Fashion Content: a UX Research Study
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The INITIAL REQUEST
Validating the value proposition to get the strategy right
Zalando Partner Solutions is dedicated to developing products and services that help companies connect with Europe's leading fashion platform. As a member of the first innovation team within the department, my first discovery assignment focused on evaluating opportunities in the digital content space.
The initial Business Model Canvas filled with assumptions to validate
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User Research & Market Analysis
Good things happen when UX joins forces with product management
Frequent check-ins ensure maximum synergy between different research streams
This challenge called for through research on both the users and the market side, so I teamed up with a Product Specialist with expertise in conducting market analysis.
Working together towards a common goal, we first defined the questions that we wanted our research to answer and then came up with a lean plan to coordinate our efforts. In short, we discussed and agreed ahead of time on when and how to best share our respective progress so that preliminary findings from one research stream could feed into the other one and vice versa.
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Project scope
To scope the project a series of meetings and interviews were conducted with stakeholders within the department and experts from other areas of the company.
This key phase also helped us clarify the breadth of the territory to explore before going out there. In fact, it became evident that so many things we as an organization thought we knew were assumptions that needed to be proved.
Understanding our field of investigation was critical
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USER INTERVIEWS
A research panel of content users and producers from brands, retailers and agencies
One of the interview guides I brought with me when talking to users
Once the scope was set and contacts with the partners were established, I proceeded with recruiting and interviewing a few users from each brand segment, as well as some retailers. Later, while generating the first insights, I noticed what an important role external agencies have in content production. So this customer segment was added to the Business Model Canvas.
For each segment I created dedicated interview guides and during the interviews I adjusted the focus of the conversation depending on what the person I was speaking with was most knowledgeable about (think for example marketing content vs. product attributes).
By the end of the project I interviewed 32 professionals working with content in roles such as Key Account Manager, Chief Editor, Social Media Manager, Digital Brand Specialist, Marketing Manager, Graphic Designer, Wholesale E-Commerce Manager.
The wall where the findings from the interviews were collected
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INSIGHTS
Making sense of the findings through affinity mapping
Discussing insights and clustering them is a team activity
When conducting the user interviews I sometimes paired with another designer, with the product owner or an engineer.
Conversations were recorded, but bringing in a note taker to help with the collection of findings made a lot of difference in terms of the speed at which research could proceed.
Debriefing sessions happened in front of a whiteboard wall where the findings could be classified as customer jobs, pains or gains. After that, clusters were formed and problem ares were given a severity rating.
Keeping the research findings visible was a great way to see the big picture and align the collective understanding of the customers.
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Primary OUTCOME
The results of user research led to the conclusion that the user problem on which the value proposition was built could not be backed by a severe observable user pain. During interviews, users did not perceive the distribution of content to multiple channels as an inconvenience and they were not willing to invest effort or money into existing solutions.
At the same time, the market analysis could not identify the necessity for yet another asset management solution. It raised instead a concern regarding the lack of interfaces for product integration into relevant distribution channels.
Invalidating an hypothesis early on means saving time and resources
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Secondary outcomes
Keeping an open mind helped uncover unknown opportunities
We used the How Might We method to frame opportunities
In addition to permitting the evaluation of the initial idea, this study produced a set of other valuable outcomes:
1. Partner Solutions improved its understanding of the peculiarities of its customer segments
2. product, design and business development gained extensive knowledge of the role of content in the fashion value chain
3. the collected insights form a base upon which new product and service ideas can be generated
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LEARNINGS
- The value of generative user research is in making sure that solutions are built to solve actual problems. Because of how the project was initially presented, separating the problem area from the solution area was a crucial and rewarding exercise.
- Being among the first to apply product discovery methods in a delivery-driven organizational setting meant that stakeholders' trust had to be gained. I achieved this by openly showing not just the results, but also the process and its rationale.