How to Use Self-Directed Learning to Ensure Your Research Insights are Heard and Acted Upon
Summary
In our remote world, we as researchers need new ways to help our stakeholders cut through the noise to engage and digest our insights more meaningfully through thoughtful and intentional self-directed learning techniques. In this short session, we will discuss 4 key self-directed learning techniques to help you increase engagement around your insights during our debriefing sessions with your stakeholders.
Key Insights
-
•
Self-directed learning can empower stakeholders to engage with research insights on their own terms, increasing uptake and action.
-
•
Designing the context of insight sharing intentionally—considering group size, goals, and stakeholder needs—improves clarity and impact.
-
•
Emotional literacy, or checking in on participants’ feelings before sharing insights, helps prime stakeholders for better receptiveness.
-
•
Asynchronous collaboration within live sessions encourages quieter voices to be heard and builds rich discussions around insights.
-
•
Using digital tools that allow commenting directly on research reports democratizes feedback and documents conversations in real time.
-
•
Early engagement of stakeholders in framing research questions fosters buy-in and makes the research more relevant to their concerns.
-
•
Not everyone needs to read or engage with all research content; focusing on the most influential stakeholders optimizes effort and impact.
-
•
Combining synchronous and asynchronous modes in insight sharing sessions can manage Zoom fatigue and diversify participation.
-
•
Explicitly naming stakeholders' questions in research reports increases their sense of being seen and encourages participation.
-
•
Insight sharing should shift from just delivering information to designing a learning experience tailored to stakeholders’ strengths and interests.
Notable Quotes
"Change is the only constant, so designing insight sharing with self-directed learning is critical."
"Caring for people emotionally during insight sessions directly impacts their productivity and willingness to engage."
"Sometimes the loudest voices dominate, but asynchronous collaboration helps give quieter voices a chance to speak."
"I literally ask, how are you feeling right now? It’s about connecting on a human level before diving into data."
"Before sharing insights, I try to prime the room by acknowledging feelings and starting fresh."
"Sharing insights is like creating a learning space where stakeholders can use the information in their own way."
"Sending reports early and inviting comments turns the insight session into more of a discussion than a presentation."
"Everyone wants to see themselves reflected in the research questions and findings."
"Focus your research report on the three most influential stakeholders, not everyone."
"Combining synchronous and asynchronous communication within one session gets us from awareness to action."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"At the turning point, the team realized they were in charge of their own process and got engaged."
Carl TurnerYou Can Do This: Understand and Solve Organizational Problems to Jumpstart a Dead Project
March 28, 2023
"How many people here actually know how their company makes money? 100% should understand this to lead effectively."
Karen PascoeDeveloping Experience Teams and Talent in the Enterprise
June 8, 2016
"We share the inconvenience of meeting times across time zones, alternating so no one team always bears it."
Jilanna WilsonDistributed Design Operations Management
October 23, 2019
"We’ve seen self-service tool usage grow from hundreds to millions of veterans served monthly after launching a unified VA platform."
Shawna Hein Kevin HoffmanCreate a Cohesive Civic Design Practice Across Agency, Vendors, and Contracts
November 17, 2022
"Shipping smaller, less complex side projects helps build team morale and energizes us for the big slow work."
Barb SpantonDoing Work That Matters: A Look Beyond The Idealistic Notion of 'Doing Meaningful Work'
June 10, 2022
"If a feature didn’t align with our core UX principles, it probably didn’t belong in our application."
Briana ThomasThe Quiet Force: Uncovering Hidden Leadership in High-Impact Design Teams
September 24, 2024
"Service design is 10% connecting the dots and 90% creating the conditions that bring those dots closer together."
Gina MendoliaTherapists, Coaches, and Grandmas: Techniques for Service Design in Complex Systems
December 3, 2024
"The era of 100-page reports is ending because we simply can’t produce them fast enough at scale."
Lija Hogan Milan Mijatovic Sam Proulx Louis RosenfeldThree Years Out: Perspectives on the Near-Term Future of User Research
March 15, 2024
"Our design ops team was a step behind the growth of our design team, solving the wrong problems at the wrong scale."
John Calhoun Rachel PosmanTwo Sides of the DesignOps Coin: Teams Ops and Product Ops
January 8, 2024
