Why your research isn't landing (and how to fix it)
The most common blindspot that UX researchers have is how they’re communicating the insights they’ve discovered.
Too many people struggle to present their findings in a compelling way. They write reports that lack impact because they:
- Don’t link what has been found back to the business challenge.
- Have many observations but little meaningful interpretation.
- Are full of overly dense slides that no-one wants to read.
- Lack a clear narrative and are devoid of storytelling.
On top of this, there’s too much focus on reports as the sole way to communicate what we’re learning about the customers we speak to.
Research is only as valuable as the impact it creates
The goal of a researcher isn’t to “do the research”.
The goal of a researcher is to generate empathy for customers in the minds of the people making decisions about the experience.
If what we learn in our research - however brilliant - is not understood by our audience and does not persuade them to act, it has no value. Teams that fail to grasp this lose credibility with their peers and eventually, their budget to continue this important work.
Communicating research more effectively
There are whole training courses on this (let me know if you’d like me to run one for your team) but essentially this boils down to thinking about the UX of your research output like we think about the UX of a website or app.
For a research report:
- Start by empathising with your audience: think about the objectives of the research and how it links to the wider business problem that you are helping to solve. Research does not happen in isolation.
- Give people the answers to their big questions: have an executive summary that answers the main research questions up front. Don't bury the lede.
- Use storytelling techniques to make it memorable: set the scene, build and resolve tension, have a simple narrative that is used to frame everything you’ve found.
- Design it to be scanned: every researcher knows that people don’t read websites and apps… the same applies to your work! Make your slide titles descriptive so that you can get the message without reading the whole page.
- Put excess detail in an appendix: think about what is essential to tell your story and what you are adding in for the sake of documenting every ‘interesting’ finding that you uncovered.
How to make your research go viral
Once you’ve got your main research output in shape, that’s when the fun really begins.
If you want to have an outsized impact and get the work seen by many more people, you need to make your work go viral within your business. Spoiler alert: 80-page PDFs don’t usually go viral.
If you think like a marketer, there are several ways to do this:
- Video is the big one. Two examples here:
- In research for a games console manufacturer, we found a huge usability issue. we made a 2 min video clip of people struggling with this particular feature and it was so compelling that it went viral in the company. When this issue was fixed, revenue for this product went up 400%.
- We reviewed the application process for a prominent bank account. Colleagues of mine created a video of what the process is actually like to go through by showing every step, every form and every physical letter. It had high production values (although filmed on a budget) and it was shared across the bank, including with the CEO.
- Infographics and posters: you don’t have to be an illustrator to do this now that we have Canva, Miro, ChatGPT 4o, etc.
- Slack, Teams, etc: share individual findings (not a summary of the whole research) in an interesting digestible format e.g. run a little quiz or guessing game.
There are many more examples but the key message is that you do not need to be an artist to do this. If you can create an Instagram Reel in CapCut or a birthday party invitation in Canva, you can do this. It just takes a bit of imagination.
I’m the problem, it’s me
So the next time you hear a researcher say…
- They never listen to me!
- How do we get more visibility?
- No-one cares what customers think.
…maybe it’s not their stakeholders. Maybe it’s the way they’re communicating what they’re learning.
Research outputs are not just documentation - they bring customers’ reality to life in a way that everyone can understand. Small changes like using better visuals, telling a compelling story, and focusing on key insights can make a big difference.
