Using Research to Determine Unique Value Proposition
Summary
A story about how to quantify and use survey data to create audience clusters that are statistically representative of the people that use your online product or service. Edgar joins the dots between multiple research/pattern finding/storytelling techniques, such as proto-personas, affinity mapping, survey creation, quantification of qualitative data, organic clustering of audiences, user interviews, journey maps, and business modeling canvas. It makes research tangible and actionable: instead of being an end-point that provides stakeholders with insights, it takes stakeholders through an inclusive and structured process they can be part of.
Key Insights
-
•
Research often fails when stakeholders are not involved or don't trust the data sources and methodologies.
-
•
Treating research as a product, with stakeholders as users, drastically increases engagement and usability.
-
•
Using proto-persona workshops with cross-department stakeholders helps generate unbiased, relevant survey questions.
-
•
Clustering survey data via Python and correlation matrices can reveal meaningful user segments with statistical significance.
-
•
Statistical validity (e.g., 95% confidence at 5% margin) is critical for stakeholder buy-in in large user bases.
-
•
Behavioral and demographic clusters need to be augmented with emotional attributes to create actionable personas.
-
•
Affinity mapping large qualitative datasets reduces noise and distills coherent narratives and pain points.
-
•
Mapping pain points to measurable hypotheses enables prioritization based on user impact and implementation effort.
-
•
Divergent and convergent workshops using tools like the business model canvas help explore and refine value proposition delivery.
-
•
Iterative, lean research with frequent stakeholder feedback helps identify and minimize bias effectively.
Notable Quotes
"Research should be done the same way products are built, with stakeholders as your users."
"If you frame the research in terms your stakeholders understand, they will become research-hungry."
"We don’t make big deliverables because they create friction; instead, we create shared understanding through conversations."
"Proto-persona sessions helped us avoid departmental bias and uncover the questions stakeholders really cared about."
"We used a 0.8 correlation threshold to tightly cluster similar survey responses, balancing cluster count and inclusion."
"Clusters alone aren’t personas; we turned clusters into interview screeners and then emotional personas."
"We wrote hypotheses as we believe this pain point matters, here’s how we test it, and how success looks."
"Different stakeholders tackle the delivery problem differently, which gave us necessary divergent thinking."
"Biases surface as you iterate, so lean approaches help you find and fix them quicker."
"Marital status mattered because some people buy cars for their spouses or kids, not just themselves."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"They thought if we build system functionality and send people to training, it will just work. Spoiler: it didn’t."
Dan WillisFilling the Void
November 7, 2018
"We need to reject the notion that work is our only identity."
Tess DixonC'mon Get Happy
September 29, 2021
"Scaling is not just about more but about providing solutions at scale using nested units like Russian dolls."
Dave Malouf Adrienne Allnutt Jon Fukuda Dominique WardThe Future of DesignOps
January 8, 2024
"Good generative research impacts take years, so we track milestones like citations and executive references."
Chris Geison Cristen Torrey Eric MahlstedtWhat is Research Strategy?: A Panel of Research Leaders Discuss this Emergent Question
March 4, 2021
"We shortened the network distance between any two randomly selected government staff involved in COVID response, making collaboration faster and more effective."
Gordon Ross12 Months of COVID-19 Design and Digital Response with the British Columbia Government
December 8, 2021
"The greatest sign of success for a teacher is just to be able to say the children are now working as if I did not exist."
Brenna FallonLearning Over Outcomes
October 24, 2019
"Even though we’re user researchers, we’re not looking at digital products — our users often include people suffering homelessness, addiction, or trauma."
Brian MossWhat Does it Mean to be a Resilient Research Team?
March 9, 2022
"We need to harness the power of citizens to make real change."
Ali Jeffery Sheri ChudowHow DesignOps Helped Enable Wall Street to Work Remotely
October 22, 2020
"To reclaim our value, we must regain our agency and renew our passion as researchers."
Eduardo OrtizTheme 3 Intro
March 13, 2025
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
What governance is necessary to manage AI prototyping that impacts design systems, code, and performance?
How can AI help UX teams challenge and optimize entrenched operational workflows?
What are effective ways to train AI models to reduce hallucinations and glossing over details in taxonomy building?