Deliver research insights that demand action
15 different techniques and approaches to make your reports more impactful
Hi, I’m Nikki. I run Drop In Research, where I help teams stop launching “meh” and start shipping what customers really need. I write about the conversations that change a roadmap, the questions that shake loose real insight, and the moves that get leadership leaning in. Bring me to your team.
Paid subscribers get the power tools: the UXR Tools Bundle with a full year of four top platforms free, plus all my Substack content, and a bangin’ Slack community where you can ask questions 24/7. Subscribe if you want your work to create change people can feel.
User research is only as valuable as the action it inspires. You might have deep insights and detailed data, but if your stakeholders can’t digest or apply them, your hard work goes to waste.
I know because this was my way of life as a user researcher for many years: huge projects with amazing (and admittedly abstract) insights that sat in a folder somewhere.
Then, I reached a point in my career where I couldn’t measure my impact because no one was doing anything with these stunning insights that no one could truly understand and act on. So, I stagnated.
And then, when I wanted to go freelance, I realized I had to up the ante. If I wanted good word of mouth and recommendations (read: a steady income), I had to deliver things my clients could actually do stuff with.
So, again, I hit a wall. It was a crappy wall that I didn’t enjoy banging my head against for about a year. Until I decided to try something new.
My stakeholders (both in-house and freelance) didn’t have time for complexity. They didn’t have time to sit and analyze everything that happened in a research study, to digest all the data and then figure out what to do with it.
They needed fast, clear insights they could act on immediately.
Actionability, actionable insights, action, action, action. When I focused on action, my reports changed, and so can yours.
Your insights need to do more than sit in a report. How do you make sure your research delivers impact? By simplifying your reports so that stakeholders can easily digest, understand, and act on your findings.
If your research keeps dying in a folder, it’s rarely your insights. It’s the format your stakeholders can’t use. Paid subscribers get:
my one-page “goal + next steps” opener you can paste into any report
headline formulas for turning findings into 8–10 word “news article” takeaways
the micro-story template that makes stakeholders feel the cost of inaction in 30 seconds
a risk heatmap worksheet (impact x likelihood) you can run in a 15-minute meeting
the “start with actions, back it up with data” structure with examples
an activation plan table (owner, next step, deadline, success signal) that stops the “so what?” loop
a Loom/short video script for sharing findings in 3-5 minutes
a simple decision-tree format that makes next steps obvious
Exclusively for paid subscribers
