We’re delighted to announce the formation of the User Research DAO. We are a group of experienced user researchers immersed in the world of web3, and dedicated to elevating the knowledge and practice of user research for projects building within the NEAR ecosystem to improve usability. We offer support to teams of all sizes and tiers, providing effective, usable, no-nonsense User Research support.
What is User Research?
User Research is about understanding your target users, so that you can build useful, usable and highly-adopted products that deliver value. It can look like discovery research - understanding your target user’s goals, needs and pains so you know what the right thing is to build. Or evaluative research - user testing your product or concept with real people to identify opportunities for improvement. It usually takes the shape of direct conversations with people - getting to the heart of their lived experiences.
Whether your users are NFT collectors, yield farmers, investors, DAOs, institutions, web3 gamers, or developers, user research can uncover massive potential improvements for your product.
Common questions answered through user research
- Who are our users? What can we learn about them that will inform our business, product and marketing strategy?
- What market or user profile should we be targeting?
- How do people use our product?
- How does our product stack up against competitors?
- Why are we not achieving adoption and retention?
- What features should we prioritise in the backlog?
Whether you have zero users and are just forming your product concept, or have something live serving real customers, understanding your users and how they use your product (or competitor products) is a differentiator in the space, and a competitive advantage.
What to expect from the User Research DAO
For all tiers, we offer:
- Open Office hours: book in time with an experienced user researcher to ask questions about anything user-related, get tips on doing your own research, or feedback on your current UX research processes. Book now! Calendly - Georgia Rakusen
- Training workshops: sign up for in-depth training workshops (to be announced in the coming weeks!) Tell us what topics you want to learn about here, and we’ll be sure to let you know as soon as the sessions become available: https://forms.gle/QWpz23qMmx3waZmNA
- Practical guides: we will be publishing cheat sheets and expert advice for DIY research, covering everything from recruiting users to asking the right questions.
- Conducting user research for your project: Not everyone has the means and time to run their own research. Or maybe you’re looking for expertise to superpower your efforts. If you want a more in-depth engagement with one of our experienced user researchers, we’ll spend time with you to help you understand what your research need is, scope it, and support you with applying to the NEAR Foundation for a grant to cover the costs.
Who is behind the DAO?
The founding member of the DAO is Georgia Rakusen, one of the most experienced user researchers working in the web3 and crypto space to date. She has 9+ years experience running qualitative and quantitative user research studies for major organisations across gaming, fintech, broadcasting, ecommerce and the UK Government. As User Research Lead at ConsenSys for 2.5 years, Georgia delivered high value strategic insights to a range of product teams building for developers, institutions, and general consumers, including Protocol Labs for the Filecoin launch, and the successful launch of MetaMask’s token swap feature. Georgia currently works freelance, for the likes of MakerDAO, MetaMask, Gitcoin, dHedge, Totle, Pocket Network, Deep Work, Rarible, and more.
Georgia is also working with a hand-picked group of senior user researchers working in the space, to deliver research efforts for the NEAR ecosystem. These experts will be onboarded into the DAO in the coming weeks.
Got questions or feedback? Want to see something else from the DAO? Please let us know in the comments!
