Research/Design RFP

Request for Proposal

Version 20110217.1
Published February 17, 2011
Created by Lance Nishihira
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Version 20110217.1 published February 17, 2011 by Lance Nishihira (lance@plaxo.com)

Project Overview
What’s this all about?
We are currently seeking a researcher or a small research team to help spearhead the User Experience Research (UER)
aspects of a multi-method (ethnography/RITE/heuristics) design and prototyping effort that is currently underway. Due to
the nature of the project, we are not at liberty to discuss the specifics, but will disclose the details upon acceptance of an
NDA.

What’s the approach?

The internal team here at Comcast has a very good line on a specific problem we are trying to solve for. At the same
time, we also understand in addition to the problem we’ve identified, there may be several related problems still to be
unearthed. We think that we can solve for the problem we are aware of while at the same time discovering the problems
that we don’t yet know about.
Before you arrive on the scene, the internal UX, Product and Development teams will already have been hard at work
brainstorming, prototyping and iterating on the “known” problem—at least the problem we think we know. We will
continue to generate and iterate on various product concepts.

When you land, you’ll need to:

• Review our plan and make recommendations/adjustments based on research best practices
• Validate key user behaviors and help us polish our key persona.
• Recruit 6-8 local participants, fitting our key persona
• Work with the team to create a list of objectives and a test plan
• Review our current iteration of our prototype in progress and give us your expert appraisal.
• Schedule home visits with participants. You will also include members of the internal team to join and support you.

For each home visit, you’ll:

• Interview the participant against a predefined protocol and capture it all with video and photos
• Uncover behaviors, rituals, barriers, friction points and other interesting parts of the current experience
• Document the environment in which the participant performs behaviors (captured by video and photos)
• Run the participant through a protocol to observe him/her going through a set of tasks with our prototype (could be
paper or code depending on where our team is in the design effort)
• Capture sequence diagrams to illustrate key workflows
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Project Overview
Immediately following each visit, we need to:
• Debrief with the interview team as well as any other available team members
• Create a list of insights and create affinity groupings of insights
• Discuss recommended modifications to the prototype
• After the debriefing, the team will iterate the prototype in anticipation of the next visit.
Repeat this until we’ve completed roughly 5 iterations or have had what we feel as an adequate number of iterations to
develop a quality product.

What should we end up with once you’re done?

• A well-iterated prototype to address the “known” problem
• A list of “previously unknown” or “previously non-validated” problems or opportunities
• Recommendations for further products to address unmet needs (informing our product roadmap).
• An independent heuristic evaluation of the ending prototype. By independent, we mean one of your colleagues– not
you.
• How should you work?
• You will manage your own time and activities.
• We will have regular onsite check-in meetings at various intervals during the project.
• The project should last roughly 6-8 weeks.
• We would prefer for you to be onsite as often as possible, but this is negotiable. The deadlines and quality, however, are
not.
• Since you are an independent contractor, you should be using your own equipment and software.

When will all this be happening?

We would like you to start by 2/28/2011 and will last between 6-8 weeks depending on how the plan unfolds. This RFP will
be released 2/17/2011. All submissions will need to be turned in by 2/24/2011. We will decide will by 2/25/2011.
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Project Overview
How should you respond?
• You should create a proposal package that contains the following (they are not all required, but you should provide
enough examples to demonstrate proficiency):
• Examples of similar projects where you have employed mixed research and design methodologies to suit clients’ needs
• Examples of ethnographies that you have authored
• Case studies of similar activities
• A quoted price (if hourly, please itemize; otherwise, whole job quotes are fine)
• A resume or LinkedIn profile
• A list of professional references

How will we evaluate proposals?

We will be evaluating proposals against a variety of factors. These include (but are not limited to):
• Quality of sample deliverables (reports, prototypes, products, case studies)
• Length of experience
• Expertise
• Quality of professional references
• Cost
• Availability
• Geographic location

What are some other things that you might want to know?
• We pay our vendors NET30
• Accounting and payments go much smoother if you sign our master agreement and become an approved vendor.

Who do you contact with questions?

Lance Nishihira
Director of User Experience
+1 510 336 4020
lance@plaxo.com
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Conceptual Sketch