How do I translate my research into action?

Make it easy, avoid mystique

Presenting the research is important. It should be designed to be understood and then acted on. People often do the opposite.

  • Too often research is presented in a dense way. Multiple pages of long paragraphs, long sentences and jargon. It dwells on the methodology.
  • This creates a type of mystique about ‘the research’. I hear people say ‘I need to block out some time to read “the research” this afternoon.
  • It gives the impression that the reader should be pleased with themselves for just having read it. It means “the research” sits unread but gives the researcher a feeling of intellectual superiority.
  • But you’re not Wittgenstein writing ‘The Critique of Pure Reason’. So don’t be afraid of putting together the BuzzFeed version of it.

Package up your research

Once you’ve done your research, you actually have to use it.

  • Instead, of an academic paper, package your research it as if it was news.
  • Make sure there is a clear headline from the research as well as a few key takeaways.
  • Pull out key quotes and evidence. You can paste them into slide decks in large font sizes to make a case for your product change.

Make your findings like tweets

Make your research easy to consume and memorable.

  • Have a compelling overall headline.
  • Keep the list of findings short, jargon-free and easy to remember.
  • Make the heading and key findings interesting and actionable.
  • You want people to be able to reel them off in meetings: “From our research we learnt that we have four key problems with click and collect. And we need more resources to solve problem two”
  • You don’t want people to see ‘Information scent analysis of click and collect’ followed by 15 paragraphs.

Sell your research

Selling your research is important because you want other people to be bought in to your findings. A natural way to do this is with a slide deck. As an example:

  • Start with a summary slide. Put the overall finding as the heading and the key findings in a brief bullet pointed list below. You want to give people the answers up front, you’re not writing a detective novel.
  • After the summary, take people though the evidence. Remember you’re telling a story about users and their problems. Your process is important to you, but not to your users or your stakeholders.
  • Make the document easy to read, easy to share and easy to find. You might like your text-heavy, jargon-laden board on Figma, but no one else will understand it.
  • Surprising and important quotes can be pulled out. You want to make an impression with other people.
  • Make original materials (recordings, notes, etc.) easy to access. That way, people can dig into useful or controversial findings.

Why do you need to package research in this way?

Structure your findings to be widely understood and then acted on. Make it easy to:

  • Build the case for the problems you discover: In larger organisations you should treat packaging up as equally important as the actual learning.
  • Guide your your team’s work: It’s easier know which work will be valuable to users when you have a list of five pain points instead of 10 pages of notes.