Episode 58 | September 13, 2022
Making rapid research a reality: How UX teams can scale insights without sacrificing quality
Learn how Devin Harold built scalable rapid research programs to deliver high-impact UX insights faster—without compromising quality.
Making rapid research a reality: How UX teams can scale insights without sacrificing quality
Speed doesn’t have to mean sloppy—especially in UX research. For teams balancing limited bandwidth with rising demands for user insights, rapid research offers a powerful way forward.
In a recent episode of Insights Unlocked, Devin Harold, Director of UX Research for Financial Services at Capital One, breaks down how his teams are systematizing and scaling research to meet business goals while maintaining high-quality standards. “Rapid research means delivering an expected, consistent and frequent cadence of insights,” Devin explains. And that’s exactly what his teams have achieved by designing research programs with both speed and structure in mind.
Building the insights engine
Rapid research isn’t just about going fast—it’s about building an engine that runs efficiently. That means defining what types of UX research methods can be streamlined and where teams should set boundaries. For Devin, this involved “systematizing things in a way that delivers consistent value over time” and using templates to reduce repetitive setup work.
He recommends templatizing:
- Recruitment criteria with limited profiles to ensure quick turnaround
- Moderation guides for usability testing and evaluative research
- Documentation processes that feed into a centralized insight index
This insight index, as Devin calls it, is a key part of reducing insight waste. “It’s a knowledge management platform that builds off the things you are learning over time,” he says, allowing teams to avoid repeating work and identify themes across studies. For organizations practicing agile research, this repository becomes the brain of the operation.
GUIDE
Keys to impactful designs that drive goal conversion rates
Getting stakeholder buy-in
One of the most common roadblocks to building a UX research program is proving ROI. Devin suggests flipping the cost equation: “Think about all the bugs that we fixed by doubling our bandwidth… and how much more we learned because we freed up time from our lead researchers.”
He encourages teams to map their research capacity against potential savings—such as reduced development costs, fewer customer support calls, or increased conversion rates. Using known UX stats (like fixing a bug in production costs 100x more than in development) can help frame the value of scaling UX research to business leaders.
Don’t skip the strategy
While it's tempting to launch into rapid testing, Devin cautions against moving too fast without guardrails. Teams must be intentional about what fits within a rapid model. “You don’t want to accidentally cannibalize the work that your team does want to do,” he warns. More strategic or longitudinal research efforts may not adapt well to quick turnarounds.
At Capital One, regulatory and compliance requirements add another layer of complexity. Legal approval, data management, and customer risk all have to be accounted for, so cutting corners isn’t an option. Here, Devin’s approach is to embed rapid research within a broader UX strategy—what he calls an “insights ecosystem.”
From chaos to cadence
So, how long does it take to get a rapid research program running smoothly? “At Verizon, we got to a sort of break-even point in about four to five months,” Devin shares. “The toughest part is that upfront investment—what are the things that we need to templatize? What’s the cadence we can realistically do?”
With the right mix of process, planning, and purpose, research teams can go from reactive to proactive—transforming scattered usability testing into a reliable, scalable engine for customer insights.
“One of the terms that I’ve used instead of a well-oiled machine is ‘insights ecosystem,’” Devin said. “How can we create systems, programs, processes that enable everything from tiny democratized studies to large foundational projects?”
Episode links:
- Rapid research: a masterclass in how to automate and scale moderated UX research: This webinar delves into strategies for streamlining and scaling UX research programs to meet the growing demand for insights. It offers practical advice on automating processes and effectively managing research operations.
- The UX research methodology guidebook: This comprehensive guide explores various UX research methods, including both qualitative and quantitative approaches. It provides insights into selecting the appropriate methods for different research objectives and offers practical tips for implementation.
- How generative AI is reshaping UX research: In this episode of Insights Unlocked, Alita Kendrick from Google discusses how generative AI is transforming UX research processes, from planning and analysis to democratizing insights and enhancing storytelling.
- Three tips to get started with rapid UX research: This blog post offers actionable advice for initiating rapid UX research, focusing on high-ROI customer profiles, implementing agile processes, and utilizing strong templates to achieve faster insights.
