What is this checklist for?

This checklist is for any designer or researcher who has asked themselves questions like “Where can I find out about my users? How can I stay up to date with the research other stakeholders have conducted? How can I let my stakeholders know about the research I’ve conducted? How can I learn more about our users and customers?....” These questions can obviously go on. Whether you are new to the team, have been here for years, or somewhere in the middle, this checklist is meant to help you understand your users/customers faster by communicating and collaborating with those around you.

• [ ] Ask for your teams research roadmap (maybe the research team is working on something that correlates with your project)
• [ ] Attend your PM’s program review meetings (here you will know when PM’s have upcoming customer calls and customer feedback/opportunities are usually shared in the beginning of the meeting)
• [ ] Schedule time with your PM to find out more about how they learn about the customer.
  • Identify what customers they’ve spoke with most recently - do they track this information?
  • Do they have a place that holds all the customer notes?
    • Share with the team researcher if possible
  • Ask to be invited to upcoming customer calls (we’ve recently added a new column so that stakeholders can add/ping additional attendees such as UXD/UXR so that we can proactively help them & add any questions we may have about the customer)
• [ ] Include research in weekly stand-ups so they can share quick insights to the team/what they’re working on
• [ ] Utilize your project kick-offs
• [ ] Invite &/or share insights from customer feedback you receive (If your team has customer feedback reviews)
• [ ] Have UXR & PM’s review any research plans you might need to create
• [ ] Sync with your researcher and ask them if they have existing participant screeners and ask them what challenges they’ve faced with recruiting our very specific users
• [ ] Invite UXR and PM’s to your research insight share-outs & encourage the UXR’s to invite the entire design team when they do theirs
• [ ] Walk the Store - think of it as an opportunity to use your service as if you’re the customer. This lets all teams (UX/PM/Dev) have a clear and unified understanding of what’s going well, what’s not working, and what we can do better to help the customer experience.