As a Fast Streamer, I spent six months at the Department for Education (DfE) working as a user researcher on our internal digital platform for reporting IT issues. The research, commissioned by leadership, aimed to understand how users experience the platform, covering everything from email problems to security incidents.
The team was mainly made up of Business Analysts and Developers. Because the last research on the tool had taken place a few years ago, user research was unfamiliar to them.
Deciding how to do my research
I had a choice: to do the research alone and share my findings at the end or bring my team along with me for the journey.
I chose collaboration. I knew that working together would make the findings more meaningful and demonstrate the value of user research. But, I also knew it would be more challenging as time was limited, and the team had competing priorities. I needed to make it easy for them to get involved.
What I did
First, I spoke to my leadership team about my intentions and got their support.
I introduced user research to the wider team through a short talk, explaining what it is and what a user researcher typically does.
We held a workshop to define what we wanted to learn. This helped shape research questions that reflected the team’s priorities, not just mine.
Next, I ran a session on observing research, including interactive activities on unconscious bias.
I wrote discussion guides based on our research questions and recruited participants. I shared a sign-up sheet so team members could join sessions when they were available.
Nine out of ten colleagues attended a session. I then invited the whole team to an analysis workshop, where we reviewed the findings together and linked them back to our original questions. I synthesised the common themes and shared the final insights with the team.
How it went
I’m proud of what I achieved, but like anything in life, it wasn’t perfect.
Some things that went well:
- making sure everyone in workshops had a voice, regardless of grade. I made it clear that we would go around the room in many sessions to avoid hearing from the same people in every workshop or meeting.
- I had a senior stakeholder attend to ensure they understood the research process, despite a busy diary.
- getting everyone excited; many people gave feedback that they found the workshops and research sessions interesting. I think making the first workshop as engaging as possible really helped.
- it also exposed everyone to my findings before the research was even finished, so the team was not taken by surprise. They had already seen the evidence for themselves and did not need to be convinced.
Some things that could have gone better:
- getting the timing right was hard. I never wanted to take up too much of my team’s time, as I knew they were busy with their own workstreams. This meant that sometimes I scheduled a workshop for one hour, even though I really wanted more time with everyone.
- I perhaps didn’t engage with people beyond my immediate team due to the heavy focus on my closest colleagues, who worked on the tool. While the team already essentially knew what my final report would say, some stakeholders outside of the team hadn’t joined the entire journey due to data protection. Bringing them on board at the end needed to be done with care.
Throughout, I tried to keep things light and engaging. A bit of humour helped us stay connected and made the process more enjoyable.
The result
In the end, technical staff gained a deeper understanding of the user’s perspective, something that felt refreshingly different from their usual work.
Most importantly, we identified valuable opportunities to improve the platform, making access to IT support quicker and easier for users. This helps them stay focused on delivering the government’s priorities.
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