Business Context

Early in 2019, Firefly Learning needed to recruit a new User Researcher to their team. Rather than charge straight into recruitment, they wanted to pause, reflect on their current research practices and reset their expectations for the role.  I was hired to help them.

Stakeholders

• Head of Product

• Product Designers

• Product Managers

• Product Marketing Manager

Goals

• Establish a shared understanding of the current workflow and how research fits into that.

• Map the desired new workflow and identify what might need to change.

• Establish a shared understanding of the experience and skills needed in a new user researcher.

Approach

The full engagement was 3 months. After some initial consultation meetings, I ran an on-site half day workshop with the Product team. I facilitated a number of exercises to establish a shared understanding of the scope and environment for research at Firefly. From this we were able to clearly articulate how research was working currently and understand where the gaps were. Together we created principles for how the team want User Research to be done in the future and mapped the skills and experience needed in a new member of the team.

After the workshop I wrote up the learnings from the day in a short report and supported the team with follow up phone calls and emails. I reviewed the resulting job description and candidates with the hiring manager and helped her to feel confident in her shortlist.

Outcomes

Firefly Learning were able to successfully recruit not only for the initial position but a second User Research position that was created for a specific project soon after the workshop. The workshop brought the team together and established their vision for how User Research should work. This enabled them to clearly articulate their vision in the job description, during interviewing and throughout on-boarding. Both User Researchers settled in well and have already made a positive impact in the organisation.

Rachel Anderson, Design & UX Lead at Firefly Learning said,

"Emma ran a fantastic workshop with the Product team at Firefly Learning. She helped us understand our own patterns of how we do research in our organisation, and in turn, how we can make the most of UX Research going forward. The workshop was well planned, adapted to our specific needs and she gave us plenty of support before and after the event. We came away feeling really energised and excited about the possibilities of UX Research at Firefly Learning. We’d would happily work with Emma again."