Reflecting on the 3rd edition of the UX Research & Strategy Training

Today is surely the best day to make a retrospective of the formation of UX Research & Strategy that I taught at the Redbility Innovation Center last week.

16 hours of intense training after the workday and a lot of hard work during the 4 sessions, is the essence that characterizes and makes the difference of this training; First of all I would like to thank you for attending this 3rd edition of UX Research & Strategy or simply for your interest in reading this post.

The initiative of the scholarships of specific training that Redbility periodically launches is born after a deep reflection in which we conclude with the certain idea that the professionals of the sector no longer need a workshop, a certification or a pat on the back. What they need is a push, a real immersion in the world of strategy and research and, above all, to work to understand the why of things and how the techniques in isolation are useless but that the combination of all of them skillfully ensure the success of the projects.

I know that the challenge is difficult and during the first and second day of these courses, what you do as students is surely an act of faith; because changing the way we think is hard, changing the way of doing things is hard, although our brain is very versatile, it rewards us for repeating the same actions over and over again, so opening the mind and doing things in a different way is hard but it is not impossible.

It has been the third edition, but it has not been less relevant than the previous ones, being up to par and offer specialized and updated training with quality content, is a difficult objective to fulfill because you can not always tell the details of the projects in which you participate; Even so, I embarked enchanted to this new edition with the commitment to set the bar high again.

In this edition, 25 profiles were selected to face the 4 days of exhaustive training with a content structured in 5 modules and two case studies to work in teams and make use of the research and neuromarketing tools provided by the Redbility lab.

The objectives pursued by the course lie in the establishment of solid foundations on the research process, the discovery of orthodox and operational techniques to be able to orchestrate their combination based on the time and resources available, discover how to draw relevant conclusions from each technique or part of the project to be able to link them and obtain the best conclusions and, of course, perform real field work in a laboratory supervised by a specialized researcher.

How was the day to day of the course?

Day 1

We introduce ourselves and lay the foundations of what it is to investigate, what a researcher is and the basic laws of any researcher who faces field work and present strategic results to clients. In order not to get bored, the examples and the adventures or misadventures that we face in our daily lives were represented throughout the session.

We ended the first day doing heterogeneous work groups that would have to work together during the following days.

Day 2

The first challenge is launched: “With your knowledge as a team level, what kind of strategic research project would you propose to the client after receiving this briefing?” The teams get down to work and for no more than an hour, they are able to analyze a website, its competence and agree to propose a project proposal that they subsequently present to all their partners.

This first contact helps me to analyze the real knowledge of the attendees, being able to adapt the rest of the sessions so they can get the most out of it. After the proposals presentation of all the groups, I solve the exercise by proposing three alternative scenarios that pivot according to the time and economic investment that the client has available.

After the practical session we embark on the different research techniques and in how to know what technique to use in each case.

Day 3

On the third day we focus on conducting remote, face-to-face and laboratory user tests. We discover a large number of free tools to use and see the pros and cons of each of them.

We focus on how to make an appropriate sample, a user profile and a good research design, after which the moment of truth arrives, students receive the briefing of their final course project and have little more than a day and a half to use all of their knowledge and new skills acquired during the previous sessions.

Day 4

Test, strategy, iteration, test and conclusion planning, this is what I would say if in just one sentence I had to summarize the last day.

During the last session the teams work in total harmony to achieve important findings, solve strategic doubts with me and make different types of tests, interviews, surveys, etc. to other students who were not part of their group,  putting into practice everything they learned.

The icing on the cake comes when in just 10 minutes the teams make exceptional presentations, revealing all the knowledge acquired and understanding the why of each thing, how the techniques are linked to the strategy, the strategy to innovation and innovation to the final solution and therefore, to the conversion in the products and / or services of our clients.

In this edition, we finished with the delivery of certifications that accredit that they have successfully overcome the training and the challenges they had faced during working hours.

Without a doubt, a special edition that has given us a lot of energy with the feedback received and that has made us start already thinking about other courses and a fourth edition. Seriously, are you going to miss it?

I recommend you that if you are interested stay tuned, and if you want to keep up to date with any news, subscribe to our newsletter and our Meetup group.

Investigate damn, investigate!