UX Research Repository for Startups

"We've finally seen product squads actually use our insights in their planning thanks to this repository. Because they don't wait for us to tell them if we've researched some topic before. They know where to look. They search for their keywords. They grab the relevant insights, and run! It's kind of a game changer for us. Thank you!" - Marie, UX Researcher, early stage startup in Germany

How can we help businesses make better decisions faster?

One of the biggest indicators of success for startups is how long it takes the team to get insights.

Surprisingly one big bottleneck to speed happens after the research was done.

The blocker isn't always a slow process for implementing research. It can also be slow access to insights by stakeholders later that prevent us from making better decisions,

When we don't have an easy-access library to turn to, stakeholders make decisions on guesses and hopes rather than facts.

This is where the Research Repository comes in.

Why aren't research reports in folders enough?

Nearly every startup team I’ve worked with eventually finds that reports and planning documents aren't enough to spread insights across the full org.

They need some way to make insights more accessible and actionable to the team.

• They start doing more research, and lose track of what they've learned
• They get frequent questions about whether they’ve researched "Topic X" yet
• They start wondering where value may be falling through cracks in their process
• They see themselves or others accidentally duplicate studies that were already done
• They start running more projects and lose overview of what others are learning
  

"We need to organize and access insights better, but we don't want to pay for another expensive tool every month."

I’ve supported the setup of UX Research practices for 9 startup teams.

But unlike established companies that have already begun to scale, early stage teams lack the budget to commit to one of the many tools for interactive repositories.

It's hard to commit much budget every month to a new tool, with a learning curve, when you're not even sure yet if it will work for you.

If you’re part of an early stage startup or product team starting up research or product discovery for the first time (with little budget), this Notion template is for you.

I want to make it affordable for any early startup team running UX Research to organize their insights better, right now.

This template helps startup teams:

• Make sure non-researchers find answers to their questions as quickly as possible
• Drive triangulation of data by improving access to UXR team’s work
• Create and share insights in digestible chunks
• Standardize requests for research support
• Give the full org an overview of work done, in progress, and upcoming
• Spread and evangelize insights work internally
• Connect research work to other teams' OKRs

"We honestly didn't have a very consistent way of documenting insights before because we kept putting off the work of finding the best way to do things...and now we have it. None of us had ever set something like this up before. This template saved us quite a lot of time and hassle figuring things out from the ground up." - Mark, Product Manager, early stage startup, Sweden.

This template is filled with examples based on real customer input and insights from my work that have been modified to protect proprietary data.

It's been iterated based on years of experience, trials and error, feedback from my real startup clients. It's been build on months of working with companies and seeing what actually helps spread insights to improve product decisions.

Plus, specifically for researchers, the template also helps with:

• Lifting up profiles of team members running research
• Storing templates and guides for running research
• Logging research session and participant notes in a consistent way
• Deciding on a tag taxonomy with your team
• Considering how to handle participant data

There are many ways to create a repository, but this one is easy to start with, includes some automation, and is an affordable place to start while your team learns how to handle UX Research insights long-term.

Best of luck, and enjoy!