I regularly plan and deliver research, but my passion is culture change. Every team I’ve joined in the last 4 years has made risky prioritization decisions based on input from a select few top clients, ignoring their broader user base. As a result, they were often missing the mark with the market at large, by developing products based on the opinions of a select few. Until they learned the value of user research, and began using it as an input to decisions driving their product roadmaps.

This has taught me never to assume that the value of research is understood.
In order to help stakeholders gain value from user research, I regularly work with them to:

1. Assess gaps in knowledge about their user base.
2. Communicate the value of closing those knowledge gaps in order to mitigate risk when making critical product decisions.
3. Build a sense of ownership of the research by regularly engaging them in data collection and synthesis.
4. Deliver actionable findings which have direct impact on product decisions.