User research study checklist

Project manager tasks

Schedule and facilitate project kick-off meeting: appetite, goals, schedule project with a timeline and milestones by week and/or month, how this works into epic, quarter, and annual team goals, scope
Create folder for the study in teams
Designate study members and decide who will do what: recruitment lead, interviews lead, analysis lead
Create GitHub issues for each checklist item and assign people and tags accordingly
Create a checklist for the research team to complete all tasks listed on this page
Have all study members review user research wiki
Assign bias-reduction activity
Draft study plan with research team member input
Check that each step in the 3 major processes is getting done
Keep study on track with timeline
Coordinate coverage for incoming issues or other urgent work on interview days
Add research analysis/report to the research repo

Create recruitment sheet for the study
Add potential participants from the User Research Pool and other ideas from all ODDD team members
Send recruitment emails. Look in recent study folders for email templates; add template to current study folder
Optional – post recruitment in relevant channels (social media, open opportunities, onrresource, etc.)
Schedule interviews and send invites to all ODDD team members and the participant. Include links to user research agreement and how to request accommodations. Use previous studies for examples
Schedule debriefs
Update spreadsheet with scheduled interviews and who is doing what for each
Day before each interview – send a confirmation. Include any links needed for the session, a user research agreement reminder, and a second accommodations reminder
Send post-interview thank you emails
Update research participant pool
Send post-study update to research participants with the outcome of the study/new website features

Serve as primary interviewer. Can have other study members cover interviews as needed, but the interviewer will be doing most of them
Set up and hold a practice interview and refine questions accordingly
Create and share sign-up for notetakers and observers
Schedule end of interview day working meetings for notes consolidation – include interviewers and notetakers
Create notes documents for all notetakers
Lead entering notes into consolidated sheet

Create consolidated notes sheet. Go over it with other study members before interviews to make sure notetaking expectations make sense to everyone.
Create analysis sheet. Including hypothesis, facts, summary, grouping and trends, insights, and recommendations/opportunities tab
Fill in facts sheet using consolidated notes
Create any other analysis documents (miro boards, figjam boards, etc.)
Schedule and facilitate analysis session with study team members
After analysis sessions, fill in groupings and trends, insights, and recommendations/opportunities tabs
Facilitate team in assigning ratings for priority, impact, difficulty
Write study summary
Schedule meeting to share results with entire team
Make sure GitHub issues get made for each recommendation