Show the Value of UX without a Budget
Photo Credit - Freddie Collins
When I first joined Focus Brands, there were only two people who knew what UX stood for and no budget in place for research. I had to figure out some creative and frugal ways to prove the value of UX to those in charge.
- I set up user research studies outside of the CMO's office and purposefully left the conference room door open so he could hear all of the valuable information we were getting from speaking with our target audience.
- Used co-workers as test participants
- Found co-workers that matched our target audience (not in development, web design, or marketing)
- Asked for gift cards from the brands to use for guerilla research to compensate test participants in the real world
- Built a database of potential participants using Google Forms as the survey & screener.
- Used a free trial of Validately to record co-workers using our product, then showing the highlight clips to C-Level and other stakeholders
- Convinced my manager to participate in the company's internship program to gain extra headcount
- Reached out to local universities and trade schools to perform projects outside of my bandwidth
These are just a few of things I did in my first 6 months at a job to get things done. Leave comments of things you have done in the past to get UX work done with little or no budget.