Conducting objective research - Mitigating your hidden biases

Collecting and interpreting data to inform product decision making, requires you do so objectively without being influenced by your own emotions and biases. Researchers have to be aware of their internal drivers in order to neutralize them.
During this talk I will share a use case where our research and product team were so overconfident and opinionated in a specific area, we were not open to interpret and appropriately consider the vital information collected from the internal customer support team. The result - the commencement of a project which succeeded in achieving the defined success metrics but completely missed the mark in solving the challenges the internal team originally reported.

During this session I will focus on specific biases to look out for and will share practical strategies to avoid them.
Some of the strategies I will share:

• Research “mindfulness” - practicing self awareness so you are able to identify your internal drivers: regular self check ins before and during projects, writing down your preconceptions and beliefs as well as doing this practice as a team.
• Practicing humility by experiencing being wrong: the A/B test game show where the team “Bets” which A/B test variant will win
• Extending your access to varying points of views by including cross team participants in research think tanks and planning sessions.