Snoopy team leader and UX Research
Contextual inquiry in action is more intrusive than I anticipated. However, this is where the rubber meets the road in improving user experiences. My users? Aaah, my wonderful team-mates. The problem? Low and resistant adoption of the new Notion workspace: in particular the progress page where we collaboratively resolved to post progress every 6 hours. This was a co-creative effort to align our work and avoid black-outs in our activities during a weekly playback
As we dip our toes in, a few definitions before we get knee-deep:
Contextual Inquiry: A research method where we observe a user using a feature or tool and asking them questions about their experience.
Notion: A highly customizable digital workspace
Co-creation: A collaborative approach to innovate where cross-functional teams and their target customers design solutions together.
After a successful retrospective session, we decided to align our activities throughout the sprint by updating our progress every 6 hours on a page in Notion. I developed the workspace with additional pages such as Definition of Terms and Feedback Channels to align our work and improve the efficiency of continuous feedback.
The Feedback Channel was receiving frequent hits as team members exhaustingly shared assets and feedback. However, only cricket chirps occupied the Progress page. I followed this concern with emails and messages on the team chat room. The response was dull as the formalities used. Grappling to understand the slow response, I sat by one of the developers and our conversation went something like this:
David: What have you achieved so far?
Matthew: I have rigged the character I have received from the designer and animated the first scene."David: Wonderful! Could you please update the Progress page?
What followed was the eustasy of identifying an insight! Words are not sufficient to capture the moment. I have simulated the moment through a screen recording
The effect of this change was a shift from a daily reminder to the team. Interestingly enough, team members challenged each other to update periodically. This had a positive impact on the team development.
Using contextual inquiry improved their user and work experience. Furthermore, this method (internally) does not require rigorous planning and documentation. You only need to be keen about the points of resistance within the team, their frustrations or bottlenecks in a process such as hand-over between designers and developers.
The a-haa moment is also an invitation to co-create always remembering that a you-ser is not the same as a user. To provide alignment and visibility highlight the insight gathered from the session with your team during the weekly playback.
Lastly, contextual inquiry can be a service to your team by taking the moments after the insight to coach your team mates on life and personal development.
