A marketing spend was set to launch to attract more customers to our Workers' Compensation journey, however our journey had yet to be tested. Under the time constraint of this upcoming spend, I was asked to jump on this project to quickly and effectively get some usability testing done in hopes that our spend would have the best possible results.

As the researcher charged with all new products in the US, my role was to ensure the success of our newest Workers' Compensation product. I met with potential customers to understand everything from their relationship with insurance, what coverages they had or didn't have and why, what value they thought this coverage would (or would not) add to their business, how our online journey felt to them, and what, if any, questions or areas of the form confused them, turned them off, or seemed unnecessary to them.

After meeting with stakeholders to catch me up on the work that had and had not yet been done on the project, I ran a workshop to align us all on what our goals of this research was and why we were doing it. Once I was able to confirm we were all on the same page, from there, it was time to start the research.

With our key objectives and expected learnings all laid out, it was time to recruit and screen participants. In general, our company's target market is micro-small sized businesses. But for this project, we needed to be more specific. Ironing out a recruitment screener and confirming the final criteria with stakeholders, I set in to find participants. With dozens of matching applicants, I was able to screen the results and recruit a wide variety of our market, including various ages, races, geographical locations, genders, backgrounds, length in business, trades, and the list goes on.

Once the participants were locked in and ready for interviews, I finalized our discussion guide and ensured, once again, with stakeholders that I was hitting every main point that the team hoped I would. One of my favorite parts of user research, the interviews are where I truly shine.

Working to get honest, passionate, and focused feedback from people running their own businesses can present its own hurdles, but it's nothing I am used to. Recruiting, screening, interviewing and diving into our users' authentic outlook is a challenge I am always up for. As a former boss had mentioned, I am able to 'think in technicolor' and uncover open and honest feedback that can be harder for others to access.

Each one of our users is completely unique, as is always the case, not only in what type of business they operate, but in terms of why they started, what their passion is, who their business is for, whether they work alone or with others, and the list goes on. They also differ vastly in terms of why they are interested in seeking insurance coverage. Uncovering these needs in all types of contexts is what helps our designers and marketing team reach these customers in a way that shows our products' value to them and their unique situations.

I do my best to break down the whys of human behaviour. As is probably not surprising, most people do not get jazzed up at the thought of insurance, or any additional expense, especially as a small business owner. I like to use various research methods to truly understand their whys of purchasing or even being open to the idea of insurance, because everyone's is different.

There are many ways this issue could have been approached and many were considered. I took into account our timeline, the upcoming marketing spend, past research for this project and other related projects, as well as the main goals and focus of this project. Ultimately, I decided to do a qualitative interview approach with as much stakeholder involvement as possible to maintain their interest and empathy along the way.

For the first part of my qualitative interviews, I spoke with the participants. I asked them questions on their business, how they got started, and how long they've been in business. Next I focused on relating their business to potential insurance needs. I asked questions like 'what are you plans for your business in the future?' and 'what is the biggest risk your business faces?'. As the final section of the conversational interview, I was able to dive into each business owner's history with insurance, if applicable, in terms of their knowledge and understanding, prior purchasing experiences, and what is most important to them.

Once I felt as though I was able to adequately understand the business owner's perspective and background, we dove into usability testing specifically. They were able to go through our journey as I recorded the screen, and talk through the questionnaire. They filled the information out as if I was not there, audibly pointing out things they liked/disliked, questions they found confusing or unnecessary, anything that was unexpected, or things that they expected but didn't see.

After the staging journey was completed and (hopefully!) quotes were presented, we went into it again a bit deeper. What affected their buying confidence? Did our site seem tailored to them? Did they feel reassured that they had right coverage? How did they feel about pricing? What questions were difficult to answer off-hand? How could that be made easier? Etc.

With the interviews then complete, I again rounded up as many stakeholders as possible and did some affinity mapping and overall data analysis of the themes from the insight. From there, I was able to put together a presentation for the stakeholders, as well as for the wider company, to present not only the findings and insights from this research, but recommendations on next steps in order to immediately improve the customer experience, and in return, our sales and bottom line.

The outcomes of this project were vast, especially for such a quick turnaround. Immediately, questions were reworded, even as the interviews continued. Locations of questions were adapted to improve flow and comprehension. Overall, considering my qualitative research, delivery of findings, and implemented changes, our month-to-month quote rate went up over 9%!