how to create a ux research roadmap

How to use Miro to collaboratively create UX research roadmaps

As UX researchers, we take our cues from the product development organization on where we should spend our time. We need access to the big picture. Without that, we risk being brought in too late on projects, unable to influence product and business decisions.

To fill this need, our team at Kira conducted a workshop with product managers and designers to collaboratively create a research roadmap — and we’re sharing our process in this post. With a well-thought-out roadmap, you’ll be able to align your work with the product org’s plan to deliver value to customers.

• Preparing for the workshop

You will need:

• Video conferencing tool (we used Zoom)
• ~45 minutes

We prepared our Miro board in advance, taking inspiration from Dan Wilkinson’s Brand Development & Refinement template in Miroverse and Miro’s 3×3 Prioritization Method template . We designed three activities to identify research needs, determine timelines, and understand the impact of each request. We gave each activity a dedicated area on the Miro board using frames, digital sticky notes, and grids.

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To get buy-in from product managers for a workshop like this, run the idea by them prior to sending out an invite. If you get any resistance, position research as something that will help them make decisions for their work.

Keep in mind that not all workshop attendees will be research experts. Provide a short description of what your team does and the types of research you conduct — for example, Discovery Research, Tactical Research, and Post-launch Research — on the Miro board to serve as a reference point during the workshop.

• Running the workshop

Before you kick off any activities, remind your teammates why you’ve asked them to come together. Clearly and succinctly define the purpose, terms, and definitions that may be used, and most importantly, be clear on what the final output will be: a UX Research roadmap.

Once everyone is on the same page, it’s time to dive in.

Identify roadmap items that need new research (~20 min)

First, ask product managers to list all of the roadmap items they believe require research for the next quarter or year. Encourage them to provide details of what they want to know about that feature.

For example, if a product manager says they would like research on in-app notifications, they may want to know if users wish to receive in-app notifications at all or how often they prefer to receive them. These additional questions can serve as thought starters that provide valuable direction for your research.

Have participants organize their questions by product line, working group, or any way that makes sense to your company. Spend some time talking about why the product managers feel each request or question is important.

Get clear on timelines (~20 min)

Next, you’ll want to get clear on when product managers need research insights for upcoming releases.

At Kira, we asked product managers to fit their research requests into the following timeframes: 2 months or less, 2-3 months, or 3+ months. Since it’s not realistic for every request to be completed in the short term, product managers will start to see the need for prioritization. Discuss with your team which requests could be pushed out a bit.

Prioritize research requests based on expected user impact (~15 min)

This final workshop activity aims to understand the expected impact the features or services you’re researching will have. Before you start, be aware that product managers may get hung up on the term “impact.” Remind them that this is not the impact of the research you and your team will deliver, but rather the expected impact the delivery of features, functionality, or services will have on your users and customers .

Ask them to categorize their questions and requests based on the type of research that’s required (discovery, tactical, or post-launch) and the expected impact (high, medium, or low).

Synthesizing everything into a roadmap

Now that you have all of the information required to develop a UX Research Roadmap, it’s time to gather with your research team to decide what to work on and when.

At Kira, we started by organizing the research requests using two dimensions — relative impact of the feature for users and delivery timeline — in the same way that we helped the product managers organize requests during the workshop. We wanted to make sure high-impact, urgent requests were prioritized by our team.

Assign each request to individual members of your team. When each researcher has an idea of what’s on their plate, have them speak to product managers to get a more detailed understanding of what the research needs are for each of the items listed.

You’ll want to consider a few important questions based on the unique needs of your team:

• What’s a realistic balance of tactical, discovery, and post-launch research that your team can take on?
• How long does it take you to recruit people for research?
• How confident are you that each request is properly labeled with the type of research needed (e.g., do product managers think they need tactical research when they really need discovery research)?

You can create the roadmap itself using the workflow tool that works best for your team.

Sharing and updating the UX research roadmap

Now it’s time to share your roadmap with the larger group. This is a great time to review important definitions (e.g., types of research and terms used in the workshop) and remind everyone how you collaboratively arrived at the final roadmap.

To keep your roadmap updated, check in with product managers on a monthly or quarterly basis to understand if priorities have shifted and if there are new things on their radar.

• Final Thoughts

By asking a set of targeted questions and doing relatively simple activities with our teammates in product management, we gained a more holistic picture of how what we do as researchers will impact product decisions. With this information, we’ve been able to plan more effectively and deliver useful insights that genuinely shape the product.

I would like to thank Heidi Mok, Senior Product Designer at Kira Systems for the facilitation coaching that she provided me over the course of 2020. This workshop was made possible by her thoughtful and patient coaching.

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UX Roadmap: What Is It and How to Create One?

Want to learn how to create a robust UX roadmap for your UX team ?

Look no further as this is exactly what this article covers!

We also discuss the benefits of UX roadmaps, present different types, and share top tips for building them.

Let’s dive in!

• UX roadmap is a strategic plan outlining UX initiatives and guiding the UX design process.
• UX roadmaps help designers align their efforts and ensure that their working towards the same objectives.
• It also helps the UX team keep other stakeholders informed about their goals and initiatives.
• By prioritizing the UX team’s effort to address the most acute user problems, a UX roadmap has a significant impact on improving satisfaction and loyalty .
• Product roadmaps provide a high-level view of all product development motions, including UX ones.
• A field roadmap gives a general overview of all UX efforts across all areas and products.
• A specialty roadmap focuses exclusively on one area, for example, UX design or research , but across multiple products.
• In the ideal world, you should create a UX roadmap along the main product roadmap to avoid accumulating UX debt.
• A successful roadmap should include information on UX vision , strategy, goals, themes, milestones, and a timeline.
• The process of creating a UX roadmap starts with goal-setting (e.g., improving retention). Based on that, you choose success metrics to track, including the UX team’s North Star metric.
• UX research aims to identify specific user pain points . Common research techniques include user behavior analysis, surveys, and interviews.
• Having identified the problems, use a framework like RICE or ICE to prioritize those that will make the biggest impact on user experience when solved.
• Next, plot the UX initiatives on the roadmap using a project management or roadmapping tool like Asana or Roadmunk.
• When ready, share the UX roadmap with relevant stakeholders, including product managers , senior leaders , and the heads of the key departments.
• Regularly review and adjust the roadmap to reflect the changes in user needs and business goals.
• Want to see how Userpilot can help you make informed UX roadmap decisions? Book the demo!

What is a UX roadmap?

A UX roadmap is a strategic plan outlining the projected development of the user experience over time.

It serves as a visual guide that describes what a product or solution will look like from the user’s perspective.

As such, it’s an essential tool for product managers , UX designers , and most teams involved in product development.

It aligns the stakeholders on user experience goals, prioritizes UX initiatives, and provides a clear vision of how the product will evolve to meet user needs and business objectives.

Why are UX roadmaps important to create?

There are several reasons why your SaaS product needs a UX map.

Here’s an overview of the main ones.

Aligns the work of UX designers

One of the primary functions of a UX roadmap is to align the work of UX designers.

By outlining the objectives, priorities, and proposed timelines for various tasks and features, a roadmap ensures that everyone on the UX team is working towards the same goal.

It also aligns the work of individual team members, making sure that every designer contributes towards achieving the same objectives and helping to avoid work duplication.

Increases user loyalty and satisfaction

A well-crafted UX roadmap can significantly enhance user satisfaction and brand loyalty .

That’s because it prioritizes the team’s effort to address the most pressing user pain points and usability issues.

Resolving these problems is a guaranteed way to make the user experience more enjoyable and satisfying.

Improves communication with different departments

UX roadmaps also facilitate communication between different teams involved in product development.

They provide a visual guide that clearly communicates the UX team’s goals and initiatives.

This fosters better understanding and collaboration among stakeholders, including product managers, the development team, and customer support.

What are the different types of UX roadmaps?

There are three primary types of UX roadmaps. The key differences between them are their focus and granularity.

Product roadmap

Product roadmaps provide a high-level overview of product development.

They are normally created and maintained by product managers in collaboration with stakeholders and outline the improvements and features to be built. They also highlight the timeline for the updates and their impact on user experience.

Field roadmap

The field roadmap is the most commonly used roadmap type in UX, usually developed by the UX designer.

Unlike product roadmaps, field roadmaps cover multiple products or areas. As such, they provide a broader and more comprehensive overview of the UX team’s future work and problems to solve.

Field roadmaps can help align and prioritize work across several projects, fostering a unified UX vision and communication with stakeholders.

Specialty roadmap

Specialty roadmaps focus only on one UX area, for example, user research or UX design, and the problems to solve.

This doesn’t mean they’re limited to only one product. On the contrary, they can cover several products or product features as long as they’re focusing on the relevant UX aspect.

Specialty roadmaps help teams align their efforts and share their progress with stakeholders.

When should the UX team create a roadmap?

The short answer is: as early in the development process as possible.

In this way, you ensure that the new functionality that you build offers a good UX right off the bat.

Unfortunately, that’s not how many startup teams work. When you prioritize quick growth to deliver the MVP and beat potential competitors to the market, the UX isn’t always the priority.

Here’s what Andy Shamah, a seasoned product manager, had to say on the subject:

“I don’t think it is possible if you want to go fast and break things, but it is possible to minimize the damage if one of the founders or early employees have a good background in design”

The consequence of that is UX debt that hampers the growth of the product. The product may offer great functionality but it’s difficult to use, so users aren’t able to realize its value and start looking somewhere else.

And the more complex the product, the more difficult it is to fix inefficiencies and usability issues that have accumulated over time.

Elements of a successful UX roadmap

A good UX roadmap should provide information on:

• UX vision , strategy, and goals – to provide a high-level picture of the user experience that you’re aiming to develop.
• Themes – bundles of work to complete in the nearest and more distant future; they should include information on the beneficiary and the need that it satisfies, the business objective it’s driving, and who is responsible for its delivery.
• Timeline – an indicative time frame for delivering on the objectives; could be specific, for example, March 2024 or Q1 2023, or more general, like Now, Next, and Future.
• Milestones – key objectives essential to achieving the strategic goals.

Apart from these, a UX map can also include information on:

• Completed work
• Product areas affected by the UX initiatives
• Subthemes (subgoals that make up the theme, for example, related to a specific user persona)
• Resource allocation
• Confidence estimates
• Requirements

The process for creating a UX roadmap

With the theory out of the way, here’s how you develop a successful roadmap, step-by-step.

1. Develop high-level goals and success metrics

Start building the UX roadmap by defining the high-level goals it will help you achieve.

For example, your goal may be to improve customer retention.

Once you have your goals, pick success metrics to measure progress, starting with the North Star metric.

The North Star metric is the main metric that guides the efforts of the UX team – it shows them the way. In our case, this is the retention rate.

In addition to it, choose other relevant metrics. If you’re trying to improve retention, other important metrics to track include churn rate, MRR, Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), Customer Effort Score (CES), and customer satisfaction (CSAT).

2. Conduct user research to understand their pain points

Having defined your goals, conduct UX research to identify user pain points and areas for improvement .

Common UX research methods include:

• User interviews and focus groups
• Customer surveys
• Product analytics ( funnels , heatmaps , session recordings, etc.)
• Support ticket analysis
• Conversations with customer-facing teams
• Social listening (social media comments, online reviews, etc.)

Next, use the research insights to create user personas and map out their unique user journeys . Define individual touchpoints in the journey and match them with the issues you’ve discovered.

3. Identify and prioritize improvements in the user interface and experience

Now you may have a list of issues that different user segments experience at different stages of the journey.

That’s brilliant! Unfortunately, you may not be able to solve them all – due to limited resources and time.

Start prioritizing the issues to address by eliminating those that aren’t directly aligned with your goals. Don’t delete them completely; just send them to the bottom of the backlog . One day, you may be able to go back to them.

Next, use a prioritization framework to rank the remaining items. Relevant frameworks include:

• Cost of delay
• Value vs Effort
• Important vs. Urgent
• RICE (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort)
• ICE (Impact, Confidence, Ease)

Mind you, we’re using the frameworks to prioritize the issues to solve rather than actual solutions. This allows you to focus on the key problems without restricting your options on how to deal with them.

4. Create a roadmap that outlines the UX team’s future work

With your UX initiatives prioritized, you can start working on the actual roadmap.

To save a lot of time, use a specialist tool for the job.

Project management tools like Asana or Trello offer ready-to-use roadmap templates that are easy to adapt to your team’s needs.

There are also dedicated roadmapping tools like Roadmunk or Productboard that you can use.

5. Share the roadmap with key stakeholders

Most of the project management and roadmapping tools around allow you to seamlessly share the roadmap with key stakeholders.

Before you share it, however, double-check if the person really needs to see it. While roadmaps foster alignment and collaboration, overloading your colleagues with unnecessary information could be counterproductive.

So who should have access to the roadmap?

Apart from the UX design team and senior leadership , include the product manager and the heads of the key departments: development, engineering, marketing , and customer success/support . Let them decide who else needs to see it.

How about the customers?

Not necessarily. However, you could include UX design aspects in the general customer-facing product roadmap if your business has one. This is an effective way to close the feedback loop if your customers have been asking for specific improvements.

6. Continuously improve and update the roadmap to streamline future UX work

A UX roadmap is not a create-it-and-forget-it document. Instead, it’s a dynamic tool that you need to update and improve continuously.

Regular reviews of the roadmap are crucial to ensure its alignment with the overarching business strategy and product development. For example, you may need to amend it to reflect new user insights or product features.

Another aspect to consider when reviewing the roadmap is feedback from stakeholders. The UX team members and colleagues from other functions can provide you with ideas on how to refine and adjust the roadmap.

Tips for creating successful UX roadmaps

Let’s wrap up with a few top tips for developing outstanding UX roadmaps.

• Organize your roadmap around user outcomes , not features : Features are only means to an end. There could be better ways to achieve your objectives but once you commit to a feature, you won’t be able to change course.
• Align the roadmap with business objectives : I get it! You are super-passionate about designing the best UX imaginable – for customer delight and a sense of achievement. However, you’re not likely to secure leadership buy-in if the UX initiatives don’t drive specific business goals.
• Make the roadmap easy to adapt and adjust : As mentioned, user or business needs can shift in no time, so you need to be able to amend your roadmap easily to keep up.
• Use research to inform the UX roadmap : By creating a data-driven UX roadmap you ensure that the UX initiatives make a real impact on users. Data is also essential to make a business case for your ideas.
• Involve all stakeholders in the roadmap creation process : Including all relevant stakeholders in the UX roadmap creation process helps avoid roadblocks down the line, ensures the roadmap aligns with overall business goals, and fosters a sense of shared ownership and commitment to the UX vision.

A UX roadmap is an essential document guiding the work of the UX teams and ensuring that their efforts are aligned with high-level organizational objectives and customer needs.

If you want to find out how Userpilot can help you make informed UX roadmap decisions, book the demo!

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Crafting a strategic UX roadmap: Key components and best practices

What is a UX roadmap?

When it comes to enhancing the user experience (UX) of a product or service, having a well-defined plan is crucial. This is where the concept of a UX roadmap comes into play. Think of a roadmap as a comprehensive blueprint that outlines the necessary improvements and priorities that need to be addressed. In a nutshell, a UX roadmap serves as a bible of the vision of what kind of experience your company wants to deliver to the users.

A more formal definition would be the following from Nielsen Norman : “A UX roadmap is a strategic, living artifact that aligns, prioritizes, and communicates a UX team’s future work and problems to solve. A UX roadmap should act as a single source of truth representing your UX team’s North Star. It helps your designers, researchers, developers, and stakeholders align around a single vision and set of priorities.”

In other words, a UX roadmap is a bible of a company’s vision of user experience. That’s why we’ll cover it today. But first, let’s go over its significance in company strategy.

Why is a UX roadmap important?

Gathering intel for a roadmap, creating themes with nn group’s advice, prioritization with the moscow method.

• Incorporating KPIs and evolving your roadmap for the next iteration

Resources for each step of developing a UX roadmap

The success of a project means bringing together different people, with different objectives, to design something.

The founders of a startup, the designers, and the developers don’t have the same objectives, and it would be naive to think otherwise. The founder will want a product that breaks into the market, that sells well. The designer will want innovative, user-centered design, and the developer will want code that is both easy to manage and robust in the face of change. Compromises often have to be made between optimal design, the difficulty of coding it, and the need to release new features quickly.

The UX roadmap will serve to ensure that the company’s vision, which topples that of individuals, is clearly understood and taken into account by all players. This vision needs to be defined and shared by all stakeholders, from designers to developers. Regrouping ideas, methodologies, and histories of UX evolution enables the evangelization of UX design within companies. Using a UX roadmap means maximizing both business and user experience.

Establishing goals

Why is a roadmap essential from a business perspective? Creating a roadmap serves as a foundational step in setting clear objectives. Whether applied to individual projects or defining the overarching company’s philosophy, a roadmap empowers team leaders to articulate their vision for the final product in alignment with the roadmap’s definition.

Similar to a persona, a roadmap acts as a constraining tool, channeling and stimulating creativity. With a well-defined goal, the question shifts to “How do we achieve it?” This paves the way for identifying intermediary objectives between the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and the ideal product. These intermediate steps serve as iterative phases within an agile cycle, ensuring regular updates to the product.

Rationalizing costs

For the business-oriented stakeholders, the roadmap will serve to rationalize costs.

Determining both final and intermediate goals plays a crucial role in setting project boundaries, be it in terms of time or budget.

The UX roadmap stands as an invaluable tool for managers. Since the company defines a clear vision of the user experience it aims to provide, decision-making becomes more straightforward. When a suggestion arises during stakeholder meetings, we immediately know if it aligns with the roadmap and how to make this idea real based on the UX philosophy promoted. This initial design phase brings everyone on the same page, streamlines costs, and, most importantly, prioritizes actions for an optimal outcome. Users experience increased satisfaction as they witness tangible improvements in the product’s evolution. This, in turn, leads to user loyalty and consequently enhances credibility, reputation, and market influence.

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Retaining customers

The second advantage lies in customer retention. Having a UX roadmap is akin to having a signature style in the world of design. If a superior UX is consistently found across all the brand’s products, it can foster customer loyalty, akin to Apple’s pursuit of minimalism and optimized interactions. Having a signature kind of design is also great for marketing communication. It’s easier to promote products if a brand feels a certain way about its design.

A UX roadmap is, from the business perspective, a magnificent tool that ensures sales, quality of product, user satisfaction, credibility, and the company’s reputation through the efficient use of UX design. By having a clear path and vision, and ensuring user satisfaction, UX design can express its potential in product design.

Once stakeholders define the strategy and objectives, it’s crucial to gather a lot of information that the roadmap can leverage, both from a marketing standpoint (benchmarking, market analysis, etc.) and a user perspective.

At this point, the UX roadmap forces the company to do user research . Conducting thorough research, crafting user profiles, creating personas, and delving into sociological and cultural aspects to understand user expectations and needs are all integral.

The primary advantage of the UX roadmap lies in compelling companies to invest time and resources in user research, a phase that is often overlooked. The User-Centered Design (UCD) process limits ambiguities, facilitates clear decision-making, and ensures that UX research is a priority, guaranteeing effective engagement with the right audience.

To collect data the main techniques are

• User personas: Crafting user personas involves creating detailed, fictional representations of different user types. These personas encapsulate users’ characteristics, goals, pain points, and behaviors.
• User journey maps : User journey mapping is a powerful technique that visualizes the user’s interactions with a product or service across various touchpoints. Incorporating user journey maps into the roadmap ensures that the user’s entire interaction with the product is considered, resulting in a more cohesive and user-centric design
• Usability testing : Usability testing involves observing real users as they interact with a product prototype or the existing system. Integrating usability testing into the UX roadmap ensures that the product is continually refined based on real-world user experiences, leading to a more user-friendly and effective solution

In summary, a UX roadmap enhances the user experience because it provides a clear, shared direction and vision for the design and development team. It ensures alignment and directs efforts towards common goals, effectively prioritizing tasks and resources to implement the most impactful improvements first.

Creating themes with NN group’s advice

Defining themes is the step that will enable us to start working concretely. Up to this point, the roadmap is a combination of the stakeholder’s vision of the products they want to deliver, mixed with data collected through UX research. The themes will represent concrete problems on which to work to achieve the set objectives.

The NN group suggests proceeding as follows: first, create a backlog of loose problems derived from the UX research and all the insights that may have been found. Then group the user problems into groups. An issue never comes alone, but this also means that the same solution can address several problems at once.

Once these problem groups have been created, you need to name them to create a theme. Finally, create a sheet for each theme, defining the name of the group, all the problems in the group, who will benefit from them, what the benefits are in responding to them, and what the added value is for the business.

This step is time-consuming but essential for prioritizing actions.

This stage will compare user needs with business objectives to decide which elements are most important for user-centered design, the experience offered, and ROI.

To prioritize user needs, goals, and improvements, you can use the MoSCoW method . MoSCoW stands for Must-Have, Should-Have, Could-Have, and Won’t-Have. This method helps in categorizing and prioritizing requirements by their importance.

Must-have requirements are essential and must be included in the project. Should-Have requirements are important but not critical and can be deferred if necessary. Could-Have requirements are desirable but not necessary for the current release or iteration. Won’t-Have requirements are those that will not be included in the current project. By using the MoSCoW method, you can effectively prioritize user needs and make informed decisions about resource allocation and planning for UX enhancements.

To give an example, a self-driving car must have a secure IA able to drive, should have high-quality seats and equipment to be seen as a luxury product, and could have an innovative shape to mark a difference from traditional cars. It won’t have (today at least) an option to transform the car into a living room when driving by itself.

Make it evolve

A UX roadmap is a versatile tool that adapts to various contexts and audiences. UX designers use it to explain goals and philosophy of the company to anyone interested.

To do it, define the primary and secondary users of this roadmap, as this greatly influences its presentation and format. When presenting to an internal team of developers involved in crafting the roadmap, a simple Excel spreadsheet with pertinent data might suffice.

However, when it comes to external stakeholders such as investors, crafting the right visual representation becomes important. This might entail transforming the roadmap into an eye-catching poster, an engaging video presentation, or any other artifact that effectively conveys the company’s vision for its products and its step-by-step strategy for conquering new horizons.

Writing the last upgrade of the roadmap is also a must, whatever form it takes. At the culmination of a project, reflection and adaptation are essential. A UX roadmap is not a static artifact to be created and then left to gather dust. Much like any UX artifact, it must evolve continually to become the best version of itself.

This evolution involves learning from past experiences, adjusting strategies based on real-world outcomes, and identifying new opportunities for enhancing user satisfaction. By embracing change and iteration, the UX roadmap transforms into a living document, steering the company towards perpetual improvement in its user-centric approach.

Finally, to decide when and why the roadmap evolves, the decision must be back by the actual date.

An often overlooked aspect in the earlier discourse is the incorporation of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) during roadmap definition. These KPIs serve as the compass by which we navigate the roadmap’s effectiveness. Are the anticipated issues being resolved within the projected timeframes? Are resources being optimally allocated, and are users perceiving and embracing the introduced changes? These questions guide the ongoing evolution of the roadmap, ensuring it remains a dynamic and responsive blueprint for delivering exceptional user experiences.

As was stated, a UX roadmap can take multiple forms. One way to make one could be the following:

Define the central philosophy of your brand

Apple’s philosophy would be minimalism before everything. Every product tries to limit the interactions needed to get outputs. Window’s philosophy would be “suited for beginner to expert,” every product can be used by absolute beginners, but hardcore functionalities are always usable if you know how to use them.

Define what you want your product to be associated with: accessibility, smoothness, maximalism, etc.

What is the current state, and what should be the product in the future? To establish goals, you can use the card made by NNgroup. This card should be used for every product that must match the company’s philosophy. A Figma file by Ehsan Tahmasebian reproduces this template:

Set up a UX research workshop and do anything that can help. The must-have would be personae and user journey maps. If benchmarking, user testing, and focus groups are doable, do these too.

Persona are detailed sheets about fictional characters that have all the characteristics of your ideal end user. Figma has a great free-to-use persona template , and learning in detail how to create a good persona takes six minutes :

To learn extensively about experience maps, mapping how users live in a typical day and how they interact with the different screens of an application, Tanzir Rahman writes a detailed experience map guide . Free templates for experience maps are available on Figma here .

Again, the NN Group provides a good theme template to use in their instructional video. By regrouping issues encountered by your user, it will be easier to come up with great solutions that can tackle multiple problems at once.

Decide which themes are more important than the others, and decide which problem will bring the most satisfaction to your end user. The MoSCoW technique is a good starting point: define what your next iteration must have, should have, could have, and won’t have. Based on that vision, it will be easier to plan your next move.

Incorporating KPIs and evolving your roadmap evolve for the next iteration

Find measurable variables to evaluate before and after working on your project and see how it can be improved for the next time. Classic key performance indicators in UX would be conversion rate for a landing page, user satisfaction measured through surveys, or efficiency observed during user testing.

These general KPIs can be used to evaluate the performance of a UX roadmap, but it should be analyzed as a product on its own with the UX team as end users. The goal of the UX roadmap is to simplify, accelerate, and improve the work of UX designers. More suitable KPIs for this kind of product would be:

• Collaboration effectiveness: Measuring if the UX roadmap effectively helps to align every stakeholder’s view on a clear vision. To do this, use a survey to ask if the team members find themselves to be efficient, combined with a count of how many meetings are needed in a sprint. It’s also the occasion to finally know how many meetings could have been an email.
• Project completion time: Investing in a UX roadmap should reduce cost of time and make teams more effective. Effectiveness and efficiency can both be measured easily, but which one should be used as a KPI depends on the company’s goal. Efficiency is measured by looking at how many tasks are tackled by the team during a sprint; the quicker, the better. Effectiveness is measured by looking at the quality of the solutions the team brings; the more complex and documented, the more effective.
• Design velocity: Tracking the time it takes to go from ideation to implementation and the number of iterations needed to reach the end goal fixed by the UX roadmap.
• Resource allocation: Monitoring the human and technical resources needed to complete a project is a way to limit the cost of a project. The roadmap should help the UX team to self organize with an end goal in mind, distributing the workload more efficiently.

UX roadmap KPIs can be diverse and should help measure if a UX team and a company has become more efficient.

In conclusion, a UX roadmap is more than a mere timeline; it’s a dynamic instrument with the power to guide, communicate, and evolve the user experience strategy. Its adaptability in different contexts, measurement through KPIs, and role as a catalyst for continuous improvement make it an indispensable asset in delivering outstanding user experiences and ensuring long-term success.

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How To Do A UX Research Project (A 5-Point Roadmap)

Research is an excellent way to understand more about users’ interactions with a product. While research can be highly formalized or guerrilla-style, following some core principles will help you get the information you need on any project.

In my previous career I was a librarian, which means I spent most of my time helping people plan and do research with secondary sources. Now in UX design, I apply the same approach to planning and conducting primary research directly with users . If you’re just starting out in UX research, I really recommend checking out this set of seven introductory UX research tutorials , as well as the following two guides for beginners.

• What is user research, and what’s its purpose?
• How to conduct user experience research like a professional?

This article gives you five principles you can use to structure and conduct any research project, regardless of how formal or quick-and-dirty it is.

• Figure out what you’re doing and why
• Look into it in the right way
• Hone your plan of attack
• Results first, then interpretation
• Update what you know, and what you don’t

Let’s get started!

1. Figure Out What You’re Doing And Why

Don’t just do research, do research into something . This might sound obvious, but before you start, you need to be clear on the research question(s) you want to answer. A research question is the unanswered question that’s driving you to do research in the first place. It’s not the questions you ask research participants on a survey or in an interview, though those should all help you gather information that answers the larger research question. Depending on what stage of your project you’re in, your research question might be really general or very specific.

So how do you write a strong research question? Good question. Research typically seeks to understand a problem, either something people struggle with in life or a difficulty they experience when using your product. So start by defining the problem you want to explore. Then ask questions about the problem—maybe why it exists, how users feel about it, or how widespread it is. Any of these might be good research questions to guide your project.

2. Look Into It The Right Way

Once you figure out what questions you want to explore, you can think about how you’ll find your answers. It’s important to choose a research method that will get the right kind of data to answer your research question. Using the wrong research method is like bringing cotton candy to a gunfight, which sounds delicious but unwise.

A great starting point is deciding whether you need qualitative or quantitative data. Qualitative methods, like research and observation, are great for exploratory research early on, when you want to understand the basic problem. They’re open-ended and help you gather a wide range of information, so they tend to be great for answering questions like why the problem exists or what it looks like. Quantitative methods, like surveys and analytics, are close-ended and specific. They’re really good for answering questions of scale, like how common a problem is or how large its effects are.

Another thing to think about is whether you’re trying to understand users’ behavior or their attitudes and preferences. If you’ve ever watched a cop show and thought “I have no idea where I was on the night of April 9!” you know that self-reporting your behavior is tricky. As a general rule, it’s better to observe behavior and ask about preferences. For more on choosing the most appropriate approach, check out the video below in which Korina, our Student Team Lead, talks you through some of the most common research methods .

3. Hone Your Plan Of Attack

Once you’ve chosen a method, you need to create your research documents that’ll guide you and your participants through the research activities. Research activities should be as brief and as focused as possible while still gathering the information you need. The content of your script, survey, or instructions should all lead back to your research question. If you find yourself asking about unrelated things, you might want to move these questions to a separate list of things to explore in future research.

To make sure your documents are setting you up for success, pilot your methods with a few preliminary people prior to your official research. Run a couple interviews to see if your questions make sense. Send out your survey to a small sample to make sure people don’t give up before they finish. Run a sample usability test to make sure there’s no confusion about the instructions. However you do it, these early trials will help you validate that your research procedure does what it’s supposed to do, which is crucial for trusting your results.

4. Results First, Then Interpretation

If you’ve ever read an academic research paper, you’ve likely noticed that there’s always a Results section, followed by a Discussion section. This is one idea that’s really easy to overlook, but it’s so important to understanding your research findings. Just as it’s essential to keep bias out of the research procedure, it’s crucial to keep bias out of research reporting. Your initial research report should present users’ behaviors, comments, and concerns as objectively as possible. Not only will this help you avoid bias in your conclusions, but it’ll invite other people on your team (or you in the future) to notice different things and draw new conclusions. Audio or video recording your research sessions (with consent, of course) is a great way to capture this data for later review.

Once you’ve organized your results, it’s time to interpret them. You’ve probably seen UX-themed pictures of people standing in front of a colorful wall of Post-Its looking overly pensive. The pensive looks are usually followed by grouping related findings into categories to create an Affinity Map . It’s a great way to make connections between user responses or observed behavior. You might also use spreadsheets, charts, or visualizations to identify patterns in your data. This step of organizing and interpreting your research is an important bridge between your raw research data and the steps you take afterwards.

5. Update What You Know, And What You Don’t

Now that you’ve gathered your main insights, update your understanding of the original problem that prompted your research question. Artifacts like user personas , user stories, and journey maps can help you capture your users’ challenges, while task flows, paper sketches, and wireframes are a great way to design solutions. If you already have these artifacts, update them to reflect your latest findings.

As important as stating what you know is stating what you still need to learn. Can you confidently answer your original research question? Did your research raise any new questions? Whether you’re ready to tackle the next research question immediately or you need to table it for the future, identifying what’s left to explore is an important part of wrapping up any research project.

If you’d like to learn more about UX research, check out these guides:

• How to conduct inclusive UX research
• Beginner’s guide to qualitative UX research
• Introduction to quantitative UX research

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How to Create a UX Roadmap? Definition & Templates

TABLE OF CONTENTS

First things first, a UX roadmap is essentially a comprehensive blueprint of your business that paints the picture of your product journey. It serves as a compass leading the business through the nuances of product development. In this article, we will discover the impact of the UX roadmap in shaping the success of your product.  

Key Takeaways

🔥 UX roadmap is essentially a comprehensive blueprint of your business that paints the picture of your product journey

🤩 There are 3 types of UX roadmaps: product roadmaps, field roadmaps, and specialty roadmaps

💡 UX roadmaps ensure that design decisions align with the business goals and meet user needs

What is a UX roadmap? 

A UX roadmap is a strategic plan which maps out the direction as well as the milestones that a product needs to hit throughout a period of time. It serves as a guide for all the stakeholders involved in the user experience of the product as it lays out the steps that need to be carried out to achieve product success.

The UX roadmap is used to align business goals with user needs while improving processes, enhancing collaboration between teams, and providing a clear roadmap for the success of the product. 

Why are UX roadmaps beneficial?

A UX roadmap is a guiding framework that steers product development, ultimately leading it to success. UX roadmaps help with the overall strategic alignment of business objectives and user needs. They offer several critical advantages for businesses and product teams alike as they facilitate a more efficient and effective approach to product improvement.

Here are some of the key benefits that a UX roadmap has to offer:

• Strategic UX vision: A UX roadmap offers a clear, shared strategic vision for the development of the product and the enhancement of the user experience, ensuring that the business goals align with the design decisions.
• Stakeholder alignment: They foster collaboration among the different teams and stakeholders that are involved in the product development ensuring that there is a shared vision and understanding of the product. 
• Efficient resource allocation : With UX roadmaps serving a well-defined plan, businesses can ensure that the resources are being allocated in an efficient way, optimizing the development of the product. 
• Risk mitigation: A UX roadmap can greatly help you mitigate risks by helping you identify and battle issues early in the product development process . It also serves as a compass ensuring that design decisions are always in line with business goals and user needs. 
• Improved decision-making: Having a clear UX roadmap leads to a shared understanding of the product goals and milestones leading to more informed decisions when it comes to product design and feature addition. 
• Enhanced agility : A well-crafted roadmap can help you respond quickly to market dynamics and it allows cross-functional teams to change their priorities and quickly adapt to the ever-changing needs of the market. 
• Clear milestones: UX roadmaps provide a clear understanding of the important milestones that the different teams need to achieve to reach product success., leading to enhanced accountability. 

When should you create a UX roadmap?

Crafting a UX roadmap is a critical step in the development process of a product. To ensure ultimate effectiveness the UX roadmaps should be built at specific stages of the product life cycle. However, you need to remember that the UX roadmap is not a static documen t, on the contrary, it changes and evolves as the project progresses. 

In an ideal world, the UX Roadmap should be crafted at the very beginning of the product development cycle. By doing so, you can ensure that you have a clear direction for product development and that there is a shared understanding of the most important milestones avoiding ad-hoc decisions. This way, the UX roadmap can act as a guide for designers to ensure that the design goals are already set in place. 

Moreover, UX roadmaps should be created or updated annually or if a change in leadership occurs. For organizations that follow an agile development process , the UX roadmap can be a part of the agile planning meetings. In this way, the business can ensure that everything is on track and that the decisions are integrated in the sprints. When iterations, changes, or enhancements are planned, a UX roadmap can be beneficial in getting those done. 

The 3 types of UX roadmaps

These are 3 main types of UX roadmaps depending on the area of initiatives that they cover. 

Having these different types of roadmaps helps the alignment of the different teams operating within the product. It sets out clear responsibilities as well as ensures a shared understanding and vision across the board and within specialized areas. 

1. Product Roadmap

Product roadmaps provide a rounded view of the products’ life cycle making sure that the strategic goals of the business are in alignment with the market’s demand. The product roadmap is a blueprint for all future initiatives related to product development and spans across different fields for instance design, marketing, operations, etc.

This is shared with all the different stakeholders within the project to ensure a shared understanding of the product’s vision. 

2. Field Roadmap

Field roadmaps are roadmaps that focus on the initiatives within a specific field , for example – UX. In this case, the UX field roadmap will include all the initiatives related to UX including design research and UX copy but it will exclude anything that is not related to UX, such as for instance marketing or development.

This type of roadmap is only shared with the stakeholders of this particular team and acts as a compass for their priorities and direction. 

3. Specialty Roadmap

Specialty roadmaps are essentially a subset of the field roadmaps . This type of roadmap laser focuses on a particular field. For instance, user research is a subset of UX design so a specialty roadmap for UX research would include initiatives within that area exclusively. This roadmap will only be shared with stakeholders of this particular area. 

How to create a UX roadmap?

There are different considerations that you need to make when crafting a successful UX roadmap. When adhering to those golden rules you can create a well-crafted UX roadmap that will drive the success of your product. 

• Prioritize user research: User research should be at the epicenter of your UX roadmap. Make sure to incorporate UX research to make informed UX roadmap decisions based on user needs and wants.  You can use an array of methodologies to do that including but not limited to user interviews, usability tests , surveys etc.
• Use high-level initiatives: Instead of listing features try to organize those around problems or value-added initiatives, build your UX roadmap using high-level initiatives that are in alignment with the broader vision and goals of the business.
• Be vision-oriented: Make sure to communicate in a clear way the strategic vision of the user experience. This will be the high-level outlook that will guide the different stakeholders within the UX team to help achieve the desired outcomes.
• Create themes: Don’t forget to organize your initiatives around themes that solve a particular problem or add value to the user. Each of the themes should have a clear purpose.
• Have Measurable Goals: Make sure to have clearly defined goals so that you can assess at any given time the impact of your UX initiatives.
• Be communicative: Creating a UX roadmap is all about clear communication! Make sure to use visuals and storytelling to ensure a shared understanding of the UX journey among the stakeholders.
• Leave room for iteration: UX roadmaps should not be rigid, They should be easily adaptable and they should be iterated based on the ever-changing needs of the product and the market dynamics.

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What are the essential components of a UX roadmap?

A well-crafted UX roadmap should communicate in a clear manner the UX vision, the strategic goals, and the overall direction of the product within a certain time frame.

When crafting your UX roadmap make sure you have the bellow essential components in mind:

UX Vision: The UX vision is a bird’s eye view of the experience that you aspire to give to your users. It serves as the north star for your product and it provides a sense of direction for the whole UX roadmap, hence why it’s one of the most critical components of a successful UX roadmap. 

UX Strategy: Cascading down from your UX vision, another important component of your UX roadmap is the strategic goals that will translate the vision into actionable, tangible goals. These goals will also serve as key performance indicators for the key results that you will achieve over a certain period of time. Very important at this stage is to make sure that those goals are in line with the greater business objectives. 

UX Themes: Another equally important component of a well-crafted UX roadmap are the themes. The themes represent the future initiatives that are grouped around tackling a particular problem or a particular product goal. Each of these themes should be clearly defined serving a clear purpose with clear outcomes. The themes should also be linked and serve the strategic goals and vision discussed earlier on. 

Time Frames: Time frames or time horizons are another quintessential part of your UX product roadmap. With these, you will be able to define the work that is currently in progress, the work that has been prioritized to be completed in the immediate future as well as the work that will be in the pipeline in the future. It is important to note here that while the time frames can help the project stay on track, those should not be rigid so it is better to avoid specific dates. 

Markers: Last but not least, markers are another critical component of any UX roadmap as it allows us to track progress and provide visibility to the stakeholders at any given time. By looking at the UX roadmaps, stakeholders should be able to see all the actions that have been completed but also the ones pending and the ones that have not started yet! 

UX roadmap template

Here are some industry-approved UX roadmap templates that you can use:

1. Figma’s community provides a simple-to-follow template on how to craft a successful UX roadmap. This template is free and you can use it by simply making a copy and adding it to your own project in Figma. 

2. Miro’s template is another great resource to get started on your first UX roadmap. This template gets extra points for being comprehensive. Again simply make a copy of the board to use it! 

3. Mural has put together a highly detailed and easy-to-use UX roadmap template.

This template goes the extra mile with step-by-step instructions on how to use it. 

Conclusion 

To sum up, crafting a successful UX roadmap is a critical part of getting to product success in today’s ever-changing market. When prioritizing user research and a vision-oriented approach to products you can ensure alignment of market and user needs while making sure that resources are allocated in an efficient way.

By focusing on high-level value-adding initiatives and not on specific features, your UX roadmap can be the compass for a clear strategic direction for your product growth while remaining agile.

Are you ready to embark on your journey to create an impactful UX roadmap?

UXtweak ’s all-in-one platform can help you hit the ground running 👇

FAQ: UX Roadmap

A UX roadmap is a strategic blueprint outlining the milestones and initiatives that need to be taken in order to enhance the user experience of a digital product in a set time frame. It is used to create a shared understanding of the activities with the UX team, ensuring that these are in line with business goals.

To craft a successful UX roadmap make sure to understand the strategic vision of the business and the user needs. Simply map the product journey and set achievable milestones .

The three types of UX roadmap are the product roadmap , which provides a rounded view of the product’s lifecycle, field roadmaps which focus on the initiatives within a specific field for example UX, and specialty roadmaps which are a subset of the field roadmaps.

Elena is a T-shaped UX Researcher with a varied cross-industry marketing background. She holds a BA in English as SLA, a Master of Science in Management and a professional UX Design Diploma. She leverages her marketing background to bridge the gap between users and products, ensuring digital products meet user needs while hitting business goals. Her career highlights include helping Talanta, an educational start-up to scale into a global remote-first edtech SaaS business and becoming a guest lecturer at the University of Brighton International College.

UXtweak is buzzing with expert UX research, making thousands of products more user friendly every day

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• Session Recording
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How to Create an Effective UX Research Roadmap in 2024

A UX research roadmap can make or break your project. It’s a key artifact that organizes and prioritizes all your research activities , so any inconsistencies or inaccuracies can lead to delays, unnecessary spending, and poor product decisions. 

In this blog post, we will demystify the process of creating an effective UX research roadmap. We'll show you how to set clear objectives, choose the right research methods , develop a timeline, and design meaningful deliverables so that you can start your user research project with confidence. 

What is a UX research roadmap?

A user experience (UX) research roadmap is a strategic artifact that outlines the plan for user research over a certain period. It's an essential tool for UX researchers and design teams to align their activities with the overall business goals.

A typical UX research roadmap includes the research objectives (what you're aiming to understand or uncover), research methods (how you'll conduct the research), key milestones and timelines, stakeholders involved, and the expected deliverables. 

While a UX research roadmap should be comprehensive and well-planned, it also needs to be flexible to accommodate changes or new findings that might emerge during the research process.

How to create a UX research roadmap 

Each UX research roadmap is different. However, there are certain elements that each of them should contain. 

Research objectives

User research objectives are the specific goals or questions that you aim to answer through your user research activities.

They should be:

• specific: clearly defined so that everyone understands what the research will focus on;
• measurable: they should be easy to measure so that you can gauge whether the objective has been met;
• actionable: the results should lead to insights that can inform design decisions.

 Here are a few examples of user research objectives:

• understand user behavior and discover how they interact with your product or service;
• identify user needs and preferences to determine what they expect from your product;
• evaluate usability and identify any areas for improvement;
• explore user motivations and pain points to understand why they behave the way they do and what problems they face;
• test specific features or changes and gather feedback;
• benchmark your performance against your competitors or previous versions.

Whichever objectives you pick, make sure they’re understandable to the stakeholders and they align with your business goals . 

Research methods

The research methods and tools you pick will largely depend on your research objectives, the available resources, and the stage of the product development process. You might want to try a combination of methods to get a well-rounded understanding of your users.

Here are some commonly used user research methods.

• surveys/questionnaires
• card sorting 
• user journeys and experience mapping
• usability testing
• field studies
• ethnographic research
• contextual inquiry
• focus groups
• diary studies 

Surveys provide quantitative data that can be easily analyzed to identify patterns, trends, or correlations among user responses. Net Promoter Score is one of the most widely used satisfaction surveys, and it’s not limited to user research:

Stakeholders

These are the people who have a vested interest in the research outcomes, and they could include:

• product managers
• developers and engineers
• marketing teams
• sales teams
• senior management and executives

Creating a timeline is a crucial aspect of planning your user research. It will help you make sure you complete all the tasks you need on time and that your findings are delivered when they can be most useful for decision-making. 

When drafting a timeline, take into account your research objectives, tools and methods, and the resources available to you. 

Map out individual tasks by breaking each research activity into smaller pieces so that you can estimate the time you’ll need to complete them. 

You can then sequence the tasks and determine the order in which they need to be performed. 

Don’t forget to allocate some time for analyzing and reporting the findings of your research in your estimate. And, finally, build in some buffer time to handle any unforeseen circumstances.

Deliverables

User research deliverables are the tangible outcomes of your research process. They can include

• research reports  
• journey maps
• user personas
• usability test reports
• affinity diagrams
• wireframes and prototypes

The deliverables serve as records of the insights you gained during the research and can be used to inform and guide design decisions. 

You’d typically share them with various stakeholders, including product managers, designers, developers, copywriters, and company executives.

The benefits of creating a UX research roadmap

Crafting a UX research roadmap is a strategic decision that can bring substantial benefits to your project, from helping you use your resources effectively to fostering closer inter-team collaboration. 

Clear direction and focus 

A UX research roadmap provides a clear direction for all your research activities . 

It outlines your research objectives, the methods you will use to achieve those objectives, the timeline for your research, and the deliverables you will produce. 

This clarity helps to keep your research aligned with your business and product goals as well as ensures that everyone involved is on the same page. 

Efficient use of resources

A roadmap allows you to plan your research activities in advance , which can lead to more efficient use of resources. 

By outlining your research methods and timeline, you can anticipate what resources you will need at different stages of your research, such as personnel, time, and budget. As a result, you will avoid last-minute scrambles for resources, reduce waste, and ensure that your research goes smoothly. 

Stakeholder buy-in

A UX research roadmap can help you communicate the value of your research to stakeholders, leading to better buy-in. 

By clearly articulating your research objectives, how they align with business or product goals, and how your research will achieve those objectives, you can demonstrate the value of your research and make a stronger case for its importance. 

This can help you secure the necessary resources for your research and ensure that your findings are taken into account in decision-making.

Prioritization and planning

When you map out your research objectives and methods over time, you can prioritize research activities based on their relevance and importance to your business or product goals. 

As a result, this will ensure that you carry out critical research at the right time and within the agreed timelines without overlooking any smaller tasks in the process. 

Knowledge sharing

One of the great benefits of a UX roadmap is that it can help you get all stakeholders, from designers to executives, on the same page. It also helps maintain a user-centered focus and improves collaboration. 

Accountability and tracking progress

With a roadmap, you can track progress against your planned research activities. It allows for accountability, as you can clearly see what has been accomplished and what remains to be done. This can be useful for managing your research team, reporting to stakeholders, and ensuring that your research stays on track.

Collect insights across the entire user journey with Survicate 

Creating a robust UX research roadmap is an essential step towards driving impactful, user-centered design decisions.

Within your roadmap, surveys can play a significant role in gathering valuable user insights.

And, with tools such as Survicate, you can you can automate the data gathering process to give yourself more time to focus on strategic analysis and delivering an outstanding user experience.

To get started with your first survey, simply sign up for free , choose from among dozens of ready-made templates (or create your own from scratch) and watch user feedback roll in. 🚀

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UX Roadmaps

How to Create a UX Roadmap: A Comprehensive Guide by WANDR

Unleash the Power of UX Roadmaps! Discover a step-by-step approach to user research, design, & development.

Creating a UX roadmap is a crucial step in developing a successful product. It helps teams to align their goals and objectives, prioritize work, and track progress against their objectives. However, creating a UX roadmap can be a daunting task, especially if you're new to the process. That's why we've put together this guide to help you create a UX roadmap and everything you need to know to get started.

In this article, we'll take you through the step-by-step process of creating a UX roadmap, from defining your goals and objectives to prioritizing your work and tracking progress. We'll also provide you with some tips and best practices to help you create a roadmap that is both effective and achievable. By the end of this guide, you'll have a clear understanding of what a UX roadmap is, why it's important, and how to create one for your project. So, let's get started!

Here are some key takeaways that you'll learn in this article:

• The definition and importance of a UX roadmap
• The step-by-step process of creating a UX roadmap
• Best practices for creating an effective UX roadmap
• How to prioritize your work and track progress against your objectives
• Examples of successful UX roadmaps
• Links to resources and tools to help you create your own UX roadmap.

Step 1: Define Your Goals and Objectives

At the very beginning of creating a UX roadmap, it is crucial to define the goals and objectives of the project. This step sets the foundation for the entire process, and it is essential to get it right. Here are some key points to keep in mind when defining your goals and objectives:

• Planning: Take the time to plan out your approach to defining goals and objectives. This includes identifying the key stakeholders involved, determining the scope of the project, and setting a timeline for completion.
• Goals: Your goals should be specific, measurable, and realistic. They should also be aligned with your overall product strategy and the needs of your target audience. For example, if you're creating a UX roadmap for an e-commerce website, your goals might include increasing conversion rates, reducing bounce rates, or improving the overall user experience.
• Strategy: Your goals should be part of a larger strategic vision for your product. This means considering how your UX roadmap fits into your overall product roadmap, as well as how it aligns with your company's mission and values.
• Team: Make sure that everyone on your team is on the same page when it comes to your goals and objectives. This includes UX designers, developers, product managers, and other stakeholders.
• Time: Set a realistic timeline for completing your UX roadmap. This will help you stay on track and ensure that you're able to meet your goals and objectives within the allotted timeframe.
• Stakeholders: Involve key stakeholders in the process of defining your goals and objectives. This includes both internal stakeholders (such as team members and executives) and external stakeholders (such as customers and partners).
• Product Roadmap: Your UX roadmap should be part of a larger product roadmap that includes high-level goals, initiatives, and milestones. This will help ensure that your UX work is aligned with the overall product strategy.
• Themes: Group related problems and objectives into themes to help prioritize your work. For example, if you're working on an e-commerce website, you might group related objectives into themes such as "product discovery," "checkout flow," and "customer support."
• Roadmaps: Create a strategic document that communicates your UX roadmap to the rest of the organization. This should include information such as the time horizon, priorities, and benefits of the roadmap.

In conclusion, defining your goals and objectives is a critical first step in creating an effective UX roadmap. By taking the time to plan, involve stakeholders, and align your work with the larger product strategy, you can ensure that your UX team prioritizes the right work and sets the stage for successful execution.

Step 2: Conduct User Research

As we move further into the UX roadmap creation process, we come to one of the most crucial steps: conducting user research. User research is the backbone of any successful UX design project. It helps us understand our users' needs, behaviors, and pain points, which in turn, allows us to create better products that meet their needs.

Introduction

User research is the process of gathering data about users to better understand their needs, behaviors, and pain points. It involves a variety of methods, including surveys, interviews, focus groups, and usability testing. The goal of user research is to gain insights into our users' needs, behaviors, and pain points, which we can then use to inform our design decisions.

There are several methods we can use to conduct user research, depending on our goals and the stage of the design process. Some of the most common methods include:

• Surveys: Surveys are a great way to gather quantitative data about our users. We can use surveys to ask users about their demographics, behaviors, and preferences.
• Interviews: Interviews are a more in-depth method of gathering qualitative data about our users. We can use interviews to ask users about their experiences, pain points, and needs.
• Focus groups: Focus groups are a group discussion with users about a specific topic. We can use focus groups to gather feedback on new product ideas or to test out different design concepts.
• Usability testing: Usability testing involves observing users as they interact with our products. We can use usability testing to identify any usability issues and to gather feedback on our designs.

User research is an essential part of the UX roadmap creation process. It helps us understand our users' needs, behaviors, and pain points, which we can then use to create better products. By using a variety of research methods, we can gather both quantitative and qualitative data about our users, which gives us a more complete picture of their needs. With this information, we can make informed design decisions that meet the needs of our users. For more information on conducting user research, check out these resources:

• The Ultimate Guide to User Research
• A Comprehensive Guide to User Research
• How to Conduct User Research: A Step-by-Step Guide

Step 3: Create User Personas

Creating user personas is an essential step in creating a successful UX roadmap. User personas are fictional characters that represent the different types of users that will interact with your product. These personas are based on real user data and help you understand your target audience better. In this section, we will discuss how to create user personas and why they are important.

Why are User Personas Important?

User personas are important because they help you understand your target audience better. By creating user personas, you can identify the different types of users that will interact with your product and understand their needs, goals, and pain points. This information is crucial in creating a product that meets the needs of your users and provides a positive user experience.

How to Create User Personas

Creating user personas involves several steps, including conducting user research, identifying user characteristics and behaviors, and creating persona profiles. Here are the steps we recommend:

• Conduct User Research: Conduct user research to gather data about your target audience. This can include surveys, interviews, and user testing. Use this data to identify common characteristics and behaviors among your users.
• Identify User Characteristics and Behaviors: Use the data you gathered in step one to identify the different characteristics and behaviors of your target audience. This can include demographics, goals, pain points, and motivations.
• Create Persona Profiles: Use the information you gathered in step two to create persona profiles. Persona profiles should include a name, photo, background information, goals, pain points, and motivations. Use this information to create a fictional character that represents your target audience.

Examples of User Personas

Here are some examples of user personas:

• Sarah, a 32-year-old working mother who wants to find a fitness app that fits into her busy schedule.
• John, a 25-year-old college student who wants to find a budgeting app that helps him save money.
• Emily, a 45-year-old small business owner who wants to find a project management tool that helps her manage her team.

Creating user personas is an essential step in creating a successful UX roadmap. User personas help you understand your target audience better and create a product that meets their needs. By following the steps we outlined in this section, you can create user personas that accurately represent your target audience and help you create a positive user experience.

Step 4: Define the User Journey

Defining the user journey is a critical step in creating a UX roadmap. The user journey is the path that users take when interacting with your product or service. It is essential to define the different stages of the user journey, from discovery to purchase or engagement. This will help you identify the touchpoints where users may have pain points or drop off.

To define the user journey, we recommend the following steps:

• Identify the user personas: The first step in defining the user journey is to identify the user personas. User personas are fictional representations of your target users. They help you understand the needs, goals, and behavior of your users. You can create user personas based on research, surveys, and interviews with your target users.
• Map out the user journey: Once you have identified the user personas, the next step is to map out the user journey. User journey mapping is a visualization of the user's experience with your product or service. It helps you identify the touchpoints where users may have pain points or drop off. You can use different tools and techniques to map out the user journey, such as customer journey maps, service blueprints, or empathy maps.
• Identify the pain points and opportunities: After mapping out the user journey, the next step is to identify the pain points and opportunities. Pain points are the areas where users experience frustration or difficulty. Opportunities are the areas where you can improve the user experience. You can identify pain points and opportunities by analyzing the user journey map and conducting user research.
• Prioritize the pain points and opportunities: Once you have identified the pain points and opportunities, the next step is to prioritize them. You can use different criteria to prioritize the pain points and opportunities, such as impact, feasibility, and effort. Prioritizing the pain points and opportunities will help you focus on the most critical areas of improvement.

In conclusion, defining the user journey is a crucial step in creating a UX roadmap. It helps you understand the needs, goals, and behavior of your users, and identify the touchpoints where users may have pain points or drop off. By following the steps outlined above, you can define the user journey, identify the pain points and opportunities, and prioritize them to improve the user experience.

For more information on user journey mapping, we recommend the following resources:

• A Beginner's Guide To User Journey Mapping | Built In
• Creating User Journey Maps: A Guide | Coursera
• User Journey Mapping: A Comprehensive Guide | UXPin

Step 5: Identify Key Features and Functionality

Once we have established our goals and objectives, it's time to identify the key features and functionality of our UX roadmap. These features and functionalities should be aligned with our goals and should be prioritized based on their importance and feasibility.

To identify the key features and functionality, we need to consider the following:

• User Needs: We need to identify the user needs and pain points that our product is solving. This will help us prioritize the features that are most important to our users.
• Business Goals: We need to align our features with our business goals. This will help us prioritize the features that are most important for our business.
• Technical Feasibility: We need to consider the technical feasibility of our features. This will help us prioritize the features that are achievable within our timeline and resources.

Once we have identified the key features and functionality, we need to break them down into smaller tasks and prioritize them based on their importance and feasibility. This will help us create a roadmap that is achievable and realistic.

For example, if we are creating a UX roadmap for a mobile app, some of the key features and functionality that we may identify could include:

• User Onboarding: We may prioritize creating a smooth and easy onboarding process for our users.
• Navigation: We may prioritize creating a clear and intuitive navigation system for our users.
• Search Functionality: We may prioritize creating a robust search functionality for our users to easily find what they are looking for.
• Personalization: We may prioritize creating a personalized experience for our users based on their preferences and behaviors.

In conclusion, identifying the key features and functionality of our UX roadmap is crucial for creating a successful product. By considering user needs, business goals, and technical feasibility, we can prioritize our features and create a roadmap that is achievable and realistic.

Step 6: Sketch Wireframes and Prototypes

After identifying the key features and functionality of your product or service, it's time to start sketching wireframes and prototypes. Wireframes are basic layouts that show the structure and content of your design. Prototypes, on the other hand, are interactive mockups that allow you to test and validate your design ideas.

Sketching wireframes and prototypes are crucial steps in the UX design process as they help you visualize and refine your design ideas. Here are some tips to help you create effective wireframes and prototypes:

• Keep it simple: Wireframes should be simple and easy to understand. Avoid adding too many details or colors that may distract from the main objective of the wireframe.
• Focus on functionality: Wireframes should focus on the functionality of the design rather than the aesthetics. The goal is to create a blueprint of the design that can be refined later.
• Test early and often: Prototypes are an excellent way to test your design ideas and get feedback from users. Start testing your prototypes early in the design process and continue to iterate until you have a design that meets the needs of your users.
• Use the right tools: There are many tools available for creating wireframes and prototypes. Some popular options include Sketch, Figma, and Adobe XD. Choose the tool that works best for you and your team.
• Collaborate with your team: Collaboration is key when creating wireframes and prototypes. Work closely with your team to ensure that everyone is on the same page and that the design meets the needs of all stakeholders.

Creating effective wireframes and prototypes is an essential step in the UX design process. By following these tips and best practices, you can create designs that are functional, user-friendly, and visually appealing.

For more information on wireframing and prototyping, check out the following resources:

• How to Create Your First Wireframe (A UX Tutorial)
• How to Create a WireFrame: Step-by-Step Guide
• How To Create Wireframes For A Website [With Examples]
• What Is a Wireframe? + How to Create One

Step 7: Test and Validate

After creating a UX roadmap, the next step is to test and validate your design ideas with real users. This step is crucial to ensure that your product or service is usable and meets the needs of your target audience. Here are some of the things that you need to consider when testing and validating your UX roadmap:

• Usability testing : This type of testing investigates how easy or difficult it is for users to use your product or service. You can use various methods, such as A/B testing, to compare the performance of different design ideas. Usability testing can help you identify areas that need improvement and make necessary changes to enhance the user experience.
• UX audit : A UX audit is a comprehensive evaluation of your website or application's user experience. It helps you identify usability issues, design flaws, and other problems that may impact the user experience. A UX audit can help you make data-driven decisions and prioritize the changes that need to be made.
• User interface testing : User interface testing ensures that your product or service is visually appealing and easy to use. It involves testing the layout, typography, color scheme, and other design elements of your website or application. User interface testing can help you create a consistent and intuitive user interface that enhances the overall user experience.

When testing and validating your UX roadmap, it's essential to involve real users in the process. User feedback can help you gain valuable insights into how users interact with your product or service and identify areas that need improvement. Here are some tips to help you get the most out of user testing:

• Recruit the right participants : Choose participants who represent your target audience and have experience using similar products or services. This will help you get more accurate feedback and insights.
• Prepare a test plan : Define the goals of your test, the tasks that participants will perform, and the metrics that you will use to measure success. This will help you stay focused and ensure that you get the information you need.
• Use the right tools : There are many tools available for user testing, such as surveys, interviews, and usability testing software. Choose the right tools that fit your needs and budget.

In conclusion, testing and validating your UX roadmap is a crucial step in creating a user-friendly product or service. By involving real users in the process, you can gain valuable insights and make data-driven decisions that enhance the overall user experience. Use the right tools, prepare a test plan, and recruit the right participants to get the most out of user testing.

Step 8: Create a Development Plan

Once you have established your UX/UI strategy and goals, identified your users' needs, and prioritized your design tasks, it's time to create a development plan. In this step, we'll work with our cross-functional team to create a plan that outlines how we will execute our UX/UI roadmap.

The development plan should include details on product development, design tasks, and the dashboard you'll use to track progress. The plan should also outline the roles and responsibilities of each team member and any specific timelines or deadlines that need to be met.

Here are some key components to consider when creating a development plan:

Product Development

Product development is a critical aspect of the development plan. We need to ensure that we're building the right product for our users. This means we need to work closely with our product team to understand the product's features, functionality, and overall vision.

Design Tasks

Design tasks are the specific design activities we need to complete to achieve our UX/UI goals. We need to identify these tasks and prioritize them based on their impact on our users and the product. This will help us ensure that we're focusing our efforts on the most critical design tasks.

A dashboard is a critical tool for tracking progress and ensuring that we're meeting our goals. We need to create a dashboard that provides visibility into the status of each design task and the overall progress of the project. This will help us identify any issues early on and take corrective action as needed.

Cross-Functional Team

We need to work closely with our cross-functional team to ensure that everyone is aligned on the development plan. This includes designers, developers, product managers, and any other stakeholders. We need to ensure that everyone understands their roles and responsibilities and is committed to achieving our UX/UI goals.

In conclusion, creating a development plan is a critical step in executing our UX/UI roadmap. By focusing on product development, design tasks, the dashboard, and our cross-functional team, we can ensure that we're building the right product for our users and achieving our UX/UI goals. Remember to keep the plan flexible and adaptable as we move forward, and be prepared to make changes as needed. For more information on creating a development plan, check out this resource .

Step 9: Launch and Monitor

Once you have developed and deployed your product or service, it's time to launch it and monitor its performance. This is the most exciting part of the UX roadmap because it's when you finally get to see your hard work in action. However, launching a product or service can be daunting, so it's important to have a clear plan in place.

Launching a product or service requires careful planning and execution. Here are some steps to consider:

• Set a launch date: Choose a date that gives you enough time to prepare for the launch and create buzz around your product or service.
• Create a launch plan: Develop a comprehensive plan that outlines all the activities you need to do before, during, and after the launch. This plan should cover everything from creating marketing materials to training your support team.
• Develop marketing materials: Create marketing materials that showcase the benefits of your product or service. These materials should be tailored to your target audience and should include clear calls to action.
• Train your support team: Make sure your support team is trained and ready to handle any questions or issues that may arise during the launch.
• Get feedback: Before you launch, get feedback from beta testers or early adopters to ensure that your product or service meets their needs.

Once you've launched your product or service, it's important to monitor its performance. This will help you identify any issues or areas for improvement. Here are some things to consider:

• Use analytics tools: Use analytics tools to track user behavior and engagement. This will help you understand how users are interacting with your product or service and identify areas for improvement.
• Monitor feedback: Keep an eye on customer feedback, both positive and negative. This will help you identify any issues or areas for improvement.
• Address issues promptly: If you identify any issues or areas for improvement, address them promptly. This will help you maintain customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Continuously improve: Use the data you collect to continuously improve your product or service. This will help you stay ahead of the competition and meet the evolving needs of your customers.

In conclusion, launching and monitoring your product or service is a critical step in the UX roadmap. By carefully planning your launch and monitoring your product or service's performance, you can ensure its success and continuously improve it to meet the needs of your customers.

Step 10: Iterate and Improve

Now that we have a clear vision of the UX roadmap and we have made progress towards our goals, it's time to iterate and improve. This step is crucial to ensure that we are constantly improving our product and meeting the needs of our users.

One way to iterate and improve is to regularly review and update the roadmap. By doing this, we can ensure that we are on track and that any changes in our business or user needs are reflected in the roadmap. This can be done by setting up regular check-ins with the team or stakeholders to discuss progress and make any necessary adjustments.

Another way to iterate and improve is to gather feedback from our users. This can be done through user testing, surveys, or other forms of user research. By gathering feedback, we can identify areas for improvement and make changes to the roadmap accordingly.

It's also important to prioritize our next steps based on the feedback we receive. This means focusing on the most critical issues first and making incremental improvements over time. By doing this, we can ensure that we are making progress towards our goals while also meeting the needs of our users.

In order to effectively iterate and improve, it's important to have a culture of continuous improvement within the team. This means encouraging open communication, sharing feedback, and being open to change. By doing this, we can ensure that we are constantly learning and improving.

In conclusion, iterating and improving is a crucial step in creating an effective UX roadmap. By regularly reviewing and updating the roadmap, gathering feedback from users, and prioritizing our next steps, we can ensure that we are making progress towards our goals and meeting the needs of our users.

Essential things you must keep in mind:

When creating a UX roadmap, there are several essential things we must keep in mind. These things will help us create a roadmap that is effective, efficient, and useful for everyone involved in the project.

Communication is Key

Effective communication is a critical aspect of creating a UX roadmap. We must ensure that everyone involved in the project is on the same page and understands the goals, objectives, and priorities of the roadmap. We need to communicate effectively with cross-functional teams, departments, developers, researchers, and other stakeholders. We can use communication tools such as Slack, Asana, or Trello to facilitate communication and collaboration.

Research is Fundamental

Research is fundamental to creating a UX roadmap that is informed, relevant, and user-centered. We must conduct thorough research to understand user needs, pain points, and behavior. We can use various research methods such as surveys, interviews, usability testing, and analytics to gather data and insights. We must also consider information architecture and content strategy when creating a UX roadmap.

Collaboration is Crucial

Collaboration is crucial when creating a UX roadmap. We must collaborate with cross-functional teams, departments, and stakeholders to ensure that everyone's goals and objectives are aligned. We can use agile project management methodologies to facilitate collaboration and ensure that everyone is working towards a common goal. We must also ensure that the UX roadmap is a single source of truth that everyone can refer to.

Keep it Simple and Actionable

When creating a UX roadmap, we must keep it simple and actionable. We should avoid using jargon, acronyms, or complex language that may confuse or alienate stakeholders. We must also ensure that the roadmap is actionable and provides clear steps and timelines for achieving the goals and objectives. We can use tables, bullet points, bold text, and other formatting techniques to make the roadmap easy to read and understand.

In conclusion, creating a UX roadmap requires careful planning, research, communication, collaboration, and simplicity. By keeping these essential things in mind, we can create a roadmap that is effective, efficient, and useful for everyone involved in the project. We can use various resources such as UX design blogs, books, and courses to learn more about creating a UX roadmap.

Contact Us to Help with Implementation

If you need help implementing your UX roadmap, we are here to help. Our team of experienced UX designers and researchers can work with you to bring your roadmap to life. We offer a wide range of services, including:

• UX research: We can help you understand your users' needs and behaviors through user interviews, surveys, and other research methods.
• UX design: We can design user interfaces, wireframes, and prototypes that meet your users' needs and goals.
• UX testing: We can test your designs with real users to identify usability issues and areas for improvement.
• UX strategy: We can help you develop a long-term UX strategy that aligns with your business goals and objectives.

Our team has worked with a variety of clients, from startups to Fortune 500 companies, in industries such as healthcare, finance, and e-commerce. We pride ourselves on our ability to deliver high-quality UX solutions that meet our clients' needs and exceed their expectations.

If you're interested in learning more about our services or would like to discuss your UX roadmap with us, please don't hesitate to contact us. We would be happy to schedule a consultation to discuss your needs and how we can help.

In addition to our services, we also offer a variety of resources to help you with your UX roadmap implementation. Some of these resources include:

• UX design templates: We offer a variety of templates for user personas, user flows, and other UX design deliverables to help you get started quickly.
• UX research guides: We have created a series of guides on UX research methods, including user interviews, surveys, and usability testing.
• UX strategy frameworks: We have developed a framework for creating a UX strategy that aligns with your business goals and objectives.

We believe that implementing a UX roadmap is a collaborative effort, and we look forward to working with you to create a successful user experience for your customers. Contact us today to get started.

Extra Resources

As we have seen, creating a UX roadmap is a crucial step in ensuring a successful user experience design project. However, there are many additional resources available to help you along the way. Here are a few of our favorites:

UX Roadmap Templates

There are many pre-made UX roadmap templates available online that can help you get started quickly. These templates often include sections for research, planning, execution, and testing, as well as placeholders for key milestones and deliverables. Some of our favorite templates include:

• Lucidchart's UX Roadmap Template
• Miro's UX Roadmap Template
• Venngage's UX Roadmap Template

UX Roadmap Tools

In addition to templates, there are also many tools available to help you create and manage your UX roadmap. These tools often include features for collaboration, visualization, and project management. Some of our favorite UX roadmap tools include:

• Trello - a popular project management tool that can be used to create and track UX roadmaps.
• Airtable - a powerful collaboration tool that can be used to organize and manage UX design projects.
• Asana - a popular project management tool that can be used to create and track UX roadmaps and other design projects.

UX Roadmap Examples

Sometimes the best way to learn is by example. There are many great UX roadmap examples available online that can help inspire your own roadmap. Here are a few of our favorites:

• UX Roadmap Example from ProductPlan
• UX Roadmap Example from UX Mastery
• UX Roadmap Example from Smashing Magazine

In conclusion, creating a UX roadmap is an essential step in ensuring a successful user experience design project. By using templates, tools, and examples, you can streamline the process and create a roadmap that is both effective and efficient.

Do you have a product vision, but don’t know where to begin? Develop your new idea in a 4-week timeline with the Startup Bootcamp ! Book a free consultation call with our team.

If you're looking for help with your UX audit, let our team at WANDR show you the way. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help take your UX design to the next level.

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How to write a ux research plan that actually works: 7-step tutorial, saviour egbe, august 29, 2023.

A UX research plan is like a map that will help you navigate the complexity of running a research project. It will help you define your goals, choose the right methods, and collect the data you need to make informed design decisions.

But UX research plans don't have to be boring. In fact, they can be quite funny. For example, one UX researcher I know has a section in his plan called " The Things That Make Me Cry ." This is where he lists all the things that he's learned about his users that make him sad, such as the fact that they often have to deal with frustrating interfaces or unhelpful customer service.

But the primary use of a research plan of course is to make  sure that your research is effective. So, while it’s helpful to have a sense of humor, you also need to be serious about your research.

In this article, we'll consider:

• What a UX research plan is and why it's important
• How to create a UX research plan 
• An example of a well-structured UX research plan and
• A template for a UX research plan you can use to get started

So, whether you're a UX newbie or a seasoned pro, read on for everything you need to know about UX research plans!

What is a UX Research Plan?

A UX research plan is a document that outlines the goals, methods, and timeline for your research. It's a roadmap that will help you stay on track and ensure that your research is productive.

A good UX research plan should include the following:

• A clear statement of the research goals: What do you hope to learn from your research? What are the specific questions you're trying to answer?
• A description of the target audience: Who are the people you're designing for? What are their needs and pain points?
• A selection of research methods: There are many different research methods available, so it's important to choose the ones that are right for your goals and target audience.
• A timeline and budget: How long will your research take? How much money will it cost?
• A plan for data analysis and presentation: How will you analyze your data and communicate the findings to others?

Why is a UX Research Plan Important?

A UX research plan is important for several reasons. It helps you:

• Stay focused and avoids wasting time and resources.
• Ensures that your research is relevant to the needs of your users.
• Get buy-in from stakeholders & align on the goals for the project.
• Provides a framework for organizing and analyzing your data.
• Helps you communicate the findings of your research to others.

How to Create a UX Research Plan

Creating a UX research plan is an important step in ensuring that your product or service is user-friendly and meets the needs of your target audience. Here are the essential steps to create a research plan that drives meaningful insights and successful user experiences:

Step 1: Alignment & Requirements Gathering

Research rarely will happen in a vacuum. Usually you are working with a team—product, engineering, design, for example. 

When the need for a research study arises, the first thing you want to do is meet with your team to understand the questions they're trying to answer.

Depending on how formally set up your research practice is, you may even want to supplement this step with a Research Request document where stakeholders can explain the key questions they'd like to answer, why they're important, and any constraints (budgets, timelines) they're working with.

Step 2: Define Your Goals

Once you've gathered your data, the next step is to clearly define & write out your goals. What do you hope to learn from your research? What specific questions are you trying to answer?

Here are some things to consider when framing your goals:

• What are the business objectives for your product or service? Are you trying to grow active users? Or reduce churn? What should the final results of this research project help you do?
• Who are your target users? These are the people you’d like to learn more about.
• What do you want to learn about their behavior and preferences? This will help you determine your research questions. Ideally the answers to these questions should also tie to your business goals so there’s a clear line between what you’re trying to learn and what that learning will do for the company.

Once you’ve thought about and drafted the answers to these questions, make sure to follow the below steps before starting interviews:

i. Assess Internal Data and Identify Research Needs

Before you start collecting new data, take some time to assess any existing data you have. This could include analytics, customer feedback, or previous research findings. This will help you identify any gaps in your knowledge and determine what areas need to be explored further.

Sometimes you’ll find you already have the answer to your research question in-house—saving you weeks of research effort and thousands of dollars of investment!

If you’re trying to build a repository to help you do this more effectively, check out this definitive guide on research repositories .

ii. Link Research Goals to Business Objectives

It's also important to link your research goals to the business objectives of your organization. This will help you justify the time and resources that will be required for your research. By demonstrating how your research will help you achieve your business goals, you'll be more likely to get the support you need.

As a bonus, once your research is complete, you can go back and track its impact against these business goals. This will help you build a case for your own work and the research practice at your company.

As you proceed through Step 1, keep in mind that your research goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART). This framework will help you ensure that your goals are well-defined and actionable.

Step 3: Identify Your Target Audience & Plan a Recruiting Strategy

Knowing your audience is essential for creating a UX research plan that delivers relevant and actionable insights. In this step, we'll talk about how to define your target audience and plan a recruiting strategy for this set of users.

The target audience you’re considering this research study may overlap with your standard target users, or you may want to speak with a subset of this group.

For instance, if you’re doing a research study on why users churn, speaking to a regular active user won’t help. You’ll need to define and recruit users who can actually answer your questions well—in this case it could be “users who have churned in the last 2 weeks”.

When defining the audience for this study, think about whether your target user falls in a specific category based on one of these characteristics:

• Demographics:   This includes basic characteristics, such as age, gender, location, and occupation.
• Behaviors and habits: Are you interested in users who have or have not conducted certain actions on your product? For research on how well your Slack integration works, you may want to speak to users who have already installed it, for example.  
• Needs and use cases: Sometimes one product can have multiple use cases. For example, a transcription product could be used by researchers, or journalists, or students trying to capture their class notes. Which use case or needs are relevant to your research study?  
• Payment type: In today’s world products may have free, freemium / trial, or paid users and each of these groups may behave differently. Think about whether you need one or all of these user types as part of your research.

Now that you know who you need to reach, you also need to think about how to reach them.

Recruiting, as we all know, is a major pain point for (most) researchers. There are some ways to speed it up though.

If you’re running research for a B2C product or an easy to find B2B cohort, you may want to turn to an external recruiting software like UserInterview.com or Respondent.io. There are also local agencies to help you find more local audiences in international markets. 

If you are trying to recruit via an external paid channel like this, make sure to budget it in your research plan. These channels are very quick to set up research calls with, but they do come with an added cost.

If you’re running research with a niche B2B audience or are defining your audience based on behaviour on your product (e.g., user who churned in the last 2 weeks), you may need to use internal recruiting methods. This means reaching out to your own users via email, intercom, or via your sales / support team.

If you are recruiting existing customers, make sure to budget in the time it takes to recruit these users. It may take a few days to weeks to gather the relevant user emails and schedule calls, although paid incentives for research help this move much faster.

If you are planning to recruit your own customers, use our Ultimate Guide to Recruiting Your Users for Interviews and Usability Tests . This article has templates for outreach, incentive payment options, and many tactical tips to help you streamline internal recruiting.

Remember, the accuracy and relevance of your research findings depend on the quality of your participants. Take the time to identify and engage users who genuinely reflect your intended audience. This will help you create a research plan that generates insights that drive impactful design decisions.

Step 4: Choose Your Research Methods

Choosing the right research methods is necessary for getting the most out of your UX research plan. Before kicking off your study, make sure to review the possible ways you can answer your research question as well as any constraints you face regarding time, money, or tooling.

If you’re not sure which methods exist, read through this article on UX Research Methods . This article provides an overview of the different methods, so you can choose the ones that are right for your project. It covers everything from usability testing to card sorting, and it includes practical advice on how to conduct each UX research method effectively.

When you’re actually selecting the right method out of the available options, here are the key questions you need to ask yourself: 

• Your research goals: What do you hope to learn from your research? The methods you choose should be aligned with your specific goals. For example, if you need to deeply understand user motivations, a user interview is much better fit than a survey.
• Quantitative vs. qualitative: Do you want to collect quantitative data (numbers and statistics) or qualitative insights (in-depth understanding)? Different methods are better suited for different types of data. If you need to know the percentage of users using Zoom vs GoogleMeet, a 5-person user interview won’t get you that data but a 100 person survey with a representative sample might.
• Resources and time: How much time and money do you have to spend on your research? Some methods are more time-consuming or expensive than others. For instance, an ethnographic study where you travel to see your users is obviously more expensive and time-consuming than a 30-minute remote user interview.

By considering these factors, you can choose a combination of research methods that will help you understand your users better.

Step 5: Define your timelines & budgets

Now that you know your target audience (and therefore recruiting method) and your research methods, you can define the timelines and budgets your stakeholders care about.

• Timelines: How long will it take to conduct your research? This will depend on the methods you choose, the number of participants you need to recruit, and the amount of data you need to collect. For example, user interviews can typically be conducted within a few weeks, but usability testing can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, depending on the number of participants and the complexity of the product or service being tested.
• Budgets: How much money will you need to conduct your research? This will depend on the methods you choose, the number of participants you need to recruit, and the cost of data collection and analysis. For example, user interviews can be conducted for a few hundred dollars, but usability testing can cost several thousand dollars, depending on the number of participants and the complexity of the product or service being tested.

Step 6: Identify your assumptions

Sometimes without realising it, our research study comes packaged with a set of assumptions about who users are and what they want.

Before kicking off your study, it’s important to identify these assumptions in writing and align on them with your team.

For instance, if you’re running research on how to improve a Slack integration, your in-built assumptions may be:

• Users already use this integration
• It’s worth improving this integration further

Once you’ve laid out these assumptions in advance of your research, you can check them against existing data and keep them in mind when you’re reviewing your research findings.

For example, if analytics data shows that no users use your Slack integration, it may call into question the research you’re running today or change the audience you speak to about it.

Instead of speaking to existing Slack integration users, your audience may need to be companies that have Slack but have not downloaded your Slack integration.

Your research questions may also shift from “Why do you use the Slack integration?” to “Why not? ”

In general, taking a moment to review research assumptions helps you be more aware of them throughout your research study.

Step 7: Define the research questions

This is a pivotal phase in the UX research process. It's when you define the questions that will guide your data collection efforts. These questions will be your compass, directing your research toward meaningful insights that drive product improvements.

Here are some tips for crafting and structuring your research questions:

• Make sure each question is aligned with your overall research objectives. This will ensure that your findings address the core goals of your project.
• Make your questions clear, concise, and specific. Ambiguity can lead to varied interpretations and muddy insights.
• Frame your questions from the user's perspective. Use language that aligns with your target audience to ensure your questions are relatable.
• Avoid leading questions. These are questions that nudge participants towards a particular response. Aim for neutrality to get real insights.
• Use a mix of open-ended and closed-ended questions. Open-ended questions allow participants to provide detailed responses, while closed-ended questions offer predefined answer choices.
• Structure your questions logically, moving from broader inquiries to more specific ones. This will help participants to follow your thought process.
• Limit the number of questions. You want to get comprehensive insights but don't want to overwhelm participants with too many questions.
• Cover the core areas relevant to your project. This could include user pain points, needs, preferences, expectations, and perceptions.
• Pilot-test your questions with a small group of participants. Their feedback can help you to identify unclear or misleading questions.
• Make sure your questions are relevant to the research methods you will be using. For example, usability testing may focus on task-oriented questions, while interviews explore broader experiences.

Here are some examples of well-defined research questions:

1. Usability testing:

• How easily can users navigate the Looppanel account setup process?
• What challenges do users face when uploading their recorded calls to Looppanel?
• How intuitive is the process of setting up Calendar integration on Looppanel?

2. Interviews:

• Can you describe a recent experience you had with the Looppanel customer support?
• What motivated you to sign up for Looppanel for your user research needs instead of other platforms?
• In your view, how does the platform assist in taking your user interview notes effectively?

By carefully defining your research questions, you can ensure that your data collection efforts are focused and meaningful. This will help you to gather the insights you need to improve your product or service and deliver a better experience to your users.

Step 8: Align with your team

Now that you’ve thought through the basics, it's essential to get buy-in from your team and stakeholders on the final plan.

A lot may have happened between your first requirement-gathering meeting and when your plan is finalized. Take the final plan to stakeholders and make sure they are aligned:

• The research question you’re going to answer
• How your study ties to business goals
• Which users you’ll be engaging with
• Which method you’ll be using
• What your timelines look like
• What your budget looks like (if applicable)

This step is really important because if there’s a lack of alignment between you and your key stakeholder, you may end up with findings nobody is going to act on.

Example UX Research Plan

Here is an example UX research plan for improving the onboarding experience of a mobile app. Use this example as a guide to help you create your own plan!

Psst… we also have a template below that you can copy and use!

Project Title: Research study to improve onboarding experience on DuoLingo 

Business Goal: We want to increase the activation rate of new users on the app.

Project Goal(s) :

• Identify key drop-off points on the onboarding flow
• Identify why users are dropping off at these points

Target Users: People from the 15-40 age group in North America who have not used Duolingo before.

• MixPanel analytics data to identify existing drop-off points for users
• Usability testing with the think aloud protocol to understand why users are dropping off at those points

Timelines: The study will run for 4 weeks:

• Week 1: Analyzing existing analytics data & recruiting participants
• Week 2: Running usability tests
• Week 3: Analyzing results
• Week 4: Presenting findings

Budget (if applicable): Anticipated spend of $500 on recruiting.

Key Research Questions These are the research questions we’ll be gathering data on :

• At which point(s) in the onboarding process are users most likely to drop off?
• What are the common reasons users cite for discontinuing the onboarding process?
• How do users perceive the clarity of instructions during the initial setup stages?
• Are there any specific usability issues that lead users to abandon the onboarding flow?
• How do users' prior experiences with language learning apps impact their expectations of DuoLingo's onboarding?

UX Research plan template

We’ve also created a UX Research plan template you can use easily duplicate and use for your own work.

Click here to get Looppanel's UX Research Plan template.

This template contains sections for:

• Project Title
• Business Goals
• Project Goals
• Target Users
• Research Methods
• Timelines & Budgets
• Key Research Questions

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How To Create An Effective UX Road Map

UX roadmaps ensure you can sail the high and low tides of your UX testing journey with ease. Learn how to create an actionable UX roadmap, with this article!

Tanvi Moitra

July 28, 2023

In this Article

For any project to succeed it needs a strong foundation. UX roadmaps are the guiding pathlights for you and your team to navigate the treacherous waters of UX testing .

UX roadmaps chalk out the problems and focus areas and helps you choose your priorities accordingly. It also helps keep a track of all the milestones, communications and roadblocks, ensuring you can deliver a great user experience. 

In this article, we will learn all about UX roadmaps and how you can create an effective one which is tailored to fit your research objectives and goals.

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What is a UX Roadmap?

It is a comprehensive plan that incorporates your UX strategy , the key actions required to achieve your objectives, and an associated deadline for completion. The 'why' behind your targeted outcomes and the strategy for achieving them can be presented using it as a communication tool. In light of this, let's look at how to make an effective roadmap.

UX roadmaps are used to bring the team together around a common vision and set of priorities. It is useful for conveying to cross-functional teams and company leadership your plans for the overall user experience of the product.

A UX roadmap is used to:

• Share your vision and plan with others.
• Create a manual for carrying out the approach.
• Keep stakeholders and team members informed about all forthcoming actions.
• Prioritize the tasks that will have the biggest impact first.
• Track and demonstrate progress in relation to your goals.

UX roadmaps are a summary of how your strategy relates to the work that your team is actually performing. They serve to express the UX vision and provide a feeling of shared direction rather than to go into the specifics of the UX design process. Because of this, roadmaps should be easy to understand, succinct, and actionable so that everyone can refer to them when necessary. 

The Difference Between Project Plans and Roadmaps Differ?

A UX roadmap acts as the link between a company's UX vision and project-tracking elements. Thus, while project-management plans concentrate on execution and output tracking, roadmaps are strategic, visionary documents. 

Essential Components of a UX Roadmap

The design of your UX roadmap will rely on a number of variables, including what you're attempting to communicate and to whom. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to a UX roadmap. Although they can take many various forms, roadmaps often have the same basic structure. 

Here are the key elements you should add to your UX Roadmap-

1. The Vision, Goals and Strategy

You should specify your goals from the perspective of the user experience before developing your roadmap. This step entails developing a thorough vision for the user experience you wish to create, a plan to concentrate on, and a list of quantifiable objectives to pursue. Here is an effective technique to implement-

• Vision - The UX vision is an idealistic perspective of the future user experience that customers will enjoy with your product, service, or business. It is the basis of your approach and captures the core of what you want to achieve.
• Strategy- The UX strategy outlines the course you'll take to realize your vision. It acts as a guide for coordinating each customer interaction with your desired user experience. ‍
• Goals- You may derive high-level goals from the UX vision that will assist you in turning your strategy into an actionable plan. Your strategic goals are the intended results you wish to accomplish over a certain time frame.

Themes serve as a representation of future UX work, including issues you hope to address, areas of concentration, and potential projects. Each theme should ideally describe:

• The goal of your user experience work and the benefit it offers to customers
• Business goals and results that will be attained after completion
• The individual or group in charge of the project

It is easy to lose track of the big picture. Themes helps everyone onboard stay on track, define priorities for tasks inside a project and organize them so that everyone can focus on the same objective.

You can develop your themes by going through roadmaps created earlier. You can also analyze user feedback and backlogs, if any to get started. Your objective is to gather any data that would enable you to identify and rank probable issues.

Once you have a list of potential problems to address, you should analyze the trends to create a list of high-level concerns that require attention. Themes should always be in tandem with your goals and objectives. Therefore, be sure to include KPIs and success metrics that indicate whether your goals have been attained.

3. Timeline

The project timeline is typically included in roadmaps and is arranged by themes and priority. Your UX roadmap does not need to include particular dates. However, you still need a method for outlining and prioritizing your short, medium, and long-term tasks. As a general guideline, your plan should only mention timeframes at a high level and show dates for specific tasks.

Themes and key projects are frequently organised into three time spans in UX roadmaps:

• UX work that you're presently completing or will in the near future.
• Upcoming UX work
• Future UX projects you'd like to work on (often six months or longer)

A well-constructed UX roadmap should also include current and easily available details regarding the status of each initiative, activity, and strategy that is included on it. Has the group begun to work on the project yet? How much of the job has been finished?

To keep moving forward, it is crucial to monitor progress. Once you know where you're heading, you need to monitor whether you're getting there or not. On your roadmap, markers resemble milestones. They enable you to know where you are in the process and what steps are coming up.

When Should you Create a UX Roadmap?

UX Roadmaps should be created at crucial times when coordination and communication are required. It is not a weekly exercise that can be employed every now and then. Consider creating a UX map when-

1) New Endeavours- Roadmaps create a unified vision and prioritize the most pressing issues. They serve as a visual depiction of your beginning point and a blueprint for the new project. 

2) Something is wrong- If there are too many competing priorities and no one is aware of what is happening, teams may reach a breaking point. When this happens, roadmaps can assist in recalibrating objectives and focusing on a single group of  priorities.  

3) A change in leadership- When someone joins your team as a result of reorganization or recruitment, all existing initiatives should be communicated with them and align them to the direction in which the project is going.

4) Annual Planning- Roadmaps should be created annually or quarterly, depending on the project, goals, timeline and priorities.

How Long Does it Take to Create a UX Roadmap?

UX roadmaps are like fingerprints, they look similar but are unique. The length of a UX roadmap depends on a variety of factors including - 1) complexity of the project, 2) objectives and goals, 3) stakeholders involved, 4) deliverables etc.

A typical UX roadmap takes less than a day to create. But this can exceed more than a month for discovery research or complex high-level vision projects.

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How Often Should you Update your UX Roadmap?

A successful roadmap is not meant to be used only once. To maintain a roadmap up to date, the creator should review and update it. A roadmap update involves: 

• Moving completed topics to the Completed Tasks section
• Next-in-line themes are moved to the Now column (or the most recent column).
• Bringing new understanding to existing topics (typically as a subtheme) 
• Adjusting priorities in light of new knowledge 
• Updating the Future or Ideas column with new themes and insights

This exercise is typically done fortnightly or once a month.

Benefits of Creating a UX Roadmap

1. it enables you to give the user experience top priority during each step of development.

First, when a business starts developing a new product, the team frequently concentrates on the functions and features they want to include.

Making a UX roadmap at this early stage can guarantee that the development team is building with an awareness of the company's aims for usability and producing a wonderful user experience for each theme and user narrative.

2. It assists you in finding design tasks that you might otherwise overlook.

An additional benefit for a product team is having a roadmap specifically for UX. The team will be able to compare modifications to the product roadmap with those to the UX roadmap every time they add a new theme or modify their development priorities. The product team will then be able to understand how any modifications to its product roadmap would impact its priorities and UX strategy. The team will be inspired to start working on these new projects with the user experience in mind. 

They will need to consider issues like: 

• How can we add this new feature without making our interface more complex?
• Do we need to update the user's dashboard to make these improvements?

3. It serves to emphasize the value of usability and design 

The success of a product on the market is significantly influenced by creating a favourable user experience. A UX roadmap can influence product success symbolically in addition to the advantages we've already highlighted.

You can communicate to your cross-functional team that user experience is such a crucial component of your product that it merits its own strategic blueprint by developing and maintaining a UX roadmap.

Types of UX Roadmaps

1. product roadmap.

A product roadmap aligns a company and its stakeholders to the product vision and strategy. It explains what teams are building and why and offers a tactical plan for carrying out the strategy. Roadmaps are used by product managers to communicate with various teams within an organization and get agreement on how a product will develop over time.

Product managers collaborate with other departments, including user experience, design, engineering, content strategy, marketing, sales, and customer success, even though they are principal owners and producers of product roadmaps. Product managers might benefit from the assistance of UX teams in prioritizing ideas based on their potential value to users.

2. Field Roadmap

A field roadmap is a summary of the projects and goals for the various UX disciplines, including user research, UX design, information architecture, and content. A field roadmap might include many products, unlike the product roadmap.

UX leaders or managers in charge of all facets of the user experience within a product create this roadmap. The ultimate objective is to promote cooperation and coordination between UX areas. For instance, a UX designer can more readily discuss a project with a UX researcher because they can each see what the other is working on.

Field roadmaps are a fantastic resource for educating stakeholders about the user-centered design methodology. They explain the steps involved in the UX design process and the issues the UX team must address.

3. Specialty Roadmap

A speciality roadmap, such as one for UX research, is a subset of the field roadmap and concentrates on just one UX topic. It defines the issues this discipline will address and offers information on who is working on what, how resources are being allocated deadlines and other things. A speciality roadmap can be used for several goods, just like the field roadmap.

Speciality roadmaps are great tools for bringing team members together within a certain field and promoting communication and information sharing. They are also rather simple to make. Since they are specialized, putting them together takes less time and work.

How to Create a Successful UX Roadmap

Even though UX roadmaps are unique to your project, they should have these three characteristics-

1. Should be User Focused 

Consider user demands and motivations, interactions with your product, and opinions of the user experience while developing your roadmap. You can conduct UX research using various techniques, such as surveys, interviews, or usability testing. You can utilize user insights to test and confirm concepts or to determine which problems are the most worthwhile to fix. This way, you can take data-driven decisions instead of relying on your gut feeling. 

2. Should be Aligned to The Big Picture

Your UX roadmap should be based on broad ambitions rather than specific attributes. A roadmap is more than just a list of things to do. They are high-level strategic documents that express a vision and future work towards it. Instead of beginning with features, they should begin with a problem and work their way towards a solution. They ought to be straightforward and focused on broad topics or important goals, instead of being a rigid project schedule. 

3. Easy to Update and Realign

Roadmaps should not be viewed as fixed plans but rather as evolving blueprints. Your strategy should be regularly discussed, re-prioritized, and adjusted based on changing stakeholder demands, market changes, consumer wants, and other inputs. So that you can quickly and easily change plans and objectives and keep the milestones and deliverables flexible.

Tips to Present and Share your UX Roadmap

You can build alignment and acquire the support you need to carry out your strategy by presenting your UX roadmap to the appropriate stakeholders. Here are a few tips to help you get started-

1) Know who your audience is

Knowing your audience is vital to effective communication in any medium, including roadmaps. Take some time to identify your stakeholders. Try to comprehend their motives, interests, and impact on the product. You can use this information to decide how and what to communicate.

Avoid design jargon, concentrate on overarching themes and strategic goals, and emphasize how your roadmap will affect other teams and the entire organization if you're speaking to leadership. You should probably go into greater depth if you check in with your team more frequently.

2) Fit your UX Roadmap into the overall business plan

The roadmap's connection to the company's objectives makes it apparent how your ideas will help the company expand and succeed. In the end, demonstrating how your roadmap is in line with the direction the organization is taking is a great way to win over stakeholders.

3) Stakeholders should be kept informed throughout the process

Working closely with your stakeholders is crucial at every stage, from creating your roadmap to carrying it out. When establishing a strong UX vision for the product, talking about top priorities, and describing how they fit into the company's goals, be sure to include your stakeholders. When it's time to put your plans into action, don't forget to keep them informed of how things are going. Whether through meetings or asynchronous communication, you should always have a place to give comments or updates.

Bottom Line

Developing a successful UX roadmap is a continuous process. The best way to ensure that the roadmap is destined to succeed is by -

• Prioritizing tasks and connecting them to long-term strategic goals in the roadmap.
• Using user research to prioritize future work and highlight problems you need to tackle as part of the process.
• Regularly review your roadmap and update your UX roadmap to ensure it aligns to your company’s vision.
• Ensure you have stakeholder buy-in throughout the process.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Tanvi can usually be found anxiously treading the office floor to get her content reviewed, here at Entropik. When not absorbed by researching and writing, she loves to read, go for a swim, play badminton, paint, and otherwise spend too much time bingeing on the Office and cuddling her German Shepherd, Whiskey. An absolute foodie, she would love to cook and bake for you and even give you the best dessert suggestions in the office.

Product Marketing Specialist

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Create a Winning UX Roadmap: A Step-by-Step Guide to Success

Published on Jul 27, 2023, updated on Mar 15, 2024

Modern advancements in technology is making product development more challenging day by day. Many factors affect the success of a product. One such crucial determinant is its user experience. A well-designed UX roadmap can help you maximize your user experience and increase engagement and growth opportunities.

But what really is a UX roadmap, and how can you create one to achieve the perfect user experience for your product? Let’s find out.

What Is a UX Roadmap

A UX or user experience roadmap is a well-researched document that defines user experience vision, design, and research plans. It combines product design and user experience consideration and is the overall experience attached to a product or a brand. It ensures that a company follows a user-experience approach to developing a product.

A well-organized UX roadmap will allow the team to accomplish the research and design goals timely with the required budget. The features of a good UX roadmap are:

• It should be clear, concise, and easy to understand.
• It should be based on user research.
• It should work as a prototype for future roadmaps.
• It is part of a larger product strategy.

In short, roadmap of UX is a list of users’ needs and an action plan to address those needs. Along with a list, a UX roadmap can also be a spreadsheet, slide deck, or just a bunch of sticky notes.

What Are the Benefits of a UX Roadmap

UX roadmaps communicate future work at a high level. The main benefit of a UX roadmap is that it optimizes the product management of the UX design by creating a single view of user needs and possible solutions.

It describes all the steps that need to be followed and the dates of the completion, thus giving the team a goal they need to achieve. Some other benefits of UX roadmaps are:

• Prioritize User Experience: The integration of user experience roadmaps early in the project allows you to prioritize user experience from the start. This allows better collaboration among stakeholders by enabling them to comprehend UX goals and optimize product usability.
• Align and Prioritize Diverse Work: Building a UX roadmap allows designers to reveal themes and patterns of all work activities and prioritize them based on business and user-oriented criteria. By reviewing the roadmap, teams can ensure that any new themes or changes align with their UX strategy.
• Reinforce the Importance of Design: A UX roadmap also emphasizes the significance of design in achieving product success. It serves as a tool to reinforce the importance of considering user experience alongside product development. This sends a message to the team that prioritizing user satisfaction's vital.

Types And Components Of UX Roadmaps

Source: https://ningor.tech/

There is a range of types of UX roadmaps, and they differ according to the objectives, context, and the type of target audience. These types are:

Product Roadmap

A product roadmap is a board high-level plan that tackles all the future problems that the company might face. It consists of all product-related issues, such as UX, design, development, and marketing. In addition to this, it also includes user-related issues such as user needs and product value.

Product managers are the creator and sole owners of product roadmaps. They lead by creating a product roadmap, scheduling time for meetings, and prioritizing the work according to needs. The components of product roadmaps are:

• Product Features: These are the functions the product needs to perform. One way to prevent creating a random or wrong selection of features is by going through customer requests and ranking them.
• Epics: An epic is a group of features with a mutual strategic aim. It can be considered such as that a theme might be comprised of several related epics.
• Theme: A theme in product management is a high-level objective that is built on a related set of features or stories.

Field Roadmap

Field roadmaps include problems to be solved by multiple UX areas, including user research, content, and information architecture. It uses a high-level representation that provides a holistic view of all the objectives of UX disciplines and UX design stages.

The primary creators of field roadmaps are UX directors that oversee multiple UX areas within a product. They are responsible for the team who delivers on the UX vision. This roadmap includes themes for:

• UX Design: It is the process of designing products that provide meaningful experiences for the users.
• User Research: User research forms the basis of the field roadmap. It lets the design team know what users want and how to give that to them.

Specialty Roadmaps

A specialty roadmap outlines and focuses on the specialty of just one UX area. It is built to align team members within a specific area and encourage collaboration.

These roadmaps are subsets of field roadmaps and are common for smaller UX teams to maximize their resources and communicate bandwidth.

How to Create a UX Roadmap

Creating a roadmap of UX with a handy tool, like Boardmix , is very simple. Just keep in mind the following things, and you will have a perfect UX roadmap in no time.

Define your Goals and Objectives

It is important to identify and define your goals and objectives at the very beginning of creating a UX roadmap. By involving stakeholders and aligning your work with product strategy, you can set the right path for successful execution.

Use the Right Tool

You don’t want to make a roadmap on the apps that are not built for such tasks. So, make sure that you’re using the right tool, like Boardmix . It will let you create your roadmap in minutes with the preset templates, add imitative and invite your teams with just a few clicks.

Focus on User Research

Conducting user research is another crucial step in building a roadmap. It helps you comprehend your user’s needs and behaviors, which allows you to create a better product.

Keep it Flexible

Your roadmap should be flexible. It should allow you to continuously discuss, re-prioritize and adjust it according to your customer needs and market changes.

Create Themes

After conducting research and gathering user information, you need to create themes. These themes will evaluate the problems that you need to solve based on the inputs.

Visualize and Share Your UX Roadmap

The final stage is to communicate and visualize your UX roadmap. After this, you must share your UX roadmap, keep everyone on close tabs and avoid overanalyzing your UX roadmap.

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• UX professionals
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• Professional Services
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• Jira Integration
• GitHub Integration
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• Capian Academy
• Concierge Onboarding
• Chrome Extension

UX Roadmap: definition and structure

The UX roadmap is a strategic document that provides a high-level view of the overall User eXperience (UX), as well as customer needs, UX design business objectives, features to achieve them, etc.

The creation of an effective digital product that provides excellent UX should be centered on a clear roadmap. This document should broadly describe the process to be accomplished and offer helpful tips for achieving UX goals.

What is a UX roadmap?

The UX roadmap refers to an evolving action plan that provides a well-directed guidance and a common sense of direction for the UX team. This is done with the goal of improving the quality of the user experience and delivering value to customers.

The UX Design roadmap describes all the steps to be followed and the projected dates of completion of these tasks, to achieve the previously established numerical objectives to optimize the UX. This document also identifies the resources that need to be allocated to the project, and the possible risks that are associated with the established objectives.

Since UX roadmaps provide a macroscopic view of the overall UX, as a result, they don't need to go into the details of the UX design process. In fact, these documents should be clear, concise and easy to understand, so that each member of the stakeholder team can return to them, if needed.

The benefits of creating a UX roadmap

UX roadmaps are very useful for these reasons:

• Optimize the project management of the UX design.
• Create a single view of user needs and possible solutions to meet them.
• Highlight and prioritize ideas and options for improvement.
• Integrate the user experience dimension early in the project. This helps to get team members on board with UX goals and ensure a more lucid understanding of those goals. This ensures more consistent collaboration among stakeholder team members, with the goal of optimizing product usability and improving its UX.
• Evaluate the impact of developed updates on the quality of the user experience. For example, the product team can compare any changes made in the product roadmap (such as redesigning a user interface or creating a new design) against the goals of the UX roadmap. This evaluation allows it to ensure that this change still aligns with the UX roadmap goals.

The stakeholders of a UX roadmap

The scope of the actors concerned by the UX roadmap is made up of all the cross-functional skills involved such as:

• Customers: the UX roadmap helps the customer in their purchase decision.
• The sales and marketing team: this document helps this team identify customer expectations and optimize their sales strategies.
• Designers: this document helps designers create a more elaborate and robust design over the long term, which can withstand against potential problems.
• The various other disciplines such as the business leader, product owner, executive team, etc. These stakeholders can base their strategies on the goals of the UX roadmap to make more deliberate decisions.

Aspects of a successful UX roadmap

The UX roadmap fulfills its mission when it guides the stakeholder team toward the effective achievement of UX goals. To do this, this document must align with these principles:

• It must be focused on user research. Thus, it should be based on the qualitative and quantitative methods of the UX research stage, to bring out the users' problems to be solved.
• It must be centered on the user, rather than on the product's features. Indeed, we must start from the needs and feelings of the user to be able to design the features adapted to his uses and expectations.
• It must be dynamic and alive, changing as new market trends, consumer habits, new technologies, etc.

How do you create a UX design roadmap?

The development of a UX design roadmap begins with an analysis of the problem to be solved and discuss it with the relevant managers and stakeholder teams. Thereafter, these professionals can embark on creating the roadmap, following these steps:

• establish an ambitious UX vision of the right path to get to the desired destination. This vision is based on UX research findings, to align the user experience with customer expectations and create a link to the company's UX goals.
• Create deep customer insights, including through the development of personas. This step is essential to define the challenges and enable customers to achieve their goals effectively. As a result, the company can evolve its product, while taking into account the needs of users and optimize it according to the recommendations from interviews and user tests.
• Specify success metrics that encompass indicators to analyze user behaviors and attitudes, such as conversions and level of retention and satisfaction.
• Define forecasted deadlines, with the goal of ensuring that the teams involved can achieve their priorities within the expected timeframe.
• Make a diagram of all the procedures to be undertaken during product development.
• Define the expected results after the roadmap milestones are achieved and verify that this plan enables the implementation of the company's vision.
• Monitor the pace of change and progress through the project.
• Identify usability issues that degrade the product's UX and share a unified vision, among stakeholders (designers, developers, product owner, etc.), regarding which defects, in particular, are the highest priority to address first.
• Define UX design guidelines: these principles help UX designers make the right decisions to create a well-thought-out design.

The making of this document can be done through different techniques: a slide, a spreadsheet, post-its pasted on a board, etc.

2 main tools for building a UX roadmap

Story mapping.

Story mapping is one of the key tools for the Product Owner. It is a simple graphical representation of the user journey and the different functionalities that the product is supposed to offer. This mapping is developed during a fun agile workshop, in order to provide the product team with a global vision of the different user uses, the features accomplished and those not yet realized.

The story map is defined along two axes:

• a horizontal axis that defines time.
• a vertical axis that describes the actions to be performed by the user.

Since this is a user-friendly workshop, participants use post-its and colors, with the goal of creating a more expressive visual mapping. This replaces long meetings to set the ideal user flow. This makes work more flexible and attractive.

Story mapping allows the Product Owner to establish a complete Product Backlog that defines the product features and set of features (organized in order of priority) that are ready to move to the development stage.

Impact mapping

Impact mapping is a graphical representation of possible ideas to achieve a given goal. The goal of this mapping is not only to succeed in achieving the required functionality, but also to achieve the desired goals.

Impact mapping is an effective communication medium, which aims to foster collective creativity to generate relevant ideas to advance toward desired goals.

This holder contains 4 elements:

• The goal to be achieved.
• The actors who help achieve the intended goal and those who cripple that journey.
• The impacts to be exerted on actors to achieve the goal.
• The initiatives to be adopted to achieve the envisioned impacts.

The 3 types of UX roadmaps

The types of UX roadmaps differ according to these criteria: the objectives, the context of realization and the type of target audience. We distinguish these types:

Product Roadmap

This roadmap bypasses all product-related issues, including UX, design, development, support, marketing, etc. In addition, it incorporates issues related to user needs, competitors, and product value.

The product roadmap is a fundamental tool for product owners. They use it (in collaboration with the other members involved) to map out the strategy to be adopted to align with the company's vision and strategy. This helps to define everyone's role and to prioritize and establish approximate deadlines for the implementation of the different steps of the roadmap.

On the other hand, it serves as a powerful tool to assess the fit of UX goals with market needs. This helps the product team base its strategy on customer needs and prioritize at each stage of product development.

The product roadmap is a powerful communication medium that connects several players from different disciplines. Indeed, it creates a strong synergy between the design, development, marketing, sales, content marketing, management, etc. team. This cohesion allows for the planning of the different processes of creating or optimizing the product, throughout the development cycle, in order to adapt it to the customer's expectations.

The product roadmap provides an overview of the interconnections between different departments, the issues that may arise during development, and how to act to achieve the overall product goals. Note that only one roadmap can be established for each product.

Field Roadmap

This roadmap is for all future issues closely related to UX such as UX search, information architecture, content, etc. Unlike the product roadmap, a field roadmap can be created for multiple products.

This roadmap is developed by the UX managers (UX designer, UX Researcher, UX Architect, etc) to get the other stakeholders on board with the user-centric approach, which represents the foundation of the project's UX vision.

The field roadmap provides a holistic view of all the objectives of the different UX disciplines and all the UX design stages (UX research, UX design, wireframing, prototyping, etc), while using a high-level representation that doesn't deal with the details.

Thus, each collaborator can view the roles and assignments of their colleagues, from this document, to more easily communicate about the project.

This paper also identifies potential issues that may be encountered by UX professionals that may affect the quality of the user experience.

This tool is employed in conjunction with the product roadmap to optimize the driving of the overall experience.

Specialty Roadmap

This roadmap represents a subset of the field roadmap and focuses on a single UX discipline, such as UX design or UX writing. This roadmap highlights the problems that this discipline needs to solve, in addition to the resources and players involved.

Specialty Roadmaps can be established by all UX departments. On the other hand, they can also be created by ResearchOps or DesignOps roles, or by small structures or independent professionals who want to easily map out future issues that may be holding back the implementation of their strategies. Indeed, these roadmaps are easy to create and do not require considerable time or effort to complete.

The specialty roadmap presents a clear visualization of the assignments of each problem and the members who are working on it. This document shares insight into the appropriateness of resource allocation and workload distribution.

Closing Remarks

Every company must focus on the most functional strategy that allows it to achieve its business goals and provide customers with a better user experience. The UX roadmap presents itself as an effective means to this end.

The purpose of the UX Design roadmap is to document all the actions and decisions needed to achieve the planned UX objectives. This includes the UX vision, customer insight, product value, etc.

The company can choose between different types of roadmaps (product roadmap, field roadmap, or specialty roadmap), depending on the nature of its product, the problems it plans to solve, and the resources it needs to allocate, with the goal of ensuring an experience that lives up to users' expectations.

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How to create a yearly UX research roadmap?

Like any other practice, UX research is more powerful when strategically planned ahead with coherence, vision and purpose. This requires your company’s overall goals to be formally expressed so that UX research can align with and serve these goals.

Planning your UX research can be done with several timeframes in mind: daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually or even bi-annually for the companies who have enough visibility and ressources. Having this sense of direction will help you create more impact and show it with more clarity.

In this article, we explore steps you can take to plan your UX research for the year and how to transcribe this into your day-to-day work.

A UXR yearly rendez-vous

A great way to start planning your UX research is by taking a look back and see what has been done over the last year/period. Gather data about the resources that were used, discuss with stakeholders, ask for their highlights, quote your users, list UX improvements and achievements. Use these elements to create a report, a presentation or even a video that you will share with stakeholders.

If there is already an existing event at your organization dedicated to this type of presentation, use it as a platform to share the value of UX research.

If there is not one yet, ask around if people would appreciate creating such a ritual (either dedicated to UX or to overall performance at your organization depending on its size).

This will create beneficial cycles at your organization:

• teambuilding : gathering all team members can become rare in the post-Covid era of remote work, many people might be happy to get together. This helps foster collaboration, synergies within and between teams as well as creating a sense of belonging.
• transparency and accountability : creating a company culture where everyone embraces the collective responsibility of both struggles and successes. The clarity brought by collectively sharing feedback will serve the performance of your future actions.
• evangelizing UX research : talking regularly about UXR in a semi-formal setting is a great way to spark conversations, slowly build knowledge about the practice, involve people in the research process and convince them of its value

After sharing achievements of the past year, you should also outline your UX research strategy and plan for the next year. This will help people at your organization align their expectations and figure out ways they could take part in the advancement of user experience (how can they help you research?, how can they research themselves?, how can they use your research insights?).

How to report on the performance of user experience and research?

Inputs: what have you put into your uxr.

Looking back on the year, describe and quantify all of the efforts that have gone into your UX research and assign a money cost to each.

Here are a few examples of inputs: Number of people dedicated to user experience and research, number of hours worked on UX by non-UX dedicated team members, budget spent on UX and research tools and processes.

If possible, do this review collectively so that everyone is able to share their perspective on the past year and avoid forgetting parts of your investments in UXR. If one person is responsible for making this list, have it reviewed by other team members so that they can adjust afterwards.

Outputs: What came out of your UXR work?

If you already have a log of deliverables that UXR teams have handed-out, use it to make an exhaustive list of results derived from the past year’s UXR.

Here are a few examples of quantifiable outputs: Number of problems/frictions solved, number of insights delivered to design and product teams, number of users met, number of user feedbacks gathered

You can also measure the evolution of user satisfaction and other UX KPIs: Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer satisfaction score (CSAT), conversion rates, time on page, bounce rate, findability and usability among others.

You might want to include ResearchOps improvements as well because they contribute to the evolution of your UXR’s ROI.

If you have enough resources you can precisely compare inputs and outputs of your UX research. This will give you the return-on-investment of your actions. This is especially valuable for organizations where the value of UX research is not understood yet or for bigger corporations with higher reporting needs. There are 2 ways to do this:

• give a value to your outputs and compare it to the resources used. For example, let’s say your overall UXR budget amounts to 110K€ a year. You estimate the value of your UXR outputs amounts to 340k€. Then, the ROI of your UXR is 3,1. The value of UXR outputs should be estimated collectively (with UX, design and product teams) so that stakeholders agree on the ROI of UXR and can act on it. You can then compare it period over period to assess the evolution of ROI.
• measure the cost of each output (by allocating inputs’ use) and follow-it period over period. This will help you answer this question: How does the cost of [UX research action] evolve? For example, let’s say your overall UXR budget amounts to 95K€ a year and your insights have helped solve 92 friction points. Then, the resolution cost for friction points is 1032. If you calculate and compare this variable period over period, it will help you monitor the evolution of your UXR’s ROI.

How to create a research roadmap?

A research roadmap will give you a direction for the year: the clarity of where you are going which will in turn unite team members around a common goal. This plan must be precise and agile, allowing for modifications or even U turns.

Translate the company’s overall goals into user experience goals

A common challenge of UXR is to align actions and outputs with business goals. When there is misalignment, UXR can end up not feeling heard.

To avoid this, wonder how your work can support and lead the advancement of your company’s KPIs.

Understanding business objectives

If the company’s goals are clearly established, make sure you understand them and have clarity about how your work will contribute to their achievement.

If the company’s goals are not clearly established or shared, ask for them by explaining how this will help you be more productive and aligned.

Understanding product roadmap

The product roadmap is derived from business goals and will be your reference to build your UX research roadmap. Once again, make sure you understand it and your contribution to it.

In this roadmap, identify priorities and estimate your ability to support each of these. If you believe choices have to be made in terms of where your work is most needed, state it clearly from the get-go so that expectations are aligned with what you can deliver.

For each of the product roadmap’s elements, define whether your work is needed before, during and/or after. For example: if a V1 feature launch is planned for May, you can allocate time for discovery in April and evaluative studies in May. If another project’s timing comes in conflict with this schedule, share your concerns beforehand so that adjustments can be made, resources found or know which project will most need your insights.

Research ops and continuous improvements

Maybe some of your efforts this year will be dedicated to improving your processes to deliver with a better ROI. For example:

• you might be looking to automate some processes so that you can dedicate more time on higher added-value tasks.
• you may start using a new repository tool for which you have to allocate time to set-up, establish processes, train and evangelize
• you could be looking to increase the share of your time dedicated to discovery by reducing time spent on research ops tasks

The key is to find balance between user goals and business goals. As a designer, you might have a tendency to lean towards users over business. It creates a risk of misalignment with your colleagues of other departments. They might think you don’t value the company’s interest or don’t understand business goals. If you are able to align business goals with users goals, you can create a beneficial synergy that has higher chances to last than if you solely focus on user goals over business’.

It is also you role to challenge stakeholders if they don’t grasp the users goals that need to be met if business goals are to be achieved. This is done by creating empathy, using data and storytelling to advocate for your users.

Company life

Your yearly roadmap should also take into account your company’s major evolutions to come. For example, if you know teams will expand/or shrink, allocate time and resources to adapt to these changes: teambuilding, training, reorganization. This will help you to be more realistic about what can or cannot be done.

Translate user experience goals into research goals

User experience goals will need to be fed by user research to maximize their chance of success and impact. You have to wonder what questions have to be answered to go forward with a clear understanding of what has to be done and how it will serve users.

Here are examples of questions UXR can answer:

• How do users act today?
• What is currently working well?
• What drives X or Y behavior?
• Which users meet X problem and what are their characteristics?
• Are users satisfied with current solutions?

Here are examples of question UXR CANNOT answer:

• Which solutions/features should we develop?
• What offer should we build?
• What is the path to success?
• Would users use X/pay for Y?

Managing your stakeholders’ expectations is important to advance your UX research.

Tandemz helps you answer your research goals by finding you the best suited participants in just a couple of clicks!

Turn research goals into actionable steps.

Depending on your company’s and your UXR team’s size, you can adjust the level of precision for this step. The more resources you have, the more opportunity you will have to plan and detail your actions in advance. The bigger your company, the more necessary it becomes because purpose can be easily lost when teams grow and specialize.

• What do you need to deliver?

Define the format of the deliverable (written report, presentation), what you include in it (what data, quotes from users, screenshots, video extracts

• When do you need to deliver?

Deploy your actions over the year: break your goals into monthly or even weekly steps. Make it clear with your stakeholders when they need each deliverable and whether it is manageable on your side. If not, ask for more resources or prioritization.

• What do you need to conduct UXR?

List the resources you will need to reach your research goals by answering the following questions:

• How many team members do you need? Is the need steady along the year or are there picks, low and high seasons? If the latter is true, you can use external resources in times of high-demand to absorb the extra workload.
• How do you plan on recruiting your testers and how many do you need? At what frequency will you meet them? Where? Do you need to rent a dedicated space?
• What tools will you need? To recruit, meet, compensate testers? To record interviews, take notes, analyze, translate and organize transcripts? To design and send surveys? To analyze survey answer? To gather and share insights?

If you are in the process of investing more in UXR tools (because your team is growing or you have more resources), try to start slow in order not to overwhelm team members and ensure a high acceptance rate. Allocate time to train, create processes and gather feedbacks.

If you are starting to implement several new tools, spread their introduction over the year to give each of them the opportunity to be understood and accepted correctly.

Overall, what budget will your require to put in place all of the elements mentioned over?

• Who will deliver?

Which team members, internal/external, dedicated to UX/research or not?

Depending on the team members you have available and their skills, you might decide to outsource some of the work. This can help absorb peak research activity if you estimate it will be temporary or access skills that are not available in your team at the moment.

How will the roles be allocated? Are you separating research ops and research itself?

There are 2 strategies regarding research operations:

• have everyone do their own research ops. In this case, ensure team members are sharing best practices.
• have dedicated people taking care of the research ops . This option requires more resources and confidence in the amount of research that needs to be conducted. However, the added specialization creates opportunity for increased efficiency.
• How will these insights be used?

Conducting research only makes sense if it drives decision-making and actions. Although your strict role as a UXR is to deliver insights, in order to enhance the value of your work, you should also work on following-up with how your insights are used.

• What are the resources available to other teams to implement your recommendations, in what time frame? Ask this question as soon as you receive a request for research. This way, you avoid focusing on problems you don’t have the budget to solve.
• How will you be included in the follow-up of UXR insights? You can plan ahead with your stakeholders when you will meet them after insights delivery to discuss their advancement.
• How will you measure the success of your research?

What KPIs will you choose? (You can find a list in the output section over).

Here are some methods you can use to measure the impact of your research: web analytics, heatmaps, feedback widgets, user testing and surveys.

These KPIs should be understood and shared with all stakeholders. They have to reflect both user goals and business goals.

Creating a yearly UXR roadmap should be done according to your resources. It will help small companies identify key highlights of their year while giving bigger organizations a clear path to achieve UXR goals and how.

Investing time in creating such a tool will drive more clarity, alignement and engagement which will increase the ROI of your UX research.

Unlock your user research superpowers with Tandemz!

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Jan 23, 2024

How to build a UX research repository (that people actually use)

Extend the shelf life of your research and set your team up for long-term success with a robust research repository. Here’s how to build yours from scratch.

Ella Webber

Every UX research report was once a mountain of raw, unstructured data. User research repositories help collate that data, disseminate insights, democratize research, and spread the value of user research throughout your organization.

However, building (and maintaining) an accessible user research repository is no simple task. Getting people to use it is a whole other ball game.

In this guide, we’ll break down the specifics of user research repositories, some best practices and the benefits of building your own research library, plus how to get started, and our favorite examples of robust research repositories.

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What is a research repository in UX research?

A user research repository is a centralized database which includes all your user research data, UX research reports , and artifacts. Different teams—like design, product, sales, and marketing—can find insights from past projects to contextualize present scenarios and make informed decisions.

Storing all your research data in a single place ensures every team has access to user insights and can use them to make research-driven decisions. Typically maintained by a research operations team, a well-structured research repository is an important step toward breaking down silos and democratizing user research for the entire organization.

If you’re looking to improve research maturity across your organization and start scaling UX research , building a watertight user research repository is your first step.

What’s included in a research repository?

Building a UX research repository can be challenging. Between compiling all the data, creating a collaborative space, and making it easily accessible to the teams who need it, you might be struggling to identify a start point.

Here’s a checklist of all the essentials to streamline the setup:

✅ Mission and vision ✅ Research roadmap ✅ Key methodologies ✅ Tools and templates ✅ Research findings ✅ Raw data and artifacts

Mission and vision

Whether you have a dedicated user research team or involve multiple departments in the UX research process , you need a clear mission and vision statement to create a shared purpose and foster collaboration. Not only should you include your wider UX research strategy and vision, but a ‘North Star’ for your repository, too.

For example, the mission statement for your repository could be, “Streamline our UX design process and promote informed decision-making with a centralized hub of user feedback and insights.”

Research roadmap

A clear UX roadmap makes it easy to prioritize your research efforts and seamlessly organize your repository. It analyzes your objectives and outlines all upcoming projects in a given timeline. You can use this roadmap to catalog your previous research campaigns and plan ahead .

Key methodologies

You should also list all the research methods you follow to create repeatable success. You can save SOPs for different methodologies to minimize the scope of error and set your team members up for success. Mia Mishek , UX Research Operations Program Manager at Pax8 , explains:

“Every repository should include common documents related to the research at hand, such as a brief, moderation guide/test script, and readout. Having all the documents easily accessible allows others to cross-reference while consuming research and use past research as a jumping-off point for further research.”

Tools and templates

Create a list of collaboration and product management tools for different steps in the product research process , such as usability testing , interviews, note-taking, data analysis, and more. Outline these and don’t forget to give quick access links to all your UX research tools .

Outlining instructions and key templates for specific research methods or analysis techniques can be useful. Consider including any tried-and-tested question repositories or best practices.

Research findings

Your repository should include a set of findings from every study. While you can add the final reports for all projects, it’s also a good practice to add quick takeaways and tags to make your collection easily searchable.

If you’ve conducted different types of analysis, it’s worth linking these here, too. Whether that’s a photo of your thematic analysis workshop, a walkthrough video of your results, or a link to digital affinity diagram.

Raw data and artifacts

Alongside research reports, you can store all the raw data from each study, like user interview recordings and transcriptions. Your team members can revisit this data to plan upcoming projects effectively or connect the dots between past and present insights.

Depending on how you store this, you may want to consider keeping piles of raw data in a ‘view only’ or locked area of the repository, to avoid risk of accidental tampering or deletion.

What are the benefits of a research repository?

User research is an ongoing process. The trickiest part for most teams when pursuing continuous research is breaking down silos and establishing a democratized approach to prevent wasteful overlap, unnecessary effort, and a lack of knowledge-sharing.

A good research repository fosters a culture of collaboration and supports user-centric design through collectively prioritizing and understanding your users.

Here are a few core benefits of building a user research repository:

Quickly access user research data

An easily searchable UX research repository makes it easy to filter through a mountain of data and find specific insights without pouring hours into it. Mia emphasizes the importance of making the information easily accessible:

“You should be able to go into the repository, understand what research has been done on X topic, and get the information you’re after. If you need someone else to walk you through the repository, or if there’s missing information, then it’s not doing its job.”

By creating a self-serve database, you can make all the data accessible to everyone and save time spent on reviewing prior research to feed existing efforts.

Inspire ideas and prioritize future research

A research repository can also help in identifying knowledge gaps in your existing research and highlight topics worth further exploration. Analyzing your past data can spark ideas for innovative features and guide your research efforts.

Different teams can utilize a research repository to help guide the product roadmap on areas that still need to be explored in the app, or areas that need to be revisited.

Mia Mishek , UX Research Operations Program Leader at Pax8

Build a shared knowledge library

One crucial advantage of a repository is that it helps democratize user research. Not only does it highlight the value of research and showcase the efforts of your product and research teams, but by centralizing research findings, you’re making it easier for everyone to make data-informed, user-centric decisions.

A research repository also provides versatility and other use cases to your research insights—from product managers to sales leaders, all stakeholders can access user insights for making research-driven decisions across the organization. Whether that’s informing a sales pitch, product roadmap, or business strategy; there’s endless applications for UX research.

This practice of knowledge-sharing and democratizing user insights is a big step in building a truly user-centered approach to product development.

Contextualize new data with past evidence

Your repository records all the raw data from past projects, making it easier to compare and contrast new findings with previous user research. This data also allows researchers to develop more nuanced reports by connecting the dots between present and past data.

Mia explains how these repositories cut down on the redundant effort of trying to dig up old research data on any topic: “A repository benefits UX researchers and designers because it’s not uncommon to ask what research was done on XYZ area before conducting more research. No one wants to do reductive work, so without a repository, it’s easy to forget past research on similar topics.”

What’s more, research libraries avoid the same research being repeated; instead allowing as many people as possible to benefit from the research, while minimizing the resources and time used.

4 Best research repository tools and templates

You don’t need a specialized tool to create a user research repository. A well-organized, shared Google Drive or Notion teamspace with detailed documentation can be just as effective. However, if you can, a dedicated tool is going to make your life a lot easier.

Here are four research repository tools to consider for storing existing and new research insights on, and working cross-functionally with multiple teams.

1. Confluence

Confluence is a team workspace tool by Atlassian that streamlines remote work. You can use this platform to create research docs from scratch, share them with your team, and save them for future reference. Plus, the tool lets you design wikis for each research study to organize everything—raw data, findings, and reports—in a structured manner.

You also get a centralized space to store data and docs from extra accounts, so multiple people can contribute to and access your repository.

Condens is a centralized UX research and analysis platform for storing, structuring, and analyzing user research data–and sharing those insights across your organization. You can collaborate on data analysis, create pattern recognition, and create artifacts for comprehensive outcomes.

With a detailed research repository guide to help you on your way, it's a great tool for teams of any size. Plus, you can also embed live Maze reports, alongside other UX research and analysis tools.

3. Dovetail

Dovetail is a user research platform for collecting, analyzing, and storing research projects. You can save and retrieve all documents from a single database, while tags, labels, and descriptions also simplify the task of cataloging past data.

The platform gives you a strong search function to quickly find any file or data from the entire hub. You can also use multiple templates to migrate data from different platforms to Dovetail.

4. Airtable

Airtable is a low-code tool for building apps that enables you to create a custom database for your UX research projects. It’s ideal for product teams looking to set up the entire repository from scratch because you need to configure everything independently.

You get a high degree of flexibility to integrate different data sources, design a customized interface, and access data in dynamic views. What’s more, you can build an interactive relational database to request resources from others and stay on top of the status of existing work.

Here’s a research repository database to get started.

Creating a UX research repository: 5 Best practices

Designing a bespoke repository to organize your research requires careful planning, a thorough setup workflow, and continuous maintenance. But once it’s ready, you’ll wonder how your product team survived without it. To get you started, here’s our five best practices to implement this process effectively and kickstart your repository.

1. Define clear objectives for your repository

Start by outlining what you want to achieve with a shared research library. You might want to standardize research methodologies across the board or build alignment between multiple teams to create more consistent outputs.

This goal-setting exercise gives all team members a purpose to pursue in upcoming projects. When they know what success looks like, they can strategically plan research questions and choose analysis methods.

Knowing your objectives will also help shortlist the best research and usability testing tools . You can invest in a good platform by evaluating a few core capabilities needed to achieve your goals (more on that shortly).

2. Create a structure and define taxonomy

You can structure your UX repository as a database with multiple fields. For example, here are a few fields to easily categorize responses when documenting user experience research:

• Key insights
• User quotes
• Criticality
• Sources of knowledge
• Possible solutions that were considered

Besides creating a structure to document a research study, you also need a well-defined taxonomy to help people find information. Defining your research taxonomy will help you categorize information effectively and design consistent naming conventions.

For example, you can create a set of predefined categories for every research study like:

• Focus country: USA, Australia, Canada, France
• Collected feedback: Feature request, feature enhancement, bugs
• Methodology: Usability testing, user interview, survey
• User journey stage: Before activation, power user, after renewal

💡 Less jargon, more alignment

Involve multiple stakeholders when defining the terminology for your library, and check it aligns with any internal Style Guides or glossaries. This ensures alignment from the outset, and makes it easy for everyone to filter results and find what they need.

3. Distribute knowledge through atomic research

Atomic research is an approach to UX research that prioritizes user research data organization. It proposes that you conduct research so that every piece of the project becomes easily reusable and accessible to all stakeholders.

According to the atomic research approach , you need to consider four components to organize your repository:

• Experiments (We did this): Explain the research methodology and the steps you followed in conducting the study
• Facts (We saw this): Document the main findings evident from the data gathered in the study
• Insights (Which made us think): Capture the key insights extracted from analyzing the research data
• Opportunities (So we did that): List the decisions and action items resulting from the research analysis

Using atomic research, you can create nuggets to organize information in your repository.

Nuggets are the smallest unit of information containing one specific insight, like a user quote, data point, or observation. The different types of nuggets to categorize your research data include observations , evidence , and tags . By breaking down a vast study into smaller nuggets, you can make your repository informative at a glance. You can use your defined taxonomy to label these nuggets.

4. Identify the creators and consumers in your team

Before outlining your repository’s structure, you need to define workflows for creating, reviewing, and maintaining the library. Spend some time defining who will:

• Own the setup process and create the overall guidelines
• Access past documents and add contributions consistently
• Maintain the documents for easy accessibility
• Only need to access customer insights

Assigning these roles makes it easy to estimate your team's bandwidth for building and maintaining such a massive library. You can also manage permissions in your repository platform to give everyone access to relevant materials and protect confidential resources.

Mia explains why this is important to make your repository more meaningful for end-users:

“You need to keep in mind the JTBD (jobs to be done) framework when building a repository. What do the folks accessing your repository need to do? Who are those people? You need to build your repository with the purpose of those distinct users.”

5. Shortlist and finalize tools based on your goals

When evaluating different research repository tools, consider your requirements and compare different platforms against the essential features you need for this repository. If you’re creating one for the first time, it’s okay to create an experimental setup to understand the impact.

Here are a few key factors to consider when shortlisting research repository tools:

• Ease of setup and use: Choose a platform with a gentle learning curve, especially if you have a big team with multiple members. A quick setup and user-friendly interface can maximize adoption and make your repository more accessible.
• Collaboration capabilities: A good repository lets you interact with different team members through comments, chat boxes, or tags. You can also manage permissions and set up different roles to share relevant research with specific stakeholders and team members .
• Tagging and searchability: Your repository is only as good as its ability to show precise search results for any keyword. Consider the ease of labeling new information and test the search function to check the accuracy of the results.
• Export and integrations: You’ll need to export some data or streamline your entire research ops setup by integrating different tools. So, evaluate each tool’s integration capabilities and the options to export information.

Plus, your ideal tool might be a combination of tools. For example, Steven Zhang , former Senior Software Engineer at Airtable, used a combination of Gong and Airtable when first building a UX research repository . It’s about considering your needs and finding what works for your team.

Democratize user research in your organization

A UX research repository gives you easy access to insights from past projects, and enables you to map new insights to old findings for a more nuanced understanding of your users.

More importantly, building a single source of truth for your entire organization means everyone on your team can access research data to inform their projects.

Different teams can use this data to make strategic design decisions, iterate product messaging, or deliver meaningful customer support.

Sound good? That’s what we thought—build your repository today to evangelize and democratize UX research in your organization.

Need a seamless solution to collect meaningful research insights?

Maze helps you collect and analyze research to find purposeful data for your product roadmap

Frequently asked questions about UX research repository

How do I create a user research repository?

You can create a user research repository with these best practices:

• Define clear objectives for your repository
• Create a structure and define taxonomy
• Distribute knowledge through atomic research
• Identify the creators and consumers in your team
• Shortlist and finalize tools based on your goals

What makes a good research repository?

A good research repository tells the team's mission and vision for using research. It's also easily searchable with relevant tags and labels to categorize documents, and includes tools, templates, and other resources for better adoption.

What’s the purpose of a research repository?

A research repository aims to make your UX research accessible to everyone. It democratizes research operations and fosters knowledge-sharing, giving everyone on your team access to critical insights and firsthand user feedback.

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World Leaders in Research-Based User Experience

Product and ux: study guide.

June 28, 2024 2024-06-28

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This study guide contains NN/g’s articles and videos on how UX professionals can collaborate effectively with product managers and mitigate common challenges such as role overlap and duplicate work. Product quality and team satisfaction increase when product-management and UX roles are partners.

In This Article:

Product management vs. ux, clarifying responsibilities for collaboration , using roadmaps to plan product and ux work, related topics and study guides.

The articles in this section help clarify product management as a discipline and the role of the product manager (also known as product owner in organizations following the Agile-scrum methodology).

Product managers and UX practitioners share the goal of delivering value to users through the product experience. The articles below describe the expertise of product managers and how they cultivate value through product-led growth.

It is ideal for product roles and UX to partner throughout product development, stay strategically aligned, and take responsibility for tasks that fall within their areas of expertise. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen. One role may unknowingly do the work of another or assume it to be within (or outside) the scope of their job.

When there is confusion about responsibilities in product development, work is duplicated, teams waste time, and people get frustrated.

Use the articles and frameworks below to align role expectations and job responsibilities  so you can collaborate and maintain momentum in product development.

Roadmaps (and the process of roadmapping) are an area where UX and product managers can share the responsibility of planning, prioritizing, and communicating product development. By aligning these efforts with specific goals, roadmaps help orient the team around problems to solve and opportunities to explore in user research.

Roadmaps can vary in scope and focus. They might cover the work of the entire product team or just the user experience team. This flexibility helps everyone understand the big picture and efforts that shouldn't be overlooked or rushed during product development.

Use the articles and videos below to understand the process of creating and maintaining a roadmap and how various roadmap scopes can work together to plan for and keep product-development efforts on track.

Product managers are key strategic stakeholders. See the following articles and videos to aid in further developing relationships and establishing collaborative product-development practices.

Related Courses

Product and ux: building partnerships for better outcomes.

Understand UX and product roles (PM and PO) to better collaborate in product development

Facilitating UX Workshops

Lead goal-based group activities to make decisions and establish alignment

Successful Stakeholder Relationships

Get buy-in, manage expectations, and build trust

Related Topics

• Study Guides Study Guides

Learn More:

Successful Projects: 7 Steps for Better Collaboration

Tim Neusesser · 4 min

Improving UX Maturity: 10 Communication Activities

Tim Neusesser · 3 min

Organizing UX Feedback

Anna Kaley · 2 min

Related Articles:

Storytelling in UX Work: Study Guide

Megan Chan · 3 min

Accessibility and Inclusivity: Study Guide

Tanner Kohler · 5 min

Omnichannel Journeys and Customer Experience: Study Guide

Kim Salazar · 4 min

Visual Design in UX: Study Guide

Kelley Gordon · 3 min

UX Stakeholders: Study Guide

Sarah Gibbons · 2 min

Communication Practices for Increasing UX Maturity

Tim Neusesser · 5 min

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How to Design a UX Roadmap?

Discover what a UX roadmap is and how to create one.

Key moments in this video

00:00 In this video

00:28 What is a UX roadmap?

01:06 UX roadmap types

02:32 Step #1 – Choose the necessary data

02:58 Step #2 – Create themes

03:26 Step #3 – Prioritize themes

03:50 Step #4 – Assign time horizons to themes

04:15 Step #5 – Share your UX roadmap

04:42 Wrapping up

Video summary

How do you guide the strategic development of a product’s user experience ? At UXtweak, we create roadmaps! Watch the video to discover what a UX roadmap is and how to design one in 5 easy steps.

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How to Create a UX Persona?

Discover what a UX persona is and how to create one.

UX Audit Checklist

Discover 6 most important things to include in a UX audit checklist.

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What is User Experience (UX) Research?

Learn about the rapidly growing research discipline guiding today’s most innovative products, services and solutions.

The Basics of UX Research

What is ux research.

UX research studies the interaction between people and the products, services or solutions they use. As an integral part of the overall design process, UX research allows teams to model their current users and optimize future engagements .

UX researchers conduct a variety of controlled experiments to generate the insights Design Thinking teams rely on. These experiments, also called “methods” or “tools”, range from qualitative walkthroughs and interviews to quantitative surveys and card sorting.

Why is UX Research important?

Today’s highly competitive global market means people expect more from every experience than ever before. It is no longer enough for your solution to have utility — usability is equally important. If your solution isn’t fun or friendly to use, you can expect adoption will suffer.

What is UX Research vs UX Design?

UX research and design are two sides of the same coin: The former is concerned with understanding an experience, and the latter is focused on defining it. Each discipline relies on its own specific set of skills, and they are often conducted by different teams or team members.

While UX Research and UX Design have distinct focuses and methods, they are connected through pivotal UX artifacts, including user personas and information architectures.

What is usability vs accessibility?

Usability and accessibility are closely related concepts considered throughout the UX research process. In short,

• Usable interfaces require little or no explanation to use
• Accessible interfaces can be used by people with a range of abilities

The goal of UX research is to provide designers with the data they need to develop solutions that are both immediately usable and widely accessible.

Over the past 30 years, several tools and standards have been developed to help identify usability and accessibility issues. Two well-known benchmarks are described below.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Initially developed in the late 1990s, the WCAG are designed to help improve the accessibility of online content for people with disabilities by providing a comprehensive set of design recommendations. In some countries, such as the UK, these guidelines are enforced by law. Learn more about WCAG guidelines

System Usability Scale (SUS) Developed in the 1980s, the SUS is a simple survey that asks participants to answer 10 questions about a product or service on a scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The ratings are then combined, and a resulting score from 0-100 is produced. Traditionally, a score of 68 or higher is considered more usable than average. Learn more about the System Usability Scale

Common UX Research Tools

To study the user experience, UX researchers employ a variety of tools derived from disciplines including ergonomics, psychology and engineering. These tools are commonly divided into Quantitative UX Research Methods and Qualitative UX Research Methods . The difference between the two is the type of data they provide — i.e. specific quantities or observed qualities.

Quantitative UX Research Tools

Quantitative UX research techniques generate hard data that can be used to prioritize needs, benchmark designs, and assess KPIs. Among the most common techniques are:

Quantitative UX Research tools

• User surveys
• Heuristic evaluation
• Card sorting
• Click-tracking
• A/B testing

Qualitative UX Research Tools

Qualitative UX research techniques generate human insights that can be used to model users, map interactions and inspire innovative ideas. Among the most common techniques are:

Qualitative UX Research tools

• User interviews
• Focus groups
• Remote walkthrough
• Tree testing
• Diary studies

You can find more detailed information about each of the methods listed below in our UX Research Methods guide.

The 4-Stage UX Research Process

The following framework breaks down the complete UX research process into a series of four distinct stages: Explore, Observe, Iterate and Verify.

These four UX research stages can be completed individually to fill specific knowledge gaps, or in sequence to support a complete design thinking process.

Stage 1 Explore the solution space

Whether developing new solutions or improving existing ones, the UX research process always begins in the explore stage. The only difference between the two situations is the type of data that will be available to researchers — while existing designs can be examined for their performance (through analytics, surveys and heuristic evaluation), novel designs requires other ways of proxying the current experience.

Explore Methods

• Literature review
• Analytics review

Deliverable: The primary deliverable of this stage is an insight-filled document called the “Current Landscape”. This document identifies major opportunities and constraints within the solution space, and is often compiled prior to design thinking workshops in order to streamline creative collaborations. For more details about the current landscape, see our design thinking workshop guide .

Stage 2 Observe users in context

Arguably the most important stage of the entire UX research process, this is where teams generate the actionable human insights that inspire new ideas and align cross functional efforts. Here, a variety of moderated (direct observation) and unmoderated (fly on the wall) methods are used to model users and identify their most relevant behaviors and goals.

While this stage is mandatory for user-centered design, the scope and scale of the research is highly variable: For example, global teams building a new product for an emerging market will need to spend significantly more time here than teams looking to improve an existing solution for a familiar audience.

Observe Methods

• Card sorting (open, closed, Delphi)
• Diary/photo studies
• Participatory design

Deliverables: Insights generated during the Observe stage are typically delivered in the form of: user stories, user personas, user journey maps and empathy maps. Together, these artifacts define who your “users” are, providing design thinking teams with the context they need to develop supportive solutions.

Note that user stories (As a / I want / So that) and empathy maps (Think/Do/Say/Hear, Pain/Gain) capture the direct observations of specific individuals, whereas personas and journey maps reflect the collective experiences of a user group. As such, personas and maps developed during UX research should always be treated as prototypes that are iterated upon as a broader team.

Stage 3 Iterate architecture and flows

The Iterate stage is where UX research shifts from studying situations to studying solutions. As such, the methods move from primarily qualitative toward more quantitative methods which are easier to connect to KPIs. Given the iterative nature of design, multiple rounds of research may be needed here to guide major design decisions regarding the most effective conceptual models, user flows, interfaces and other design elements. Large projects with low risk tolerance such as healthcare can expect to spend a significant amount of time in this stage, while projects that can afford to launch an MVP and “learn live” should devote considerably less.

Iterate Methods

• Concept testing
• Heuristic evaluations
• Click tracking
• Eye tracking

Deliverables: Score-carding is a common way to articulate insights gathered during the Iterate phase. By developing a transparent set of predetermined criteria, researchers can reduce bias and create reusable benchmarks for future design projects.

Stage 4 Verify critical decisions

When a pre-production prototype is ready, UX researchers are able to shift from studying aspects of an experience, to studying the entire experience in context. This process is often referred to as usability testing, and it allows teams to verify design decisions and make accurate measurements of the design performance. Based on the domain, these measurements can confirm improvements to the design, and make predictions about the real-world impact marketing purposes or financial considerations.

Similar to the Iterate stage, the requirement to “smoke test” designs prior to launch is determined by the risk tolerance of the domain. While a simple Hallway Usability Test leveraging a System Usability Scale is enough for some, others will require more rigor. Note that while usability tests used to require dedicated labs, the ease of screen sharing and recording today have opened the door to a variety of low-cost, unmoderated testing possibilities.

Verify Methods

• Usability testing
• Intercept surveys

Deliverables: The results of Usability Testing can be delivered either directly (ex. System Usability Scale scorecards), or formalized as Performance Forecasts that speak directly to specific project KPIs. For example, performance metrics like 15% increase in time-on-task, or 50% higher conversions could be important metrics to drive adoption.

How to Create a UX Research Plan

UX research plans are a helpful tool for organizing complex design efforts with cross functional teams. While there are countless ways to format your plan (documents, diagrams, spreadsheets, slideshows), they should always aim to cover the basic “WH” questions regarding each planned method.

When creating your UX research plan, consider the following 5 steps as a starting point:

Determine your research objectives

The first step of creating a UX research plan is clarifying what you hope to gain.

Ask yourself:

• Why do we need to conduct UX research?
• What do we hope to learn?
• Are we looking to support an entire project
• Or answering a specific question?

Using the four stages above (Explore, Observe, Iterate, Verify) is a helpful way to define your objectives.. In practice, tactical UX research will focus on a single stage, while strategic support will address several or all. You can also determine your objectives based on what deliverables you need: For example, if you know you need User Personas, your research plan should focus primarily on methods within the Explore and Observe.

Consider business constraints

UX research isn’t a blue-sky endeavour — it’s a targeted system for improving real-world solutions. That means the same constraints that guide your design project decisions apply. In general:

• Team: What experience do we have internally? Who can fully commit?
• Time: Do we need it done yesterday, or are we preparing for tomorrow?
• Budget: How much are the answers we want worth to us?

Fortunately, new technologies have significantly reduced UX research costs, and much of what used to require special labs can now be done remotely with easy-to-use (as you’d expect) online tools.

Select your research methods

Knowing what you need to know — and what you have to work with — will define the methods you select. In addition to knowing what stage you are in, the following groups can help guide your selections.

• Lean methods help teams align early
• Rich methods provide inspiring user insights
• Reactive methods support steady improvements
• Preventive methods model future experiences

Note that the design thinking process is highly iterative, so leave room to stay flexible. This is especially true when building novel solutions or addressing new markets. That’s where applying UX research stages are especially helpful to maintain the overall direction.

Identify research participants

You will never get the right answers if you ask the wrong people. That’s why having validated user personas is such a powerful part of the UX design process , as it makes recruiting the right people relatively simple. However, if your goal is to develop personas (as is often the case), more careful consideration is required.

When recruiting for each method, consider:

• Internal or external?
• Clients or crowdsourced?
• Experienced or naive?
• How many per persona?

How many is enough? While cost/risk tolerance is typically a key driver for the number of participants, statistical methods should dictate sample sizes when confidence intervals are desired (as in surveys).

Note: It is generally held that UX research conducted with five participants can identify 80% of the usability issues. Beyond that, the laws of diminishing returns take over, and the additional issues you find will be niche. See [1] for an interesting study on the “5 participant rule”.

Compile a shareable roadmap

The final step when creating a UX research plan is assembling the plan itself. Cloud-based spreadsheets or documents are generally best.

UX Research plan outline

• The primary research objective
• The stages that will be used
• The methods within each stage
• Top question each method answers
• Who will participate in each method
• Deliverables for every stage
• Key dates and major milestones

And note, UX research plans provide a strategic overview; details like specific interview questions and survey stimuli should be determined using the most current information available at the time of testing.

UX Research Benefits and Examples

Today, the results of great UX research are everywhere: From the websites we browse to the services we use, virtually all successful public-facing solutions prioritize the user experience. That said, there are clear leaders when it comes to usability. This section is dedicated to celebrating those examples, while demonstrating how good UX research goes a long way toward building unforgettable brands.

Creating clarity

Prioritizing features and functions is one of the most difficult aspects of modern design. What’s the primary CTA? What do users need to know most? What do we say first? In the end, many design teams try to prioritize everything, resulting in elements that compete for attention instead of guiding it through.

By studying real users in context, UX research helps teams build clear, clutter-free solutions that prioritize what users want to do — moving the rest of the experience out of the way. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the home pages and screens of UX-obsessed brands like Nike or AirBnB.

Providing personalization

Personalized experiences are no longer a nice-to-have. We expect the products and services we use to not only know our names, but to also anticipate our needs. And as technology continues to advance, our ability to support these moments does too.

Today, examples of how UX Research supports a more personalized experience are everywhere, and especially obvious during behavior-based onboarding flows.

Elevating engagement

Modern UX research reveals more about how people use our products than ever. And with the ability to parse large sets of quantitative data, design teams can remove engagement bottlenecks with scientific precision. The result is especially apparent in examples of gamification, where user-friendly becomes user-fun.

UX Research Best Practices

Test in the most natural settings possible.

While focus groups and lab-based usability tests are rich sources of information, they are a far cry from a real, everyday situation. Whenever possible, aim to observe users where the experience in question actually takes place. Unmoderated tests, remote walkthroughs, diary studies and intercept surveys are great for this reason.

Consult experts, but don’t rely on them alone

A common mistake in design projects is to rely on inputs from experienced users and subject matter experts alone. While they will provide great insights, their experience will differ dramatically from that of naive users. UX designers can easily fall into this trap, too, given how easy it is to forget that the vast majority of people are far less tech savvy or digitally aware.

Let your data do the talking

The fastest way to align cross-functional teams is to let the data do the talking. Personal experiences and “gut instincts” will always play a role, but they shouldn’t be driving complex decisions that have million- or billion-dollar implications.

Encourage the think-aloud protocol

While focus groups and lab-based usability tests can be rich sources of information, they are a far cry from a real situation. Whenever possible, aim to observe users where the experience usually takes place.

So What is UX Research?

UX Research is a discipline devoted to studying how people interact with specific products, services or solutions. It is often used to help Design Thinking teams model current/potential users and optimize future solutions. The ability for UX research to uncover strategic design opportunities has made it a clear differentiator in today’s digital landscape.

Unlike the overarching Design Thinking process , UX research methods are typically conducted by experienced UX practitioners — either dedicated UX researchers or multi-faceted designers.

• UX research methods are both qualitative and quantitative
• The benefits of UX research include creating clarity , providing personalization , and elevating engagement
• Four UX Research stages are: Explore, Observe, Iterate and Verify
• Surveys, interviews and walkthroughs are commonly used tools
• Common UX research deliverables include the current landscape, user personas, and accessibility audits

Recommended Reading The Ultimate Guide to Design Thinking

• What is Design Thinking?
• The Complete Design Thinking Process
• How to RUN a Design Thinking Workshop
• User Stories, Maps and Examples
• Faulkner L. Beyond the five-user assumption: benefits of increased sample sizes in usability testing. Behav Res Methods Instrum Comput. 2003;35: 379–383.

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A step-by-step guide to creating a strategic research roadmap.

Research roadmapping, at its core, serves as a strategic blueprint to map out the primary research a business needs to conduct within a specific timeframe, typically a year. While simply brainstorming and recording all potential research needs in the year is a useful exercise to help identify budget, prioritize resources, and set stakeholder expectations, a well-crafted research roadmap can unlock even more value for your business. This blog will outline the steps to creating a research roadmap that will maximize the impact on your company’s bottom line.

STEP 1: Outline Your Business Goals  

You may be tempted to jump right into the research you know is needed, but it’s important when creating a roadmap to start at the very top of the pyramid. What is your business trying to achieve this year? What are the main KPIs? Identify 2-3 of the most important objectives for the business with input from top leadership.

For example, say you are working for a popular podcast in the midst of an economic downturn. From leadership, you understand the company’s number one priority for the year is to grow overall listeners to promote continued ad revenue. The company secondarily hopes to attract a new “premium” paying customer base to open an additional revenue stream.

STEP 2: Outline Your Business Strategies

Now, it’s time to go a step deeper. For each of the objectives identified above, determine how your business is attempting to address these goals. What new products/services, campaigns, or improvements is your business investing in? Speak with internal stakeholders and cross-functional leadership to identify 2-3 big initiatives per objective. As possible, also note how the team plans to measure the success of each strategy.

Using our podcast example, the company may promote listener growth by regularly promoting listener reviews and referrals on its own podcast, as well as collaborating with other podcasts to gain exposure to new listeners. To increase listener revenue beyond simple donations, they are starting a premium monthly membership program with merchandise, exclusive content, and member forums to allow listeners to interact with experts and each other.

STEP 3: Outline Your Learning Opportunities

For each of the key strategies, what information do you need to support these strategies? What insights do you need, both before and after the initiatives are put into place, that will help these strategies succeed? To ensure a reasonable scope to this exercise, focus on opportunities that you personally can affect in your role.

Say you are a Customer Insights Manager. There is a usability team that will be managing website/content analytics and a marketing team that will track cross-promotional conversion. Your role entails speaking directly to customers to gain deeper understanding of preferences and behaviors. To support new customer growth, you may want to determine which podcasts are most popular among those listeners who are also interested in the primary topic of your podcast so you can inform which podcasts to partner with. To support increased listener revenue, you would want to get customer feedback to determine and optimize the types of benefits (including merchandise, content, and other perks) that are most likely to get listeners to sign up for a premium membership.

STEP 4: Map Opportunities to Specific Data Gathering Approaches / Methodologies

Now that you know key insights of interest, you need to uncover the best way to gather these insights. Can you track data through existing platforms? Secondary sources? When do you need to speak directly with your audience? What research approach best fits what you’re trying to learn? This process can be daunting, especially as it is near impossible to be familiar with all potential data sources and research methodologies out there. This is why it is critical to bring in your internal stakeholders as well as trusted external partners to consult at this stage. Note that specific learning opportunities may require several different methodologies or sources to get a complete picture that will inform business strategy.

Let’s dig in specifically on optimization of customer offerings for a new premium membership. You may want to conduct focus groups with those who are most likely to sign up for a premium membership to uncover their current behaviors as well as potential desires. Then, you may want to run a quantitative feature prioritization study to determine at scale what potential members would consider table stakes, delighters, or even unnecessary benefits to help prioritize your roadmap. Later, you will likely want to test individual ideas for merchandise, content, or messaging to determine what is most popular.

Here is a simple version of what the prep work in our example looks like so far:

STEP 5: Create a Detailed Execution Plan

You now have an ideal map of everything you would like to learn. However, this stage is where the realities of cost and timing come into play. You must finalize the details of your ideal plan, including target audience and research partner/source, then prioritize to determine when each would be conducted and how much will fit into your overall budget. This may result in a specific research calendar, or simply a prioritized list to move forward with.

From in-depth exploratory interviews to agile quantitative prioritization methods to refinement sessions – you use your listener community to gather feedback on premium membership preferences and behaviors where cost of research is much lower. To explore new audience growth, you decide to prioritize a single focus group and follow-up survey with purchased panel sample to efficiently gather feedback on potential partner podcasts.

Here’s an example of how you can lay out your detailed plan:

Your roadmap is finalized. But wait – you’re not done!

After The Roadmap

There are a few critical pieces of success when implementing your roadmap with your team and/or research partners.

• Ensure the roadmap is used when designing and reporting on your research. It should be clear how the research is supporting key business objectives, so results are focused on actionable insights.
• Be ready to pivot! Planning sets you up for success, but having the flexibility to pivot your approach based on learnings will ensure you get the most benefits out of your research.

By choosing a team and solutions that can accommodate these elements, you have successfully completed your research roadmap.

“A pivot is a change in strategy without a change in vision.” Eric Ries, The Lean Startup

Maximizing Impact with Research Roadmapping

This top-down approach to research roadmapping will allow you to maximize your impact on the business in the most efficient way.

A well-structured research roadmap is the compass that guides a business toward its objectives, ensuring that each step taken is purposeful and aligned with overarching goals.

See how Fuel Cycle can optimize your research roadmap today! Let’s chat >

Author: Karen Barnes

With over a dozen years in agile research design and brand consulting, Karen is skilled in mapping research solutions to business needs. She is passionate about making well-validated, meaningful insights...

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Market Research vs UX Research: Key Differences & When to Use Each

Johanna Székelyhidi

Starting from scratch with a digital product is a thrilling but tough job. Research helps answer tough questions, so knowing when and how to use UX research vs market research methods is crucial.

In this article we answer: 

• How can you distinguish between different types of research?
• What characteristics define market research vs UX research? 
• Which one should you use, and when?
• How can you combine market research and UX research?

Doing research can give the answers you need to move on and create a great product. 

The big question is, then, what type of research do you need, and when. 

Let’s get started.

Essential Questions for Digital Product Planning

When you’re building a digital product, you need to answer these eight questions as soon as possible.

• Does the need for your product exist? Examine how big of a potential market it has.
• What competing products have already entered the market? Don’t just list them, go deeper and find out about their functionalities, differentiation, and market share. 
• Who would be  the target customers for your product? Learn what they are trying to accomplish, their pain points and motivations.
• How do potential users currently solve their problems? Your product needs to be easier to use, better, faster, or cheaper. 
• How likely are they to buy your product? Estimates can only take you so far, but you need some data-based info on how  much they would pay.
• What features do they find the most important? These need to be perfected.
• How do they use it? Research their satisfaction and how intuitive they find your product. 
• Finally, how will you get more users?   Growth potential is crucial.

Questions like these keep coming and they can overwhelm us sometimes. Don’t panic. Research will get you the relevant and reliable answers you need. Let’s explore which type of research suits your needs.

UX Research vs Market Research Differences

Not all research works the same. The type of research depends on the questions you want to answer and the kind of information you need. 

UX research aims to find people’s true pain points and motivations based on their behavior, whereas market research aims to find people’s attitudes towards a product and estimate the size of the potential market. 

The UX Research Approach

A UX researcher would try to find answers by conducting interviews with potential users. You’ll get data on what users want to achieve ; how they currently do it ; what problems they face along the way ; and what motivates them to keep going.

UX research focuses on:

• Understanding user needs, behaviors, and motivations
• Problems users face, and how they solve them

Methods used in user research include:

• Interviews and surveys
• Observations and field studies
• Usability testing and A/B testing
• Card sorting and tree testing
• Persona creation and user journey mapping

Outcomes of user research provide:

• Insights into user preferences and expectations
• Data to inform design decisions and improve user experience
• Validation of design concepts and prototypes
• Metrics for measuring usability and satisfaction
• Recommendations for product improvements and feature prioritization

The research should indicate if a need for a product like we envision exists. However, it wouldn’t say how much need exists (how many people have the problem, with what frequency, etc.). 

The Market Research Approach

A market researcher would also try to conduct interviews with potential users. This is where the question of market research vs UX research comes in. 

Market researchers focus on:

• The  product idea’s appeal and key purchasing factors
• Explore alternative solutions

Market researcher would conduct a survey with a representative sample to assess:

• Product occurrence and frequency
• Current solutions
• Likelihood of using the new product
• User demographics

Survey results would:

• Add quantitative insights to qualitative data
• Indicate market need
• Estimate the product’s potential

This example shows how UX research and market research clearly differ in strategy. It also indicates that the insights they provide complement each other . 

Main Differences

Market research: broad insights focused on attitudes.

When you want to get the broad picture by uncovering high-level information about a specific industry, use market research. Market researchers use mainly quantitative methods , meaning they focus on numbers. They run studies on large representative samples to infer results for the whole population. 

The results of surveys reflect the situation in the whole population within an acceptable margin of error. This can make us quite sure of the average potential user’s age, income level, level of education and other general characteristics. Market research tends to give more weight to attitudinal data (what people say about themselves or about what they would do) rather than to concrete behaviors in a certain context. Market research is mainly used to inform marketing decisions.

UX Research: Detailed Insights Focused on Behavior

UX research employs a very different strategy. It has nothing to do with market size and shares, trends, market segments, or demographics. It has even less to do with attitudinal responses. Instead, it looks at people’s behavior when they solve everyday problems or use a product.

UX research provides a direction about how to design a product, and to what extent it meets user needs. We can use significantly smaller sample sizes because the results don’t need statistical accuracy. 

Consequently, UX research doesn’t deal with broad data, but rather very specific, deep insights about users. Researchers collect insights into the deeper reasons behind people’s actions and words. It observes what users actually do with a product and focuses on improving design and usability.

Can’t I just Choose One and Adapt the Results to Fit My needs?

Not really. Both research methods play an important role, and you must avoid using one in the wrong context. 

Relying on market research insights to inform UX design decisions works equally as bad as relying on user research insights to derive market size. 

UX design requires different information than market research data. Also, a UX researcher or a market researcher requires different knowledge and skill sets. All-rounders who can equally master both come along a lot less often.

If you want to work with expert UX researchers, why don’t you browse our services ?

UX Research vs. Market Research: When to Use Each?

Generally speaking, market research plays an important role during the product development cycle’s early stages for analyzing the potential to turn a profit. Here we need business insights on market size, trends, and competition. Also, product/service areas that interest people need to be identified.

After the initial market research, UX research will take over and dive into one of the focus areas we want to understand more deeply. UX research brings useful insights for building an innovative product: validating specific design decisions, deriving features and testing product ideas. 

Once you have concrete ideas from UX research, market research evaluates which concepts will sell well and identifies price points.

Let’s compare the goals and methods of market research and UX research to see when each is best used in the product lifecycle.

• Market research goals : evaluate needs, market size, trends, competition, value proposition, pricing, and segmentation.
• UX research goals : Define personas; create user journeys and test designs; choose features; build information architecture; analyze usage, product satisfaction, loyalty, and new needs.
• Market research methods : surveys, focus groups, competitor analysis, price studies, and conjoint analysis.
• UX research methods : interviews, diary studies, ethnography, usability testing, concept testing, card sorting, analytics, A/B testing, clickstream analysis, eye tracking, net promoter score, and customer feedback.

Stages of your product lifecycle

• Discover : involves interviews, diary studies, ethnography, surveys, focus groups, secondary analysis, and competitor analysis.
• Define : includes defining personas, value proposition, and user journeys.
• Design : involves testing designs, choosing features, and information architecture.
• Develop : encompasses testing concepts, usability, concept testing, card sorting, and price studies.
• Deploy : focuses on analytics, A/B testing, clickstream analysis, eye tracking, Net Promoter Score, customer feedback, and market segmentation.

Combine market and UX research to make better decisions

For making the best decisions, combine market research and UX research throughout product development.

• Initial Stage (Discover): Use market research to understand market needs and trends, and UX research to gather initial user insights.
• Concept Development (Define): Market research helps define the value proposition; UX research defines personas and user journeys.
• Design Phase (Design): Market research guides feature prioritization; UX research focuses on usability testing and design refinement.
• Development Phase (Develop): Use market research for pricing strategies; UX research continues usability testing and concept validation.
• Pre-Launch (Deploy): Market research fine-tunes marketing strategy; UX research optimizes user experience through analytics and testing.

Integrate findings from both types of research throughout the product lifecycle. Make the research process iterative and collaborative between departments. 

“ The most important thing for user experience professionals to know is when marketing research is needed, and when user experience research is needed,” says Apala Lahiri Chavan, the Chief Oracle and Innovator at Human Factors International. “If you understand how these two methodologies work together through a product lifecycle, you will be able to work effectively with marketing departments. You can demonstrate the value of including user experience research in their projects because you are able to explain how it complements the market research they are already conducting.”

And now you know how to go about it.

Key Takeaways

To sum up this deep dive, let’s review the main points we touched upon in this post.

#1 Research methods don’t all work the same . Think of the kind of information you need and choose a method that can provide the relevant answers.

 #2 Never confuse UX research and market research or use them interchangeably. Synergy is key.

 #3 Market research mainly provides broad, quantitative insights about people’s attitudes and their willingness to buy a product. This, in turn, informs marketing decisions.

 #4 UX research mainly provides deep, focused qualitative insights about people’s behavior and how they would use a product. As a result, this informs design decisions. 

#5 Used together , user research and market research can help product managers make better decisions and provide a clear roadmap to create successful products.

Want To Learn More?

What is beyond market research vs UX research? Read more related articles to research on our blog: Product Manager’s Guide To UX Research and Nine UX Research Methods Product People Should Know . 

Reach out to us if you want to consult expert researchers with 10+ years of experience. We sure have some ideas!

Let's talk