# Rule: User Research

**Priority:** CRITICAL
**Category:** User Research

## Description

User research is the foundation of evidence-based design. It ensures decisions are grounded in real user data — through interviews that yield actionable insights and personas that keep teams focused on real needs.

## Conducting User Interviews

### Planning
- Define clear research objectives before scheduling
- Write a discussion guide with 8-12 open-ended questions
- Recruit 5-8 participants per round for qualitative insights
- Schedule 45-60 minutes per session (30 min interview + buffer)

### During the Interview
- Start with easy warm-up questions to build rapport
- Ask about past behavior, not hypothetical future behavior
- Use "Tell me about a time when..." framing
- Follow up with "Why?" and "Can you show me?"
- Stay silent after asking — let the participant fill the space

### Synthesis
1. Debrief within 24 hours while memory is fresh
2. Extract key observations as individual data points
3. Cluster observations into themes using affinity mapping
4. Identify patterns across multiple participants
5. Prioritize insights by frequency and impact
6. Create actionable recommendations tied to specific findings

### Good vs. Bad Interview Questions

| ✅ Good | ❌ Bad |
|---------|-------|
| "Walk me through the last time you [did the task]." | "Don't you think this feature would be useful?" (leading) |
| "What was the hardest part of that experience?" | "Would you use a product that does X?" (hypothetical) |
| "What did you try before finding this solution?" | "Do you like this design?" (opinion, not behavior) |

## Creating Effective Personas

### Creation Process
1. Conduct user interviews and gather behavioral data
2. Identify patterns in goals, behaviors, and pain points
3. Cluster users into 3-5 distinct groups
4. Draft persona profiles based on data patterns
5. Validate with additional research or stakeholder input
6. Share personas with the full team; refer to them by name

### What to Include
- **Name and photo** — makes the persona memorable
- **Goals** — functional and emotional objectives
- **Pain points** — current frustrations and unmet needs
- **Behaviors** — how they currently solve the problem
- **Context** — when, where, and why they use the product
- **Quote** — a representative statement capturing their mindset

### Example

#### Good Persona
```markdown
## Sarah, The Busy Parent
**Age:** 34 | **Occupation:** Marketing Manager | **Location:** Austin, TX

### Goals
- Order groceries in under 10 minutes during her commute
- Never run out of essentials (milk, diapers, snacks)

### Pain Points
- Hates scrolling through irrelevant promotions to find basics
- Forgets items because she can't easily reorder past purchases

### Behaviors
- Shops on her phone, never desktop
- Reorders 70% of the same items weekly

> "I just need the basics fast. Don't make me think about groceries more than I have to."
```

#### Bad Persona
```markdown
## User Type A
**Age:** 25-45 | **Gender:** Any | **Income:** Middle class
Goals: Wants a good experience. Likes easy-to-use apps.
[Too vague to inform any design decision]
```

## Common Mistakes
- Asking leading questions that suggest the "right" answer
- Interviewing only power users and missing beginner perspectives
- Creating personas in a brainstorming session without research data
- Making personas but never referencing them in design reviews
- Treating a single participant's feedback as representative of all users
