Picture this scene. You have done a week or two of research and now you have to boil it all down to several reports for different audiences, each in a different format. A simple, highl level, results-based report for stakeholders. A deeper more detailed one for the wider team, and a retrospective for the design team.
That’s a lot of reporting! At the end of it you might just lose the golden nuggets, the actionable feedback you need to improve your product.
What is cross docking?
In comes the Cross Docking concept. In shipping and receiving Cross Docking is:
Cross-docking is a logistics process where products from suppliers or manufacturers are directly transferred to a customer, with minimal to no storage time in between. Essentially, it eliminates the traditional storage phase. This streamlines the supply chain from point of origin to point of sale.
Source: maersk.com
Simply put, the goal of Cross Docking is to create a straight line between receiving a shipment and redirecting it to the next stop with the right contents inside. Storage is eliminated meaning minimal tracking of goods or time in a warehouse, and less warehouse space and effort required.
How this might apply to UX research is the immediate response in wireframes or prototypes to the things learned in research. Or, at the very least, storing this info in a more temporary holding pen until it can be put to good use.
As designers we deal in the realm of the visual and what better way to document research than to show the results in a prototype that’s easy for everyone to digest? Many of our audiences also prefer to receive information this way.
How I think it could work
Here’s how I see it working:
- Find user participants and book them in for user research sessions in Calendly
- Test those participants on a well thought out mockup with very directed, specific questions on what you want to test. Try to avoid having too many objectives as you can only get to 5-10 questions in an hour. An hour goes fast!
- As you go, create a simple user research insights grid on Miro and use a sweet consumer insights service like Dovetail or Condens. You want the services to do the heavy lifting; record your sessions! Then you get all sorts of AI smarts that give you a synopsis of the discussion without much effort.
- To keep insights from going stale keep updating another version of the mockup (or at the very least keep Design notes in your mockup) so you can see the improvement ideas as you go.
- This way there’s a visual artifact you’re updating that’s easily understandable by all your audiences (and who doesn’t like a pretty picture?!) Show this prototype to stakeholders and your team.
Cons?
I was thinking this through and one drawback is obviously the lack of reporting geared to the different audiences. This, though, is answered by using a consumer insights service and its AI tools.
Another is that insights are not allowed to percolate in a storage pen, and you might miss valuable connections if you become too reactive with this Cross Docking process in your UX research. Resist the temptation to jump to unfounded conclusions.
Lastly, this process depends on a team that can understand the shorthand that the prototype or mockup will represent. For example, what did the user say about that button being to far down the page? Why is the page so much longer now? Key to capturing good results is for everyone to understand the objective and the answers to your prepared questions.
The key is keeping it simple
The key to this technique is still keeping good notes while not being bogged down by trying to catalogue every response. Stick with the actionable insights and then test again. Did you get it right? If not, then run through the process again. Don’t forget to be more focused in your questioning the next time.
Ideally with this method you’ll be able to more quickly arrive at actionable insights you can then use to improve your product, or at the very least, make a good start on a case.
