HUU: Research Agenda and Meeting Minutes

[nlvan]

Agenda and Minutes 2024-10-16

Prework

Roll Call

• Jazmyne
• Nicci
• Sam

Discussed agenda:

Right now our priorities are to (1) complete drafts of provisional personas and (2) develop a research roadmap for HUU.

Provisional personas
As a group, the research team needs to sort purple interpretation cards in FigJam. We are going to do this Tuesday in our break out room if time allows. Prior to our meeting Tuesday, it would be good for each team member to review quotes and their interpretations so they are familiar with the material. We need to review the existing Host and Guest personas Lola found in Figma and validate any components we plan on keeping.
Provisional persona work will need a research plan. A plan will outline our methods and also help us outline what information we are still lacking, which can be used as justification for interviews with external stakeholders.
Research Plan Template: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g_gco-d8tHjbZK5Ukk7eILwC2eO5_2M_igLFtQGjH1U/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.pnsb4dkl35id

Research Roadmap
Research roadmaps are plans that outline the research goals for a project and strategies for meeting these goals. Research goals are at the center of research roadmaps and guide how the research team prioritizes specific research requests, chooses appropriate research methods, and develops research timelines. Researchers need to clearly define and present their research goals to other teams to align stakeholders around a shared set of priorities.
https://medium.com/design-ibm/how-to-build-a-compelling-ux-research-roadmap-227448005c82

Stakeholder interviews are one of the ways we will begin to define the goals of the HUU research team. We are not able to conduct interviews with external stakeholders at this time but Bonnie is an internal stakeholder with knowledge about the project’s history, long-term goals, and current priorities. We need to develop a Research Plan (template linked above) and protocol for stakeholder interviews. Once we have developed interview protocols, we can schedule a meeting with Bonnie.
At our next Research Team Meeting, Nicci will be presenting on best practices for research.

[lola3736]

Agenda and Minutes 2024-10-23

Prework

Roll Call

• Jazmyne
• Nicci
• Sam
• Lola
• Jaime
• Jon
• Jasmine
• Jazmyne
• Nihan
• Paul
• Ariel
• Jasika

Discussed agenda:

Meeting Purpose

• Review UX research framework and process for Home Unite Us project

Key Takeaways

• UX research aims to frame the right questions and find answers to inform business strategy and drive goals
• The "Incredible" framework helps align stakeholders and researchers on study scope and learning objectives
• Research process involves 5 phases: align, plan, collect data, analyze, and deliver findings
• Team should engage research when unsure about assumptions or needing to validate decisions

Topics

• UX Research Overview
  • Not clinical/market/academic research, but applied research to inform business strategy
  • Focuses on framing right questions and finding answers to drive business goals
  • Mostly qualitative, aiming to fill knowledge gaps with high confidence information
  • Goal is to empower designers/PMs with actionable, confidence-building insights
  • The "N Credible" Framework
    • 2x2 matrix to align on study scope: Discovery, Exploratory, Definition, Validation
    • Input axis: How much knowledge team has going in (agenda-driven vs. unclear objectives)
    • Output axis: Learning about people vs. informing product decisions
    • Helps deconstruct stakeholder questions and uncover true learning objectives
    • Used in workshops to plot questions and build research roadmap

Research Planning Process

• Stakeholders submit inquiries via form ahead of time to force reflection
• Workshop to plot questions on framework with researchers facilitating
• Builds roadmap of study scopes to plan research goals/strategy
• Typically done 1-2 times per year when many questions arise

Research Execution Process

• 5 phases: Align, Plan, Collect Data, Analyze, Deliver
  • Align: Use framework to prioritize objectives and get approvals
  • Plan: Develop methodology, sampling, protocols
  • Collect: Recruit participants and gather data
  • Analyze: Code and synthesize findings
  • Deliver: Report and present insights to team

Applying to Home Unite Us Project

• Currently working with 4-year-old assumptions/data
• Need to validate assumptions but balance with making progress
• Can't directly access homeless youth, may need to use proxies (e.g. college students)
• Research team developing personas currently
• Will focus on usability testing once MVP is ready

Next Steps

• Create GitHub template for submitting research inquiries to team
• Meet with Bonnie to identify potential subject matter experts to interview
• Research team to explore no/low-budget participant recruitment options
• Design/PM teams to collect questions and assumptions to validate as they work
• Submit research inquiries to team as questions arise during product development

Action Items

• Meet w/ Bonnie Thu; ask re: contacts for research team to reach out to in homeless youth/host space - Lola Sarumi
• Create GitHub template for stakeholders to submit research questions; share link with team - Nicci Van

[lola3736]

Agenda and Minutes 2024-10-23

Prework

Roll Call

• Jazmyne
• Nicci
• Sam
• Lola

Discussed agenda:

Summary
Meeting Purpose

• Discuss research progress, persona development, and team organization for the HUU project.

Key Takeaways

• Research team has made significant progress on documenting the research plan and developing personas for hosts and guests
• Two distinct host types identified: stranger matching and kinship/chosen family models
• Team to present research findings to Bonnie before sharing with the larger group
• Discussion on improving project documentation and best practices across Hack for LA

Topics

Research Plan and Persona Development

• Draft of research plan for persona building completed and sent to Nikki for review
• Four components of personas in rough draft stage
• Two types of host programs identified: stranger matching and kinship/chosen family models
• Coordinators tend to prefer kinship model, but it faces more barriers (e.g., renting issues, financial constraints)
• Team to document findings and present to Bonnie before sharing with larger group

Guest Persona Research

• Need to investigate demographics of guests (e.g., immigrants vs. US-born)
• Consider language and comprehension levels when designing guest application
• Potential access to user testing through Michael's connections (to be confirmed)

Coordinator Research

• Limited detailed information available about coordinators
• Sam found a report on host homes in Washington with program size details

Project Documentation and Best Practices

• Discussion on improving wiki page content and organization
• Consideration of creating Hack for LA-wide best practices for research and other areas
• Need to balance between project-specific and organization-wide documentation

Team Organization in Slack

• Proposal to create separate channels for active team members and general/inactive members
• Plan to reorganize Slack channels to improve communication efficiency

Next Steps

• Complete persona development by mid-November (before Thanksgiving week)
• Schedule meeting with Bonnie to present research findings and discuss next steps
• Lola to reach out to contact in DC/Maryland area for potential coordinator insights
• Reorganize Slack channels to separate active and inactive members
• Announce research intake form availability in next team meeting
• Continue developing and refining project documentation and best practices

Action Items

• Complete personas by week of Nov 18. Inc both stranger/kinship host types + guest persona. Break down guest demo/literacy for app design. Coord persona details TBD. - Sam Seyler
• Document Bonnie's project views/goals w/ research team.
• Share HUU best practices with HFLA when ready - Nicci Van

[lola3736]

Agenda and Minutes 2024-11-06

Prework

Roll Call

• Jazmyne
• Nicci
• Sam
• Lola

Discussed agenda:

Summary Meeting Notes

Meeting Purpose

• Review research progress and align on next steps for HUU project research initiatives.

Key Takeaways

• Research team to focus on building research roadmap before interviewing Bonnie
• Lola to gather research questions from PM and dev teams via intake form
• Persona development progressing well, with focus on evidence-based insights
• Product requirements document created, needs review from research team

Topics

Research Roadmap Development

• Team emphasized need to build research roadmap before interviewing Bonnie
• Lola to encourage research questions from PM and dev teams via intake form
• Goal: Demonstrate clear stakeholder need for information before approaching Bonnie
• Research team to develop interview protocol once secondary research is exhausted

Persona Development Progress

• Creating separate personas for guests under 18 and 18-25 age ranges
• Focusing on evidence-based insights, citing sources for all information
• Aiming to complete initial drafts before Thanksgiving (Nov 22)
• Will review with Bonnie before sharing with broader team

Product Requirements Document

• PM team created list of features for workflow automation
• Broken down into 6 sections: account creation, onboarding, matching, relationship management, offboarding, special cases
• Research team invited to review and comment on features
• Lola created additional tab comparing features to typical workflow solutions - WIP, no team review required

Meeting Schedule

• Thanksgiving week (Nov 20-24): Most meetings likely to be canceled
• Team aiming to complete persona drafts by week of Nov 13-17

Next Steps

• Lola to draft research questions for intake form, focusing on onboarding process
• Lola to encourage PM and dev teams to submit research questions via intake form
• Sam and Jazmyne to continue refining personas, incorporating new research findings
• Research team to review product requirements document and provide feedback
• Nikki to review and provide feedback on persona drafts

Action Items

• Draft questions for Bonnie interview, add to research intake form comments - Lola Sarumi
• Create research inquiry for common FAQ questions new joiners ask about project - Lola Sarumi
• Finalize guest persona, incorporate feedback from Nikki - Sam Seyler
• Review and provide feedback on current persona drafts from Sam and Jazmyne - Nicci Van
• Finalize guest persona for 18-25 age range, incorporate feedback from Nikki - Jazmyne Newman
• Cancel team meeting scheduled for day before Thanksgiving (Nov 22) - Lola Sarumi
• Inform PM team to review feature list, start thinking of questions for research intake - Lola Sarumi