Guide
Six ways a user research plan fails
Six common ways a user research plan goes wrong, each with the fix. They range from a study with no decision attached to a sample size with no rationale, recruitment planned as an afterthought and a plan nobody updates once the method changes. Use it to review a draft plan before you send it to stakeholders for sign-off. Koji helps with the recruitment and timeline problems by running AI interviews in parallel.
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What's in this guide
- No decision attached: Research without a decision is theatre. Name the decision before anything else.
- Goals confused with questions: Understand churn is a goal. The questions are what you will ask each participant.
- Sample size pulled from the air: Write down the rationale, even if it is five per persona.
- Recruitment treated as a sub-task: It is the top cause of research delays. Plan it as carefully as the interviews.
- No timeline: When it is done is not a timeline. Stakeholders will fill the gap with their own dates.
- A plan nobody updates: If the method changes, change the plan. It is your contract with stakeholders.
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<a href="https://www.koji.so/visuals/user-research-plan-failure-modes"><img src="https://www.koji.so/visuals/user-research-plan-failure-modes/user-research-plan-failure-modes.png" alt="Listicle of six ways a research plan fails: no decision, goals confused with questions, a guessed sample size, rushed recruitment, no timeline, no updates." width="1080" height="1080" /></a>
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.koji.so/visuals/user-research-plan-failure-modes">Six ways a user research plan fails</a>, Koji</p>
