Figure out what your learning objectives are. Typically, you’ll want to capture context and feedback. Then you’ll need to identify who you want to talk to—the exact people who have the needs you’re trying to meet. Create stimuli that help them test what you’re thinking of building or what you’ve built already. This could be a 2D sketch, a 3D virtual model or a physical prototype.

The minute you mention you’re going to conduct research, your team might flood you with research questions they wish they had answers to. Your job during this step is to vet the questions and determine which will result in actionable decisions versus which would simply be nice to have or would be better answered later.

The last thing you want is to conduct research, share the results with your team and then have them disregard the results because they weren’t a part of the process. To avoid this outcome, get the people who will use the research results involved in the process early on.

Start by picking a few people who will be part of the design, development and decision-making process (e.g., a product manager, a researcher and a designer). While you definitely want to build a cross-functional team, but be careful to avoid putting too many people on it. Aim to create a small group of between four and eight people.

One of the great things about qual is that you have quotes, videos, images, and a way to re-contact people to ask follow-up questions. You can leverage those to get more accurate in-context information, to tell a story and get buy-in. 

Use a solution that gives your team instant dashboard access and lets them see results as they are coming in. This allows them to make decisions or review information on a daily basis, as opposed to having to wait until the end of the study.