Rolling research is an ongoing, iterative approach to user research where sessions are conducted regularly, such as weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, instead of being confined to a single large study. This method is designed to gather continuous feedback and insights from users, helping teams address usability issues and make incremental improvements to their product or service over time.
Here at Userpeek, we also gained a lot of study insights from our rolling research sessions, which greatly helped in the product development across our teams. For example, our advanced remote usability testing solution was tested several times by user researchers and ux designers.
The repeated sessions enabled us to make usability improvements both to the admin and end-users, along with improvements in the testing process that catered to the better usability needs of our consumers. And because this is simply a lightweight process of submitting our product for testing, we have received feedback early in the design process that helped us save time and money.
Key Features of Rolling Research
Scheduled Cadence Sessions are planned at regular intervals, ensuring a steady stream of user feedback.
Flexibility Teams can adapt the focus of research sessions based on emerging needs or priorities without disrupting the overall schedule.
Consistency The methods and structure used in rolling research remain similar across sessions, allowing for comparable and cumulative insights.
Actionable Feedback By continuously engaging with users, rolling research enables quick identification and resolution of usability problems.
The Benefits of Rolling Research
This agile method fosters a deeper understanding of user behaviors, needs, and pain points over time, ensuring that your product stays aligned with evolving user expectations. By integrating rolling research into your workflow, you can identify issues early, prioritize improvements effectively, and maintain a user-centered focus throughout the development process. Let’s explore the key benefits of adopting this dynamic research strategy.
Faster Insights
Rolling research provides ongoing feedback, allowing teams to quickly identify issues and implement improvements. This rapid cycle of testing and refinement is ideal for fast-paced environments like agile development.
Resource Efficiency The structured nature of rolling research saves time and effort. Teams can reuse recruitment methods, templates, and testing tools, reducing the need for extensive planning before each session. This makes rolling research more cost-effective compared to traditional, large-scale studies.
Continuous Learning By engaging with users regularly, teams can continuously gather insights, stay updated on user needs, and adapt to shifting market demands. This approach encourages a culture of learning and iteration.
Improved Stakeholder Engagement Regular sessions and incremental findings help stakeholders stay informed without being overwhelmed by long, complex reports. The steady flow of insights keeps them aligned with the research goals and product vision.
Better Decision-Making Rolling research equips teams with up-to-date, relevant data, enabling them to make informed, user-centric decisions. This reduces risks and ensures that resources are focused on areas that deliver the most value.
Enhanced Collaboration Insights generated through rolling research can be shared across teams, fostering collaboration between designers, developers, product managers, and marketing professionals. This unified understanding of user behavior promotes cohesive decision-making.
User-Centric Development By continuously engaging with real users, rolling research ensures that products evolve based on actual user needs and preferences, rather than assumptions or outdated data.
Easier Backlog Management Teams can use the regular findings from rolling research to validate backlog items, prioritize features, and resolve uncertainties. This helps streamline development and prevents misalignment with user needs.
Adaptability to Market Trends Rolling research enables teams to keep a pulse on changing user expectations and market trends, ensuring that the product remains relevant and competitive.
Long-Term Impact The iterative nature of rolling research leads to consistent improvements over time, resulting in a higher-quality product that aligns more closely with user expectations and business goals.
Example Scenarios for Rolling Research
1. Testing Small Updates or Features Between Sprints
A product team working in agile development wants to test the usability of minor updates to their mobile app. For example:
Scenario: A food delivery app introduces a new feature to customize orders. Rolling research sessions are scheduled weekly to test user interactions with the feature.
Outcome: By observing user behavior during these sessions, the team identifies that users struggle with the customization options' placement. This feedback allows them to tweak the design before the next sprint.
2. Validating Design Changes Before Full Implementation
A team is redesigning the checkout flow for an e-commerce website to reduce cart abandonment.
Scenario: Rolling research is conducted bi-weekly, focusing on different aspects of the new design, such as the placement of buttons, form field labels, or payment options.
Outcome: Users consistently indicate confusion over a "Save for Later" button’s position. This insight allows the team to relocate the button to a more intuitive spot, improving user experience and conversion rates.
3. Tracking How User Needs Evolve Over Time
A SaaS company wants to monitor how users engage with its software during its rollout of a new analytics dashboard.
Scenario: Rolling research sessions are scheduled monthly over six months, tracking how users adapt to the new feature and what challenges they encounter.
Outcome: The company learns that while initial users found the dashboard overwhelming, later sessions indicate increased comfort as onboarding materials were refined. The feedback helps improve training resources for future users.
4. Validating Marketing Campaigns or Messaging
A marketing team wants to ensure their campaigns resonate with the target audience.
Scenario: Rolling research involves testing ad mockups, taglines, and email newsletters with users every two weeks. Sessions focus on understanding emotional responses, clarity, and appeal.
Outcome: Testing reveals that a particular tagline confuses users. The team adjusts the wording, leading to a more successful campaign launch.
5. Exploring Long-Term User Habits
A fitness app is introducing habit-tracking features to encourage regular workouts.
Scenario: Rolling research runs every month to observe how users incorporate the habit-tracking feature into their daily routines and what barriers they face.
Outcome: Over time, the team discovers that users find setting goals too complicated. Adjustments are made to simplify goal-setting, increasing user satisfaction and feature adoption.
6. Addressing Backlog Items with Research Insights
A development team has a backlog of potential features but is unsure which ones to prioritize.
Scenario: Rolling research is conducted weekly, where users interact with prototypes of different features, helping the team gauge interest and usability.
Outcome: Research indicates strong demand for a specific feature, prompting the team to prioritize its development while shelving lower-priority ideas.
7. Multi-Team Collaboration Across an Organization
A company with multiple departments, such as product design, customer support, and engineering, wants to ensure alignment in their user experience goals.
Scenario: Rolling research sessions are held bi-weekly, allowing teams to submit questions relevant to their objectives. Each session gathers data to support various teams’ needs.
Outcome: Customer support gains insights into recurring user frustrations, while engineering identifies areas for backend optimization, ensuring cohesive efforts across departments.
8. Monitoring Post-Launch Feedback
After launching a new product or feature, a company wants to monitor its performance and identify areas for improvement.
Scenario: Rolling research is conducted weekly for the first three months post-launch. Users provide feedback on what they like, what confuses them, and what they'd like improved.
Outcome: Feedback reveals that users struggle to find a key feature. The team quickly adjusts the UI, boosting engagement and reducing complaints.
9. Comparing Competitor Features
A product team is exploring how their features stack up against competitors.
Scenario: Rolling research sessions test comparable features from both their product and competitors’ to evaluate user preferences.
Outcome: Research shows that users prefer a competitor's intuitive onboarding process, prompting the team to redesign their own onboarding for better retention.
10. Ensuring Accessibility and Inclusivity
A company wants to ensure its website or app is accessible to all users, including those with disabilities.
Scenario: Rolling research sessions are conducted monthly with diverse groups, including users with visual, auditory, or motor impairments. These sessions test accessibility features like screen readers and keyboard navigation.
Outcome: Insights from these sessions help the team make necessary adjustments to ensure their product is accessible to a broader audience, enhancing compliance and usability.
How to Implement Rolling Research
Rolling research is a continuous, iterative approach to user research that enables teams to gather actionable insights regularly. It’s a highly effective method for ensuring user feedback is integrated into the development process. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you implement rolling research in your organization.
1. Define Your Objectives
To start, clearly outline the goals of your rolling research. For example:
Identifying usability issues.
Testing new features or prototypes.
Monitoring user behavior over time.
Prioritize the questions or hypotheses you want to address in each session. This focus ensures that your research remains relevant and actionable.
2. Establish a Cadence
Determine how often you will conduct research sessions. Options include:
Weekly: Ideal for fast-paced, agile teams.
Bi-weekly or monthly: Suitable for teams with longer development cycles.
Align your schedule with product development milestones to ensure timely insights. Create a research calendar and commit to the schedule for consistency.
3. Build a Participant Recruitment Process
Identify the target audience for your research based on your goals. Consider:
User demographics, behaviors, and needs.
A mix of new and returning participants for diverse and longitudinal insights.
Use tools like recruitment platforms, user panels, or customer databases to maintain a steady pipeline of participants. Automate the recruitment process whenever possible to save time and effort.
4. Develop a Standardized Framework
Create a repeatable structure for your research sessions. This ensures consistency and comparability across sessions. Your framework should include:
Research Methods: Usability testing, interviews, or surveys.
Session Format: Decide if sessions will be remote or in-person, and set a duration (e.g., 30-60 minutes).
Templates: Prepare scripts, question lists, and reporting formats.
Standardization makes it easier to analyze and compare findings over time.
5. Plan and Organize Sessions
Choose tools and platforms for conducting research, such as UserPeek. Schedule sessions in advance to ensure resource availability and participant attendance. Coordinate with stakeholders to align session objectives with broader team goals.
6. Collect Data Efficiently
During sessions, record user interactions and take detailed notes. Use tools like screen recording or eye-tracking for richer insights. Organize feedback into actionable and non-actionable categories to streamline decision-making.
7. Analyze Results Regularly
After each session, analyze the findings promptly. Look for:
Trends and patterns across sessions.
Comparisons with previous findings to track progress.
Summarize insights into concise, actionable reports that are easy for stakeholders to understand and act upon.
Highlight key takeaways, actionable recommendations, and progress toward goals. Regular updates keep stakeholders engaged and aligned with the research process.
9. Act on Feedback
Turn user feedback into specific improvements. Collaborate with designers, developers, and product managers to implement changes. Prioritize updates based on their potential impact on users and business goals.
10. Iterate and Optimize the Process
Regularly review your rolling research process to identify inefficiencies or gaps. Collect feedback from your team and participants to refine:
Session formats.
Recruitment strategies.
Tools and methods.
Adapt your cadence or scope as your product and user needs evolve.
Tips for Successful Implementation
Stay Agile: Be prepared to adapt your research focus based on emerging priorities or unexpected feedback.
Leverage Automation: Automate participant recruitment, session scheduling, and data analysis to reduce manual effort.
Engage Stakeholders Early: Involve key stakeholders from the beginning to ensure alignment and buy-in.
Focus on Collaboration: Share insights across teams to foster a user-centric culture.
Document Everything: Maintain thorough documentation of processes, findings, and outcomes for transparency and continuity.
By embedding rolling research into your workflow, you can create a sustainable process for gathering user insights and continuously improving your product. This iterative approach not only enhances the user experience but also drives better decision-making and long-term success and is an efficient research method for UX and UXR experts.
Navigating the realm of remote user testing, my expertise lies in optimizing user experiences. In my role as a Customer Success Manager at a top-tier SaaS company, my commitment is to enhance user engagement and promote client achievement. Explore the vibrant junction of user-focused solutions and advanced technology with me.
