**Please provide all the following information:**Next steps**
[] @dchen to meet with @VirginiaPoundstone to receive the additional information she needs to write a draft Research Brief and propose a scoping and timelines.
[] Leila and Debra to review the scoping and timelines, work with Daisy and Virginia for adjustments as needed.
[] Daisy to start working on the project.
* **Context.** Provide a short paragraph with some background context for your request, please include links to relevant material.
The Experiment Platform team is developing a platform that product teams will use for running controlled experiments across Wikimedia properties. This system is composed of several backend components and a front end user experience know as Experimentation Lab (xLab for short, formerly known as Metrics Platform). In FY23/24, we conducted qualitative research with 15 Product+Tech staff, revealing significant challenges with experimentation: 10+ week setup times, low data trust, and high costs for minimal ROI. We've made progress by working closely with product teams to reduce the time to conduct experiments on logged in users and are currently working on enabling anonymous user A/B testing (FY24.25 FY25-SDS 2.4). As we onboard a new PM for the platform (start data April 7th) and prepare for wider adoption in FY25/26, we need to validate our direction and gather deeper insights into user needs across different team maturity levels.
Relevant documents: [[ https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bYU9EbWY8mue--fu8TNf30N_LViBwIRpwtdoGah_OLI/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.cpddt4izrkq8 | Qualitative User Research Summary ]], [[ https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AaEeC3sekKu9BHpevvMZIJxvf9buO4SMWcf8b0uXBVE/edit?tab=t.0 | Experimentation Lab Product Spec, ]] [[ https://docs.google.com/document/d/1t0cKz01LwPILjXwQqkyPl1aPFB5y-2Dqn3QqNGS3L2A/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.48hxghbn2xko | SDS 2.1 ]] & [[ https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gitkTWiIUAtagPa--IpU1JPre4lqpMS8-SC6hHPmuQo/edit?tab=t.19m2dicg3c8e#heading=h.48hxghbn2xko | SDS 2.4 ]] documents as well as the [[ https://docs.google.com/document/d/1E_fsuy5rjQGIUoOGXWoiVSk4GhZAXI7zN0lT0m9AAL0/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.v6vd6cjor2bl | planning ]] for next fiscal year.
* **Description.**What is your request about?
We're seeking design research support to help our new PM conduct follow-up user interviews with Product Managersvalidate/contextualize/reject our initial findings, Engineersgather feedback on current and upcoming releases, and Analysts from our target segmentsidentify adoption barriers for teams with varying experimentation maturity (First-timer, Occasional, Advanced, and Power teams). We don't need the research team to conduct interviews directly, but rather to help structure the research approach, develop the interview protocol, and support analysis of findings. This collaborative effort would provide our new PM with methodological guidance while they lead the process. The research should validate our initial findings, gather feedback on current and upcoming releases, identify adoption barriers foand Power teams with varying experimentation maturity), explore workflow needs for both logged-in and anonymous user testing, and understand expectations for self-service analytics.
* **Expected Deliverable.** What is the ideal outcome or result of your request?
- Research plan with clear objectives and methodology
- Interview protocol/discussion guide
- Guidance on participant recruitment strategyA report which includes the learnings from the study as well as potential hypotheses that the PM can prioritize in the coming quarters.
- Data analysis approach and facilitation of 1-2 collaborative analysis sessions
- Recommendations for incorporating findings into our product roadmap and adoption strategy
* **Estimated Effort.** Please provide an estimate of the amount of work needed to complete this task, if known.
We estimate this would require approximately 15-20 hours of research support spread over 4-6 weeks, including planning sessions, protocol development, analysis guidance, and documentation.
* **Priority** Please indicate a priority of your task and a small description of what it would unlock for you. We ask you to leave this task as “needs triage” since your request will go through a Backlog refinement process where our team will prioritize the work.
I need this task resolved in:
1- 3 months.
This research will directly inform our FY25/26 planning and guide the future of the platform. Completing this by early May would allow us to incorporate findings into our next quarterly planning cycle and help define training materials for wider platform adoption.
* **Other.** Do you have any other questions or comments ?
- The new PM starts in two weeks and would benefit from this support as part of their onboarding
- We're particularly interested in understanding how to bridge the gap between "experiment curious" teams and those who regularly conduct experiments
- Previous research focused on current state; this round should focus more on validating our solution approach and identifying adoption needs
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**For use by WMF Research team; please leave everything below as it is:**
1. Does the request serve one of the existing Research team's audiences? If yes, choose the primary audience. (1 of 4)
2. What is the type of work requested?
3. What is the impact of responding to this request?
[] Support a technology or policy need of one or more WM projects
[] Advance the understanding of the WM projects.
[] Something else.- Stakeholder who will sign-off on scope and timelines: @VirginiaPoundstone (Virginia will coordinate with the new PM who is joining us soon as she sees fit)
- Sign off on scope, If you choose this option, please explain briefly the impact below. timelines and deliverables on Design Research end: @leila and Debra
- First complete draft of Research Brief: Daisy.