Joining a company as their first researcher can feel overwhelming. You're stepping into uncharted territory, trying to understand how research has been conducted (if at all) and where you can make the biggest impact. The key to success lies in understanding the current landscape before you start building.
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The Challenge of Being First
As a first researcher, you face unique challenges. Unlike joining an established research team with documented processes and clear workflows, you're entering an environment where research activities may be scattered, informal, or non-existent. Your first priority isn't to start conducting research—it's to understand what's already happening and identify where the pain points lie.
A Simple Mapping Exercise
One effective approach to tackle this challenge is a mapping exercise that helps you visualize the current state of research activities across your organization. This exercise serves multiple purposes: it reveals existing research processes, uncovers operational pain points, and helps you understand the research maturity of different teams.
Setting Up the Framework
The exercise uses a simple two-axis graph:
Vertical Axis (Y-axis): Satisfaction level
Top: Happy/Satisfied (😊)
Middle: Neutral (flotation line)
Bottom: Sad/Frustrated (😢)
Horizontal Axis (X-axis): Process timeline (steps in chronological order)
How It Works
The process is straightforward but revealing:
Identify Research Activities: Start by cataloging research or research-like activities happening across the organization. This could include user interviews, usability testing, surveys, or any form of user feedback collection.
Break Down Into Steps: For each activity, ask stakeholders to describe every step in their process as granularly as possible. Each step becomes a separate "ticket" or data point.
Map the Experience: For each step, ask stakeholders to rate their experience:
How difficult was this step?
What challenges did they encounter?
How satisfied were they with the outcome?
Plot the Results: Place each step on the graph based on where it falls in the timeline (x-axis) and how the stakeholder felt about it (y-axis).
What You'll Discover
This exercise typically reveals several types of steps:
Easy Wins (high on satisfaction): Steps that work well and don't need immediate attention. These might include activities like "scheduling interviews" if the company has good calendar systems.
Major Pain Points (low on satisfaction): Steps that consistently frustrate people. Common examples include:
Recruiting participants
Managing incentives
Synthesizing and sharing findings
Getting stakeholder buy-in for research
Neutral Zones: Steps that work adequately but might benefit from optimization over time.
Gathering Multiple Perspectives
The real power of this exercise comes from collecting input from various stakeholders across different teams. Each person's map will look different, reflecting their unique challenges and experiences. Some might struggle with participant recruitment while others find data analysis most challenging.
Workshop vs. Individual Sessions
You have flexibility in how you conduct this mapping:
Workshop Format: Bring multiple stakeholders together for a collaborative session. This works well when you want to build alignment and shared understanding across teams.
Individual Sessions: Conduct one-on-one conversations with stakeholders. This approach often works better when you're new to the organization, as it feels less formal and allows for more candid discussions.
Hybrid Approach: Combine both methods—start with individual conversations to understand each perspective, then bring groups together to discuss common patterns.
When Research Doesn't Exist
What if you join a company where no formal research has been conducted? Don't worry—the exercise still works. Simply reverse the approach:
Map Your Ideal Process: Outline what a typical research process should look like in your context
Assess Anticipated Challenges: Ask stakeholders to identify which steps they think would be most challenging given the company's current resources, tools, and constraints
Identify Preparation Needs: Focus on what needs to be in place before you can successfully execute each step
Beyond Pain Points: Additional Insights
While identifying operational pain points is the primary goal, this mapping exercise reveals much more:
Tool Landscape: What research tools are currently being used? What tools have teams considered but not implemented?
Skill Assessment: What's the research literacy level across different teams? Who has experience with specific methodologies?
Research Culture: How do different teams view research? What are their expectations and assumptions?
Resource Constraints: Where do budget, time, or personnel limitations create the biggest barriers?
Turning Insights Into Action
Once you've completed the mapping across multiple stakeholders, look for patterns:
Consistent Pain Points: Issues that appear across multiple teams or activities
Quick Wins: High-impact, low-effort improvements you can implement immediately
Systemic Issues: Deeper organizational challenges that require longer-term solutions
Knowledge Gaps: Areas where training or documentation could make a significant difference
The Foundation for Your Research Operations Roadmap
This mapping exercise provides the foundation for building your research operations roadmap. Instead of guessing what the organization needs, you have data-driven insights about where to focus your efforts.
The steps that consistently rank low in satisfaction become your priority list. The neutral steps become opportunities for optimization. The high-satisfaction steps become examples of what's working well that you can potentially replicate in other areas.
Making Research More Accessible
Ultimately, this exercise isn't just about understanding current pain points—it's about making research effective efficient for everyone in your organization.
By systematically identifying and addressing the barriers that prevent teams from conducting research, you're building the foundation for a research-driven culture.
Whether you're joining as a first researcher or working as a consultant with organizations new to research, this mapping exercise provides a clear, collaborative way to understand the current state and chart a path forward.
The goal is simple: help teams conduct more research by removing the obstacles that stand in their way.
Remember, the most sophisticated research methods in the world won't matter if your teams can't execute them effectively. Start with understanding the landscape, identify where people struggle, and build from there. Your research operations roadmap—and your impact as a researcher—will be much stronger as a result.
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