How To Run a Rapid Research Program

Unsurprisingly, rapid research is gaining popularity and momentum in UX design and research, given its value in supporting traditionally longer, more complex studies and the volume of quick research insights gathered through the rapid research process.

When it comes to running a rapid research program, we included this basic example of a rapid research timeline in our recent introduction to rapid UX research:

• Day 1: Define the problem, research objectives, and research questions
• Day 2: Gather prototypes and necessary elements. Test the study and iterate until you have an ideal version
• Day 3: Carry out the rapid research study
• Day 4: Analyse the data
• Day 5: Present the findings, sharing research insights

Today, we’ll expand on what that could and should include and also discuss the pros and cons of setting up rapid research programs in-house, using a research platform, or handing over the reins to a specialist research agency.

The fundamentals of a rapid research framework

As its title dictates, rapid research needs to operate significantly faster than the usual UX studies, typically matching those of agile processes and keeping up with the most rapid research cycles.

To do this, we standardize the process wherever possible, creating templates to gather valuable insights quickly and efficiently. A tight schedule ensures that user research teams know when each stage is happening and that all materials and participants are ready.

The key to a well-oiled rapid research program is consistency and clarity. To maintain the necessary high level of consistency, all elements must be readily available and instantly recognisable, including documentation, timing, research methodologies, participant recruitment, guides, policies, and more. This is where creating a vast bank of accessible templates is crucial.

Setting up your rapid research project

There’s a lot to consider when setting up a rapid research framework. Given that speed and efficiency are at the heart of everything you’re about to do, everything has to be rapid: rapid evaluation methods, rapid feedback evaluations, rapid-cycle evaluations, and a rapid version of everything in between. Yet you still need to ensure significant findings from efficient processes, delivering the same high-quality insights associated with much deeper analysis.

Let’s look at the individual, group, and core elements that you’ll need to develop and ensure are part of your process however you choose to design and deliver your framework.

Do you actually need one?

It seems crazy to ask, but does your organisation or UX department actually need a rapid research program? UX research comes in all shapes and sizes, and a quality UX research team can cater to all kinds of requests. UX researchers are incredibly adaptable animals—if an agile sprint can cover your project or enquiry as part of a bigger project, is it worth the budget, staff, and other resources to set up another resource-heavy program?

• Will a rapid research program add value to your UX research?
• Will it be faster than your current research process?
• Can it uncover quick research insights from smaller test pools, simpler studies, and shorter interviews?
• Can you sustain the rapid recruitment required of ongoing research sessions?

The scope of your research sessions

The scope will drive how much you have to compact how your usual research sessions operate to deliver the necessary results in a fraction of the time. It will also include almost everything in the process to ensure the ideal speed, scale, and impact of each study.

Budget

We don’t have to tell you how important the budget is to any UX research program; it will likely be the key factor determining how you choose to grow your new rapid research frameworks and teams and how many methods and participants you can include in your studies.

Timing and cadence

Each rapid research project should take less time than a standard study, typically one or two weeks. How often you perform them depends on your resources, how many teams you can spare, and the research requests you receive.

Participant profiles

Gathering a handful of appropriate participants is far more valuable than a bottomless pool of those who aren’t. High-quality participant recruitment plays a huge part in rapid research, as with fewer test subjects and shorter, half-hour sessions, every opinion, interaction, and input needs to offer real insight into what you’re testing for.

Rapid research methods

Half-hour sessions won’t allow for many of the standard long-term or long-form research methods (you can forget those longitudinal diary studies, that’s for sure), so you need to employ tactical research methods that gather insights from quick feedback. Usability testing, user interviews, and more compact methodologies lend themselves far better to rapid research, as they’re easier to carry out in those quick half-hour bitesize sessions.

Infrastructure, policies, and templates

As with the project infrastructure, your rapid research timeline needs to be planned and delivered efficiently. Creating templates for everything will make life easier for everyone, from policies, introductory speeches, and guidance formats to how you gather feedback, carry out tests, and present findings. It will also keep everyone on the same page, utilising formats everyone recognises immediately, and adds a structured and methodical flow to every study you perform.

Research teams and staffing your projects

Having enough staff to develop a rapid research program is one part of the problem; having the right staff is the other. Budgets probably won’t allow the plethora of experienced senior UX researchers you’d like, so utilising more affordable (but equally hard-working) junior researchers is more likely. Again, this is another essential aspect of implementing all those templates, guides, and policies. They should reduce the time project managers/leaders will need to spend monitoring and overseeing the lesser aspects of each project.

Coaching and delivery

The same goes for coaching and delivery. Templates and policies will minimise the time spent on repeat physical coaching. Once a team member is familiar with the format, they can carry that skill and pattern into future studies and also help onboard new team members into the practice.

Project pilot, iteration, and evolution

Creating an ideal study in such a short time is a tough task. Given that you only get one quick bite at the cake, everything has to be right the first time. That means running your methodologies and interviews in a project pilot that helps you iron out the bumps before you start testing for real.

Rapid research programs are great for product testing and evaluation but are also incredibly valuable as generative research sessions. What should you do with any new, unexpected, uncovered information? UX research is an iterative process, always pushing for continuous improvement, so you build those actionable insights into a future rapid research project (if it’s got real value to your product, stakeholders, and the bottom line, of course).

Data analysis, delivery, and presentation

With vastly reduced timings, data collection, analysis, delivery, and presentation must also be stripped back and minimised for ease of delivery and understanding, but also concise and inclusive of the crucial findings.