3 Effective Methods for Socializing UX Research Findings

How to help decision makers benefit from UX Research findings

In a Perfect World

• Stakeholders would lose themselves in fascinating research repositories like Dovetail or EnjoyHQ
• The latest research report would be shared across the company with enthusiasm
• Product concepts would start with research

The actual world

• Stakeholders reference their own experience as the user’s experience
• Teams don’t remember outcomes from research they requested the month before
• Products sometimes start as solutions in search of a problem

What is a UX Researcher to do? Product development teams are moving faster than ever. Reserving the team for an hour-long research presentation feels excessive.

It doesn’t need to be doom and gloom for UX Research results. Researchers just need to meet stakeholders where they are.

Here’s three effective methods for socializing UX Research findings.

Make ’em snappy

• Post ’em in your company’s communication tool (Slack, Google chat, etc.). Keep it short — 280 characters max. Hit the high points.
• Post a 3–10 second audio or video of a participant showing confusion to a specific group of stakeholders. Wait for a response. If they don’t respond after a couple days, ask a question about the confusion.
• Put together a short 1–2 minute video with short 3–10 second clips from multiple interviews. Post to your all-company channel.
• Shorten findings doc content with ‘toggle list’ or other components, so the only information initially visible is the Executive Summary and Recommendations.

Respond to conversations with relevant research insights. Keep research findings communications short. Distill to the length of a tweet, 280 characters.

Circle back and tag

• If you’ve used a collaborative Miro or Figjam board for the debrief, or a specific cross-team file, revisit it after a week or so, tag a member or two and ask a question.

When creating a findings doc for reference (because honestly, no one but you is likely to actually read the findings doc),

• Ask for feedback from the team on the outcomes — just the top section.
• Tag stakeholders and team members in the doc.

Best method: join the conversation

• Join communication channels (e.g., Slack) where product conversations are happening. Be on the lookout for relevant moments and proactively add tidbits you’ve learned over time from UX research, linking to findings docs.
• When someone says “But we don’t really know why…” and you’ve conducted research that offers insights, no matter who it is, say with compassion and empathy: “Actually, we have a pretty good idea as to why…”, take a screenshot of your findings doc, mark it up with circles and arrows, and post it with the link to the doc.

For best results when socializing research findings, be creative. Meet your stakeholders where they are, keep findings and recommendations short, keep it relevant, and make powerful insights directly from customers (e.g., video or audio) easy to access and act on.