Step 01
Plan
Agree the questions worth answering and who we need to talk to.
Design decisions backed by evidence, not opinion.
User interviews, usability testing and journey mapping that uncover why people struggle with your product - and what to change first.
Most product disagreements are really missing information. Research replaces opinion with evidence about what users are actually trying to do.
I run interviews and usability sessions, then synthesise findings into a prioritised list of problems with recommended fixes, so the output is something you can act on rather than a slide deck.
The failure mode of research is a beautiful report nobody acts on. I avoid that by agreeing up front which decisions the research needs to inform, and structuring the output as a prioritised list of problems with a recommended change against each.
Severity and effort are both estimated, so you can see which fixes are cheap and urgent versus expensive and optional. That makes the findings usable in a roadmap conversation rather than only in a design one.
Moderated usability testing, where participants attempt real tasks while thinking aloud, is the highest-value method for most products - it shows you exactly where people hesitate. User interviews work better when the question is about motivation and context rather than interface mechanics.
Journey mapping is useful when a product spans several touchpoints and the problem is the gaps between them. Where you already have analytics, session recordings or support tickets, I read those first, because the cheapest research is the evidence you already own.
Five to eight participants per audience segment surfaces the large majority of usability problems. Past that you tend to hear the same issues repeat, and the better use of budget is to fix what you found and test again.
If you serve genuinely distinct audiences - say administrators and end users - each needs its own small round rather than a single blended one.
Five to eight participants per audience segment surfaces the large majority of usability problems. Beyond that you mostly see the same issues repeat, so it is usually better to fix and retest than to keep recruiting.
A prioritised list of problems, each with severity, estimated effort and a recommended design change. Session recordings and notes are included, but the deliverable that matters is the ranked list you can act on.
Yes. Before launch we test a prototype rather than a live product, which is the cheapest possible time to discover a flow does not work.
How a user research engagement actually runs, start to finish.
Agree the questions worth answering and who we need to talk to.
Conduct interviews or moderated usability sessions.
Turn raw sessions into themes, severity and priority.
Deliver specific design changes ranked by impact and effort.
Full Time Contract Available. Tell me about your project, your timeline and your budget, and I’ll reply with an approach and a rate.
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