Building Trust Through Equitable Research Practices
Summary
Traditional user research practices often exclude people like those who don’t have access to the internet or can’t take time off work, but who might most need to access a service. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution for promoting equitable research, we aim to share inclusive and respectful research practices that foster trust with research participants and government stakeholders.
Attendees will gain an understanding of Nava's approach to conducting user research, lessons learned, best practices, and how our work contributes to more equitable access to public services for millions of people and vulnerable populations across the country. Participants will hear examples from Nava's research and walk away with concrete practices they can implement in their work.
Key Insights
-
•
Nava deliberately shifts recruitment focus from a homogenous group to underrepresented communities to ensure equitable user research.
-
•
Building trust with government partners starts early through collaboration on research planning, including co-creating research briefs and interview guides.
-
•
Providing detailed interview guides to stakeholders increases transparency and helps build trust in the research process.
-
•
Remote user research conducted since 2020 offers greater scheduling flexibility and participation diversity but also has limitations.
-
•
Plain language consent forms improve participant understanding and respect during research sessions.
-
•
Active listening and reiterating stakeholder feedback throughout the process prevents misalignment and loss of trust.
-
•
Nava fosters capacity building by enabling government stakeholders to shadow, conduct, and synthesize research themselves for long-term independence.
-
•
Tracking and analyzing diversity metrics across studies on a quarterly basis helps identify recruitment gaps and informs ongoing improvements.
-
•
Recruitment challenges persist for certain groups like Hispanic/Latino origin, older adults, and lower income participants despite varied outreach methods.
-
•
Collaborations with community-based organizations are critical to accessing vulnerable or hard-to-reach populations and supporting non-English speakers.
Notable Quotes
"Bringing our government Partners in early as collaborators and making a clear case for the value of research is one way that we build trust with our stakeholders."
"Every single thing that we would plan to say to the participant is spelled out in this interview guide to build transparency and trust."
"We prioritize speaking with people who are most in need of support so we can better understand and design for all potential users of PFML."
"Since March 2020, we’ve actually conducted all of our interviews remotely, which generally makes scheduling with diverse groups easier."
"Participants can skip any questions they don’t feel comfortable answering; most demographic questions are optional to respect privacy."
"We actively coach Department of PFML staff to shadow and eventually run their own research sessions so they’re empowered long-term."
"We use a participant matrix and assign pseudonyms to protect personally identifiable information throughout research."
"We constantly analyze our recruitment data and note that we still struggle to reach Hispanic or Latino origin individuals, older adults, and lower-income participants."
"Conducting retrospectives on research processes helps us identify bias, recruitment challenges, and improve methodology continuously."
"Being transparent and walking stakeholders through our process creates moments for reflection and keeps the whole team aligned."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Creativity fuels design, design fuels innovation."
Dr. Karl JeffriesThe Science of Creativity for DesignOps
January 8, 2024
"The culture between buyer and user impacts feature adoption and overall satisfaction."
Amy MarquezINVEST: Discussion
June 15, 2018
"The weakest insight method might win simply because of the relationship to the power structure."
Steve Portigal Chris Chapo Kelly Goto Christian RohrerDiscussion
May 13, 2015
"Involving designers early in the process is crucial to avoid the 'fast-food' model where they feel like order takers."
Alicia MootyDesign Staffing Models
September 30, 2021
"The only rule is to maintain your smile and just to feel the being that have fun."
Ana Maria Montero Barrantes Aditi Dhar Michelle Kaplan Nate Osborne Matt LaurenceThe Authentic UX Talent Show
January 8, 2024
"We never compromise on the business goals, but how we achieve them can be flexible and pragmatic."
Lada Gorlenko Sharbani Dhar Sébastien Malo Rob Mitzel Ivana Ng Michal Anne RogondinoTheme 1: Discussion
January 8, 2024
"I didn’t want to be part of that as a founder, hacking attention just to fulfill engagement metrics."
Sofia QuinteroThe Product Philosophy Behind EnjoyHQ
March 10, 2021
"If you think innovation can happen without buy-in from the CEO, I would love to see that; I have not seen it work."
Laura KleinUnique challenges of innovation in enterprises
April 23, 2020
"Embedded squads build domain expertise but risk losing knowledge if someone leaves, while centralized teams help reduce duplicated effort."
Andrew MichaelBuilding a Product Insights Team
March 10, 2022
