[Sigia-l] oursourcing research?

[Jean-François Petit]

> Is this a bad bad bad idea? Should we be trying to do
> all this user research in house, so that we develop a
> deep and intimate understanding of who we are
> developing for?

As usual, the answer is : it depends.

I am a bit partial here, but I firmly believe user research must be done
by people who a)have the skills and b)have the time. If you have the
ressources and the time to build a user research team within your
organization, and that all this fits within your core business
activities, please do. But that won't happen overnight. Meanwhile, you
have to deliver. In those circumstances, there is absolutely no shame in
hiring outside help (on the contrary: your client will be better
served.)

If you do choose to outsource, make absolutely sure that the chosen
company or individual(s):

a) will be working *with* you (and not only *for* you). In other words,
hire them for their skills and prior experience in user research (they
should have documented methodology, reporting techniques and great
skills for interpreting results.), but make sure your team and theirs is
communicating using proper channels and exchanging the right info.

b) have some experience in doing research that is specific to websites
or software. Some "generic" market research firms have a hard time
understanding the specifics of designing a good user experience for
interactive products and fail to provide actionable data.

jf.

>> Jean-François Petit, Idéactif Conseil
>> jfpetit at ideactif.com  T:514.286.0039 poste 237  F:514.286.8099
>> http://www.ideactif.com/en/