Last month, we shared our upcoming priorities from a product roadmap viewpoint. This included initiatives like higher onboarding, Staging Floor (our experiment with a shielded expertise for brand new customers), Discussions, and technical investments. Immediately I wish to share the analysis the Consumer Expertise workforce, which I lead, will probably be centered on over the following quarter and how one can assist. At Stack Overflow, our researchers are centered on strategic initiatives and large, complicated questions. They usually run forward of the product roadmap by a number of months and even a number of quarters. Please hold that in thoughts as you navigate what we need to be taught this quarter.
Final 12 months, one in all our researchers got down to create a extra complete framework of person roles and studying pathways on Stack Overflow. This analysis was performed by means of cluster evaluation of website conduct knowledge, a survey, a Meta Stack Exchange post, workshops, and extra. From this work, we constructed hypotheses round 5 motivations, together with what customers want or wish to be taught and what components of our website may enchantment to them. These motivation teams have been utilized in future workshops to write down Jobs-to-be-Done to determine why customers select Stack Overflow and what may frustrate them. This has laid the groundwork for lots of our upcoming analysis. We’re excited to dig into these hypotheses and be taught much more about how we might help neighborhood members.
Discovering an answer to your drawback takes effort and time. During the last 12 months, we’ve honed in on the cycle of how an engineer or technologist unblocks themselves. You might already perceive out of your expertise, however it’s not a fast course of. As we proceed to discover this journey of discovering an answer to your drawback, we wish to perceive the nuances of the method and which items are most necessary and most troublesome for our customers. We then hope to discover whether or not we might help alleviate the ache factors we uncover.
Jobs-to-be-Performed being researched: “Discover a resolution when I’m at work/faculty in order that I can get unstuck with out spending a considerable amount of time on my drawback.”
We’ve lately introduced we’re bringing again Staging Floor! Yay! Staging Floor makes an attempt to resolve a wide range of issues. We hope to show new askers neighborhood norms whereas unblocking them extra rapidly by means of asking extra profitable questions and making certain that questions will be reused for future customers with the identical drawback. That’s lots! Particularly when you consider the truth that the variety of customers who’re “consultants” is small in comparison with the scale of the viewers seeking to get unblocked. So how can we scale such a great tool? We will probably be testing concepts with our customers over the approaching months to see what’s helpful and what isn’t.
Thanks to the parents who’ve already offered our workforce with great ideas on how we will enhance the characteristic because it strikes out of beta. Beta reviewers have additionally shared suggestions of their personal house on Stack Overflow for Groups, and we’re excited to prioritize these points and ideate on new options, notably to deal with the largest bottlenecks and burnout factors in partnership with the neighborhood. You may even see a few of these ideas in analysis classes. We’ll even be participating with neighborhood members on Meta and utilizing different avenues resembling surveys.
Jobs-to-be-Performed being researched: “Promote wholesome neighborhood conduct proactively in order that I can encourage others to have interaction extra continuously and safely with out bias”; “Discover folks that need assistance that aligns with the assistance I can present when there’s a chance to assist and I’ve time in order that I can really feel the enjoyment of instructing others with out losing time trying to find alternatives to use my information and assist others”
To spherical out our person journey, we wish to be taught extra in regards to the answering expertise and the way we will enhance it. We imagine that rushing up the answering course of will create worth throughout the neighborhood. We goal to find out about how our customers discover inquiries to reply, how they reply, what they should reply (e.g., sources, code editors, translator units), and if there are alternatives to make this course of simpler. This implies determining what makes answering troublesome or lowers reply high quality on the location, whereas additionally recognizing conditions the place friction could also be useful and needs to be saved. We need to doc a transparent set of person issues associated to reply creation on Stack Overflow after which work alongside the neighborhood to resolve these issues whereas remaining open to each AI/ML and non-AI/ML alternatives.
We’re excited to make use of this as a chance to check the idea of participatory design. Participatory design (or co-design) is a technique the place customers contribute to the design course of, permitting them to offer suggestions, counsel concepts, and take part in choice making. Our purpose is to construct an answer that’s not solely amicable however a characteristic our neighborhood will rejoice! We hope to have our first session throughout the subsequent six to eight weeks.
Jobs-to-be-Performed being researched: “Share my insights and information within the tech neighborhood when I’m seeking to showcase my information in order that I can really feel acknowledged for my contributions with out spending an excessive amount of time”
Within the curiosity of gathering extra knowledge, I’m pleased to say that we at the moment are utilizing a analysis software, Ballpark, that may give the power to conduct analysis to a wider variety of Stack Overflow staff exterior the Consumer Expertise workforce. To encourage studying, we’ve set a problem for our Consumer Expertise professionals, Product Managers, and Product Advertising Managers to run two to 5 research this quarter utilizing the brand new software. This software makes a speciality of “unmoderated” analysis which is a type of qualitative analysis the place customers full predetermined actions whereas answering questions out loud. This sort of analysis is nice for extra tactical analysis like figuring out the perfect place in a UI to position a button. Whereas we don’t know the entire analysis that may occur this quarter utilizing this new software, we’re excited in regards to the studying potential.
Some concepts which are already being mentioned:
- Suggestions on the Stack Overflow for Groups homepage
- Up to date kinds and ensuing usability for sidebar widgets
- Accessibility characteristic prioritization to assist us determine what could be extra impactful for the neighborhood
The easiest way to become involved is to sign up for analysis invites in your account settings! We’d like neighborhood members such as you to take part in our analysis to have interaction in deep conversations round key areas of curiosity. So please, if you wish to assist us be taught and even assist create alongside us (e.g., participatory design classes)—enroll!
As Consumer Expertise professionals and Stack Overflow staff, we’re deeply dedicated to studying as a lot as we will to raised help builders and neighborhood members. We’re extremely grateful on your time and fervour and, as all the time, we stay up for working and studying collectively.
