizing the findings, to sharing out insights into tangible takeaways and deliverables - being a lead researcher in The Matrix has been my most exciting professional adventure to date!
Some examples of research activities I conduct for evaluative purposes:
Identifying UX issues: Formative Usability Assessment (FUA) and Expert Heuristic Evalutation
Prioritizing feature implementation: Kano Method, measuring satisfaction against functionality
Benchmarking: System Usability Scale (SUS) and Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Design and Iterate: Rapid Iterative Testing and Evaluation (RITE) and paper prototyping
Some examples of research activities I conduct for generative purposes:
Contextual interviews: ethnographies for the workforce
A day in the life: Diary Study
Co-Create: Design thinking workshop
