Rapid Research

How to incorporate research in agency-based agile product development

Why is rapid user research the essence to truly successful product development? In times of exponential growth of digital connectivity and information overload, we are experiencing a constant flow of innovation, disruption, — and sometimes chaos — that is moving us ahead, even faster than we have ever imagined. As a result it is nowadays crucial to place the human being at the center of our attention and thus also of our design process. Making design decisions without focusing on the human perspective can lead to assumption based conclusions that tend to be highly influenced by individual experiences or likings. This increases the risk that teams build the wrong features, which leads to products not performing in their intended way. By incorporating design research in a more iterative way into the design and development process, product teams are enabled to learn and innovate continuously. This way we guarantee that design decisions are based on research findings, therefore minimizing prejudices, opinions, and guesses about the end users behavior.

That is why SinnerSchrader puts a lot of emphasis on embedding design researchers into the fast-paced environments of agile product teams. By considering research as an integral part of the design process we permanently obtain the information needed to make the right decisions while sprinting. In this way, we can create significant value in the shortest possible time, using various research approaches. This applies both to the further development of digital products and to the development of new ideas and concepts. Thereby, research should be utilized throughout the entire development of a product, rather than just at the beginning or end of the process.

At SinnerSchrader, product teams are equipped with one responsible researcher. This way the team can get concrete answers to their open questions, such as: “is there a need for a specific feature” and “is it worth investing the time to build it” or “to find out if a functionality is understood by the users”. On the other hand, it is the researcher‘s job to continuously challenge the team’s work to guarantee a human-centered design process, and to consult whenever there is a need for validation. Besides that, a close communication with the other researchers is essential to share findings, avoid duplication of research efforts, and combine cross-cutting issues where appropriate.

But how do you come up with valid results as a single researcher for your team in such a dense frequency? So called “Rapid Research Methods” allow us to inform the product design without taking too much time and delaying the sprint rhythm. From the exploration of future scenarios to field research to the testing of products, these methods must be scientifically set up, applied, and above all evaluated to quickly uncover the necessary insights. A prerequisite for this is to focus on the essence of one problem and finding answers to that while categorically leaving all topics aside that currently do not urgently need to be explored. This is the only way to find answers quickly, easily, and effectively. The reason why this way of rapid research is really powerful is because you automatically create a flywheel effect where from one set of answered questions or validated assumptions, others emerge. These newly resulting questions directly become the next topic for the team’s researcher.

For us, this approach, checking claims, getting informed, and making decisions based on data and insights is just as much of a basic requirement for any product team as creating wireframes or prototypes.

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