user-research-synthesislisted

# User Research Synthesis ## The Law ``` RESEARCH THAT DOES NOT PRODUCE A DECISION PRODUCES A DOCUMENT. "Users said X" without "therefore we will Y" is observation without direction — the team reads the report, nods, and builds what they already planned. An insight → decision chain, documented and traceable IS research synthesis. ``` ## When to Use Trigger after: - Any user interview, usability test, or survey that informs a product decision - Any discovery sprint before a new feature is scoped - Any moment when "what do users want?" is used to justify a direction ## When NOT to Use - Competitive analysis (no user data involved — use a different framework) - Usage analytics review (quantitative data without qualitative context — different synthesis process) - Research stored for reference without an active product decision being made ## The Synthesis Structure Raw research is observation. Synthesis is the translation of observation into decision. Every step below must be completed before the synthesis is done. ### 1 — Observations What did users actually do, say, or show? Only direct evidence — no interpretation yet. ``` Observation format: [User type], [context], [verbatim quote or behaviour]: "[exact quote]" or "[described behaviour]" ``` **Rules:** - Quote directly where possible — paraphrase introduces interpretation - Include the context (what task were they doing? what were they trying to achieve?) - Do not include "they seemed to want..." at this stage — th