Structuring a ResearchOps Area

Setting up a Research Ops area capable of supporting design team research in an agile scenario within a Brazilian Fintech

 

CHALLENGE

Companies around the world are facing the challenges of structuring and evolving areas that support UX Research processes, adopting techniques and solutions according to their corporate and socio-cultural scenarios.

At PagSeguro , a Brazilian Fintech focused on local Market and publicly traded in the United States, we faced this challenge of structuring a ResearchOps area to support and increase the capacity of delivering UXR results inside a fast paced agile scenario development culture.

 

MY ROLES

  • Scenario Mapping

  • Area Strategy Definition

  • Team and Resource Management

  • Definition and Monitoring of Indicators

Scenario Mapping

I started the process of understanding the scenario from the company and the design team, performing research with the designers and a workshop with design leads. All the information gathered with these methodologies allowed me understanding how the research was perceived in the company, performed by the designers and what kind of tools and actions could help the designers perform more user research in their daily activities.

Scope definition

Using the gathered data, it was necessary to define the scope and activities that would be provided by the new ResearchOps area and how we could measure the value we were delivering for the team. For measuring the value, we perform quantitative research with the design team periodically.

delivering

During the first year operating (2019), we focused on delivering tools and support for the research process to get faster and easier to perform. Due to this reason, we focused on buying researching tools and finding a partnership with research consultants outside the company, along with our support and bits of advice about research as a way to give more confidence for the designers to perform research and analyze the data.

 

More details

There are some keynotes available here presented at ILA 19 edition and the following video bring some further information about the process of structuring and managing this ResearchOps area:

 
 

results

At the first year operating:

  • More than 160 advising consultancies provided

  • Full support for 4 major research projects

  • Inclusion of 6 new research tools (between online, offline and partnerships).

  • Reduction of ~ 80% in the amount spent with third parties for the application of qualitative tests and interviews.

Head of design

Aline Alves, who trusted me this challenge.

Viviane Delvequio