When designers perform research, it is an act of discovery. Every nugget of information mined presents more possibilities and questions than you had before that moment.

In its current form, your research isn't worth much. To understand the data gathered from your stakeholder interview and competitor testing would require a lot of work for those coming into the project cold.

One of our main jobs as designers is communication. Sometimes that is outward to an end-user, but far more often, those skills are applied internally. You have a better chance of building a product if everyone on the team understands what's going on.

A common mistake I see both UX researchers & data scientists make: sharing ALL the interesting things they learned. You might love your data for its own sake. The exec team wants the three conclusions that matter.

— Kim Goodwin (@kimgoodwin) June 19, 2020

An analysis is a form of distillation. When we explore, the information expands. When we analyze, the data contracts into something with more focus that is easier to consume.

While there are many different formats that you can use, a well-constructed analysis generally shares the following criteria:

• Brief. Focused on critical findings.
• Explains why those discoveries are essential.
• Tailored to the intended audience.
• Delivered in-person to that audience.

The content also follows a similar arc:

• Introduction of the company and current status.
• Overview of the client goals.
• Brief look at each competitor.
• Recommendations for how to reposition client for success.

Unless you are working by yourself and for yourself, you'll have to distill down information for communication with others at some point. The need for this only escalates the higher on the career ladder that you climb.

Might as well get comfortable with that dynamic — now.

Resources for review

Please use the following items to guide your exercise attempt:

Article/Video	Source/Author
Finding the story in the data	New Pragmatic
Presenting your research	New Pragmatic
How not to present your findings	Danae Paparis

Exercise

Length: Two-to-three hours to complete.

You've done the work, but now it is time to bring your team back at the agency up to speed.

Part one Prepare a one-page overview (Google Doc) and/or brief five-ten slide presentation (Google Slides). The actual content included could be the same in each format, but the presentation will lean significantly heavier on visuals to sell your recommendations.

This work should combine key discoveries gathered from the stakeholder interview and competitive analysis.

While we will eventually focus on making your presentations beautiful, any prior visual skills won't protect you here. This assignment is content-focused. If your submission meets the criteria and includes the content arc mentioned above, then you'll do fine.

Part two Record a one-to-two minute video of yourself delivering your key findings. While this recording won't be to your actual team, practice before any presentation is the quickest way to develop timing and ensure you are covering the information needed.

Personal favorites for this activity include Loom or CloudApp as they provide a way to store your video remotely. These tools make it easy to record and share your work by sending someone a link to your video.

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Once complete, update your Program Journal with links to the assets produced in this exercise. Post your Journal in the #Feedback-Loop channel for review.

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