MVR — Minimum Viable Research
MVR stands for Minimum Viable Research.
When doing UX Research it is very important to know our audience and the product we are researching. Once these two aspects are clearly defined, we can start with what is known as Minimum Viable Research.
This concept is similar to the MVP, Minimum Viable Product, which is used in the Lean method and in agile methodologies. When you build an MVP, the aim is to develop the product with the minimum characteristics necessary to validate the idea that what is being built solves the problem of the users we are addressing. The key here is to build and iterate the product little by little to validate the ideas one by one, and not to waste time and resources on building something that is not useful for the users.
In the same way, Minimum Viable Research consists of doing the minimum research necessary to be able to validate or reject the hypotheses we have to study. For example, if we have to research an ecommerce, instead of researching the whole process ( when a user searches on google until he/she makes a decision and makes a purchase), the key is to focus on a specific part of that flow.
Why conduct Minimum Viable Research?
When it comes to user research, especially in businesses where UX is not part of the regular design process, it is very common to encounter barriers such as “research is too expensive” or “research requires a lot of time that we can’t afford to waste”.
However, there are two main reasons why doing minimum viable research may be the best option:
- To ensure that the research is quick and we can iterate quickly based on the data obtained. Ideally, this process should be completed in two to five days.
- To introduce UX Research to stakeholders and senior management in the organisation. It is not always easy to evangelise the importance of user research, so starting with small, well-defined, low-budget research is always a good idea to get them to start seeing the benefits.
It is the job of the person in charge to research and convince stakeholders that doing UX Research is the best way to optimise the digital product to achieve the objectives.
How to conduct Minimum Viable Research?
The first step before doing minimum viable research is to identify product pain points through other metrics, such as Google Analytics. Next, it is important to understand what the business objectives are, in order to prioritise which research is most relevant at any given time.
With this information we will be able to create a research plan that captures weaknesses and how research can help address them and improve business objectives.
Continuing with the ecommerce example, to decide which part of the flow to study, we need to look at the quantitative data in the analytics, which will help us detect if there are problems at any of the points. Then, through research we can gather qualitative information, which will guide us on how to iterate the product to solve the problem.
Let’s imagine that users find our website when they search, and even add products to the cart, but the percentage of people who checkout is very low. Instead of proposing a complete research to analyse the whole flow, you can propose a specific research on the checkout process.
When to conduct Minimum Viable Research?
Minimum Viable Research will have a different focus depending on the UX maturity of the business.
If you are a business that has never done UX Research before, this technique can serve as an introduction to the world of user experience. If, for example, you are in charge of the digital product and you have to convince managers or stakeholders about doing UX Research for the first time, it is ideal to do both qualitative and quantitative research, as obtaining only qualitative data (such as in a user interview) may not be enough for decision-makers.
Other methodologies or ways of working that can be carried out to do UX research with few resources and budget is Guerrilla UX Research, which consists of slightly modifying user research methods to reduce time and cost.
In the end, doing UX research is always a better option than doing nothing, and applying the Minimum Viable Research methodology can be a good way to introduce UX to businesses and improve their UX maturity.
If you want to learn about UX Research with a specialised training, we invite you to see our Advanced Research Specialisation Programme (this training is in spanish):
This article is a translation of one published in our corporate website:
