You can bring rapid user research methods to Agile teams by focusing on 3 things: 1. Directly collaborating with stakeholders, who are active observers of user research sessions. 2. Writing quick-hit updates on Slack, by email, via short PowerPoint presentations - not big honking reports. 3. Reaching the same conclusions together, not separately. Agile allows UX professionals to work directly with Agile teams, and participate in daily standups and demos. You can also work with Agile teams to carve up large user research projects into user stories per sprint or over an entire PI (program increment) or multiple PIs. During user research sessions, stakeholders are active observers, writing down their findings and selecting the top 3 observations to post on a physical white pad (if working in person) or on a Mural or Miro board (if working remotely). The team then works together to affinitize (categorize) similar observations across participants into high-level themes, and then dot voting on which themes are the most important to tackle first. This way, the entire team is reaching the same conclusions together.

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Bob Thomas
User Research Consultant, LLC
Bring Rapid User Research
Methods to Agile Teams

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Bring Rapid User Research Methods to Agile Teams 2
Bob Thomas, User Research Consultant, LLC
• User Research Consultant, 2019 –
• Adjunct Professor, Brandeis University, Graduate Professional Studies, 2022 –
• Director of User Research at Liberty Mutual Insurance: 2008 – 2019
• President, UXPA Boston
• MS in Human Factors in Information Design from Bentley University
• MBA in International Business and Marketing from Suffolk University
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Bring Rapid User Research Methods to Agile Teams 3
Constructing a
Better Way to Work
Bring Rapid User Research Methods to Agile Teams 3
• Waterfall  Agile
• Non-Involvement  Direct Collaboration
• Big Honking Reports  Quick-Hit Updates
• Reaching Conclusions Separately  Reaching Them Together

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1. In User Research, we
would have a usability
kickoff, sometimes with
stakeholders involved,
sometimes not.
2. We would follow that up
with a moderator’s guide
review. Our stakeholders
would either be
disengaged or want to
make page-by-page
changes.
3. We would run usability
tests, which no one
outside of the user
research team would
observe. Stakeholders
would say they were
too busy to attend.
4. We would finish the project with a big
honking report, complete with video clips,
to prove our findings and recommendations
to our stakeholders. Why? Because we
reached conclusions separately.
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Old Playbook: Seven-Week Projects
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Week 1
Week 2
Weeks 2-4
Week 5
Weeks 6-7

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• Focus
o Agile has a developer focus
o UX has a customer focus
• Speed & Timing
o Agile relies on short iterations (usually, 2-week
sprints) and rapid feedback from customers
o UX research, especially discovery research, relies
on longer iterations and reflection on feedback
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Cons of Agile
“But we don’t have time for user research!”

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• Collaboration
o Work directly with Agile teams
o Participate in daily standups and demos
• Speed & Timing
o Can still plan for discovery research
o Carve up large user research projects into
user stories per sprint or over an entire PI
(program increment) or multiple PIs
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Pros of Agile
Make time for large user research projects by carving up
the work over multiple sprints

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1. We still scheduled
usability kickoffs – but
some of these usability
studies were run by the
Agile teams, and we acted
as facilitators or advisors.
2. We still had moderator’s
guide reviews – or advised
our Agile team members
how to put them together.
4. We collaborated with our
stakeholders to record observations
and affinitize (categorize) the
results. We were now reaching the
same conclusions together.
3. We still ran exploratory
and evaluative user
research studies, but now
our stakeholders were
active observers. Not only
that, but Product Owners,
UX Designers, and
Content Strategists were
moderating sessions.

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Affinity Mapping Stakeholder Observations

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Affinity Mapping Stakeholder Observations

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Old Playbook: Three-Week Projects
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Week 1
Week 2
Weeks 2-4
Week 5
Weeks 6-7

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New Playbook: Three-to-Four-Week Projects,
Relying on UX Partnerships with Agile Teams
HYPOTHESIZE LEARN
EMPATHIZE BRAINSTORM BUILD UPDATE & MEASURE
EXPERIMENT
We Have a Problem to Solve
(Week 1)
We May Have a Solution
(Week 2)
Were We Right?
(Weeks 3+)
Usability Kickoff + Recruiting Screener + Mod Guide UX Research Study Update, Measure, and Learn

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Conclusion
• No matter the methodology, our user research
strategy was still the same: “Test early and often.”
• User experience can succeed only when
everyone – not just UXers – watches and listens
• We succeed in Agile environments with:
• Direct collaboration with stakeholders (over non-involvement)
• Quick-hit updates and conclusions (over big honking reports)
• Reaching conclusions together (instead of reaching them separately)
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Bring Rapid User Research Methods to Agile Teams 13

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Thank You! Questions?
Bob Thomas, User Research Consultant, LLC
• @bobthomas
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/boblthomas/
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