Consumers of user research may not be familiar with methodologies we employ or may be skeptical of our findings, especially of qualitative research that uses smaller sample sizes. As such, objections are sometimes raised about the quality/value/reliability of research findings. Our user research team developed a new metric to evaluate the strength of our research data so stakeholders can feel more confident using our findings to make decisions.
The Data Confidence Score is a subjective multi-dimensional assessment technique used for each research study to assess the quality and quantity of users, representativeness of the sample, consistency of the data, and the ability to make inferences from the data. An additional advantage of this metric is that by knowing how the research will be evaluated in terms of confidence dimensions at the end of a study helps us more thoroughly think through the research design at the beginning of a study.