Move Fast and Refine Things: How We Built a UX Research Program for a Leading Global Education Organization
Last updated: May 15, 2026
Why spend months planning and debating a detailed program protocol that might or might not work? To build a virtual UX lab from scratch within a global organization, our team hit the ground running, set up a system that fit our client, and refined our methods along the way. Coming in with a flexible study template and a program blueprint, we kicked off 2 usability studies within our first week. From there, we developed a simple research request form and a prioritization rubric that allowed us to manage our study pipeline and select projects.
This lightweight approach allowed us to launch our UX program quickly and share our wins with an internal audience. With a team of only 2 to 4 researchers at any given time, we ran 18 studies in 13 months, all while minimizing the administrative burden on our stakeholders. Beyond our research, we trained 50+ staff to conduct their own usability tests and increased adoption of user-centric methods across a complex worldwide institution.
Challenge: How do you develop a scalable UX research program for an organization with diverse units and digital properties?
Our client, a household name in the world of education, science, and culture, encompasses numerous brands and business units, from widely consulted databases to bricks-and-mortar attractions to online classroom resources. Their hundreds of websites, apps, resources, and virtual experiences serve audiences ranging from the general public to K-12 educators to specialized academic researchers.
However, many teams lacked insight into their users. Most digital departments had never watched a user interact with their websites or products. Staff wrestled with frustration and uncertainty as they attempted to improve and develop products—under the pressure of upholding a world-class reputation. Ironically, within an institution defined by learning and research, digital managers found that they did not have the data they needed to make informed decisions about their own apps and websites.
The complexity of the organization made any large-scale research initiative inherently challenging. Furthermore, allocating resources for some departmental wishlists and not others risked turning into a politically charged battle.
Our client’s digital experience unit decided to seek a long-term research partner from outside the organization. They set an ambitious goal: to build a scalable program from scratch and drive human-centered design across dozens of products. At Marketade, we have a track record of launching and running UX research programs for enterprise organizations, such as GEICO, Thales, and Banner Health. Our client’s digital team decided we were the right fit.
Action: Immediately start research, hone our process, and seize opportunities to showcase results internally
Based on 12 years of experience building research programs for large organizations, we know that UX programs succeed largely through practice and iteration in running actual UX studies. Here, we launched 2 studies in our first week while laying the groundwork to promote and maintain the program as a whole.
Our program included 4 main workstreams, all overseen by a small research team:
- Usability studies for a range of client departments
In keeping with our guiding principle of leanness, we spent the majority of work hours on research rather than admin. The learnings we passed on to departments were the heart of our output. For scalability, we settled on qualitative usability studies consisting of moderated interviews with 8 to 10 users from 1 to 2 different audiences.
- Study request queue and prioritization
To make fair and strategic choices among potential projects, we designed a brief online form that allowed departments to provide background information in 5 minutes. Next, our team set up a 30-minute follow-up call to discuss the project. From there, we wrote up a summary for our main stakeholder and conferred on whether to move forward or keep the project in our queue.
- Staff training workshops
We hosted a series of 5 trainings, covering the essentials of usability testing, like recruiting qualified interviewees and analyzing data from sessions. All workshops included breakout group activities to give staff practice in research skills, such as scripting interview questions and moderating UX sessions.
- Internal marketing and documentation
For a program intranet, we distilled each project’s goals, top findings, and most important recommendations into scannable 1-page case studies. We also seized opportunities to participate in the organization’s existing educational panels and, alongside our department clients, share success stories with live Q&A discussions.
As we maintained the program, we found ways to streamline our process, especially in the first 2 workstreams. For example:
- We tweaked our study request form so that it took less time for potential client units to fill out.
- We shifted from formal reports on study requests, including calculated priority scores, to more digestible bulleted summaries for our main stakeholder to review.
- For the research studies, we limited stakeholder and subject matter expert interviews to the most necessary and relevant to save time on both sides.
- After a few studies investigating more than one specialized audience, we strongly encouraged client units to zero in on the main audience that they wished to explore, rather than 2 or 3, in a single study. This pivot not only made recruitment more efficient but also helped ensure findings that provided deep insight into the digital product’s primary users.
Result: 18 studies and 5 trainings completed, a library of UX insights and case studies shared, and departments empowered to continue research
Over 13 months, we conducted more than 170 usability interviews and delivered 18 presentations across 15 different client departments. We committed to learning by doing from the start and followed through by honing the efficiency of our study template. Our researchers reduced the average cost per study by roughly 30% while still producing comprehensive findings and deliverables.
Our study reports, all of which included video clips of users’ barriers and frustrations, motivated stakeholders to make research-informed decisions and take action. The program’s studies led directly to improvements. For example:
- A high-traffic website for in-person visitors now prominently displays information that study participants had struggled to find.
- A network of archival pages developed new design wireframes to better contextualize items and clarify which exhibits and collections they belong to.
- The website for a popular tourist attraction pruned its menus, reduced the number of “no result” searches, and made the location of displays more prominent on pages.
Through our training series, over 50 employees across the organization acquired the basic knowledge to conduct their own research. Many told us that they had gained skills and confidence through the exercises and were excited to implement what they had learned.
By the end of our engagement, we created an internally accessible library documenting our research through 18 easy-to-browse case studies. Our position as a research partner for many different units also enabled us to identify broad patterns and trends that could apply to other departments. A concise “key takeaways” guide captured the overarching findings and recommendations from the program. These resources will enable units to learn from each other’s projects and extend the program’s benefits for years to come.