Creating value testing guidelines  

Torre lacked a structured framework for user interviews which posed challenges in transferring knowledge, analyzing data, and aligning the questions for each type of user.

To overcome these hurdles, the design team conducted thorough research and collectively developed value testing guidelines.

These guidelines now help the members in the company conduct effective interviews, ensuring consistent data gathering and analysis.
UX Researcher
Role
Torre
Company
March, 2022
Date completed
Context
As part of the product creation process at Torre, we constantly conduct value testing to understand the needs, values, and pain points of our potential users. This information allows us to find new opportunities and create new products.

The method that provides us with the most insights is an in-depth user interview. In these interviews, a UX researcher meets with participants one-on-one to discuss in detail what the participant thinks about a specific topic.

In Torre's case, it is about their recruitment or job-seeking process, depending on whether the participant is a talent seeker or a job seeker.
This is me (bottom right) in an in-depth interview with one of Torre's customers.
What was the problem?

Even though we knew the job-to-be-done for each type of user at Torre, the problem was that we did not have a structured framework or guidelines to conduct these in-depth interviews. Therefore:

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  • It was difficult to transfer this knowledge to other people within the company or to new members of the design team.
  • The information gathered was not structured in a way that allowed it to be analyzed with information obtained from previous in-depth interviews.
  • We were not adjusting the questions in the interview to understand the specific needs and pain points of users depending on their funnel stage, only by type of user instead.
How did we solve it?
Step 1: Research

The first step was for each member of the design team to conduct research on value testing methods, frameworks, guidelines, and suggestions. Some sources included:

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  • Books like Inspired, The Mom Test, and Just Enough Research
  • Articles from companies or firms specialized in UX research such as the Nielsen Norman Group, Maze, and UserTesting
  • Any other tips or suggestions from previous experiences conducting value testing or in-depth interviews

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Step 2: Ideation

With the information that each team member brought, we collaboratively selected the best ideas and concepts to include in our guidelines. We considered:

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  • Determining different types of value provided (functional, social, monetary, and psychological)
  • Structure and length of the interview
  • Standardizing how we document the findings into structured databases
  • Standardizing the guidelines for each type of user, including their funnel stage
  • Cognitive biases that we should avoid
  • How to recruit participants in the most efficient way possible
  • Tips and suggestions for team members who are not familiar with value testing

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Step 3: Creating the MOVERS guidelines

With the concepts we wanted to cover aligned, we started working on the Monthly Values and Exploratory Research Sessions guidelines, or as we called it, MOVERS. The guidelines consisted of four main sections and several sub-sections within each. At a glance, each section included the following:

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Section 1: Introduction and Objective of the Framework

  • Number of participants to be interviewed, how to recruit them, where to store the information, and suggestions to align the goal of the interview

Section 2: Pre-Interview

  • Inclusion of observer(s), participant pre-check, cognitive bias concepts, and other tips to get into the mindset of an interviewer

Section 3: Interview

  • Introduction, breaking the ice, suggested and must-ask questions, experiments to find value, and asking for referrals or testimonials

Section 4: Post-Interview

  • Follow-up processes and information compilation into different data structures

After some weeks of work and alignment, we came up with a first version of the guidelines, which were then put to the test.

A sneak peek of the MOVERS guideline and a report that I worked on.
What were the results?
  • We created the Monthly Values and Exploratory Research Sessions guidelines, also known as MOVERS
  • The guidelines are currently used by the design team, including UX Researchers and Product Designers, whenever there is a need to conduct value testing
  • The guidelines are also used by other members of the Torre team, mainly account managers and customer service representatives, to better gather information from users when required
  • The MOVERS guidelines allow the design team to create different types of client archetypes to better identify insights, patterns, and trends from Torre's users