Government of Canada, Jan-Apr 2022

Leading an end-to-end UX research study to understand how students are onboarded

Role

UX Research Intern and lead for this project

Skills

UX research
Stakeholder management
Service design

There were gaps in co-op students’ onboarding experiences at this agency.

After hearing from students in an informal capacity about their onboarding experiences, I decided to lead a UX research study to fully explore the student onboarding experience at this agency and how it can be improved for future students. I led this study and the majority of user interviews, and was also in charge of the end-to-end process. I was fortunate enough to work with two senior UX researchers and consultants, and two student interns.

This project was my primary focus for the second half of my co-op term. Below are all the milestones I completed within 2 months!

Since my co-op term came to an end in April 2022, the project has been handed off and deliverables are expected later in the year.

Note: My role at the Government of Canada was within a high-security agency, and so I am unable to disclose all the details of this project. Anything in the scope of this project that is confidential has been omitted from this case study.

How did I plan this study?

I wrote a high-level research plan for the study to outline the scope, objectives and goals, and potential deliverables.

Themes and scope

The scope of this study is to explore the time period when students first join the agency, to see how to improve their onboarding experience. The main themes we wanted to explore were the onboarding tasks they had to complete, what they wanted to achieve and what their expectations were, and to get student suggestions to improve the program in the future.

Goals

Value proposition

How, who, and what

The research method I chose was to conduct user interviews with students to get qualitative information about their experiences. I segmented the participant population based on their sectors and units in the agency so that we would get a well-rounded list of participants. I then created a tentative list of deliverables to discuss with stakeholders.

What do we want to learn from these interviews?

Once I had established a plan and timeline, I began drafting the interview questionnaire.

The primary goal for these interviews was to gain insights about students' feelings, expectations, and goals related to onboarding.

The interview themes I selected previously were helpful in creating a direction for the questions we were asking.

Once I had created the initial draft, I asked senior UX researchers on my team for feedback. I found that in my first draft of questions, I was leaning more towards questions that have a yes/no answer, which isn’t conducive to getting the best insights in a user interview. Getting this feedback from senior UX researchers was incredibly helpful in iterating on my work!

Tell me about, Explain, Describe, Walk me through

While moving forward, I used the TEDW method while coming up with questions to ensure that they would be open-ended without leading participants.

So, what did we ask?

1. Background information (helpful for analysis and creating personas)
2. The steps involved in their onboarding process and what they thought about them
3. Their expectations for onboarding
4. Their perspective on the agency’s culture, specifically related to personal development and mentorship
5. Any additional pain points and suggestions

How did we conduct the interviews?

After finalizing the interview questionnaire, I wrote the communications to send to participants to recruit them for the study. Overall, most students were eager to share their thoughts and participate in the study. When we began emailing students, I tracked all our outreach and kept a calendar updated when interviews were scheduled for logistical purposes.

We began interviews in the second week of April. By the end of April, we were able to hear from 20 students from a variety of sectors at the agency! 

What are some of the next steps?

At the end of April, I began the synthesis and analysis of our data. I split the interview transcripts into themes, and began tagging the participants' responses based on common patterns I was seeing. The project has now been handed off to a senior UX researcher who is working on the first draft of the analysis. In the coming months, the project will be completed and our findings will be summarized in a presentation to stakeholders, as well as through some of our deliverables including personas.

What are some of my takeaways?

Leading a project

I had the opportunity to lead this UX research study, and one of the biggest things I learned along the way was to take advantage of the resources I had, and seek mentorship from senior designers and researchers. Since I was leading this project, a big component was ensuring that there was communication and transparency for everyone involved. I made sure that the project management tools we were using were accessible to everyone, and hosted stand-ups every week to update stakeholders.

Learning more about UX research

When I first came into this internship, I didn't know too much about the scope of UX research and the entire end-to-end process. Leading this study gave me insight into all the aspects of UX research beyond just the methodology. While we all naturally have biases and make assumptions, a big part of UX research is casting those aside to listen to your users and what they have to say. I learned the importance of hearing different perspectives so you don't let your opinions get in the way of your findings.  

Delivery makes a huge difference in building a design culture

As one of the first hires of the Digital Design team in my unit, I was able to see our design culture slowly build up, and help promote the use of UX and service design best practices at the agency. That being said, establishing a design culture can be difficult, because it should be prioritized in every piece of work. One thing that I've learned from my internship is that service delivery and prioritizing deliverables makes a huge difference in showing others the importance of user-centred design, because the insights from this study will prove that user-centric work is key.