Deriving **“the not-so-in-sight” Insights**

Mark Twain famously stated, “supposing is good, but finding out is better,” emphasizing the value of user research. Indeed, user research has repeatedly proven its ability to align user and product needs, reduce risks, and improve usability. But the question is, among the various stages of the intimidating user research process, what is it that ultimately informs future decisions? It’s none other than the insights derived at the end of user research. In this article, we will be exploring what insights are, why are they so helpful, and how to derive them. There’s a lot that goes into this process of deriving insights and so as the name suggests, they aren't really “in sight”.

To begin, it’s important to understand where insights fit in the design process. As depicted in the visual below, insights can be generated at different stages of the design process. At the stakeholder workshops and interactions, insights aim to understand the business, its challenges, and expectations. During the user research phase, insights help grasp what users are seeking. After designs are created, insights in the testing phase assess the effectiveness of the solution. This article focuses specifically on the insights generated in the user research process.

Design process and stages where insights can be obtained

Before we jump into the insights, what they are, and how to derive them, let's look at what needs to be done in order to reach that phase.

Five Steps Of Synthesis

Accumulating Raw Data: It’s crucial to gather all the pertinent information obtained from research interactions. A best practice is to group them into smaller categories (such as current experience, challenges, and tasks), making it easier to categorize them in the future.

Consolidating Pointers: In this step, consolidate all the pointers gathered from research interactions onto a single frame or board to facilitate the next step of grouping. It’s also advisable to tag interviews with the interviewees’ names. This aids in creating an executive summary or presenting numerical data (e.g., “30% of participants found the onboarding flow time-consuming due to the number of steps”).

Bucketing Information: Having all your data in one place makes it easier to identify patterns and common themes, allowing you to prioritize them based on their frequency of occurrence. The themes identified at this stage typically provide a comprehensive reflection of the challenges faced by users and their expectations of the solution. Therefore, the themes should not be broad, such as ‘Challenges Faced’ or ‘User Expectations,’ but rather specific to the topic at hand, such as ‘Lack of Guidance’ or ‘Absence of a Centralised System.’

Generating Insights: After identifying and prioritizing the themes based on their frequency, the next step is to examine each theme in detail to reach an insight. One useful method for doing so is the ‘5 Why Method.’ With this method, you ask a question five times in succession to delve deeper into the root of the issue. In the upcoming sections of this article, we will explore how to derive insights using this method.

Deriving A Strategy: The insights obtained in the previous step provide direction on how the design will take shape, known as the design strategy. A design strategy provides a comprehensive view of what the solution will encompass.

Understanding Insights

The word ‘insight’ suggests a deeper understanding of a situation, beyond just surface-level information. Similarly, a research insight provides an understanding of user needs, challenges, and motivations. It is the result of an ongoing process of probing and empathizing with users, while also maintaining a broader perspective. Insights are critical because they inform future strategies and decisions, making it essential to ensure they truly represent user needs, challenges, and expectations. Insights are always actionable and represent an opportunity area.

How Insights Inform Future Design Decisions

• They provide a clear picture of user requirements: To smoothly transition from the research phase to the design phase, it’s crucial to have a clear understanding of users’ needs, challenges, and expectations. This ensures that design decisions are not based solely on assumptions, but on facts and figures that support even the smallest decisions.
• They help prioritize features: With all the insights in hand, it becomes easier to ideate and prioritize features. Insights assist in identifying a list of features, ranging from “most critical to users” to “least critical to users.”
• They serve as validation points for design concepts: Having the right insights also helps to ensure that the solution or concept stays on course and does not deviate from the needs, challenges, and expectations of the users. It is important to align each concept with one or more insights to increase the usability and effectiveness of the solution. This prevents the design from becoming disjointed or losing sight of the user’s needs.

Components Of An Insight

An insight is a combination of the user’s problem, the underlying reason for it, and its impact. It is necessary to use probing during interviews and the ‘5 Why Method’ while synthesizing data to get to the core of the problem. The accuracy of the insights derived by these methods helps craft an experience that aligns with users’ requirements and mental models. An insight can be constructed in the following way, but the format can vary as long as it includes all three elements:

• Problem: Describe the issue the user is facing
• Reason: Explain the underlying reason for the issue
• Impact: Illustrate the impact of the issue on the user

Insights are more impactful when presented with a user quote or numerical data related to the problem. One more addition that can help is to give a relevant title to every insight. This will help readers get some context.

Insights v/s Findings: A Common Confusion

Many times, findings are misinterpreted as insights and that impacts the entire process. Findings are generally the first-hand data obtained from interactions, they lack aspects like reasoning and impact and solely focus on the action that is taking place. This doesn’t give a holistic perspective of the situation. Insights on the other hand are well-constructed, synthesized statements that not only throw light on the challenge or the pain point faced but also highlight the reason and impact for the same. Here is an example that’ll help in getting a better understanding,

Some Examples

Examples of Insights

A Quick Summary

• Insights are the main deliverable at the end of a research phase.
• They help in informing all future design decisions.
• A great insight is a combination of the problem faced, the reason behind it, and the impact it has.
• Findings and insights are not the same: findings are raw data and insights are well-synthesized and defined statements.
• Probing during interviews and using the 5 Why method during synthesis can help in deriving insights.
• Insights are always actionable and they indicate an opportunity area.
• They are more impactful when presented with a user quote or numerical data related to the problem.