Establishing UX Research

@ Exabeam

Overview

Exabeam, a cybersecurity start-up in its mid to late stages, had not conducted formal user research prior to my arrival on the team. Before transitioning to the Product Design team, I managed Exabeam’s community website, inadvertently honing the skills necessary for success as a UX researcher. In my role on the community team, I had to discern the type of content users required to effectively utilize Exabeam, which involved collecting feedback from both internal and external stakeholders to identify areas for improvement.

Upon joining the Product Design team as its inaugural UX Researcher, my primary objective was to demonstrate the impact of UX research on product and feature development. Continue reading to delve deeper into this journey :)

Challenges That Arise Without UX Research

Historically, cybersecurity companies have typically lacked a formal UX research function. Consequently, they often develop highly complex tools that are difficult to use and comprehend. This adds an additional layer of stress to an already demanding and critical job. The lack of user research comes with these types of challenges:

Unclear User Expectations

Absence of research leads to uncertainty about what users expect, risking dissatisfaction and disengagement

Building Products Based on Assumptions

Lack of research means decisions rely on assumptions rather than evidence, resulting in products that may not meet user needs.

Confusion Surrounding Poor Performance

Without research insights, it's difficult to understand why products aren't performing well, leading to uncertainty about improvement strategies.

My UXR Goals at Exabeam

My goals as Exabeam’s first and only researcher was to 

  1. Establish a user research practice and show value through presentations and collaboration 

  2. Help product managers and designers make informed decisions that benefit the user and increase adoption of product

  3. Increase visibility with leadership and organization as a whole on the power of UXR and how it can help with business objectives 

What steps did I take?

To meet my goals, these were the activities that I found the most beneficial to my success as a UXR:

  • Research Impact Sheet (Document what I did and the level of impact it made)

  • Create and share executive summaries with actionable insights 

  • Setting up the infrastructure and resources required for conducting research

  • Present to engineering and product leadership as well as field teams (Sales Engineering and Customer Success) about what UX Research is and what it can help solve 

Virtual presentation to Engineering organization

In-person presentation at Technical Summit with Sales and Customer Success

  • Planning and executing various research methodologies (e.g., interviews, surveys, usability testing, competitive analysis, Jobs to be Done)

  • Collaboration with cross-functional teams (e.g., designers, product managers, engineers, customer success, marketing, sales) to integrate research findings into product development

  •  Iterative process of refining research methods and approaches based on feedback and results

Impact

Visibility with Cross-Functional Teams

  • Teams ranging from sales to customer success to engineering see value in UX research. Customer facing teams ask to participate in “dogfooding” exercises and are always eager to meet to provide feedback.

  • Additionally, field teams use UX Research as a tool to build stronger relationships with the customer and to show our investment in creating a product that meets their needs

Buy-in from Leadership

  • CEO and Chief Product Officer push for PMs to meet with customers and truly understand what the problem is and what we as a team are trying to solve for

  • User-centric design is increasingly important to drive adoption of new and existing products and leadership began to see that

Satisfaction from Customers

  • Cybersecurity customers rarely have the opportunity to provide input to the people making the products they are using and have their input turn into actionable insights. Each customer leaves UXR meetings feeling heard and seen which in turn encourages them to do more UXR with the team and keep the feedback loop active and iterative