How system thinking and user research can support each other and why it is important
The goals of user research are primarily tied to identifying the user’s needs, goals, and their usability and interactions’ behavior and patterns. Organizations use the research findings to drive meaningful insights so that the product teams can design and ship with the right product for the users’ context, and on evidence.
What if we find ways to make the research more holistic—where we design it in such a way that the research serves the organization’s key concerns and its holistic goals, at the system level? For example, whether the org’s primary concern is growth or stability? Is it about expansion to new locations, or compliance? Is it finding ways to survive in a new stream of competition?
Many teams see the research findings as a hammer—and they see nails everywhere. They are in the Now-We-Know zone because they have the evidence now. This Now-We-Know zone feels good because now they know:
System thinking is about the wholeness of the organization—whether applied or even planned to apply, model, or practice—the collective and the unified vision, mission, the shared commitment to the goals in a common language, by building the right confidence and right communication system (not the design system), at the right time. Applying system thinking at any level in an organization begins at the interconnectedness of its sub-systems, functions, and units, teams, and the information flow models.
