Keeping stakeholders informed

If our test takes more than a few days, it’s a good idea to provide periodic updates to our project team and other interested parties.

Typically we do this by emailing a brief summary to them that shows how our responses are tracking, early success rates (if we have enough participants to judge by), and any actions we need to take (e.g. trying harder to recruit a particular user group with low numbers so far).

Here’s an example of an email interim update:

Hi all, here's a quick update on the tree tests that we're currently running:

Tree 1 (organized by audience)

Existing customers	42

Existing customers	42
Non-customers	7	Low response rate!
Success rate	55%	A few low-scoring tasks bringing down the rest

Tree 2 (organized by activity)

Existing customers	36

Existing customers	36
Non-customers	32
Success rate	72%	Good overall performance so far

Actions:

We urgently need more non-customers for Tree 1.

Susan and I will work on this today, but more ideas are always welcome.

Thanks!

Next: Asking “why?” with in-person sessions