Accelerant Research is proud to present a mini ARVIC webinar on Thursday, January 16^th titled “The New Business of UX Research.”

Calculating how user experience impacts your organization's bottom line is a best practice for communicating the value of UX research in business. This can be achieved by framing UX in business terms and measuring its impact accordingly. In an increasingly data-driven world, you need to show how your work impacts your organization's bottom line — increased funding, cost savings, or any other key performance indicator (KPI).

In this webinar, Brett Krajewski, Accelerant's Vice President of Research & Growth, and Trevor Calabro, author of the popular blog 'UX Research in the Wild,' discuss and share 4 steps to calculate the ROI of UX research.

‍

Step 1: Find a UX Metric

‍

Pick the metric that you think will best demonstrate an improvement in the user experience for your project. Here are some of the most popular UX metrics and the research methods used to find them:

‍

‍

Step 2: Pick a Useful KPI

‍

Translate your UX metric into a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) that matters to your organization's bottom line. Ask around to find out what your organization cares about most from a business perspective and figure out how to incorporate your UX metric in those terms.

TIP: Customize your KPIs around specific organizational needs and to fit your internal culture. Remember, most KPIs come down to money.

Here are some useful KPI examples:

• Revenue

• Operational Costs

• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

• Employee Efficiency

• Customer Retention Rate

• Churn Rate

• Acquisition Cost per Customer (CAC)

• Time to Value (TTV)

‍

Step 3: Convert Your Metrics to KPIs

‍

Calculating ROI simply means turning your UX metric into the same units as your KPI. Use this formula as a starting point for your own conversions:

‍

Then,

‍

Here's an example formula with time on task as the UX metric and dollars per hour as the KPI:

Then,

‍

Step 4: Report Your Calculations

‍

Consider these three points when reporting your calculations to avoid misleading your audience:

1. ROI calculations are strategic exercises, not financial projections.

2. ROI calculations don’t need to be perfect—they are estimates and extrapolations.

3. Be transparent by clearly explaining how and why you calculated the numbers the way you did.

‍

Conclusion

‍

Showing the ROI of UX is the key for getting organizational support and driving continuous improvements. Presenting your findings in a way decision-makers understand helps demonstrate the valuable impact UX has on your organization’s success.

You can find more in-depth use cases and best practices at User Interviews and in the webinar below.

‍

The New Business of UX Research

‍