My Summer as a Founding UX Researcher
UX Research Intern @ Milliman
May to August 2024
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UX Research Intern @ Milliman
May to August 2024
Role
Founding (Solo) UX Researcher
Timeline
12 Weeks (May to Aug 2024)
Product
Milliman Integrate
Methods
Interviews, Workshops, Surveys, In-App Feedback Collection, Jobs-to-be-Done
Tools
Figma, Figjam, Microsoft Office, Zoom
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TLDR on impact: As I was hired to introduce UXR, I defined success as demonstrating the need for a full-time researcher. Happy to say that UXR continues on at Milliman (I was also offered a full-time role)!
Milliman provides services in risk management, insurance, healthcare, financial services, and employee benefits. While most employees are actuaries, Milliman has a robust technology team to deliver for its cloud-based software, such as Integrate.
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Milliman Integrate
I met with 20+ stakeholders across Product and Tech teams, including engineers, product leaders, voice-of-the-customer players, consultants, and even the CEO of the practice. Across these stakeholders, I asked these two main questions -
What are your top-of-mind research requests?
This helped me walk away with a list of research requests to prioritize based on impact and effort.
Where do you see potential for UXR at Milliman?
This allowed me to identify key opportunities and narrow in on areas where UXR can make impact.
🤔
Because UXR was so new here, I needed to find my UXR allies! I wanted to understand their POVs on opportunities, blockers, and possibilities for UXR at Milliman. I identified these people as...
A) People who took part in hiring me and advocating for this role
B) Those who took on customer-facing tasks (ex: Voice-of-the-Customer, Customer Success)
C) Those in UX-adjacent roles (ex: Front-end Engineer, UX Designer)
D) Forward-thinking Product Execs/Leaders
I led a workshop with my manager (Product Designer) and mentor (Voice-of-the-Customer) going through every research request mapped on whether it would be impactful to the business and feasible to accomplish. We eventually settled on a few research projects to further investigate within the "quick-wins" section (high impact low effort).
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Research requests were sorted on an impact/effort matrix
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Why tackle multiple small research projects instead of one larger one?
Ultimately, I needed to quickly show impact. As UXR was new to the business, it was better to do quick, small projects to show immediate impact instead of a larger project that may take a while to come to fruition.
✨
Over 12 weeks, I conducted 5 research projects.
Let's go over a few of them and talk about some highlights.
FreeWorld is a tech-enabled nonprofit that aims to end generational poverty and recidivism by accelerating economic mobility for returning citizens. At it’s core, FreeWorld supports formerly incarcerated people in getting living-wage jobs in the trucking industry. Read more about FreeWorld's operations here at www.freeworld.org.
🙌
Want an TLDR on the outcome? Designers were equipped with basic methods and tools for conducting their own "scrappy" research. End-users (Actuaries) were introduced to mechanisms to feedback. Product teams and engineers were encouraged to shift their thinking toward prioritizing user needs!
Role
Founding (Solo) UX Researcher
Timeline
12 Weeks (May to Aug 2024)
Product
Milliman Integrate
Methods
Interviews, Workshops, Surveys, In-App Feedback Collection, Jobs-to-be-Done
Tools
Figma, Figjam, Microsoft Office, Zoom
FreeWorld is a tech-enabled nonprofit that aims to end generational poverty and recidivism by accelerating economic mobility for returning citizens. At it’s core, FreeWorld supports formerly incarcerated people in getting living-wage jobs in the trucking industry. Read more about FreeWorld's operations here at www.freeworld.org.
🙌
Want an TLDR on the outcome? Designers were equipped with basic methods and tools for conducting their own "scrappy" research. End-users (Actuaries) were introduced to mechanisms to feedback. Product teams and engineers were encouraged to shift their thinking toward prioritizing user needs!
Halfway through the internship, I spotted opportunity to build up customer feedback mechanisms. A recurring theme I had been hearing was that there was a disconnect between engineers and end-users, with no established culture of user feedback and testing. It seemed like there were huge areas of opportunity for this! When I pitched the idea to my Voice-of-the-Customer partners, they immediately agreed—it was something they had wanted to solve for a while but hadn't had the resources or momentum to get started.
Current mechanisms for feedback collection primarily relied on word of mouth. For example, if an internal end-user was frustrated about XYZ, he would go directly to Adam, the Voice-of-the-Customer (who was also a full-time actuary), who then noted it down on an Excel sheet. Clients could only submit feedback to their consultant point-of-contact.
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Current feedback mechanisms walkthrough
Halfway through the internship, I spotted opportunity to build up customer feedback mechanisms on both the external user (clients) and internal user (internal actuaries) front. A recurring theme I had been hearing was that there was a disconnect between engineers and end-users, with no established culture of user feedback and testing.
Of course, I also had to share the good news of UX Research given that this was new to many! I led 4 workshops attended by over 100 people from diverse roles, including engineers, product leaders, actuaries, and designers. Topics ranged from introducing the purpose of UX Research to easy methods or tools to conduct research quickly.
🙌
Want a TLDR on the outcome? Designers were equipped with basic methods and tools for conducting their own "scrappy" research. End-users (Actuaries) were introduced to mechanisms for giving feedback. Product teams and engineers were encouraged to shift their thinking toward prioritizing user needs!
All in all, the purpose of these workshops was to...
🏣 Remind teams to think customer-first
Encourage teams to consistently prioritize intuitive user experiences during product development
🏣 Educate people on how to do research
Enable and encourage people to do self-serve and scrappy customer research on their own
🤔 Convince the business to invest in UXR
Show the short and long term impact of UXR as well as the need for dedicated research resources
💥 Reinforce the value of customer feedback
Encourage product teams to loop in internal users for feedback, bridging that gap between eng and actuaries
One of many workshops!
Solo UX Researchers juggle many hats, but prioritization can be a remedy. One of the most difficult parts of my summer was knowing how to spend my time wisely in a way that would be most beneficial for myself and the business. Balancing stakeholder expectations, short-term deadlines, and the broader research roadmap required constant negotiation and reflection, made possible through thoughtful prioritization of research tasks.
A way to gather momentum and buy-in is to show immediate impact. Ultimately, I wanted to prove the value of UXR to stakeholders. Thus, to do so, I favored quick research wins that had an immediate impact. These fast insights helped me build trust with stakeholders by demonstrating how research could solve immediate pain points and inform better decision-making, proved over and over again over 12 weeks.
In the weeks leading up to my internship, I met with a few (super wise) UX Researchers to learn how to strategically tackle being a founding and solo UXR, given that it would be my first time doing so. I learned so much from Susan Lynch, Steve Fadden, and many more — I'm thankful they took the time to give thoughtful advice!
Thanks to Tanya Stockland and the wider Life Technology Solutions team at Milliman for giving me the room to experiment, lead, and stretch my scope in ways I haven't before. It was awesome to have a seat at the table, all thanks to them. :)