Lonely Planet
Communicating the power of research to non-practitioners
Goal
Level up product and design team’s UX knowledge and improve access to previous research so team members feel empowered to incorporate research in their projects
Role
Sole UX Researcher
Design, establish, and share Airtable research repository. Create and present UX research educational materials to broader team.
Designing a searchable research database
When I first started at Lonely Planet, research was primarily commissioned through outside vendors, which left documentation largely scattered across different product owners and teams. I took the initiative to design a relational database to store all our test plans, debrief presentations, user quotes, and highlight clips in one place, so it can be easily referenced by any stakeholder for presentations or product discovery work. This database also gave product managers and senior leaders more visibility into the volume of work I was producing and impact I was providing for the business.
Advocating for greater research proficiency
Since the team did not have a dedicated UX researcher prior to my arrival, I created and presented trainings to overall elevate the team’s understanding of what my role is, when to use certain methodologies, and how to best utilize research to elevate product development processes. These presentations were given at the following levels of visibility: within the design team (~10 participants), the broader design and product team (~20 participants), and for a cross-team internal conference (50+ participants).
