user-research

Start by defining research objectives and questions, then select a method matching your goals: interviews for deep understanding, surveys for quantification, or usability testing for evaluating designs. The Skill produces a research plan covering objectives, methods, timeline, and participants.

User interviews and usability tests typically need 5-8 participants to surface major themes and issues. Surveys require 100+ responses for quantitative confidence, while card sorting works with 15-30 participants.

A 50-minute interview guide follows five phases: warm-up (5 min), context about current workflows (10 min), deep dive on the topic (20 min), reaction to concepts or prototypes (10 min), and wrap-up (5 min).

Use affinity mapping to group observations into themes, an impact/effort matrix to prioritize findings, journey mapping to visualize the experience over time, and jobs-to-be-done to understand user motivations. Deliver a synthesis report with themes, insights, and recommendations.

Use surveys when you need to quantify attitudes and preferences across 100+ respondents. Choose interviews when you need deep qualitative understanding of needs and motivations from a smaller group of 5-8 participants.