Rapid Research - Thomson Reuters

Background and Role

As the Lead User Experience Researcher conducting Rapid Research (Qualitative), I help make the vision to build out the Rapid Research Program across the Tax & Accounting businesses at Thomson Reuters a reality. Thus far, I have operated with two products - ONVIO and UltraTax. Onvio is a Cloud-based accounting software that includes document management, time and billing, and online client portals. UltraTax is a professional tax preparation software with a full line of federal, state, and local tax programs that cuts your tax workflow time and increase your productivity.

I have a process that takes me from intake meetings to report readout meetings with key stakeholders. I own each task and the process itself from start to finish. The tasks in a typical study include brainstorming with the team to understand the concept/scenarios/prototype, writing recruitment screeners, writing the facilitator guide, conducting sessions with customers, meeting with internal stakeholders for debriefs (Fellow UX Researchers, UX Designers, Content Designers, Accessibility Specialists, Product Managers, and Product Owners, UX Directors).

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Outcomes

Quick turnaround times (from intake requests to disseminating findings) and adding more flexibility in how feedback is captured. High-impact, actionable qualitative insights delivered on a bi-weekly basis. Involves different features, concepts, and workflows across different products (ONVIO and UltraTax)

2

Tax Products

7

Reports

35

Customers Interviewed

20

Unique Features and counting

Challenges

Some Tools Involved In My Research

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Process

I follow a rigorous, yet streamlined process for my qualitative studies.

Study outline

Impact
bulls eye
  • The results from my studies have helped teams make informed decisions on design changes for various workflows and concepts across tax products.
  • Incorporating participants with disabilities in the studies. Our team is the first research team at TR to incorporate such participants.
  • Identifying key areas of enhancements and improved user experience based on qualitative data provided by the customers.
  • This type of directional research helps break down complex workflows into smaller scenarios, enabling the streamlining of the product roadmap.
  • Increasing the scope of rapid research to other products and verticals within Thomson Reuters.

Next Steps

Continue this type of qualitative research with more features and workflows. Experiment with SEQ and content-related metrics to gain better insights with Rapid Research. However, with numbers and data to highlight the effect of design changes after rapid research studies, it is easier to measure the true impact of the insights obtained from Rapid Research.

Takeaways

This type of qualitative research is as rigorous and fast-paced as they come. Thirty minutes is all we have with the customer, and often, the prototype drives the study, with the guide only being a support tool. The team must first study complex workflows to prioritize the features and tasks and then present them to the user. A significant part of such studies is the continuous interaction with members of the larger org ( Fellow UX Researchers, UX Designers, Content Designers, Accessibility Specialists, Product Managers, and Product Owners) and the customers. However, such a process proves difficult if no prototype is available or there is no context to what is being tested. Getting acclimatized to how rapid research works takes a little time, but once the dust settles, it is exciting and moves at lightspeed.