Ep 203| What to do when you feel you are stuck in UIUX Product Research- 10 easy steps

45% of the designers are stuck and getting so exhausted in their work, not knowing what is the real expectation, not knowing where their project is leading and many times they are really stuck while they are doing research and lost in the project. It leads to lot of what you call stress and burnt out situations. Design Management Institute have found this. Many of the designers are currently facing this problem how to do the research properly and when they feel stuck, what else needs to be done to come out of it. In this podcast I am going to give you 10 powerful steps which is directly implementable in order to get you out of the zone of so called getting stuck and jam and going to a mode of creativity to create a lot of solutions in order to address the problem. Okay, so take a lot of notes. Let's jump into this podcast. Welcome to this Design for Change podcast. Thank you for staying tuning in with me. I'm on a mission to help 1 million designers to really achieve a creative lifestyle through getting good design jobs or maybe through design of freelancing projects or even this startup. So through this program thousands and thousands of students across the globe are getting impacted with the information and people have got jobs. People have really made a 2x3x salary growth in their career through this. We are learning design in a more unconventional way and also you don't need to have a degree or you don't need to have experience to go into the design field. Any student who are working with me, they get really good job in just less than two to three months. So that's the kind of impact what we are making and particularly podcast is one of the medium which we are propagating a lot of information so that people can connect from different parts of the world. Okay, so thank you for staying tuning guys and subscribe me for further episodes and get notified as well. And if you have not yet shared with any of your friends who are in the need of learning design education definitely do share them. That will be a great help for them as well. And today we are going to understand very very important topic which is like how to do. How to deal with a kind of what you call a fear of stuck. When you're doing a product design research. When you're doing a UI UX research. Okay, See often research is one of the dry areas which people don't really like much. Okay, can I tell you something? That's where the real money is. UX researchers are paid more than a normal product designers. Okay? So that's the point. Money is there in the boring things because if you really work on the research properly, you can really turn the stones in a different way. But it's not as as easy like that. You have to dd deal it. When it comes to frustration and other things, you know what? It impacts hugely on the product quality. Designers normally get this problem, guys. It impacts negatively in a different way. And you know, studies have shown that rushed or uninspired design decisions can lead to products that don't meet the user needs or expectation. You know what? A Nielsen Norman group found that 73% of the online shoppers says that ease of use is the most important factor in their purchasing decision. If designers are unable to understand and conduct research to get this information and test it out to understand the frustration, what will happen? It will lead to a lot of burnouts at your end. First, you will not meet the project deadline. You will not meet the project deliverable. You will not get the proper results, you will not get the conversion. Your business will not go into profit and in turn your client will not come back to you again. Can lead to a lot of usability issues that affects the overall product success rate. So understand this factor. In fact, lot of industries are facing this kind of a struggle in order to do this. It impacts in your productivity also guys, leave client, leave the project. It directly and indirectly impacts your psychological way in which you approach a design. And some of the people have really left the field because of this reason. Research by Glassdoor found that companies with high employee satisfaction level outperform their peers by 122 percentage in revenue growth. Underscoring the link between employee well being and organizational success. So the reason why I'm bringing you the status, it's already blowing as a big problem. And one or the other way, sooner or later you will be going into that zone being a designer. But please remember this very carefully. Even when you're doing a project as a student, you'll still have these burnouts in the research phase when you're really really stuck. Okay, so I'm going to give you just 10 point shooter style simple answers. Guys, you have to pay close attention, okay? When you're feeling stuck, the very first thing, what you have to do is think that this is completely normal. Don't think you are the only person in the world who is getting this problem. Then that becomes a real psychological stress for you, okay? So that's the first thing. Second is always ask the question, what problem you're really solving? What problem are you really solving? Let's say if you're doing primary research, secondary Research. You're feeling completely stuck lost in the data and research. Ask what problem am I really solving? I'm going to help my customer make the product put in the cart and move it for shopping. That's my real problem. I have to solve it. What am I really doing? Then you will automatically get a track. Okay, so second is you follow any process guys. Whether you do design thinking, whether you do double diamond process, whether you do triple diamond, you do how much ever diamond you want. That's not the point. Make sure you experiment with different method. If one method is not working, use another method to collect the data and information and do the research. Maybe sometimes root cause analysis can work you to find out the real root cause of the problem. So that your entire research could be driven in that direction. Sometimes a fishbone diagram will help you. Sometimes a different method can help you. So that keep that experimentation in your mind. Okay? Third step, fourth step is always gather some insights on your data. See many times the data and the research is there in front of you is going to give you a lot of clarity. We are not going back to that and then we are looking at it. Many times we go outside, find, find, use ChatGPT, Google, YouTube, talk, talk, talk. You just look at the data what you collected so far. 90% of the time the answer is there in front of you itself. Okay, so that's why I always normally help my students to gather insights in whatever data they've collected. Whenever you're watching an interview of a person who is interview, who's having a questions with you, whom you're answering, your questions in your interview or survey data or anything, try to find the hidden pattern and try to take the insights out of it. There are good tools like Google sentimental analysis, ChatGPT which can give you some kind of an insight. But you are the one who have to drive that insights with your own intelligence. First, don't rely on artificial intelligence. That's just a tool. It can aid you, it can help you a little. That's it. Okay, so don't fall for this fancy tools. Make sure you drive that insights. If you are not finding the insights, you will really feel bored guys in your project, you will not find an interesting pattern to solve that problem. Okay, so many times answer is already with you. Go and find it out. Retrieve the data what you collected, put it in a way. Okay? 5th is seek some inspiration. Always apply for cross industries knowledge. And you know what divergent thinking many times works here. Seek inspiration from many projects, similar case studies who have solved this problem. And the sixth point is talk face to face with your user and try to understand the real problem, what they're facing. Many times you don't understand the real problem. That is the real reason why you're not solving it, why you're getting stuck. Okay, seventh is always collaborate with your cross functional team. Don't be hesitant, don't be a lone warrior. Talk to people who are in your cross functional team. And the eighth important thing is take breaks and have a sufficient nap or maybe a proper work life balance. That leads to a lot of feeling of stuck. And people don't get into a track because of that. Because too much, too much. If you are going to research, research, research, it will become a big problem. Okay, ninth is definitely ideate and iterate the process. Bring lot of ideas, bring lot of iterations. Don't get hesitation to do the iteration. Because if you ideate lot more things in an iterative way, again and again and again, you will see fresh perspectives coming in. And the tenth important thing is definitely stay organized guys. You know what? When I ask students where is your research? They put a garbage in front of me. They open a Miro file, they open a figma file. I can't understand what is the primary research. I can't understand what data you're making. I can't understand what insight you have derived. I can't understand what sense you're making with all this data. You're just copy pasting from the ChatGPT and then filling the sheet. No, that's not called research. Stay organized, group the information, categorize the information, do the subcategory also use sticky notes, highlight proper things, put some pictures, give the proper hyperlink to really related to where you've taken this data from. If you're not organized, guys, even if you do a great project, you will feel stuck. Okay? And last but not the least, always seek your support of your seniors or your project managers or your mentors. In fact, I would say because without that support you can't really become a star, guys, you will have 100 years figuring out things and then you, you'll still be figuring out. So have a proven process, have a mentor who can guide you, who is watching you accountable so that you are getting in track very fast. Okay, so let me quickly repeat you guys. The very first thing is it's completely normal to accept that you feel really stuck in research. That's okay. Ask a question, what problem you're trying to solve in every part of your research. That's the first thing Second is follow up any process but experiment with different method. Third is gather insight, retrieve your old data, go into that old information and that will make a sense. Fourth is seek inspiration from different industries. Fifth is talk face to face of your interviews of your users so that sometimes you will be really enthusiastic towards finding out what is the real problem and you'll be getting back into the research. Okay. Sixth is have a cross functional team collaboration. Don't be a lone warrior. 7th is take a break, naps and come back. 8 is do an iteration, bring a lot of ideas. 9th is stay organized. 10th is have a good support of your mentor. Got it. I hope this information would have given you a great clarity. Subscribe me for further episodes. Guys, we are going to add a lot of value in this podcast. We have crossed more than 200 episodes and you can see how much of value has been already given to you. If you're not listen to my earlier episodes, go back and listen. There's going to be a huge learning for you because every single day if you're not learning, you are not growing at all. Okay? So if you need my support, you can send an email to the DFC Design for Change. 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