GLOSSARY

The systematic study of users, their goals, behaviours, needs, constraints, and contexts to inform product and service decisions.

User research reduces assumption-driven investment, reveals unmet needs and operational constraints, and helps teams prioritise evidence-based opportunities and requirements.

Before automating a support workflow, a team interviews customers and agents, observes case handling, analyses contact reasons, and validates proposed concepts with representative users.

Biased recruitment, leading questions, small or unrepresentative samples, and weak analysis can produce misleading conclusions. What participants say may differ from what they do, and research is not a substitute for product judgement.

Researchers select methods according to the question and product stage, including interviews, contextual inquiry, diary studies, surveys, analytics, field observation, card sorting, and usability testing. Sound practice defines the sample, protocol, consent, data handling, analysis method, and limits of inference.