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UX
Case Study 8

Volunteer Workshop Host for 2024 UX Open by UBC BizTech

"Conducting User Research for a Product" Workshop

I hosted an in-person workshop for 40+ participants on "Conducting User Research for a Product" at 2024 UX Open for UBC BizTech. I guided participants through using the 5W1H framework for new product discovery. 

This workshop prepared participants to conduct rapid user research within 24 hours to design a new product for the hackathon. 

Introduction: I introduced participants to using UX research methods including user interviews, qualitative data analysis and reporting in product management, specifically how to use new product discovery methods to identify their core product value.

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Conducting User Research for a Product (

Workshop Activities:

  • I split the 40+ participants into 10 teams of 4-5 people 

  • I designed 1 workshop topic "a digital solution to help users find sustainable green products" for each team to individually work on

  • I designed 4 essential steps to use the methods for new product discovery on the topic:

    • Step 1: Research Questions (for a new product)​

    • Step 2: Designing qualitative interview questions (for a new product)

    • Step 3: Conduct interviews (between team members)

    • Step 4: Compile interview data (using my shared Google Slide framework)

  • I provided frameworks for each of the 4 essential steps (in shared Google Slides) and guided the teams through them to arrive at their digital solution 

  • Each team had 5-10 minutes to work on each step of the workshop 

  • At the end of the workshop, I randomly picked 1 team to share out and provided feedback to them 

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Example Workshop Activity Slides: 

  • Taking Step 1 for instance, I designed a table using the 5W1H framework for how to set up research questions for a new product, and provided participants with an example ("an app that helps remote workers find affordable, quiet and flexible workspaces in the city") to demonstrate what they needed to do within their teams. 

  • I then asked them to use the shared Google Slide that had an empty table to work on their own research questions pertaining to the workshop topic within their groups, and to take notes so they could refer back to it in the next step.

  • At the end of the workshop, I asked 1 team to share out, walked through their strengths and weaknesses within their slides, and provided feedback.

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My Takeaways: 

  • Participants easily got the core concept of each step in the workshop activities. However, they needed guidance on when to dig deeper within each activity. For instance, I had to guide them on when to ask follow-up questions, and when it was ok to stop asking when they hit a certain depth in the interviews. 

  • I started the workshop by introducing participants to the importance of figuring out their "core product value" before jumping into the solution, so that they had a solid foundation for the product features. Some teams jumped right into the final product design (for example, a website that aggregated information about green products), and I had to remind them to take a step back in the initial product discovery phase to properly understand the core customer needs and wants before jumping into solving them. 

  • I had a lot of fun hosting this in-person workshop, and loved sharing my UX research experience with aspiring designers and researchers at UBC!

Some photos from the event: 

For information about UX Open, visit their website:

© 2025 by Ying Chen. All Rights Reserved.

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