Ridecell UX Research Methodology
Setting Up Ridecell for Success Through UX Research
Clients:
Ridecell is a SF-based startup that offers a readymade and tailorable platform for companies that want to enter the new mobility market, namely carsharing, ridesharing, and fleet operations. The company currently has offices around the world, including the US, India, Spain, Germany, and France. Ridecell also bought Auro, an autonomous vehicle company, that operates out of Milpitas, CA.
As the first UX Researcher at Ridecell, I was in charge of the creation of the new UX Research vision for the company. The vision included the integration of best practices, close collaboration between different departments, ability to scale research and the education of past findings as the company grows, and ultimately push forth the idea that UX research is vital to drive positive product and business impact for both ourselves and our clients.
The below are role-specific tasks that I designed, developed, and led to develop this vision for Ridecell.
Role-Specific Tasks
UX Research Methodology Design
My position at Ridecell dictated the creation of a UX research methodology from scratch, to be used for projects across all company verticals: carsharing, ridesharing, fleet maintenance, and autonomous vehicles.
I was in charge of deciding the type of content that would be included as part of Ridecell’s UX research methodology, the education and best practice usage of various qualitative and quantitative UX research techniques, the tools and materials that would need to be created to set up a UX research program at Ridecell, internal filing structures and nomenclature, and the evaluation of different methods and tools to be used for the company itself as a whole as well as for individual projects. The decisions were tied to company and project needs, as well as the various needs of stakeholders including internal Ridecell departments, the client, and end users.
UX Research Roadmapping and UX Research Budget
I created the UX research roadmap for the upcoming year and a detailed UX research budget based on existing and projected project needs. The research roadmap was created out of 31 interviews with internal stakeholders at Ridecell, including team members from the product management, customer success, launch, design, engineering, and sales teams who work on Ridecell projects for the US, Europe, and Asia markets. UX research project topics were prioritized and then aligned with the product team’s roadmap to create a more efficient and impactful path forward for the company.
Individual UX Research Project Design, Leadership, and Implementation
I led the creation and implementation of the individual Ridecell projects that involved UX research, including identifying the objectives for the project and research method selection; project scoping and structuring; timing; budgeting; legal team engagement (if needed); research team setup; definition of team member roles and training; research materials creation and collection; recruiter selection and management (if needed); interview discussion guide creation (if needed); research finding storage, reference, and permissions management; information to insights synthesis; communication materials creation and presentation.
Ridecell UX Research Team Training
I led all of the UX research projects across all of the company verticals, so depending on the project, team members from other teams (Customer Success, Launch, Design, Engineering) would need to be involved to support the UX research work. I created a UX research training template, and educated team members in how to support, including: how to record findings while in-field; standard interview structure and how to ask unbiased questions; how to take notes during interviews, etc.
Insights Synthesis, Final Asset Creation, and Presentation
After each phase of the UX Research project was completed, I led research insights synthesis, communication materials creation, and presentations for the Ridecell internal team and the client, if applicable. This included managing a team of the Ridecell team members who supported me with research tasks to gather and distill the learnings; development of assets including service blueprints, user journey maps, user research findings videos, reports; and development and presentation of the final results. In the case where the presentation was meant for client view, I collaborated with internal Ridecell teams such as Launch, Customer Success, Design, and Engineering in order to ensure our messaging was congruent and to prepare next steps plans.
Voice of the User
A part of my role was to play the voice of the user during regular Design team and other department meetings, where solutions to identified current and future problems were being created and evaluated. This involved identifying user-centered issues that could arise, and proposing changes and alternative solutions based on findings from the UX research.
New Analytics Tool Selection and SQL Self-Study
In order to monitor the usage of our products more effectively, I collaborated closely with the Ridecell data engineering team to identify what analytics tools are currently used internally and by our clients, the pros and cons of those tools to support our needs (including usage, costs, etc.), and the testing and selection of those tools.
I also taught myself SQL to be able to query our current databases and answer quantitative research-related questions I had on an ad hoc basis.
Recruiter List and Management
I brought to Ridecell my personal UX research recruiter list of global and agencies my colleagues and I had used in the past. This list is continuously updated with new recruiting company names, industry information, geographic coverage, target focus, pricing, as well as personal notes about working with them.
As new UX research projects involving end users (usually consumers) came to Ridecell and external recruiting was needed, I handled all communication with the recruiting companies including managing price quotes, vendor selection, project scoping materials, and respondent screeners.
Legal Contracts and GDPR
I engaged and collaborated with the Ridecell in-house security team and external legal team to create contracts for use in UX research, including non-disclosure contracts, image/sound/video recording and release contracts, and GDPR user research contracts and relevant internal filing definitions, structures, and rules.
Internal UX Research Standardized Template and Storage Creation
Created UX Research at Ridecell templates and standard structures for research projects to define project scopes and timelines, record findings while in-field, organize and store data and other information, and make the communication process more efficient and effective for the internal organization and clients. This included documents for project setup, scoping, budgeting, and timing with internal stakeholders; standard filing structures for storage and reference; communication materials for internal and client use; UX research-related templates including recruiter emails, discussion guides, etc.