Competence development for user research

Coaching by experienced experts to develop the in-house competence for user research.

Mature industry sectors such as the automotive and food industries have developed stable product development processes which rely on knowledge of user needs and requirements and include procedures for the verification and validation of the product quality from a user perspective. Established companies in the information and communication technology sectors have profound knowledge of user-centred design, usability engineering and user experience research, which they carry out as routine tasks. However, the development of innovative and distributed network applications raises new issues, and companies face new challenges. The complexity of valid and reliable data collection, data analysis, and the interpretation of observations in terms of user needs and requirements is often difficult in the context of new products and services. In these instances it may be useful to engage external experts to introduce new methods, such as online research.

Learn from experts. Improve your competence.

The best way to improve competence is collaboration with experienced experts. The in-house competence for managing user research is developed effectively by coaching in the context of ongoing projects. These projects may be a user-centred product creation process for new products, or the installation of a monitor for the quality and competitiveness of evolving web services. Our coaches support the staff of our clients with external, up-to-date knowhow, thus develop competence "on the job". As a result your staff is enabled to perform state-of-the-art user research in future projects autonomously.

In cooperation with a client we identify quickly relevant deficits of user research, and illustrate the potential for competence improvement. Together with the client we define goals and content of coaching adapted to his needs and requirements, and implement workshops, tutorials, and collaboration in projects.

Our proven VNET approach includes special procedures, techniques and methods for product and quality managers and for development teams. Based on coaching experience in more than one hundred projects in the last ten years we estimate that successful performance of three development projects with supervision of experienced experts will create a stable competence for user research.

We advise and help your product and quality management and personnel responsible for your development teams, in order that a user-centred procedure is implemented as a common thread in the product creation processes. Together with you we develop the optimal introduction strategy for user-centered development, define goals and select adequate methods for user validation.