We do a lot of research. We regularly engage with customers to learn how they use our products and assess how well our products meet their needs. This research fuels quality product decisions and helps us craft better experiences.
If you have never participated in one of our research studies, you might be wondering: “Am I a Good Fit for User Research?”. Or perhaps you would like to know how to be a good participant if you participate someday.
To provide more insight into what to expect from participating in research, I asked our UX Researchers a few questions and shared their responses below:
Q1: What do you love about speaking to UX Research Participants?
- Kate: “I love hearing unique perspectives and understanding more about what users think and how they interact with our products. Their insights feel like puzzle pieces coming together.”
- Beth: “I love a good mystery, and engaging with UX research participants can feel like investigating a mystery piece-by-piece. Each research session helps us discover a story that guides our team in making more informed decisions.”
- Aliza: “I love hearing real, unfiltered experiences. Every conversation offers new insights and helps us design products that truly solve problems.”
- Margaret: “I love learning about the way our customers use our products - that is absolute gold in helping us build features that will be useful.”
Q2: What would you say are the top two qualities of a good UX Research Participant?
- Bill: “Frank and Ernest: Open and willing to share their honest and unfiltered experiences. Engaged: Actively participate, express themselves, behave as they normally would (when completing a workflow task), and ask questions.”
- Margaret: “Articulate: Research is all about learning from our participants. So, I'd say being able to communicate detailed thoughts on the topic at hand is critical. Authentic: It's also important that participants don't just tell us what they think we want to hear. We want them to take the research questions and tasks seriously and tell us their honest opinions.”
- Calum: “Engagement: Fundamentally the more you can engage with us in a conversation or usability test the better we can understand your feedback and ultimately improve our product. Openness: Giving feedback when you don't like something is difficult. I mean, no one likes telling a restaurant server there’s something wrong with their food, but that feedback is critical to that business in understanding the quality of what they are serving their customers. It’s the same for us. We want to hear your open and honest assessment of your experience with our product.”
Q3: What would you say to someone who is thinking about participating in Research, but is unsure if they would be a good fit?
- Aliza: “If you have thoughts or experiences to share, you're a perfect fit! There’s no “right” way to participate—we just want to learn from your perspective, whether you're a beginner or an expert.”
- Bill: “Your experiences and perspectives matter. You don't need to be an expert on the research subject. You are the expert of your own experience and that's what counts!”
- Calum: “In short, you are absolutely a good fit. We want feedback from a range of different customers, at varying different experience levels with the product. This is because our products are used in different ways and each customer journey with our products is unique. Your unique insight to is valuable.”
- Beth: “Give it a try! There is no obligation to continue with a session or study, and you are always welcome to stop the session for any reason.”
Hopefully our researchers’ responses have made it very clear how valuable your feedback is to the work we do, and we hope you’ll consider participating in research with us.
For more information about how to participate, check out this thread on BeeKeepers, or sign-up to be part of our feedback community here: BeyondTrust UX Research Study Sign-up | User Interviews.
