UX Tea Break: Testing assumptions in user research

[@geoffwilsoncomedy]

A story of your assumption tests being used in everyday life: In reviewing and revising one of my many how-to guides in my playbook, this one being based around the lessons in your video here along with other articles, I was yet again deciding how to watermark my guides so that if shared, people will know that I was the one who put in the work to compile and write-up the digested lessons, takeaways, and connecting/expanding thoughts. However, I had concerns over how I credited myself for writing up this guide because depending on how I phrased it, people could potentially see it as plagarising or taking credit for others' ideas and that's definitely not something I want to be seen as. It _finally_ dawned on me that this was actually your assumption test in action - I originally assumed that how I credited myself for the work was probably clear enough, but the counter-assumption would be that the readers didn't understand my work vs the owners of the source material so they saw it as stealing (assumption test 1). And, if I realised that's how they perceived it after I shared the document, then yes, I would have wanted to credit myself differently (assumption test 2). So, in using these tests, I eventually arrived at a solution that passes both.

[@DavidTravis]

Great example Geoff.

[@tomiola7773]

I have found this video very useful. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Subscribed!

[@DavidTravis]

Thanks for your comment Tomi, glad its useful.

[@mariumladha9692]

Thanks for the shout out David! Great video :)

[@EdytaNiemyjska]

I found the framework for organizing assumptions very useful. How do you go about ASKING about assumptions? Are there any prompts or ways of asking that you found particularly useful?

[@DavidTravis]

Run a workshop and ask the product team to create assumption personas. This is a good way to identify the team members' beliefs.

[@miguelvera8156]

"Hello, I'm writing to you from Peru. I really liked your video. Could you give me some advice on how to create a deliverable to present the results on assumptions?"

[@DavidTravis]

There's nothing unique about presenting the results on assumptions, compared (say) to presenting the results of field research or a usability test. Just follow best practice: show only the key findings, present face-to-face, build in time for discussion. Save a more detailed report / slide deck to the shared drive.

[@UrvashiBhalla427]

I am confused, how should I make assumptions & hypotheses, given that I have already selected a feature, that I will be working on. As per my understanding, i will be working on, solution backward or It's like reverse engineering the problem. How do these things go hand in hand? I don't know, if I am able to put my thoughts clearly!

[@ocubex]

Good insights... thanks.

[@DavidTravis]

Glad it was helpful.

[@vincecormican8264]

the sound is not good I am quite disappointed

[@DavidTravis]

I just checked and the sound is fine when I play the video. I'm not sure what the problem is.