{"id":3405,"date":"2019-04-23T19:40:34","date_gmt":"2019-04-23T19:40:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.qualaroo.com\/?p=3405"},"modified":"2026-07-03T10:39:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T10:39:49","slug":"automate-your-user-research-for-long-term-viability-and-a-better-bottom-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web-staging.qualaroo.com\/blog\/automate-your-user-research-for-long-term-viability-and-a-better-bottom-line\/","title":{"rendered":"Automate User Research for Long-Term Viability and a Better Bottom Line"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This post originally appeared on Design Thinking<\/a> and was written by Paulina W\u00f3jciak and Sarah Cantu.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not too long ago, \u201cstreaming\u201d music meant listening to the radio or watching music videos on MTV.  If you really loved an artist, you would pay between $10 and $20 for a tape or CD and listen to their entire album. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, when iTunes and iPods became popular, it changed the way people listened to music. Listeners could actually pick and choose which songs they wanted to buy without having to commit to purchasing an entire album. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just a few years later, Spotify and other streaming services began to again reinvent the way people consume music. Founded in 2008, Spotify disrupted the music industry by allowing users to stream songs instead of owning digital copies. In 2015, Apple Music was launched and other services (like Tidal, launched in 2014) have evolved to provide similar offerings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Music industry revenue data via Statista<\/a>

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From 2017 to 2018, Statista<\/a> reports that streaming music jumped up by 10% in terms of its share of US music industry revenue. It pays to listen to your users. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Apple had chosen to rest on the success they had with iPods and iTunes, they would not be able to hold a candle to Spotify\u2019s market share. We know this is true because digital downloads represented 11% of US music industry revenue in 2018 while streaming held 75%. But instead of sticking to something that had worked for them in the past, Apple evolved with the demands of their market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>Evolve or Die <\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Apple was smart to jump on the wave of music streaming, even if they\u2019re not quite the \u201ccategory king.\u201d But what happens to companies who aren\u2019t so quick on the draw and don\u2019t adapt to their users\u2019 needs and desires? They die. Slowly and expensively. Just ask giants of years past like Nokia, Blackberry, and AOL. The market\u2019s message is clear: evolve to your users’ needs or get left behind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This challenge is perhaps compounded by the rise of automation, which has begun to touch more and more of our everyday lives. From smarter recommendations on our favorite content streaming apps like Spotify and Netflix to cars that update their own software, our technology is only getting smarter, faster, and stronger. So understanding your users is necessary to stand out from competitors and provide real value. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knowing and adapting to your customer requires user research – every successful company knows this. However, it seems that user research and user experience departments are still figuring out how to claim their seat at the executive table when it comes to major business decisions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe this is because UX is a relatively new discipline and research is a heavy, heavy word. Many companies seem to avoid user research altogether because of the associated mental hurdles: budget, time, and personnel limitations.  Other popular excuses<\/a> for not conducting user research include lack of expertise and difficulty recruiting the right type of user. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inclusive testing has real value, edge cases and unfamiliar users often surface friction your core audience has learned to work around. But inclusivity isn’t a substitute for relevance. For a specialized product, most of your sample still needs to match your actual target profile and use case. Widen the pool to catch blind spots, don’t widen it so far that your findings stop reflecting who will actually buy the product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>User Research as Both the Answer and the Hurdle <\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According to Nielsen Norman Group<\/a>, the \u201cdawn of UX\u201d actually happened before the term itself was coined. During its inception, user research was time and resource intensive. It typically took place in very formal settings and in tightly controlled environments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How companies picture user research (probably) <\/em>

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Over time, some aspects of conducting user research have become increasingly accessible. In particular, recruiting participants for user research<\/a> became much easier using online tools. However, the actual process of conducting user research still had a way to go in terms of becoming more efficient and scalable while maintaining quality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the core aspects of user research that makes it difficult to scale is its qualitative nature. If you\u2019re manually sorting through hundreds of comments from your users, it\u2019s not easy to draw conclusions in a systematic way. However, with the rise of automation, manually collecting and sorting through qualitative data doesn\u2019t have to be your only option. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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